Intentional Outdoor Hours: 98+ hours (of 1000)
Up 27 hours this week with plenty of summertime weather to enjoy outside. I am anxious to rack up even more time now that my teaching is officially done for the year too. Ending the month of May with 65 outdoor hours!
Reading and finishing Untamed by Glennon Doyle and really grateful that I read it. It took a long time but it was only because I needed to pause (selah!) and digest all the incredible things to think and reflect on. I picked back up where I left on in Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. It is such a heartbreaking read but I am sick in the stomach about the murder of George Floyd and I know I need to keep my eyes and heart open to truth even when it is uncomfortable.
Working in the yard. Abba and Chum came for the day to work on the chin-up bars for the kids. Brandon, Butter, Pappy, and Chum all worked on finishing the goat fence. Gemma was such a big help all day too - she loves working with her Dad!- and they finished the whole thing and got the entire pasture enclosed. One step closer to bringing home the goatie goats!
Honoring Memorial Day and those that sacrificed it all for us. We had a pretty low key day at our house and then had a cookout with our cousins on Monday evening. The kids got to take their first dip in a swimming pool for the season.
Pumping and feeding Red with a bottle all day to see if that will help him with his gas problems. Red is my worst latcher and the poor little thing gets to burpy and farty - you can tell he is just miserable (he was so cranky at our cousin cookout). It was nice to have a day that everyone else could feed him, but it also had me hooked up to the pump all day - and it didn't really help the gas much either.
Talking to our kids about the public lynching of George Floyd. I think it's important to be honest with kids - even at a young age about things that are happening in the world. We rarely have the tv on at all, let alone the news - but the kids can sense that we are distracted by something on our phones (the news). They can feel a heightened sense of worry and if we don't talk about it, they start to make their own assumptions about all the bad things that might worry their parents. We also already do a lot of talking about our own privilege and how we can stand alongside people who need their voices amplified. This specific conversation can be found on my instagram and facebook blog page.
Applying for my official teaching certification since I received my final grades from my college course (4.00!) and now I wait for the Dept of Ed to receive all my paperwork. So happy this is over and very grateful for my mentor teacher, Renee (hi!) and how helpful and inspiring she has been. So glad to be teaching alongside you.
Visiting our favorite friends to celebrate the summer weather! We headed out to spend the day swimming and lunching with our Fiore besties and the kids were overjoyed. We had a great day for it and the kids swam, swam, swam. I was so grateful to get to spend time with Kate, but most of all I had free hands the whole time! Outside of nursing Red, she held him the entire time and it was such a gift (for both of us, I think! xxxo)
Caring for Gemma Rose who came down with a fierce fever on Thursday afternoon. This is no time to contract a fever, so we were very cautious with how to proceed. She only had the fever and was really tired - but I was scouring the web for the Covid-19 syptoms for children and asking her how she felt each time she woke up. The fever persisted all through Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning - by Sunday afternoon I had called the Pediatrician. They said it might be strep because it didn't sound like Covid, but if she still had the fever on Monday I was to bring her right in. (Spoiler alert, by Sunday night, she was bopping around and back to normal. Must have been all the hard work in the yard helping Dad get ready for the goats! Little girl wore herself down!)
Spending time in the woods (well, the boys). B worked the Spring Bow Jamboree with High Ridge Hunting Preserve on Saturday while Grey spent the morning in the woods with Uncle Jonny turkey hunting one last time this season. No luck on a bird, but they did find an awesome shed that Grey was so proud of.
Homeschooling with just a little bit of worksheets because we were doing so much natural learning! we were all learning math and STEAM as we built the goat shelter, science as we cleaned out the chicken coop and chickie cage (and then moved them to the coop too!), more science when we planted two new trees that I got for Mother's Day from Uch (thank you!!) And the kids tackled a project all on their own - they cleared out the loft in the garage and set up their own hideout. Complete with books (reading!), coloring supplies (art!), and snacks & drinks (fcs!)
Virtual Teaching for the final days of school. My students were done on Tuesday and I got my grades finished on Friday afternoon. I had my students fill out my End of Year survey via google classroom and accepted as much work as possible to give every student ever chance to pull their grade up before the summer. Our staff had our final Zoom meeting for the year and although it's not entirely clear how the fall will look - how eager I am to get students back in the classroom and in front of my face instead of this virtual learning. I miss my kids! But first - second summer! (hah)
Making it by with what we have left in our pantry and freezers, hah. It is time for a grocery run, for sure. I also feel so bleh about making food - like how many meals do I need to decide, prep, make, clean up after?! oh yeah, all of them because I'm the grown up....whhhhhhhyyyyy. I do feel super happy to make real meals (homemade bagels, blueberry cobbler for the Memorial Day cookout) but I haven't been consistent with meal planning lately so that makes it a last minute panic to feed the kids when they're near starvation.
breakfasts: poached eggs, cereal (twice), toast (twice), muffins, and donuts from the store
lunches: hot dogs, leftovers (twice), frozen chicken nuggets and salads, homemade bagels, pizza at the Fiore's house, and snack lunch
dinners: take-out pizza, Memorial Day cookout at the Sleeks, taco pasta and corn on the cob, shrimp fried rice, baked Italian chicken over noodles, spaghetti, and Burger King
Those pictures of THAT BABY!!! Gah he is so beautiful!
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