Around Here Week 11: 03/14-20

 A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment. 

Intentional Outdoor hours:  19+ hours (of 1000)
Up 7 hours this week as the weather really took a turn towards the sunny and the not super-chilly by the end of the week. Still coat weather, but we can feel the spring trying to break through now. The kids have been spending a lot of time outside and I love so much being able to just say "go outside!" when they are making me crazy (hah). Red is loving being outside so much and his greatest friends in life are our chickens who he chases all over the yard getting more and more frustrated as they dodge his every attempt at touching them. We let the goats free range one day this week too and they were running and hopping around like crazy; truly joyful to just be out in the open chomping on any little green that's poking through yet. 

Reading and finishing Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider.  I am borrowed Extraordinary Means from my student Cheyenne (thank you!) I am still reading and Balanced and Barefoot by Angela J Hanscom and I was glad to throw a little fiction in with my nonfiction book because I was honestly becoming OBSESSED about talking about kids and outdoors and active free play (I still am actually) but it's given me a little diversion so I'm less fanatical - hah! 

In complete awe of our seedbabies. We soaked them for 24 hours and when it was time to plant them on Sunday, some of them were already breaking through the seed!? It took only two days on the warming mats for some little sprouts to shoot up and our whole family is obsessed with spritzing them with water and whispering "grow, grow!" over top of them. Once they've sprouted, we move them off the warming mats and under some grow lights which has us all a little nervous that maybe they are actually Jack & the Beanstalk seeds because our little seedbabies are growing faster than even our human babies which most days seems impossible!

Dancing in our seats and singing along to the musical at our kids' high school on Sunday. Gemmi and I attended a performance of Mamma Mia and we loved getting to watch and listen to all the talent. We were so proud of our sweet family friend Rourie who was part of the ensemble (as a 7th grader!) and she did amazing and overall the show was really incredible. It was nice to get some Gem time too, just the two of us. 

Thankful for the afternoon playing at the Quemahoming Dam that the three littlest got with my parents while Gem and I were at the musical and Brandon and the biggest boy were at baseball. They took long walks, played on the playground, and explored the empty beach since it is still out of season for our favorite summer local spot. Red had the best time toddling all about and trying to keep up with the kids on the playground. He came home and promptly passed out from all the fun (hah!) thank you Abba & Chum! 

Ruining St. Patrick's day (lol) as the leprechaun was able to escape the trap because the kids left their 'blueprint' out when they went to bed (in my defense, I did see it before bed and reminded them multiple times to clean up the living room). When they realized what happened they were all devastated and I left in the morning for work with a house full of kids literally crying and blaming each other for the failure of their trap that they worked so hard on. Magical creatures make a mess of every one of our holidays - good grief. 

Getting in all kinds of risky play and chores to make sure the kids are building skills and confidence. Rust and Grey were all about widdling with pocket knives this week while Gem and Violet were super pumped about helping me iron Brandon's work shirts (no complaints here to share that chore!) 

Getting my vaccine! Both B and I are now vaccinated and we are so grateful to feel like we contributed to real progress towards a back to all the in-person hugging and talking but with the lessons learned during the pandemic too (better regular hand washing, it's okay to not do all the things all the time, home and family is the only place that really matters, support small and local businesses, etc) 

fyi - Vaccine side effects (that we experienced). Brandon had the two shot Pfizer vaccine and mostly had a very sore arm after both injections, like even difficulty raising his arm! I had the Johnson & Johnson one-and-done shot and the day after my vaccine was r.o.u.g.h. I had chills, fever, and body aches. I also had some shortness of breath but I don't know if that was because of the vaccine or this huge belly that leaves no room for my lungs as it is (hah).  But it lasted just 24 hours and then I felt completely fine. Both of us would 100% do it again because yaaaaas, living that #vaccinatedlife ! 

Sporting with Grey's last two indoor baseball practices- next week is outside! Brandon and Grey spent most of Saturday at the baseball fields again getting it ready for the season. Gemma had a final basketball fun day to close out her season officially on Saturday. She spent the morning playing basketball games, eating pizza, and giving her coaches thank you notes. 

Teaching the very last bit of Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro in Spanish 1 and giving the students time in class to work on their RAFT projects for the end of the novel. Spanish 2 got to watch La Misma Luna and they loved it too (just like all classes - seriously such a good movie). Spanish 3 learned about Quinceñera parties which included a mini Quinceñera fiesta food day on Friday before we start our novel, Fiesta Fatal next week. Meanwhile, Spanish 4 learned about the 'Banana Republics' of Central America and dived head first into Pablo Neruda's poem The United Fruit Company in preparation of reading their next novel, Bananas by Carrie Toth. I also tried out the Pocket Points app and so far I'm getting great feedback and use out of the students. It seems like a worthwhile incentive to keep them off their phones! 

Making chicken, veggie, and stuffing casserole, Pappy's meatloaf with mashed potatoes and veggies, baked eggs over asparagus for dinner one night, and Miss Hannah brought us chicken and rice with a side of brownies one night (thank you!) We ordered in Thomahawk and had fish dinners on Friday night from Ideal Market downtown (seriously so delicious!) Our local ice cream spot, Silver Bell, opened this week so we made a visit on the first day of Spring to officially open our ice cream season (and by that I mean, we get ice cream about once a week...at least, hah!  #supportlocal....right?)