A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment.
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| photo cred: Tausha |
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 50+ hours (of 1000)
On my day off, I took the three littlest kids to Greenhouse park to enjoy such a beautiful day and give them something a little special since it's usually the big kids that get to have all the fun. We played on the playground and hopped like billy goats all over the rocks near the creek. The beginning of the week was really beautiful but by Thursday afternoon we took a drastic turn into winter temps (I even wore a Christmas shirt to school because I was bitter about it -LOL) and we mostly stayed in all weekend getting chores done and playing silly games like sitting back to back and trying to toss/catch a ball with a partner.
Reading The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult. It was a Valentines gift from my thoughtful baby sister, Uch. I am enjoying it (as I generally do with Picoult novels) and it is exactly the right thing to keep my mind off of last few weeks or pregnancy and my goat stampeded injury.
Requesting a non-stress test on Sunday after two days of feeling completely overwhelmed and uncomfortable from pregnancy. The babe was still moving around and I was hoping (and received) the good news that all is in fact fine and you need to just slow the hell down and take it one day at a time, Tabitha!! Honestly, that is the hardest thing in the world for me - to come to terms that I cannot operate at my normal efficiency levels. I really wish I wasn't this way, but I expect A LOT from myself at every moment of every day - which I realize to some (most?) people seems like a super intense and exhausting way to live - but for me, that's motivational and inspiring for me. I don't know how to describe it, it's not overwhelming, it's like my normal. So when I can't do my normal I get really frustrated with myself. God Bless my midwife (and cousin!) Meg who takes all my crazy in stride and who texted me, "you can do this - in a couple weeks you'll be back to overachieving, I promise" hahahha, love you Meg. So, I'm clinging to the number of days left until my due date and trying to look forward to one thing each day that does not involve the thought, "maybe I'll go into labor today". HAH.
Taking antibiotics for my goat hoof puncture on my foot. By day 3, it was clearly infected (swollen, red skin surrounding the wound, grayish green pus -ugh- really sore). So we got some antibiotics ordered and I even took Tuesday off of school to keep it elevated and rested because it's also feeling pretty obvious that maybe there is some broken bones in there too (Donut is 100+ lbs so, yeah, that makes sense). Oddly enough, the aching foot is distracting me from my late pregnancy blues, so it's a silver lining injury? LOL. For now, I am hobbling around by relying on my heel and inner foot on the left side which is exactly what my lower back and hips strained from this giant belly need. hahahaha - you gotta laugh or you'll cry, right?
Letting Violet take a mental health day since she's had perfect attendance all year and has been doing so well in school both academically and behaviorally. She is such a little Brainiac and it regularly blows my mind to see how easily she picks up on concepts in both math and reading. Her reading decoding is awesome and it's a hear-it-once-she-understands kind of situation for most things academic for her.
High fiving all the kids after we got their Q3 report cards and everyone is on the honor roll! Awesome for Grey and Violet - but so incredible for Gemmi. I literally started crying when I opened the email attachment of her report card and had to check multiple times. She works so hard and is constantly playing school and copying worksheets to "teach" her invisible students. Her school teachers are amazing, accommodating, and encouraging. Honestly - I'm still tearing up about it. We are proud of all the kids, but traditional style learning comes easily for Grey and Violet and it most definitely does not for Gem. She has so many beautiful qualities that many kids her age don't have (empathy, thoughtfulness, maturity, helpfulness, leadership) but all the academic stuff is a struggle. We always tell the kids to do their best, that's what matters. For Grey and Violet that should mean they are always on the honor roll because they basically need only to take a swing. For Gem, sometimes that means we are proud of C's and D's because it is not for lack of effort; as long as she's not giving up or being lazy - we are proud. But this was a big deal for all three of them and we had a happy dance and Silver Bell ice cream to celebrate!
So happy for B that he got his annual Spruce Creek fishing trip in this year. (he missed it last year because on the day he was supposed to go, Red surprised us for his birthday!) He had such a great time fly fishing and catching monster trout with his bestie, Jon. He was there for two nights and three days and because we have incredible friends and family - I was able to keep it all together (even with this big belly!) We had the two little boys home from school (daycare closed due to covid), so we had Miss Hannah here during the day (thank you!), Pappy was here each morning to get the big kids on the bus (since I have to leave for work before the bus comes), Abba (my mum) grabbed the boys on Wednesday afternoon to make a stop at the Peds for Red's incessantly runny nose and then kept him and Rust for the rest of the evening, while Uch came to get the kids for early dismissal on Friday.
Grateful for my personal fairy godmother and dear friend Heather who dropped off two nights worth of dinners and a load of groceries on Wednesday to help get us by while B was out of town. Honestly, you are the most thoughtful soul on Earth, none of us deserve you but I am so grateful to have you in my life!
Surprised by my coworkers with a little luncheon on Friday with pizza and wings in honor of Studerbabe#6. There was a delicious lemon, blueberry cake and a sweet card - thank you all so much, most of all for all your patience and help as I waddle through these last few weeks!
Signing off on the paperwork at the elementary school to opt out our kids from the state standardized testing again this year. I have a lot of strong feelings about the unnecessary damage that I believe standardized testing does to our kiddos' self esteem, imagination, creativity, and intrinsic pride in their own work. Not to mention how much it strips our teachers from being able to build curriculum and lessons that inspire and encourage our babies. Another topic that I could literally chat about for hours if you're ever interested. I've actually been in the process of writing a long letter to fellow educator and queen Dr. Jill Biden to just spill this all out there to someone who (hopefully) gets it and also has the power to do something about it. Aaaaaaanyway, paperwork signed and Grey and Gem will not be taking any state standardized tests in the next two weeks because as I told them, if anyone hassles them about it, they can just say, "Our momma doesn't believe in that shit." HAHAHAH, just kidding - no cursing.
Nesting this weekend and knocking all kinds of to do list items off my list. I found the collection of baby girl clothes in the attic that I've been meaning to bring down (oh! the memories of our girls in these clothes!), got them all washed and put away. I pulled down all the leftover size newborn and size 1 diapers that we had leftover from Red (score!) and I packed (mostly) our hospital bag and even had enough energy to scrub all the kitchen window screens and wash the kitchen windows!
Sporting with just one home baseball game this week as the other was cancelled last minute due to a positive case on the other team. Soccer practices start next week, so the kids and I did an inventory check to see who needed what. Vi had cleats passed down from Gem, Gemma has a soccer bag, and all three had hand-me-down shin guards. We are short shoes for Gem and Rust, and soccer bags for Vi and Rust. (we have found that if you have a designated sports bag for each sport and kid - everything they need goes in the bag and then you aren't searching the house before every practice/game wondering where the heck things were left).
Teaching Spanish 1 about conjugating regular verbs in the present tense. We reviewed AR verbs from last week and went over ER/IR verbs including the conjugation maze and dice game (always a big hit). Spanish 2 started El Ekeko and learned about Lustrabotas in La Paz , Bolivia and took vocab quiz. Spanish 3 read chapters 1-3 of their novel Felipe Alou while Spanish 4 started their Piñata unit. Two of my favorite junior girls were participating in OYW (Outstanding Young Women pageant) this weekend and I was so proud of them and even got to take a pic with them as an OYW alumni myself (hahaha, all the way back in 2000!)
Making chicken and gravy in the slow cooker over mashed potatoes, bowties & red sauce, meat & cheese sandwiches, and leftover pick-you-own night. My purchase from my students' student council fundraiser arrived this week (Marianna's: 4 subs and 4 pizzas) were gobbled up during the weekend - literally, all gone. We enjoyed Anthony's chicken tenders and mac&cheese on Wednesday night (delivered and gifted to us by Heather - thank you again!!) and Brandon and I had a few delicious Green Chefs this week: Green Pea Falafal and BBQ beans with corn bread muffins and collared greens with apples (so yum).
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