Around Here Week 11: 03/12-18

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

photo cred: Miss Emma

photo cred: Miss Kayla at BB Gun League

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 20+ hours (of 1000)
Still flippy floppy weather - some beautiful days, some cold and rainy days, bleh. We even got a little snow/ice storm on Tuesday that gave the kids a 2hr delay! The kids are getting outside better than me (per usual) but I'm still trying to spend some evening outdoors to up my hours. 

Reading and finishing It's Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han...and STILL team Jeremiah. hah! like a lot, at this point I cannot even fathom how I could switch teams, but my students are certain I will by book 3. I also started Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri which is our Project Lit book this time. I am loving the writing and style so very much, but I know it is not everyone's taste so read some reviews before you dive in. 

Fixing up hooves. It has been so wet and muddy for the entire "winter" that our goats are experiencing 'hoof rot' and their hooves are all cracked and brittle. Poor things. B and I worked on getting their hooves trimmed, treated, and painted with some hoof meds. Then we moved them into the second pasture where it is a tiny bit more dry. 

Tending to Violet - she has strep throat! Antibiotics, lots of rest, and two days off of school for that girl. Thank goodness for Miss Emma who fed her soup and ginger ale to her quarantine bed in our room. 

Smiling & shaking my head at the sign my hallmate teacher friends hung above my door ("Señora's Ellis Island") because they are always teasing me about how there are students in my room constantly - before school, after school, during my prep, and sometimes even during my lunch dates with Brandon. I have snacks in the back room, a listening ear and shoulder for kids, guinea pig 'therapy' animals, twinkle lights, usually music, and so much love and hugs...so yeah, give me your tired, your poor. Your huddled masses yearning to breath free..." Sounds about right for my classroom. hah!

Loving Rusty's current obsession with making Fly Guy books! He has written and illustrated a few and bless Mrs. McCall who lets him read them aloud to his classmates at school.

Gathering my credentials and resume. A Spanish teacher position has come available for next school year at a local school and it would be a pretty significant pay increase. So although I'm not unhappy in my current school, Spanish teacher is not something that often comes open. So I'm getting my stuff together and I've spoken to my principal to give him a heads up...so we shall see! 

Missing Brandon who spent a few days at his annual PASBO conference. It was in the Poconos this year, so four hours away for three days! We missed him, but had family squeeze in to get us through the days. Morning bus duty is always a struggle but Pappy, Miss Emma, and Kevin got us through it (thank you!) And I gave myself grace and ordered pizza in one night and then another night we had breakfast for dinner. Patient and kind to myself is important when I'm driving solo with 6 kids - hah. 

Collaborating with my friend and co-worker Zach on a mini Spanish lesson for his Life Skills class. Zach sent me the stories that they read this week (Lucy visits Mexico!) and I put together some common Spanish phrases for a cut&paste activity. The kids did so great with it and it was so fun to get out of my room and in front of new students who were excited to learn some new phrases in Spanish. It was really a fun period and I've been promised an invitation back when they make enchiladas next week - so double bonus! 

Finishing my March Madness bracket just in time. I mostly choose by team jersey and then pick a few cinderellas. I don't actually care who wins, but it is fun to get in on the excitement. 

Not catching the leprechaun! That sneaky little guy escaped the kids' trap yet again this year and wrecked havoc in the living room. Even though we didn't get a pot of gold, Miss Emma brought chocolate chip cookie cake and green hats to celebrate with the babies and I made potato soup and Irish Soda bread for dinner. 

Dear Lord. Middle school boys. that's all. just prayers and hugs to you moms out there trying to have patience and tolerance with your middle school son with every flipping ounce you got. ( #same )

Cheering Gemma and her team on at the indoor soccer tournament at Bedford Middle school on Saturday. Coach Chad did an amazing job with this ragtag team of kids and out of 15 teams of 12U players, our team made it all the way to the semi-finals with not a 12year old on the team (everyone was 11 or 10!) It was so fun watching them and they really did so well together and really came together after only two practices. It was a long day though (from noon to 9p!) and during the long break, we ate a restaurant (ugh, #bigfamilymadness ), stopped at fishing camp to play while and let the babies sleep, and even visited Shawnee park to play on the playground - although it was freezing out. A really long day - but so much fun watching Gem and the siblings were all troopers, bless them! 

Teaching just four days this week and getting a lot graded on our Act 80 day on Monday (thank goodness!) Spanish one reviewed chapters 1-7 of Brandon Brown then finished the novel! I barely saw my Spanish 2 students this week because they had ASVAB testing on Wednesday and went on a grade level field trip to the Holocaust museum on Friday - but in the two days we had together we read chapters 3 and 4 of their novel Esperanza. Spanish 3/4 got new vocab words for their upcoming novel Fiesta Fatal and learned some important cultural information about Quinceñeras and watched some Baila Sorpresas.  We started Q4 this week! Only 9 more weeks of school left!

Sporting with one indoor baseball practice for Rusty (bless the babies hearts as they figured out how to manage boredom for 2 hours). Violet had a Sparks soccer practice and Vi went with Gemma to the indoor soccer practice on Friday night too. Coach Chad is the best for letting Vi hop into practice. Gem's soccer tournament was on Saturday (see above). Gem finished the CV basketball tournament on Sunday (they lost in semi's) but closed out another great season with Coach Ang (we love you!) Grey had baseball practice all week for Jr. High and had one pony league baseball practice on Sunday too. Brandon had his old man basketball game on Sunday night. And lastly, Gem, Vi, and Rust all shot for BB gun league on Friday night! (whew!)

Making meat sauce spaghetti, kielbasa & baked potato fries, chili goulash, pancakes & bacon for dinner, potato soup & Irish soda bread for St. Patrick's day, and a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. I am still going strong on Keto and trying to make it at least to the end of the month when our teacher weightloss challenge ends. I had lot of Kale this week (YUM)