A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this moment.
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| photo cred: Uch |
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| spirit week: athletes vs mathletes |
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| photo cred: Jenn V |
Intentional Outdoor Hours: 98+ hours (of 1000)
Weather was pretty much crud this week - we had snow! SNOW!! There were multiple games cancelled due to storm/mud/snow. Our whole Thursday afternoon (1 baseball practice, 1 baseball game, and 2 soccer games) were called off - which felt great that day to have a free night, but I know that means rescheduling madness to come. Luckily by the end of the week, the sun had returned just in time for Youth league Opening Day and Prom!
Reading The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (borrow from my student Mya). I'm liking it - I keep thinking I know where it's going but I keep predicting wrong.
Spending time with some of our besties; The Kochs. They met us at Violet's Sparks game on Sunday as it was local to them and then we went out to eat all together afterwards. It took all of 20 seconds for the kids to convince us to go back to the Kochs house for the afternoon (hah!) It was so nice to catch up and spend time all together - husbands, wives, and kids; laughing at their goat, chicken nugget, trying to get into the house and watching the kids all play together. Love you guys.
Happy for Grey who spent all of Sunday fishing with Pappy at the Wilmore fishing tournament. They've gone several years in a row now and always have a good time even if they don't catch any tagged fish. Grey sure gave it the 'ole college try though; standing in one hole for hours trying to snag a big fish but with no luck. They braved the chilly, rainy weather but there is almost nothing that can keep my son away from a fishing rod.
Bailing on National Screen Free Week this year. Just way too much going on and kids sick and weather that isn't great - I was just too overwhelmed to attempt this year. But I'm determined to set a screen free week of our own up this summer when we are all home together and not running every direction between school and sports.
Giving B some extra hugs as this week was busy with double the meetings for work as he is transitioning between the two schools. It's school budget season (the busiest time of the year for him anyway) but on top of that - he is attending double meetings, looking at double budgets; and trying to make sure he ties up all the ends at his current school while trying to get a picture of what it will be like next year.
Practicing Dutch braids. I am a pro at French braiding, but I am still in the beginner phase of my fingers going "backwards" for Dutch. On Monday night, I Dutchbraided Gem's hair and she was like, "why is this taking so longggg!?" hahhaa, my girls are used to getting braided way faster, so when I finally finished, Vi was like, "yeah, I'll just take French please." Hahahh! Soccer season is my favorite daughter hairstyle season - I just feel like soccer calls for more fun hairdos and Pinterest does not disappoint on the examples! Grateful to have girls who will sit through sometimes painful "Hairbrush therapy" sessions to get their hair done up for games!
End of the year emotional toll. All the students (unconsciously) ask for attention, affection, and validation towards the end of the year more than ever. You should see the line of kids at my desk at the start and end of the day waiting to tell me what's going on in their lives. I'm getting so many random gifts (notes, end of semester projects from other classes - two desk organizers from Woodshop kids and 3 sewed gnomes from FCS kids). Kids in my room all day long as they choose to spend their study halls in my classroom instead. Brandon had a front row seat to witness it this week and when the students walked away, he whispered, "Mom, mom, mom! Watch this!" and I smiled and rolled my eyes because yeah. It is exactly like that. Students: I see you guys, I love you guys, I am proud of you guys, forever. (xxox love my kids, love my job).
Working through the sniffles and sleepies. B stayed home one day this week with Grey and both babies because they were all run down from spring fun followed swiftly by spring cold and snow. All of us are dealing with sinus pressure, snot, and coughs (ugh), but it was good to have half the kids take it easy for a day and try to recupe.
Dressing up Gemma for her official fifth grade promo pics! Gah, time!! why are you so persistent!?
Having heavy conversations with the big kids. Gem and I had the birds&bees chat; all the good, bad, awkward, nitty gritty. Grey and I had a conversation about respect and expectations. Here are two small excerpts:
"I'm going to say things right now that you might think are super embarassing, but either you hear it from me in this awkward conversation or you are going to feel confused and embarrassed that you don't know this stuff or you don't know how to find the answers to this stuff as you continue to grow up. I'm going to give you information that I think you're ready for now, but there is never any question that it too embarassing to ask me. And if you can't ask me, then you have Aunt Kitty and Aunt Uch. You never have to feel like you are on your own."
"I know it seems impossible, but I just reminded dad the other day of what it felt like to be 13. We wanted to be with our friends, we didn't want to answer a million questions from our parents, we thought they didn't know anything either. You are growing up honey, I get that and respect that. I love watching how your life is unfolding and am so proud of you. I'm not expecting to be the very best part of your day - I am expecting though that you can speak and act like I am not the very worst part of your day."
Yeesh, prom week kills me a little inside. Hah. Thank the heavens for students who show up to help. Mya and Kaylee sorted and alphabetized prom permission slips for me while they hung out in my room during their study hall. Libby cut 190 menu cards (bless her!) and Marissa entered by hand all the names for the Prom Royalty voting form (seniors & juniors). We held prom dress up week at school (check out the photos on our prom instagram page @NSHSProm ) I got the final count to our venue by Wednesday (188 guests!) and we printed prom photo package forms, posted the pre-request website for songs, and submitted paperwork to get the checks to pay the photographer.
Shipping the meatballs on playdates on Saturday morning. After his baseball game, Rust got to sleep over my parents' house (thank you!) and Violet spent most of the day at the Tresnicky's house with her birthday twin and teammate Bella (thank you!)
Attending Prom on Saturday night. It was beautiful - Ace's did a wonderful job again and we had planned and prepared well enough that everything went off without a hitch. The food was delicious, all the students looked gorgeous, and we had no issues all night. Brandon was my date (our 8th prom together!) and I loved seeing my little cousin Gracie with her boyfriend having so much fun literally dancing the entire time. We got to be there without a care in the world because Heather, Albert, and the kids all spent the evening at our house. Knowing our babes were good so that we could enjoy the night meant everything (thank you, love you!!)
Smiling so big when we got home then later that night and found that Albert had hung up our cabinet in the kitchen and patched up the hole that was left from our new window! It's been something on our to-do list for literal months - but big family parents know that if the task doesn't crest the top 10 priorities on any given day...it can wait. So that hole in the wall and that missing cabinet has been waiting and waiting and waiting. But Albert (our favorite handyman cousin) got to work with Gem has his right-hand man and it looks so beautiful and I am so very grateful that it is done!
Teaching the end of our last Spanish 1 novel (Tumba) while Spanish 2 worked through their last novel (Robo en la Noche), but not quite done yet; made it to Chapter 6 of 15! Spanish 3/4 finished their last novel (Felipe Alou) and took the final book quiz. Every class had a mini celebration for Cinco de Mayo on Friday and I had my formal observation this week too.
Sporting with a week full of postponed games due to chilly, wet spring weather. Rust did get to have his opening day game at our fields on Saturday where I worked in the concession stand. Violet had a Sparks soccer game in Murraysville on Sunday then two Sparks soccer practice (one indoor because of the weather). All of the AYSO soccer games were cancelled this week to preserve the fields so that was a bummer. Grey had one pony league practice and Brandon had football weight lifting Monday-Thursday.
Making open faced turkey sandwiches with Grey's wild turkey he harvested with sweet potato fries, spaghetti, sloppy joes with homemade mac&cheese, lasagna from Abba (thank you!), Queso turkey over rice, and ordering pizza in for Heather & Albert and all the kiddos while they were at our house during the prom
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