Around Here Week 29: 07/15-20

 A glimpse into what it is like to be in our family just this moment. 

selfie cred: Gemma

photo cred: Abba

photo cred: Eva

screenshot cred: Kitty

photo cred: Kitty

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 360+ hours (of 1000)
Good grief, this heat wave has been soul crushing, but we fi.na.lly. got some rain on Wednesday. I had literal tears in my eyes when it started raining and I was cheering it on like "keep going! you're doing it!" #farmgirlmentality The shower only lasted minutes unfortunately and we are back to praying for more rain. Our grass is so brown and the garden and my flower beds are so thirsty and crisp. Despite the heat, we have some potato plants popping up amid the sunflowers that are running rampant in the buckets and we have some zucchinis starting! What I wouldn't do for a good 'ole summer thunderstorm. 

Reading and finishing Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros, yes please. I'm a sucker for an enemies to lovers trope (who isn't?) and I really actually loved the dragons and their development as characters in the story. I am majorly invested in Tairn and Sgaeyl...Hah, IYKYK

Listening while doing chores to The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by VE Schwab

Garage to Den update - Pappy, Daddy, Butter, Grey, and Gem helped get the partition wall up and in this week. All the kids helped stain our fencing wood that we are going to use to make the accent wall - that was a stained/painted hands and bodies mess on all the kids if there ever was one (hah!) Then Pappy, B, Grey, Gem, and I worked on putting the accent wall up - I was in charge of deciding which color and length went next (lol, no pressure!?!) but it turned out beautiful and we had enough wood to get the whole thing done! 

Summer of sad. Our goat Polly who has been struggling with worms and bloat passed away. She was one of our first goats we got in 2020. B had been working so tirelessly to try to get her back to health and man, we really thought that she was on the mend. The trouble with goats is once they show signs of being sick, it's usually very late, but it is still hard to see life lost. And life lost this summer has been brutal. We keep looking at our two old pupper dogs (Bullet is 15! and Trixie is 13!) shaking our heads like, please not anymore soon. 

Sipping & shopping at Young Hearts Books & Toys boozy book fair. My dear friend Renee owns the book shop and because she is fantastic and creative and the coolest - she organized some adult book fairs this summer and fall at local bars, wine cellars, distilleries, and brewing houses. Heather and I went together and spent the evening at The Windber Hotel sipping on Hotel Honeys (yum!), deciding on our book hauls, and then sharing an appetizer and chatting. It was my dream date! My book haul included: Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls, Parable of the Sower by Octavia E Butler, How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang, and Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman. 

Planning Panic Mode activated (hah) with the golf outing on Sunday, I was double checking all the spreadsheets, organizing all the things, contacting all the arms of this project, and making all the lists. I finished the last of the Sponsorship thank yous on social media, I Canva'ed all the tabletop signs, and drew up the raffle boards for the bigger prizes. Whew, fingers crossed everything goes smoothly and the boosters make all kinds of money to support the football team! On Saturday night, Rusty helped sprinkle all my chocolate covered pretzels and Pappy picked up the lady fingers from The Baker's Loaf to take for our Booster Mom & Grandma cookie table! 

Squeezing in some time to work on the family yearbook because nothing brings me relaxation and peace in times of stress than doing non-essential tasks - LOL FOREVER. So true though. Am I very stressed? Then it's the perfect time to bake, or blog, or work on our family yearbook. It is actually very grounding and helps me reflect that not everything is going to shit when I have some control over those things - let me be me! The yearbook is looking good and it was soothing to me to update photos, make layouts work, crop, and write captions. Thank you Mrs. McBreen and my high school days of yearbook class for my favorite grown up stress relief! xxo

Classroom clean out and organization! I did some rearranging of my classroom furniture to better suit my teaching style. I still have a ton of organizing and throwing away to do - not to mention curriculum planning and layout and meeting with my co-teacher and getting into my elementary school classroom and ordering my teacher planner and really all the things...but at least my furniture is moved how I want it. Hah. baby steps, people. 

Appointment hopping. Grey had an ortho appointment and all looking good. We got his last set of Invisalign trays ordered. Gemma had a dentist appointment to get three (!) cavities filled; poor thing but she took it like a champ. I had lots of cavities as a kid too (sorry for the genetics Gem!) 

Sending Vi off to Pioneer Park for some camping with the McDannells. The girl was thrilled to spend the long weekend camping with her bestie (thank you Eva for having her!) 

Kitty & Bryan PCT Update: They made it to the midpoint!! So incredible, halfway down and it was the "hard" half, with all the mountains and snow...and now it should be smooth-ish sailing through the second half. Kitty said that hikers usually 'cruise' in their miles now through the second half. 

Sporting and Violet had one soccer kickaround practice to prepare for the 3v3 Kidsport tournament on Saturday. Gem had lifting & conditioning twice this week with a little bit of varsity kickaround after each. Then she had two jr high soccer kick-arounds and the 3v3 Kidsport tournament on Saturday. Grey had lifting & conditioning 3 days, a night football practice, and the Richland 7v7 on Saturday. I played in our Roxbury volleyball game (B had a board meeting that night). 

Making sloppy joes with homemade mac&cheese, chopped salad wraps, Pioneer Woman skillet lasagna, tacos, blackened salmon on the grill with kielbasa and grilled veggies, pizza takeout, and pancakes for dinner.