A Day in the Life: October

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

5:45a-6:50a
It's time to rise and shine, hah. Teeth, hair, lipstick, clothes. Regular morning chores like coffee, packing lunches, setting out backpacks, feeding the guinea pig. I packed up some mini cupcakes for Olive to take for their Halloween party tomorrow at pre-school. Then it's kissing the kiddos and B goodbye as I head out to start my commute by 6:55a.

6:55a - 7:26a
Commute to school and listening to Lessons in Chemistry on the drive. I am really liking the book and I always say good morning to a beautiful (I think wild black cherry) tree that is on my drive. So grateful that my friend and coworker Loni showed me the backroad way to school which is the only way I take now so that I can enjoy a little of the beautiful Somerset county farm roads instead of the main roads through town. 

7:30a - 10:40a
Elementary school teaching. It was Day2 so I had drop off greeting duty this morning. It was national oatmeal day and because our PTA and secretaries are awesome - they had oatmeal pumpkin cookies in the staff lounge for a little morning pick-me-up. Best! 

Then we were finishing up our Día de muertos crafts - third grade is finishing alebrijes, fourth grade is working on calaveras or butterflies or cempasuchil flowers and fifth grade is finishing their calavera / alumininum foil crafts. Everyone was in pretty good spirits because they know that on Friday we get an early dismissal and they get to wear their costumes to school for fall fest. You can already feel the excitement in the air for trick-or-treat night too. Yeesh, teaching elementary school the week of Halloween is wild...actually from Halloween to winter break is fairly wild to be honest. 

10:50a-3:45p
And it's up to the high school to teach the rest of the day. Eighth grade expo was with a new set of kids so we did Taco Tuesday with common Spanish words and cognates. Spanish 1 is watching The Book of Life this week to celebrate Day of the Dead - but before we start watching each day we practice a little speaking or writing in Spanish. Today we summarized in simple Spanish sentences using Super 7 verbs. Spanish 2 is watching Coco to celebrate Día de Muertos and they also warm up first. We described a scene from the movie in Spanish at the beginning of class. 

3:45p-4:30p 

Commute home. I got to chat with Uch on the phone as I made my way to the babies' preschool. I got there just in time for a 4p pick up and then we stopped at the high school to pick up the other kids. Grey stayed for practice (duh), but Gemma (God bless her) said she would stay home with the babies for swim practice and Violet's basketball game. So we all headed home and I got the kids settled while Rust and Vi got ready for their activities. I heated up a hot tea for the ride because I knew my soul was going to need it. 

4:30-5p 

HUSTLE to swim practice. Swiftly and safely, we made it only a few minutes after the 5p start time.

5p-6p 

Rusty's swim practice and Violet brought her homework to do while we waited. Rust had some practice for diving off the block without losing his googles (still about half the time slipping off). But I got some helpful suggestions on different style of goggles and straps that might work better from the swim coach and swim families (thanks Mallie and Stacy!) Violet got some math assistance from Coach Mallie who was there since his daughters swim too. Best perk from joining swim this year - seeing Coach Mallie and the Stephens sisters multiple times a week! 

6p-8p 

Thankfully Violet's basketball game was just a few minutes from Rusty's swim practice, so the three of us headed over there for her 6:35p start time. Coach Daddy made it just in time from varsity football practice to coach the girls' 3rd and 4th grade basketball team (hah). I got payment to the family who ordered the jerseys (thank you Ott family!) which has been an item on my to do list for 2 weeks! Violet struggles with using her competitiveness to drive leadership vs cutthroat behavior, so after the game she rode home with me so we could have a chat. ahem; the long way home with Mom after a game means business. We had a long chat and hugged it out when we got home.

8p-9:20p
It was sheet pan chicken fajitas tonight for dinner and Pappy came over after Violet's game to eat with us - so double win! As I made dinner, the kids all worked on emptying backpacks and finishing up homework or taking showers. It is very loud and a lot of movement and talking over each other in the dinner / homework hours. Never enough dinner it seems these days with two teenage athletes, but luckily we had some leftover taco meat in the fridge, so the last few wraps had ground beef tacos in them instead of chicken fajitas - we are problem solvers around here. LOL

9:30-10p
Clean up kitchen, oversee some homework from Gem, writing down our checklist for the next morning and afternoon. Wrestling kids into bed with a million tuck-ins and kisses and reassurances of how many days left of school we have before the weekend. It's later of a bedtime than we want, but when we have late practices or games sometimes that's how it shakes out. 

10p-11p
Kitchen table chatting because life takes its twists and turns and surprises us all the time. Chatting with B over hot teas and then finally dragging ourselves away from the table, closing up shop (starting the dishwasher, turning off lights, giving Bullet a pet on the head, and finally laying down to sleep. 

Around Here Week 45: 11/03-09

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

photo cred: Jeri H

photo cred: Jeri H

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 609+ hours (of 1000)
We got the kids out in a leaf pile this week as the weather is still warmish. But the evenings are shrinking as it was Daylight Savings time this week. One bonus though - the sunrises are being a little bit of a show off which is not such a bad view heading out to work in the morning. 

Reading Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls

Listening to Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus until my Spotify audiobook hours ran out for the month. bleh. 

Attending All Saints day mass at St Davids for Gigi. Pappy was there with us and Gemma was acolyte. It was special and I was thankful to have that time to think about her, light a candle for her, and sing and pray together. (we miss you everyday, Gigi. love you forever). 

Having a meeting and making sure I speak my piece and be true to my self and self worth. It was a good conversation and I feel confident and proud that I had the opportunity to have it before I made any big decisions. 

So very thankful for the village we have. In a pinch when the preschool was closed for election day, our sweet friends the Hunsberger family took the babies for the day at their farm. They had the most fun playing with their son, riding the giant corn field tractor, and visiting with their animals. I was worried about how we were going to make the day work and then they ended up having the best day ever! That's usually what happens when you resolve to ask for help from people who care about you and your family - Thank you so much Jeri & Ruben!

Voting.  It has been alarming as a teacher of elementary students and a mom of little kids to see how easy they can get swept up in the loudness that has been the election season in the last few years. Commercials, yard signs, and just a general buzz of stress and panic. If you felt worked up in the weeks leading up to the election, please know all those hums of worry are making their way down to the kids; they can feel that the grown ups in their world are worked up but with only pockets of information, their little minds spin out in worry and questions. Election day at school felt like it was buzzing, the kids all knew that it was the big day and that it felt really important to the grown ups but they could do nothing about it. There was a lot of antsy-pantsy movement and trying to figure out who else had a house that was voting like their house. In an attempt to give kids a space to look for the helpers (thanks Mr. Rodgers) and hold space for them to live in wonder instead of worry - here was the election day speech I gave my elementary students and our children

Nobody has to tell anyone who you they are voting for. But everyone who can vote should vote and make sure they know who and what they care about voting for. But you know what my favorite part about election day is? Did you know that early this morning before all of us probably even woke up, there were some grandmas who got dressed, got to the polling booths, made some coffee, and put out all the stickers. Those grannies will be there all day long, keeping everything organized, so that every person has an opportunity to vote today. My grandma Irene was a polling booth volunteer, and when I grow up I think I would like to be an election day granny too! So if you get to go with a grown-up to the polling booth today, you make sure you look for the election day grannies and tell them thank you! 

Listening to the coughing and trying to figure out who needs a doc appointment and who needs more rest and movement combo. Right now in our house, we all have some form of runny nose and cough, but Grey and Reddy sound the worse. I know Grey is so beat down from football season and probably needs to sleep for 23 hours a day to heal but he is really toe'ing the line of going in for a check up! (I believe in medicine! haha, I just prefer to give our bodies a little time and rest to see if we can work it out themselves first). 

Thanksgiving decor up and Halloween decorations to the attic! 

Seeing camo. A lot of hunting going on around here in the final few weeks of archery. No worry though, fellas - rifle season right around the corner. hah. Grey, B, and Pappy spent a very long morning and afternoon in the woods on Saturday. It was Brandon's first time out this year and he said it was the best morning (without a harvest) that he's had in years; so many animal sightings, sounds, and the morning was crisp but beautiful. He was visibly rejuvenated when he got home, so I'm grateful he got to go and spend time with Booboo and his dad. 

Brunch with sisters and all the kiddies on Saturday morning. Uchie hosted and made the eggs, bacon, and tots. Kitty brought the yogurt parfaits, and I made a honey bun cake and brought most of the children including the kid coraller herself; Gemma Rose (hah). It was wonderful and needed conversation and time together like you get from no one but your sister. We laughed and chatted around her dining room table while also giving bites to tiny ones, and wiping hands, and swaying babes, and kissing booboos. It was perfect. 

Visiting my parents' new house on Saturday night and blown away how much work they have put into and to see it all nearly all together now. The upstairs is almost completely finished and the downstairs is just about finishing touches. They finally have appliances in the kitchen and almost their storage container completely emptied! It has felt like such a long time coming - they've been working on the house since January; a complete gut job! But it is so beautiful and honestly, I can hardly wait to see it as the backdrop of Christmas! Proud of you Abba and Chum! 

Teaching Me gusta / No me gusta at the elementary school. We finished week 1 and started week 2 in eighth grade Spanish expo. Spanish 1 started the first week of pre-novel Capibara, so we learned about Ecuador, got our novel vocab words, and practiced reading stories and understanding them through translating, illustrating, and answering comprehension questions. Spanish 2 started their pre-novel work learning about Mexico and getting their vocab words. They actually got to read Chapter 1 of their novel, Tumba this week too! We did Fluency Friday and made a deck of cards with 10 useful phrases that we should have in our back pocket to help us sound more fluent as speakers. Our school also had the Rachel's Challenge assembly this week and I was asked to be part of the FOR group. Very excited to see what projects our students come up with to make our school a more kind place. 

Sporting with three swim practices from Rusty, Violet had one practice and two basketball games (I kept the book for one game!), Gemma had two open gym practices for basketball, and Grey had one open gym for basketball. I did some behind the scenes booster work for both the football and the soccer boosters. Football boosters needed a menu flyer for our upcoming fundraiser at Forbes Trail Brewing (11/24!) and the soccer boosters needed tickets for the upcoming Middle school Friendsgiving dance fundraiser so I did some Canva magic and got those done this week. 

Making Pappy's deer meat, homemade stromboli, honey garlic pork chops with roasted veggies, pot roast with potatoes and carrots in the crockpot, Pappy's meatloaf, beef veggie soup with the leftover pot roast, chicken, veggie, & biscuit casserole. We took the whole crew out to eat at our favorite local inn (Tollgate) and imagine having such a big family that the waitress asked us how we wanted to split the checks. Hahhaha, it was amazing.  Reddy helped make peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and I made a double batch of cake mix chocolate chip cookies. I made honey bun cake to take to my sister's house for brunch on Saturday morning. 

Around Here Week 44: 10/27-11/02

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

photo cred: St Davids 

photo cred: Abba

photo cred: Colbie

photo cred: Stacy B

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 608+ hours (of 1000)
Downright gorgeous for Trick-or-treat night, and then we took a flying leap out of late summer and into the chilliness of fall. Yikes. The game Friday night was so cold and we were just not dressed properly in the least. We tried to stay warm by moving and huddling together, but boy was I grateful to go home and chug a hot tea! You can tell the weather is getting colder because my boys jump on the trampoline with shirts on - hahahhha. 

Reading Hang the Moon by Jeannette Walls but so little because the tank is on E and we are passing out at bedtime. 

Listening to Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus and really enjoying it despite the insane plot twist that I did not see coming at all. I was chatting with a friend at school about the book (I knew she had read it) and she was like, "what's happening in the story where you are at?" and I told her and she was nodding and mentioned a plot twist in the future. I was like, okay whatever. Literally on the drive home that afternoon only five minutes into my drive, the plot twist dropped and I was screaming. hahhaha, I messaged her later and was like, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" How she kept a straight face even when she could tell I was five minutes away from it happening in the book is actually astonishing - bravo Jen. hah! 

Getting a clean car - thank you B. He took Jillian to the car wash, then cleaned out, vacuumed out, and wiped down all the interior. It was looking pretty rough in there (bugle crunchy crumb fest in the third row - Lawd, help us all) but B got her shined up and she's looking beautiful. 

Haircuts on Sunday afternoon for all the girls which was Olive's first ever haircut! She looks so cute with her bob, we are all loving it. Gem and Vi just got a trim and in my normal behavior anytime I get into a salon chair, I just told Jo to go ahead and chop it all off. LOL. Liv and I are twinsies now. (thank you Jo, you are amazing - we appreciate you!) 

Happy that Olive will sit happy for hair brushing as long as she can look at her baby book. When I mention a bath, she says, "you can wash my hair and brush it because I can look at my baby book, right?" She loves pointing out baby Olive and seeing everyone hold her and dote on her...which is wild because that is still literally what happens every single day so I don't get it, but whatever works! 

Smiling about Rusty making his 'football play sheet' which is just a piece of paper covered in x's and o's that have names. He was excited that he had made 20 different football plays all with their own unique names. Oh man, eight year old boys are kind of the epitome of my favorite page of the Love You Forever, Like You for Always book. Just so wild and hilarious and all boy but still hugs. 

Having a lot of discussions and weighing all the pros, cons, and all the things because life rarely goes where you plan for it to go. thankful for all the listening ears and encouraging words and supportive friends and family who always lean in with graciousness and understanding with us. 

Fall celebration days at schools! Liv and Reddy had their fall parties (we donated cupcakes) with a parade that Abba, Chum, and Aunt Kitty attended (thank you!) They were so proud to talk about it at home with us and I was thankful to get pics from family and preschool. Rusty and Violet had their fall parties too (we donated googly eyes and plates!) So grateful for all the PTA moms and dads who plan and organize and volunteer - we help any small way we can, but you guys are out there doing the heavy lifting and planning! At my elementary school we had a fall fest party on Friday which also was Day of the Dead. Two of my students dressed up in día de muertos costumes and one as a monarch - they were so proud to show me their costumes! 

Trick-or-treat night! Grey opted to go hunting with Pappy and Reid instead but the rest of us met up with friends and family for our annual trick or treat pilgrimage (hah). Abba came as a witch. Uch, Kev, and the nephewlitos were there, and all our neighborhood friends. Violet's bestie Evaley joined us since she and Vi were a pair and Gemma's bestie Colbi joined us since their were a duo. Cooper was so sweet to match Rusty's Wolverine with a Deadpool costume. And Rusty's bestie AJ and his family joined us this year too. Thank goodness for the village who treks with us even though their kids are big, but they hang back and help carry candy bags and hold hands (Pam, Becky, and Jenn - grateful for you!) We brought Osa because she does such a good job on trick-or-treat night and everyone loves seeing her. We got plenty of candy, scored a major bag of kettle corn (thank you!!) Then we ended the night at the Huffman's house as is tradition. Great food, good conversation, kids running everywhere half costumed and hands full of sugar (LOL). 

Doing NOTHING on Saturday because we are all stuffy-nosed and exhausted and run all the way down. Violet volunteered with the youth group to make apple dumplings and Grey went hunting with Pap in the morning - but the rest of us, rested our weary souls all day. We laid around, watched Robin Hood Prince of Thieves as a family (LOL, inappropriate but we all love to watch it once a year, hah!), got some much needed chores done (9 loads of laundry!) It was the laziest most glorious day!

Teaching and it's the week leading into Day of the Dead, so most classes were cruising on culture and holiday vibes all week. My elementary classes were finishing up their craft projects to help decorate my classroom (alebrijes, calaveras, cempasúchil, and mariposas!) I got a new set of Expo 8th graders this week so we started back at week 1 lessons (greetings & intro vocab). Spanish 1 started The Book of Life and Spanish 2 turned in their final copies of the spooky stories and started Coco. 

Sporting with three swim practices for Rusty (I also purchased new swim goggles with bungee cord, a second pair of swim shorts, and a new cap!) Violet had a basketball game with her third and fourth grade team. Gemma attended the playoff volleyball and playoff girls' soccer games to take photos for Yearbook. Grey and B had four days of football practice and a playoff game on Friday night at long time rival Windber stadium. The end of the season, but so proud of the team and the coaches! What a season it has been!

Making crockpot pork roast & sauerkraut, spaghetti, sheet pan chicken fajitas, takeout pizza after the football game, and crockpot potato soup for lazy Saturday. Making lots of food for the teen boy who has been wolfing food this past week. On Monday night for dinner, he had 2 huge bowls of spaghetti, then 2 egg/sausage/cheese grilled sammies on Texas toast, and then finished off a breakfast bar for dessert.