Around Here Week 07: 02/12-18

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

2 months, 3 months, 4 months (current)

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 13+ hours (of 1000)
These random days of sunshine and warm-ish weather are toying with my emotions. Don't get me wrong, I love them and we are soaking them up for everything they are worth - but my internal clock is starting to think that it is supposed to be spring now but we are only in mid-February! I need to be prepared for several weeks of still crap weather, but I can feel myself already getting antsy about sunshine and warmth and flowers. Oh gosh, my poor heart can't take a veer back into winter weather at this point. 

Reading The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han (a borrow from my student Lily!) I already watched the show on Amazon Prime this summer and the book is not quite the same, but same characters and feelings but varies pretty differently on the actual events. I'm still team Jeremiah from watching the show, but my students are convinced that by the third book I'll be team Conrad.

Farm troubles: trying to secure the tarp back to the shed after the high winds destroyed it. We just need to keep it all secured to save the hay from rain and/or snow for the rest of the season. Man, it's always something with farm life.

Saying farewell to little prince Juniper. We took him back to his home farm after he (hopefully!) had enough romantic encounters with our goatie girls over the last two months. He was such a sweet goat and we loved having him. 

Superbowl Sunday at our neighbor/friend's house (The Altimores). We always have a great time there and the babies love their daughter Sophia who dotes on them so lovingly. We stayed until Rihanna was done at halftime (yas queen! pregnant and fierce!) and then headed home so we could try to get ourselves together before starting a new week. 

Valentine mania for the kids' class parties. I know I'm a cranky babypants, but ughhhh Valentine school parties are my least favorite. I printed some simple valentines and ordered two boxes of candy bracelets and set the kids to work. They colored and wrote out over 20 valentines each. Thank goodness to all the homeroom moms who organize the school parties (bless you!) For the junior high boy, we got a sweet little gift ready for his little valentine too. 

Enjoying fresh flowers at school and at home since Brandon surprises all his girls with bouquets for Valentine's every year. He brought mine to our lunch date (food from Tailgatez!) and they brighten up my room so much, I love them! The girls were overjoyed and look forward to him arriving home from work every year on Valentine's day. 

Taking Osa for her last vaccine boosters and finding out she put on 21 lb s since last month. LOL. 

Book club meeting with Books & Brews to discuss Jackal by Erin E Adams atStadium Pub & Grill. We ate, talked about the book, and then played Music bingo which was the event happening at the pub that night. It was so fun and I even was inspired to choose my karaoke song for the upcoming teacher pizza & karaoke! We picked our next read - The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys

Hosting our little cousins at our house for the weekend. On Friday after school, I headed out to Washpa to pick the three girls up so they could spend the next two days at our house for a big cousin sleepover. Our plan is to do it once a month and the kids all had so much fun together. It was wild to have 9 kids in the house, but also big families know that adding more kids into the mix is rarely and issue - it's just more fun! 

Birthday party mania. Grey had a paintball and sleepover party with his besties in honor of the Conn twins' birthday on Friday night. B and I attended a surprise birthday on Saturday night for our friend Dustin (thanks to Heather & Albert for hanging with all the kids so we could go!) And we are thinking and planning ahead to next week when we have our own little birthday girl's special day (Gemma will be 11 on Monday!) 

Teaching Spanish 1 an introduction to bullfighting and then we watched Ferdinand. Spanish 2 worked on finished el Ekeko and Spanish 2 Honors watched Pachamama with a movie guide. Spanish 3/4 Honors learned about the imperfecto past tense. We took a break on Wednesday when it was so beautiful and warm outside to read La Casa de la Dentista (a Sr. Wooly graphic novel!) in the courtyard which actually turned out to be great practice reading & finding past tense verbs. I also gave out Leave Me Alone Passes because believe it or not - we are already half way through the third marking period already?!

Sporting with only two baseball practices for Grey and he got his basketball equipment turned in this week to finish out the season officially. Gemma had three basketball games and then she and Violet went to open gym on Saturday. 

Making cabbage&noodles (for superbowl), chik-fi-la sammies and fries, meat sauce spaghetti, copycat Olive Garden chicken over pasta, meatball sub sammies, sloppy joes & mac& cheese. I also made a some fruity pebbles muffins for Sunday morning (and then again the following Saturday, hah!) and a batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for the weekend. Heather brought over pizza, wings, and breadsticks on Saturday night (thank you!) 

mini goal check in: 
20 minutes outside: 2 days
make-out: 5 days
affirmation:  7 days
out of bed by 5:45a: 1 day (!)

Around Here Week 06: 02/05-11

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 11+ hours (of 1000)
Thursday night was so gorgeous, high 50's, totally clear star-filled sky, with a breeze that felt like the beach with a storm brewing...except B and I were outside trying to wrestle the shed tarp down because the wind was so strong it bent the shed metal and ripped the tarp almost in half. It was down there whipping around so hard and loud that the goats were terrified. We it got tied down, but now we need a solution for the hay to keep it safe from rain/snow. Ugh, it's always something when it comes to farm life!

Reading 1000 Hours Outside by Ginny Yurich (which is 2/3 of the way done from last summer!) I also borrowed The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han (from my student Lily) and If He Had Been With Me by Laura Nowlin (from my student Alyssa). We had a our school Project Lit meeting on Friday after the early out where we discussed our two books: Almost American Girl by Robin Ha and The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

Welcoming a new member to the farm. Dude! We saved him from a preserve and he is really nice except he STINKS. it's terrible. male goats are so gross with all their peeing on themselves and stinkiness. Ugh, I think I actually hate him, but he's getting along with the girls just fine and I'm glad he's saved but also...I hate his stench. 

Up to our eyeballs in tissues, blankies, cough drops. We spent most of the week feeling pretty sick and exhausted. It was just one of those weeks where we need to try take it easy and just get better. My parents took Grey and Gem for most of Sunday (they were the healthiest of us) to just separate us a little bit - thank you! 

Taking off (again!?!) Reddy was just too sick and Violet stayed home from school and Miss Emma was still sick...ugh, none of us can shake this sickness. I took Red to the Peds and we came home with a nebulizer, antibiotics, and a mini steroid. He was just so pitiful with the most disgusting cough. We saw some pretty quick positive effects though from the meds/nebulizer so fingers crossed this moves on quickly. 

Writing A Day in the Life post which meant taking a photo every hour. It was fun and a such a great reminder on how my day (albeit very busy) is filled with moments of joy and valuable relationships with people. 

Offering help. Usually the best help anyone can offer is to just come right out and say, "Here's what I can do right now. Do you want that help?" No amount of suggestions or trying to fix someone will work; sometimes we just have to get our hands right in the dirt.

Dropping the kids off at St. David's on Saturday morning so that they could volunteer with the youth group preparing for their Souper Bowl fundraiser. 

Teaching Present tense verb conjugations in Spanish 1. Spanish 2 Honors finished their Ekeko book, took the final, and had a little end of novel celebration! Spanish 2 is still working through the novel but should finish next week. Spanish 3/4 is working on creating their Preterito's Project; making cereal box with rules for the preterito tense in Spanish. This week was our big Jr Class Prom Fundraiser. I had 87 juniors in the library working on texting friends and family to buy popcorn on Wednesday for two periods. It was really successful and I feel proud of how well the kids did and focused.

Sporting with 3 basketball games and two basketball practices for Grey to close out his 7th grade junior high season! He also had two baseball practices for his pony league team which is on deck for the next season (so punny!). The Jr High basketball team was announced at the Varsity Girls game on Tuesday and then Gemma's basketball team was announced at the Varsity Girls game on Thursday! Gem & Vi had basketball open gym on Saturday too and Brandon had his basketball game on Sunday night. I got all the paperwork in for Violet's Sparks soccer team this week! 

Making cream cheese chicken taquitos, tavern ham in the crockpot, homemade pizza. Heather brought over pizza and salad on Monday night (thank you!) For keto we also had beef/cauliflower/cheese and one day I made banana bread with some brown bananas as a before-bed snack and it was devoured within minutes. 

mini goal check in: 
20 minutes outside: 2 days
make-out: 6 days
affirmation:  7 days
out of bed by 5:45a: 3 days

Around Here Week 05: 01/29-02/04

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 7+ hours (of 1000)
We snagged a some outdoor time this week when it was sunny but chilly after school and helping Pappy and Daddy with the new goat fence too. The sun feels good but still too cold to go out without full coats and hats. It's been flip flopping days that the ground is frozen and then to muddy mess disaster and then back to frozen again. It's been wacky. 

Reading and finishing My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. Holy cow. I want everyone to read this book, but I want to give all the women and girls who read it also to feel my support around them as they do. Just, holy crap, incredibly honest, raw, brutal, and powerful. I'm going to be thinking of this book forever. 

Catching up with Chum and Abba now that they are back from their vacation in Mexico. We got to see their photos and hear about their trip and best of all - Chum found a cool coin and Gem pulled out her microscope and we were all going full science nerd trying to notice intricate details on the coin. 

Finishing our January family puzzle! yay! It was mostly completed by Violet and I if we are being honest, so Vi got to put in the final piece! As is standard for us, we are missing one single piece. Literally every year, we have misplaced one puzzle piece!

Well check ups for Violet and Olive (finally! oops!) I took a half day on Monday to take them, and they both looked good...except for Olive's ear infection that she showed zero signs to us that she had it. She got some antibiotics but other than that - all looks good!

Sending hugs to all the little brothers and sisters out there (especially our Violet, Rusty, Red, and Olive) who log major hours on the bleachers watching older siblings' games. Bless their concession stand-loving, learning to count from watching a scoreboard, cheering and clapping, little hearts. 

High fiving Violet and Rusty who were the only ones in our family that were hoping that the groundhog saw his shadow for 6 more weeks of winter. All of the rest of us were hoping for spring. So hilarious to remember that Brandon and I used to live in Punxsutawney before we moved to Erie, PA. We had the tiniest little railroad-style apartment and we were so busy at that point in our life (me, traveling to NYC with Scantron and B in the height of Aldi District Manager training). Gosh, how wild life twists and turns. 

Taking off of work to stay home with sick kids on Thursday while our babysitter was sick too! Agh! So much sickness and germs floating around our schools and area right now. B was home too because he and his dad worked on putting up the fence for our new goat coming next week; a boy who needs his own space. I kept all the sick kids in the house and I took it easy too because I was on day 3 of almost no voice - such a sore throat, terrible cough, and congestion. 

Picking through Osa's fur as she had her first encounter with a briar bush. HAH. it was ridiculous.

Packing up some The Hunting Daddies books for Gemma to take to school for her teacher who is having a baby in a few weeks. The PTO organized a baby shower for her so her students could celebrate her and they all brought in books if they wanted. 

Sending love and compassion to anyone out there struggling with addiction and/or loving someone with addiction. xxox

Celebrating Daddy and Uncle Jonny at Washington & Jefferson on Saturday. The college invited 1,000 point scorers to come back for the Mens' basketball game to be announced during halftime and then attend an aftergame reception. We made a sleepover out of it and stayed at a hotel with the Kochs (Uncle Jonny, Ninna, Tessa, & Tristan) and had fellow teammate (and godfather to our Rusty), Dobber and his son, Caleb join us on Friday night for late night hotel pool swimming and snacks (buff chicken dip in the crockpot in the hotel room for the win!) On Saturday before the game, we went to a nearby bowling alley that had Glow bowl (!) and the kids had a blast and tired out a little bit before we went to the W&J game. I can't believe I got to marry this man! Kind, charming, handsome as heck, unwaveringly patient, a leader to his core, the most calming vibes, and an incredible athlete. Jackpot of my life, honestly. 

Taking a turn for the major sick. On the way home from Pittsburgh, Olive threw up twice in her car seat and Reddy had continued to go downhill with his cough and sickness. Rust was complaining about his eyes (chlorinated hotel pool? or sickness?) We were just a mess by the time we got home late Saturday night. We got some cough syrup into everyone (including us!) and we went to bed with our fingers crossed that we'd be better in the morning. (spoiler alert: we weren't)

Teaching with a very hoarse voice. We did a lot of independent work this week because I barely had a voice. My Spanish 2 students had me smiling because they offered to read aloud the chapters of our book as they walked around the room "like you do, Señora." It's easy to feel like the kids barely even notice you until they make some hilarious observation like how I walk all around the room while reading aloud. Spanish 1 was on a crazy present tense regular verb conjugation practice, and Spanish 3/4 worked on finishing their Super 7 preterito verb charts (poor things- they keep saying, "Señora! Spanish was so nice to us before preterito! Why is it so mean now?" LOL but for real. On Saturday at the W&J event, I got to visit with two of my former students; The Walker sisters (Sierra and Savannah). #oncemykidalwaysmykid 

Sporting with two basketball practices and two jr high games for Grey. Gemma had one basketball practice and two games this week too. At one of Gemma's games, we got there in a rush (Studers coming in hot!!) and it was late in the evening so everyone was already hungry and tired. We get to the top of the bleachers to watch the game and it's at that moment I realize the whole bottom of my shoe is covered in dog poop. Vi and Rust got my wet paper towels from the bathroom and I cleaned it up, then Olive started finding old candy in the bleachers and eating it (?!) and Red said a million times he wanted to go home, and then Liv took her shirt off. One of those moments you are just praying for patience. LOL.  Brandon had a basketball game in Franklin that we took the whole family to go watch! It was so great to catch up with Lyndsy while we watched our husbands still playing basketball together. (if you're in the bleachers with your husband's wedding band on your thumb- you might be a basketball wife. hah!) 

Making creative meals because we need a grocery trip and didn't get one until Thursday. We had chicken tender/mashed potato bowls with gravy and corn, pork chops and tater tots, and baked ravioli. And most nights of the week, I end up making Grey a goodnight meal that includes eggs, because this boy is a bottomless pit. Gem has been on some kind of baking kick and make chocolate chip cookies and then peanut butter reese chip cookies the next night. I made cowboy cookies. For Keto, I had shrimp tacos with avocado and siracha sauce, beef & brussels with cheese, and kielbasa. 

mini goal check in: 
20 minutes outside: 3 days
make-out: 1 day (germ avoidance is making me sad now)
write 100 words in my novel: 0 days (switching to a new goal for Feb- this one is not doing it for me!)
affirmation:  7 days
(new for Feb) out of bed by 5:45a: 3 days