Thank you April

Thank you April for...

• a clear scan for our Gigi who fought and beat Pancreatic cancer. Above all April, you brought us this news and that could have been it and you would have won for the whole year. 

but you also gave us so much more,

• a much deserved and needed fishing trip for b who got to spend several days with his best friend in their favorite element. I beamed at the pictures he texted of his happy, huge smile holding another great catch. What a gift it is share in the joys of someone you love. 
• another fishing season for our whole family; spending the whole youth mentor day at fishing camp watching our kids get dirty, tired, and wet while splashing through the creek and reeling in fish together and with their cousins. 
• a birthday for our Greyson Rudy who turned nine this year! He makes us proud and crazy and we are so very grateful for this silly, funny, thoughtful boy.  While we have a nine year old child that means we also have been parents for nine years now! 
• Lots of sleepovers and fun with friends this month that had us surrounded with people we love and who make us laugh
• another scf happy hour in the books with my sister. There is something so comforting about being with your sisters who finish your sentences and thoughts for you; who can understand without you having to say, and who will accept you no matter what crazy theory, thought, or memory you might throw into the conversation. xxxox scf.
• a beautiful family-filled Easter with extended families on both sides. How incredibly lucky our kids are that we have so many cousins, aunts, and uncles that sometimes they lose track of their names and who goes with who.
• the close of another year of teaching 4th and 5th grade religious education classes at St. Greg/Barnabas. 
• the strength it took to be bold to opt out of standardized testing for our third grader after a lot of research and reflection. So thankful for other moms who have gone before me and offered advice - it can be so hard to swim the other way - but I am so content with our decision. 
• the opportunity to volunteer officially as a Lector at church. It feels satisfying to use my own personal talents to help others in a way that in no way feels like extra work. 
• the extra student time this month at the Spanish club dance (where I learned a new game: Fort Knox) and acting as a Reading competition chaperone at their spring meet. Being with kids outside of school hours really makes for stronger bonds with the students which always spill over positively in the classroom. 
• the view of our #8 on the baseball field again this year at the pitcher's mound and shortstop. He loves the game so much and it is inspiring to see how much sports motivate him in all kinds of ways
• the incredible coach that my husband is; I am so grateful that young kids get to learn from him and see his reactions. He knows that a loss counts too and from losing and making errors is the way you grow and get better. That no matter the call, you keep your head high and your mouth shut and you work harder so that no game will ever come down to a questionable call. I could go on for days, but he amazes me and I am so proud of Coach Daddy.
• soccer season that has us all outside moving and learning. Gemma has grown leaps and bounds in understanding the game and Violet has surprised us all with her little spitfire attitude on the field. I am learning and growing as the U5 coach and keeping my little Mighty Muffin team focused, learning, and having fun too. 
• the arrival of spring; all of our chickens are so happy to be free range everyday, our pups are getting walks in, we are all getting extra hours outside, the trampoline is in full effect, and although our house is filled with mud and grass - the windows are open and the sun is shining in! 

April you came in like a lion 

...and still kind of finished like a lion actually (hah)

but like a lion you were loud and proud and breathtakingly beautiful

you roared to us the news we had all been praying for and holding our breath for

you roared us out of the house and got us moving and really living after a long, slow winter

you were brilliant, April 

I love you. 

Around Here Week 17: 04/21-04/27

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  71+ hours (of 1000)
Up 12 hours this week because spring has finally sprung - truly! We earn quite a bit of hours at spring sporting events alone - but we were able to snag some more hours with Easter egg hunts too. I have a goal to spend at least 1 hour a day outside currently and I'm getting at least that 5 out of 7 days a week between our activities and the weather.

Reading and finishing The Feeding and Care of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Grey. I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style in this book but it was still an interesting and worthwhile read. The Easter Bunny brought me the next Books & Brews book club choice which is Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal and he also gifted me with Ikigai: The Japenese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles which I became intrigued by after seeing the image below on Instagram. (I think I am currently in the "satisfaction but feeling of uselessness" category between What I love, What I'm good at, and What I can be paid for - which is maybe how all public school teachers feel when there are so many things we need to be for our students; it can feel like any good I'm doing is such a drop in the bucket for some of the issues and obstacles that my students face in their own lives and in the world today. I try to remain focused and steadfast on the tiny, shining moments that are so bright and beautiful and keeps all teachers going again for another day, but it can be overwhelming some days too. Good thing I love my job all the way down in my bones, man. it ain't for the faint of heart).

Celebrating Easter! The Easter bunny found us and brought the kids candy, books, and those odd surprise balls that are cool these days. We went to church (Grey served) and then spend the afternoon with our Studer cousins at Mimi's house for brunch. We got to spend some time with Gigi and Pappy afterwards at their house before heading back home with full bellies of too much chocolate easter bunnies. hah!

Moving the baby chicks out to the coop. We are officially free of live chickens in our dining room again! The weather has been nice enough consistently and the girls have started to grow in their real feathers - so we kicked 'em to the coop! The big chickens are keeping them in line and we have the lamp secured for some of the cooler nights, but they seem to be adjusting just fine so far. They are definitely loving the free range life pecking around all day in the grass!

Getting the most incredible news on Thursday in the form of a CLEAR SCAN for our Gigi. After almost 10 months of battling Pancreatic Cancer, our Gigi gave us the best news after her appointment. Omigosh, we were all in tears and shouting with joy. What an incredible gift and how proud we are of here for fighting so hard. Thank you all for your prayers, kindness, and support through this. We are so deeply blessed and grateful.

SCF happy hour'ing with my sisters at our house for this month. Kitty brought sushi (yummiest!) and Brandon kept the kids corralled so that we could laugh and talk and catch up with a few kiddo kitchen dance parties and tickle fests sprinkled throughout.

Spring Sporting with the last week of soccer practices before games begin next week. We also had soccerfest at the elementary school on Saturday complete with team photos, a bouncy house, concessions, and face painting. Grey and B had two baseball games this week - one at home and one at CV

Teaching the mini unit before Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro which includes learning how to merengue! The kids really impressed me with how well they did after they got over their initial fear of boy/girl partnering up (hah). Spanish 1 Honors is in the final stage of their (longest ever) food unit and started working on their menu projects. Spanish 2 learned about El Cucuy and impressed me (and themselves). Spanish 2 Honors watched two films this week to prepare for their last novel Esperanza. They watched Living on $1 a day and Which Way Home - I realized last minute that next week is Screen Free Week and had to squeeze them both in - thank goodness for movie guides! Spanish 3 Honors began the fable El Que Se Enoja, Pierde from Martina Bex. Whew, the end of the school year is in sight now (I even updated the hallway bulletin board calendar to show our last month's activities!) and my desk is proof of the last sprint madness.

Making cheesy potatoes and contributing 4 dozen eggs for our Easter brunch at Mimi's house (thanks chickies!) We made ham pot pie with leftover Easter  ham, and had a leftover/fridge clean out dinner. We were surprised with two meals from our family this week - tacos from Gigi and Pap and taco pasta and apple dump bake from Heather. Kitty brought sushi to SCF happy hour (yummiest!) and We received a Misfit Market fruit/veggie delivery (thank you AGAIN Heather!) and was shocked to see how much delicious produce we got in it. I made the most soul healing/rejuvenating potato and leek soup from our delivery with a side of three ingredient cheddar beer bread.

Around Here Week 16: 04/14-04/20

A peek into what it is like to live in our home just this minute:

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  59+ hours (of 1000)
Up about 11 hours this week thanks to spring weather and the our time at the fields for spring sports. We were so lucky to have a gorgeous evening on Thursday night and we stayed out way past our bedtimes around the fire.

Reading The Feeding and Care of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray and There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather by Linda Akeson McGurk....still.

Marveling at our bean seeds growing! The kids each planted a few bean seeds in a bag at Reading Night the other week and basically to humor them, we put in a few tablespoons of water and left them on the counter. To our shock and awe - these bean plants are growing, and incredibly fast. Brandon transplanted them to a tupperware dish and we swear they are growing an inch a day! We don't even know what kind of beans they are (I fear they might be beanstalks to giants in the sky plants! LOL) but whatever they are; we are about to have plenty of them!

Receiving my 2017-18 family yearbook from Shutterfly! Eeeeeeee, it makes me so happy. It takes me almost a whole year to finish it but each time I receive the final product of my labor of love, it gives me enough energy to do it again for the next year - hahhaa. it's therapeutic, I swear.

Hosting two sleepovers at our house! First Sophia and Gemma talked their mommas into an impromptu sleepover when the Fiores were visiting for the afternoon on early dismissal day and then cousin Caleb slept over our house on Friday night! It is always somehow easier when we have extra kids in the house because there are less sibling fights. I don't know how it works but #bigfamprobs

Having a college friends dinner and playdate at our house with Brandon's W&J roommates plus all.the.kiddos. We had pizza and desserts and spent most of the night chasing kids around and trying to squeeze in life updates between kids asking us for another snack.

Feeling grateful to all the good men in our life who showed up bright and early on youth turkey day to mentor our Greyson Rudy. They didn't have success but to see him surrounded by so many dudes who were excited for him and ready to teach him made me so grateful and proud.

Enjoying our Adams family at Easter dinner on Saturday. We had a delicious meal, and egg hunt, and finished the night off with some Just Dance on Youtube. We lucked out with a beautifully sunny day so we spent most of the time after dinner sitting on the deck and catching up with family that came in from all over (Montana, Chicago, Pittsburgh). The kids are always so happy to have so many people willing to play with them endlessly on holidays (hah).

Spring Sporting with baseball games and soccer practices. Grey has been doing well pitching and/or playing short stop in his games. I was able to finish my concession stand duty at his game this week and put that check in the box (good thing because we have a lot of overlap coming up between soccer and baseball games!) My little U5 soccer team makes me laugh every practice with their hugging and cheering each other on. Gem is really starting to understand the rules now between defense and offense. Soccer games won't start until the last week of April/first week of May - but we are just about ready!

Teaching about los castells de Tarragona in Spanish 1 and building cup towers. Spanish 1 Honors learned about the Mexican street food favorite: el elote and the Mexican Easter tradition of cascarones. Spanish 2 took a quiz on Spanish animal vocab and we played the Taco vocab game from The Engaged Spanish Classroom (tpt). Spanish 2 Honors learned about Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo and did some research about the desaparecidos of la Guerra Sucia. And Spanish 3 Honors worked on their rough and final drafts of their Robo en la Noche final papers and I was so proud! On Thursday for our early dismissal day, the gym teachers hosted a Nitro ball and pickle ball tournament. It was a fun day and a great way to boost school morale heading into these last few weeks of school - we have only 26 more days!

Making strombolis (thank you student fundraiser!), frozen pizzas, hot dogs and cheddar brats over the fire, egg sausage casserole, and chocolate chip cookies & ordering in pizza for our college friend get together.