Around Here: Week 40 2023

 {October 1-7th}

Josh sent me this. 
Gosh I love that man.

Taking... Jack to his first drive for Traffic Safety. It went well, despite his nerves, and he passed, no problem. It's still completely surreal to me that my baby twins are old enough to drive. My how time does play tricks on us. 

Doing... chores with the family on Sunday to prepare for a good week ahead. The boys aren't always (okay, never) thrilled to do their chores, but we're all glad to have a clean house heading into the new week.

Observing... literacy skills in kindergarten this week for my class.  The kindergarten teacher I follow is amazing. She's the best at everything thse does. I joked with her that I wished I could scoop her knowledge about teaching out of her brain and pour it into mine! Haha!

Filling... a prescription for antibiotics for Wyatt whose ingrown toenail got an infection. Poor kid can't seem to catch a break with his toes!

Keeping... Carly home sick on Friday and enjoying some cozy reading time on the couch together. 

Reading... The Bookstore Sisters and Simon Sort of Says and listening to Go As A River.  Simon Sort of Says is for book club and is such a good book.  It tugged at my heart strings, but also made me laugh out loud. It has the best characters and would be a good readaloud for middle school and up if you have kids. 

Proud... of Wyatt & Logan who are doing incredible in school currently. Logan is working so hard, doing homework everyday. And Wyatt has been busting his butt in his classes. It's so lovely.

Finally... doing the course required to get my sub certificate reinstated.  Getting the kids back to school, plus class after summer put it on the back burner for a hot minute. Glad to have it done!!

Enjoying... eggs & sausage every morning with a raspberry jam-covered english muffin. The eggs are farm fresh from my mother-in-law and the raspberry jam is the jam I made this summer with my mom. Makes every morning feel like a hug from them. 

Thrilled... with the pottery we got back from our pottery night a few weeks ago. My mug and pumpkin turned out so cute!! 

Cooking... potato soup from scratch with the leftover ham we had the other night. I've never made potato soup before and wasn't sure how the family would like it, but we LOVED it! The twins ate the leftovers for days!

Celebrating... "Let Freedom Read Day" on October 7th and sharing lists of Banned Books on my social media accounts. I hate that books still get banned in this day & age. I am working my way through the most banned books.  I've read The Handmaids Tale, Drama, The Kite Runner, The Hate U Give, and All Boys Aren't Blue.  But there's a massive list I still want to read including: The Bluest Eye, 1984, Beloved, Nineteen Minutes, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Looking for Alaska, Melissa (George) by Alex Gino; Me, Earl and the Dying Girl, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, and Identical by Ellen Hopkins. 

Creating... a drink competition with Carly using our new Stur flavors I ordered in a variety pack from Amazon to see if we can correctly name the drink. Turns out, we were terrible at it. Hah! 

Enjoying... Carly signing the ABC's (she's honestly as good as the twins who are currently enrolled in ASL) and enjoying this new stage of reading she has entered- she nearly always has a book in her hands. I love it!!!

Recording... a video presentation for school. I think that next to juggling school & mom life, learning the new technology that goes along with my online masters program is the hardest part for me. 

Sighing... that our washing machine died. It won't lock, so it won't wash. We've had it for less than a year.  Thankfully Josh's brother Samuel came to the rescue and gave us his washing machine. Can you even believe that? He said it's fine, he can use the one in his mom's house. I am weepy with gratitude. With four kids, being without a washing machine is brutal. His generosity is so big. 

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