Team Studer

Around Here Week 38: 09/20-26

2026-10-19T21:17:59.189-04:00

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

photo cred: Hannah N

Homecoming community decorating!

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

decoration surprises by the Sideline Crew!

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 507+ hours (of 1000)
Heavy rain straight into chilly temperatures (but at least dry). B and Gemma tried to convince me to turn on the heat this week, but I still stand firm on no heat until Nov 1! hahaha!

Reading The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Listening to and finishing Good People by Patmeena Sabit. I really liked it - listening to it on audiobook was awesome because it was a full cast and really felt like a true crime podcast!

Running to do list completed:

Olive got one filling done at the dentist office this week (one more to go!) She did so great with the filling appointment, but then sucked/bit her numb lip later that evening so we had to deal with the swelling/ scabbing of that (while I watched for infection all week)...ugh. Fingers crossed she doesn't do that again next week for round2!
learning more about X and scheduling posts. Grey and I worked on Sunday to schedule out the week. We still need to figure out how to download Hudl videos to post directly to X. Oof, the learning curve is steep over here.
I got a smart watch for Gemma to monitor her heart rate throughout the day and for her to wear during practice too (she can't wear it during games because it's technically 'jewelry' but) I want to walk into her cardiologist appointment in October with all the data I can possibly have to keep the ball rolling on whatever is going on with her heart.
Updating the fridge calendar with all the October activities and making my monthly doodle on the top of the calendar!

In search of a clean up/ declutter method that isn't too overwhelming. Imagine living in a house with 8 people: SO many shoes to trip over on the way into your house. Literally, just consider that alone! That's not even trying to calculate laundry, groceries, garbage, hair ties (!!!), and general cleaning (dust, bathrooms, sheets) with 8 people; four of them three sport athletes. And if we're being entirely honest, it's been 16 years of having small children in this home. This is truly the first year we could take a big gulp of the fresh air that comes with kids that are old enough to go to school and take care of themselves in most capacities (dressing themselves/ showering/ sleeping through the night). So, I'm on the hunt for a system that could work where I can tackle 16 years of surviving in parenthood to try to clean and declutter all the nooks, crannies, and bins (!) that have been the scotch tape holding this circus together.

A wacky week all around. Between Homecoming festivities and the elementary school being closed due to a necessary mildew cleaning (thank you power outage and weather), to everyone feeling kind of under the weather, to the rain that lasted for days...this week felt like a whole month long (and not in a good way).

Homecoming festivities! The high school had spirit dress up every day and on Wednesday was the hoco bonfire. Since Gemma and Violet are both in student council, they made drink donations to the bonfire dance. They both also volunteered to help homecoming candidates with their skits (Gemma was a soccer player in Vaeda & Brandon's 10 things I hate about you skits and Violet was a jellyfish in Averie & Luke's Spongebob & Patrick skit!) Friday was the hoco parade that I had three kids participate in while the babies and I watched and collected mountains of candy. Gemma rode on the Varsity soccer float, Violet rode on the JrHigh soccer float, and Rusty walked with the minors football team. Then we had the homecoming football game and crowned the new king & queen:

Violet's birthday! Violet turned 12 on Friday! She had a great birthday (woke up to 12 balloons on her bed and chocolate croissants before school!) Because it was homecoming and she is on student council, she spent the day decorating the field and community for the festivities (which meant getting out of classes for her birthday!) Then the sideline crew surprised her with a decorated trainers' room before the game, we got her a birthday pin to wear, and even got the announcer to call her out over the loud speaker before the football game started! After the game, her friends all came over to our house for a birthday sleepover where they stayed up most of the night playing games. Violet requested a 'purple brithday' with the addition of bracelet making. So I organized some purple snacks (Poppi, Boom Chicka Pop, and purple skittles) and then our etsy bracelet charms arrived on time for the party! On Saturday, they made their charm bracelets, sang over the purple red velvet cake pops (Violet's request), and bobbed for apples because it is one of Vi's favorite activities (hah). Seems truly impossible that my Va-vi is twelve. Like what in the actual world?!

Time with family and friends. Rusty, Reddy, and Olive got so much time with high school friends and football players as they spent the week at the high school working on their flexible instruction packets (no classes at the elementary building). What a gift it is to have so many big kids to look up to for my babies! Violet helped Bristol babysit her cousins, Gemma helped her bestie Abigail get ready and take photos for the homecoming dance at Richland and to JB's house after the football game. Gemma, Violet, and I went to cheer on the Varsity volleyball players for their game on Tuesday night. Grey went to Primantis with his friends, Bryce & Reed's house after the football game.

Teaching with the first real five day week of the year. Elementary 3rd grade started decorating their 'pasaportes' to learn about different Spanish speaking countries around the world. Grades 4&5 practiced numbers 1-10. Spanish Expo finished their Geography studies and took the map test on Friday. Spanish 1 got their adjective list and conjugated the verb Ser. They used the verb and adjectives to write descriptions of famous people and translated sentences in a musical chairs style game. Spanish 2 got their vocabulary Food List #2 and then started work on their Food Truck projects. They found really creative ways to come up with a menu and design their 3D food trucks that they will have to present next week. I was honored to stand with my former student, Maria, who chose me for Teacher Appreciation Night for the volleyball team. The volleyball boosters invite all the selected teachers to a meal after school and to get a photo with our player. What a blessing it is to be in young people's lives! Thank you Maria! I am proud of you!

Sporting with no basketball for Reddy this week because of the elementary school being closed. Rusty had two minors football practices and one basketball practice. Violet managed three JrH soccer games and watergirled at the Varsity football game. Gemma had two Varsity soccer games and two soccer practices and was asst trainer at the Varsity football game. Grey had his sports massage with Miss Emma, four days of football practice and the Varsity football game (Homecoming!) on Friday vs. Portage. Brandon coached all week and attended the youth football parent meeting on Monday night. I double/ triple/ quad-checked the details for the upcoming senior night football game (God bless the booster officers - appreciate you girls so much!)

Making sheet pan kielbasa, veggies, and ravioli, teriyaki noodles with chicken and broccoli, instagram chicken with peas&cheese pasta, ground beef tacos, sloppy joes with shells&cheese, hamburgers on the grill with frozen fries in the air fryer (thanks Grey!), and frozen pizzas before the football game and cheese quesadillas after the game and out for Chinese on Saturday night! For breakfast, I made chocolate croissants (for Violet's birthday) and French toast and bacon for everyone including the party girls. for Violet's birthday dessert, I made red velvet cake pops (at her request)

Intentional Movement with more lymphatic movements and I was even able to pressure some of the kids (and Brandon) to try them along with me since everyone feels like sickos over here.

Around Here Week 37: 09/13-19

2026-10-17T20:57:27.142-04:00

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

photo cred: Mr. Bihun

photo cred: Mrs. Feathers

photo cred: Mr. Bihun

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

photo cred: Peyton

photo cred: Coach Ginger M

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 492+ hours (of 1000)
Definitely starting to feel like fall. Chilly mornings and evenings and blazing hot afternoons (my classroom is a sauna). The yellow! The yellow everywhere is giving me so much joy even if I don't want everything to change just yet but it sure does look pretty with things making the switch to a new season. Still a lot of green, so that's a good, slow start.

Reading The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong for my Lit Ladies book club and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith because I haven't finished it yet.

Listening to Good People by Patmeena Sabit and really enjoying it. Grateful for it on my commute to and from work each day. I truly have no idea how the story is going to shake out.

Running to do list completed:

I got the contact information for one of my student's family that has a litter of lab puppies!
I ordered the gifts for the football senior night from Etsy (bracelets & pins)
I got everyone's school photo forms completed and boy does this company hate to see the Studers coming (lol). They have a great program that with the purchase of two photo packages in the family, the rest are free; great idea of families of three and even four. But the Studers roll up paying for only 2 kids and get 4 free packages of the same value! Very thankful for that even if we are their worst nightmare!
Grey went driving for TDS driving school again and worked on his online courses

Thinking about ways we can try to tackle Gemma's 'episodes' now that we have to wait for the next round of blood work after the antibiotics. Some of the things she is willing to try is practicing breath work during games and practices (or when she feels like her heart is starting to ramp up) and possibly starting to journal or track symptoms and connections (sleep? hydration? etc). I looked into some nervous system reset exercises on Youtube but you know that sounds absolutely ridiculous to have your mother suggest that to her teenagers (ugh, eye roll galore). I just want our girl to feel better and I'm trying to grab at any straws while we wait for the next round of blood work and her cardiologist appt in October.

Missing Gigi (always but a little extra) as Pappy came to be Gemma's guest of honor for the Cancer Awareness game at Somerset. He walked with her before the game in honor of "Gemma's late grandmother, Marianne Studer, who battled hard against Pancreatic cancer." It was a beautiful moment and Pappy was honored to be part of it. Thank you Somerset (and my dear friend Loni) who organized the event and invited CT players to participate too.

Second lost tooth for Olive this week! She waits until it is basically dangling out of her mouth, so it's no trouble for B to just give a yank and it's free almost painlessly!

Officially football on tv season (LOL, exactly what our family needs! more football!) and so it is on most nights. I know that Tuesday and Wednesday nights are open...but every other night, we got football playing on the tube. It is still warm enough that we've been hanging out and watching the games on the back porch though so that's nice and I'm very grateful we have all of our cozy furniture back there. B and I had a nice evening on Saturday night together just the two of us on the back porch - he watched the game and I got to read. Basically, my perfect evening!

Mostly adjusted to the back to school schedule, but kind of laughing that by Thursday night, we are all pretty much running on fumes. Everyone is falling asleep with no problems by then (me especially! barely making it into bed before falling into unconsciousness!) Friday everyone gets a quick jolt of excitement because of Friday Night Lights and then Saturday mornings are for sleeping in and waking up slow. It's a steady rhythm that I really appreciate about the fall: total running craziness Monday-Thursday, then Friday Night games (home around 10:30p and yapping about the game while looking up all the articles), then very slow Saturday mornings. Kind of my favorite.

Time with family and friends. Rusty got to sleepover for his friend Maddox's birthday party. Violet got to have a sleepover and spend the day with Pappy for her birthday. Rusty and Violet both hosted a lemonade stand at my parents' house on Sunday afternoon (thank you Abba & Chum for letting them live out these wild dreams - hah!) Gemma got to hang out with cousin Becky to get her nails done (thank you!) and went to the Varsity girls soccer hang at Gina's house. Grey went to a party with friends on Saturday night.

Teaching our first five day week, but thankfully we had a regularly scheduled early dismissal for students on Friday...so still not exactly a full week (yay!) Elementary students learned to ask ¿Cómo te llamas? and we played a game which they all thought was hilarious. Language expo continued practicing camina and corre in reading and writing. Spanish 1 got a lot of new vocab including numbers to 100, colors, days of the week, and months. I also had Spanish 1 memorize and recite (or sing) Los Pollitos Dicen individually for a presentation grade this week and even though everyone was very nervous; they all did such a great job and felt very proud to learn a mini Spanish poem/lullaby. Spanish 2 continued Somos 8 and their food unit and memorized & sang Cielito Lindo for a presentation grade (everyone did so great!)

Sporting Reddy had one basketball practice and his first two basketball games this week! Rusty had one minors football practice, missed one practice (cough break), and one minors football game. Violet practiced with the junior high four times this week. Gemma had four Varsity soccer practices and played in three Varsity soccer games. She and Violet also assisted at the Varsity football game as watergirls and asst trainers. Grey had team dinner and film, four football practices, and a Varsity football game at United Valley on Friday. I made the meal for Team Dinner & Film on Sunday for the football team! I worked the concession stand duty on Tuesday for the boys' soccer game, and we hosted the football coaches to our house for pizza and the PIT game on the back porch on Thursday. I also got some ordering and planning done for the football senior night that I volunteered to do for the boosters.

Making crack chicken sammies, beef roast over egg noodles with gravy, sheetpan chicken fajitas, buffalo chicken dip, takeout pizza, and copycat Olive Garden chicken over pasta. For breakfast I made egg/ sausage casserole. For desserts I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for our house. For team dinner I made 40 sausage and pepper sandwiches, 24 hot dogs and sauerkraut, a crockpot of baked beans, 144 pierogies in butter and onion, watermelon, and 4 dozen pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.

Around Here Week 36: 09/06-12

2026-10-11T10:56:59.636-04:00

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

topnotch rizz?! LOL

photo cred: Mr. Bihun

bravo, these are amazing, Sherry D!

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

wrestling matches in the bleachers all game long!

photo cred: Gemma

selfie cred: Ev!

selfie cred: Abba

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 483+ hours (of 1000)
The teenage chickens are laying and now we have an egg surplus over here! Our rooster has finally earned a proper crow and he seems like a nice guy so far - so we don't have any issues with him as of now. We are getting HUGE brown eggs from the old girls (like it's honestly ridiculous how big these eggs are) and smaller brown and green ones from the teens. I don't know yet if we are getting guinea eggs because they are not laying in the coop like the other girls. They might be all over the yard for all I know!

Reading and finishing Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine. It was interesting and I liked the historical context and perspective. I didn't love the ramp up of action in last few chapters after such a slow moving story. I thought I had made it to the end and then like eight things happened in a row - that was wild there at the end. Also read I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. I picked up my book order from The Laurel & Leaf - they were The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong (our Lit Ladies book choice for September) and Train Dreams by Denis Johnson which was suggested to me by a teacher friend (thank you Joyce!)

Listening to Good People by Patmeena Sabit. Very glad to listen to it - voiced by a whole cast and it was giving Serial podcast vibes. I am loving it!

Running to do list items completed:

Grey went driving with Mr. Saylor for TDS driving academy and worked on his online coursework for the program- hopeful to get his driver's license on October 8th!
I called and scheduled a cardiologist appt at Children's hospital for Gemma which will be mid- October and we can re-do her bloodwork to ensure the strep is gone in the very beginning of October.
Took the two biggest girls to get their eyebrows waxed
Finally bought a new laptop for the house since ours died this summer and B and I have been juggling bringing home our work laptops so the kids can do homework. I got one for only $200 at Best Buy!
Grey and I worked on updating his X account for football season and connected his huddle and updated his photos. We are learning more from instagram tutorials on what he should have because I am clueless

A long weekend thanks to Labor day and boy, did we ever need it this year! After 45+ hours without power the laundry was stacked to the ceiling! Also, Labor Day every year is a mini milestone for back to school to me. We've had a couple days of bedtimes and early mornings. We've had some meal planning around activities. We've had some Friday Night Lights and week day practices and games with homework mixed in there. We are doing okay if we're all still standing by Labor Day (hah).

The germs have descended. It's not a surprise, every year from September to May someone in the house is sick because we have germs from everywhere (my two schools, the elementary school, the high school, the football team, the varsity soccer team, the jr high soccer team, the minors team, the k-2 basketball team, the school buses)...so we endure. Grey, Violet, B, and I all felt the effects of cold, sinus, and sore throat this week. Uchie brought us some elderberry juice to try though!

Elementary school open house for probably about my 11th time - but for each of my kids, it's their first time in each grade...so I go; even though I'm busy and it's the start of the school year and I've seen it all before. I go to check out all the hallway artwork and sign that I was there for our kids and to pop in on my friends who are also incredible educators in the school district. We are very grateful that we have so many caring and supportive adults in our community who help raise up our babies. We love you CT!

Camo season prep. Violet attended the PA Hunters safety course on Saturday with her friend Evaley and passed her test!

Time with family and friends. We had a cousin sleepover on Sunday night with the Moore boys at our house, Violet and Rusty got to go to the Altoona Curve baseball game with Abba and Chum and then sleepover their house. Violet went to Idlewild with Evaley and her family on Labor day (thank you!), Gemma had a playday (a "couch rot" day - hahha!) with Peyton on Labor Day.

Teaching another four day week (honestly, thank goodness to start school off on an ease-into-it schedule). Elementary school continued with the first day of Spanish special learning about Me Llamo. Spanish Expo finished out week 1 and then started into week 2 with musical chairs translations. Spanish 1 learned basic conversation phrases and practiced numbers with the Smack It game. Spanish 2 started their food unit/ Somos 8 and they learned Cielito Lindo lyrics which they will need to memorize for next week. In all levels, we made Thank You cards for our schools' resource officers in honor of Sept 11.

Sporting Reddy had one basketball practice and Rusty had two minors football practices and a football game. Violet practiced with the Jr high soccer team two times and was the manager for the team in two games. Gemma had Varsity soccer practice three times and one soccer game (undefeated so far!) Grey and Coach Daddy had team dinner & film, three football practices and a football game Friday Night Lights at our home stadium vs River Valley. It was a pretty tough game and Grey was very sore on Saturday - but we are getting him back to good with ice and rest! I volunteered to make buffalo chicken dip and sent cookies in to the soccer concession stand, I helped host the football family tailgate before the first true home game (thank you to all the families who came and donated food!)

Making homemade stromboli, chicken/ veggie/ stuffing casserole, Pioneer Woman lasagna, Swedish meatballs over mashed potatoes with green beans, chicken alfredo pasta with roasted broccoli. For desserts I made rainbow sprinkle sugar cookies. For breakfast, I made two loaves of banana bread. For the football family tailgate I made rice krispies, firecracker lil' smokies, and cut up a watermelon. I prepped for my lunches my favorite food combo: kale, chickpeas, sunflower seeds, and sweet potatoes. We had some leftover kielbasa too, so I threw that in there. I cannot adequately explain how much I love this mixture, especially salted up with some pink Himalayan salt. Like, I will eat the entire thing - goodbye and thank you. I ordered some pumpkin spice creamer because I am a basic Biah...judge me all day but it's literally bringing a jolt of joy to my day so I don't care - hah!

Intentional Movement I did multiple days of Lymphatic Drainage movements that really slowed the germs to my body (I'm convinced it really did!) It helped me feel awake each morning too! Now that we are two weeks into school, I think I am ready to get back into some real actual movement - I have been craving it so much.

Around Here Week 35: 08/30-09/05

2026-10-04T12:02:51.306-04:00

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

dinner in the coaches' locker room!

the danger of being a sideline photographer! Gemma, watch out! photo cred: Jenn V

photo cred: Shannon L

selfie cred: B

cute spirit gear by cousin Becky!

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

photo cred: Gregory Ricupero Sports Network

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 469+ hours (of 1000)
Welp, the heat turned way up and the storms came pounding through this week. My classroom feels like a sauna by the afternoon, hahaha - the sweat literally dripping down my back is a real classy professional look (LOL). The rain, thunder, and win then pounded us on Thursday night and knocked out the power in our whole town from Thursday until Saturday evening! And I know what you're thinking - but you have solar panels! We do indeed, however, they are leased so all the power we make gets returned to the grid!

Reading Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Not doing a great job of reading this week because it was such a busy one with the first week back to teaching. I am determined though to get these books done in the next two weeks!

Listening to and finishing Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. Very interesting story by way of such an unlikeable character! I was laughing out loud at how awful she was in her running thoughts - most of the time hilarious in the way they were so bluntly terrible.

Running to do list:

I registered the kids for Sunday school
Grey got scheduled for his first drive with Tim Saylor's driving school
I did a little social media reflection and decided I needed to reset because the overwhelm is starting to affect my anxiety.
Gemma had a dentist appointment (thank you Chum for taking her!) and is still taking her antibiotics for her untreated strep

Figuring out the daily flow with everyone now back in school. Always an adjustment period and I shoot for Labor day to be a good moment to reflect on how things have been going. I feel very thankful we went back to school in shifts this year; the kids first last week and then my students this week. Laundry piled up, crockpot was working overtime, and my planner had a lot of logistics detailed out - but we made it in one piece!

No electricity from Thursday at 8p until Saturday at 5:30p! We had incredible storms on Thursday night that knocked the power out for 2000+ people in our area. My sister Uch in Westmont experienced the worst damage with possible tornado touch downs. We got to thankfully borrow Pappy's generator (thank you!) to keep our fridge and deep freezer on during the outage. Otherwise, we pulled out our camping lanterns, opened windows, washed dishes by hand, and cooked meals on the Blackstone grill. The wet laundry sat in the washer (oops) and we tried unsuccessfully to flip on the light switches a million times out of habit (LOL). The kids actually did great without screens - lots of wrestling, mess making, and trampoline time. They followed us around like little shadows and we all went to the Somerset football game together on Friday just to get out of the dark house!

Catching a Friday Night Lights game that wasn't ours! We all loaded up to go to my students' football game since our game was rescheduled for Saturday due to the power outage. I never get to see my students' on Friday nights (band/ cheerleaders/ football players/ fans) because we are always at our own games - so this was a real treat! Violet was at a sleepover, but everyone else came with B and I and all of us together is generally a sight - but my elementary school students were shocked to see my kids in real life when I talk about them often in class. My fourth graders love to see a video highlight from the football game before we see class and they were awestruck to see Grey in the flesh! One of my little fourth grade boys said, "You are the GOAT for real" ...hahah, Grey was in his glory! It was good change of pace of our crew and we certainly didn't have much else to do since we were still out of power on Friday night!

Reflecting on power outage sustainability at our house. The science data was out this week on the Super El Niño brewing in the Pacific that guarantees more intense weather to come in months ahead so I felt weirdly grateful to have this little dose of no power and how that might look for us at our house. How lucky we got to try it out when the weather is comfortable rather than it being the middle of winter and we have no heat/power. We collected and organized all our camping lanterns for next time. We organized a list of things to do before late October like chopping wood to keep in the basement near the wood-burning furnace, getting extra batteries for the lanterns, making sure our propane tanks are full, etc.

Time with family and friends. We all went to Pappy's for lunch and one last swim before he closes up the pool. Olive, Red, and Rusty got off the bus on the early dismissal day at Chum and Abba's house (thank you!) Rusty got a sleepover at Chum & Abba's house. Violet got a sleepover at Bristol's house. Gemma and Violet had a shopping day with Abba and Shelly for most of Sunday (thank you!) Grey had a no-electricity board game night with friends at Quinn's house and a movie night with friends at Leah's house after the football game. B and I went out with the coaches and their wives to Old Tollgate Inn after the football win on Saturday night.

Teaching the first week of school! We had a four day week and it went great! I am at the elementary school in the morning and then have four classes at the high school in the afternoon; Grades 8-11. Elementary school started right into Spanish with Me Llamo and creating nametags. I know almost all of the fourth and fifth graders' names but the third graders are all new to me. Grade 8 got into week1 with introductions and some basic words. Spanish 1 starts off with an expo bootcamp (remembering things from 8th grade) and Spanish 2 starts with a review and remembering also. We play Taco Tuesday at both levels, learned about Tomatina, and tried to remind our brains that we did actually retain some Spanish over the long summer break (hah!) Of course, we also did Dancing Friday!

Sporting with one basketball practice for Reddy and two Minors football practices for Rusty. Violet practiced with the JrH soccer team two times. Gemma had three Varsity soccer practices and two Varsity soccer games. Grey and Coach Dad had team dinner and film on Sunday, then had football practice six times and a Varsity football game on Saturday! It was supposed to be our first home game, but because of the storm and power outages, our school and field didn't have any electricity! We played a "home" game at Forest Hills stadium (thank you FH!) vs. West Shamokin and the community traveled well to show up for our team! Grey also had his sports massage with Miss Emma. I donated hot dog buns and chopped onions to the soccer concession stand, created the Football booster Tailgate flyer and spreadsheet to share for the first real Home game (!!), and organized plans for the senior night game.

Making crockpot copycat Olive Garden chicken over pasta (we ate that in the coaches' room at the field house at school because the day was packed with activities in the evening!), sheetpan chicken fajitas, sloppy joes with shells&cheese and roasted broccoli, bbq chicken and roasted sweet potatoes, takeout pizza (power outage), turkey taco rice bowls on the Blackstone (power outage). For breakfast with no electricity, I made pancakes, bacon, and eggs on the Blackstone grill. For dessert with no electricity, I made peanut butter power balls. For our teacher potluck on Monday's Act 80 day I made Ramen noodle salad to share.

Intentional Movement with only 1 mile weighted vest walking. Red and I took an evening walk down the road together (he was climbing the walls and making everyone insane). We saw two black snakes on the walk! He loved it and it was nice to be one on one with him while also getting some of his wildness out in a non-destructive way (lol).

Around Here Week 34: 08/23-29

2026-09-27T07:49:44.866-04:00

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

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

photo cred: Leisha Black

photo cred: Mr. O'Ship

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 454+ hours (of 1000)
Great weather this week for back to school. Still nice out but not dreadfully hot. The first Friday Night Lights game was absolute perfect weather and we only had to pull our hoodies out towards the end; sporting the official football season fashion of hoodies, jeans, and flip flops.

Reading Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith but really not reading that much because it was a wild one this week with back to school.

Listening to Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke. Now that I am commuting back and forth to work each day, it makes it convenient to listen to an audiobook. I am really liking Yesteryear because the main character is so unlikable it makes it a fascinating listen! Obviously late to the hype, but I'm liking it.

Sumer to do list completed:

We had a secret mission to give Ms. Jenilee's trainer's room a little makeover before the start of the school year. All the kids and B helped with the glow up on Sunday night. We added some fake plants (no windows!), string lights, pillows, and a candle warmer. A few touches to make it softer in there where she spends her afternoons and evenings taping sweaty ankles (hah). Ms. Jenilee is so important to our sports programs at the school - but specifically to our family. Our girls work the sidelines alongside her at the football games, our kids are best friends with her kids, anytime my kids have injuries (or even the slightest concerns related to health) Jenilee is there to listen and offer her thoughts, and all of our kids spend hundreds (thousands? seriously) of hours with her from June to November while we are so deep in football season. She is a safe person to our family in some of the truest ways possible. We love you General Lee!
I updated the calendar for the month of September! (eek!)

Back to school & fall sports prep:

All my fellas got their hair cut before the start of school, Thank you Lamont - we love you!
sent the full sports schedules to our family and friends (all kids games and times)
last minute check that everyone had a backpack, shoes, and light jacket for the first week of school. Red needed a new pair of shoes because his current ones are falling apart - so I got his ordered, but he made due this week with the junk ones (oops)
A quick school shopping run for basics (literally just a first day outfit). The girls and I went to TJ Maxx and they got their choices and the boys trusted us enough to pick for them! And then after the first day of school, Brandon and I took the girls thrifting too.
Every kid (first time ever) wrote their name on their handwriting page. The first spot is Kindergarten and Red and Olive got to do their papers this year. Grey only has one box left to go!
Everyone announced what they'd like to be when they grow up and we got their signs done and took all first day of school photos
Red and Olive had kindergarten orientation on the first day of school. B and I attended and the kids got a little taste of school from 9:30-11:30a and then they got to go home! Pappy took them for the day to swim and ride quads and hang out while B and I went back to work. Our last kindergarten orientation!
Filling out SIX yellow emergency cards within the first two days of back to school. There are a million perks of being a big family, however, the school paperwork is NOT one of them.

First day of school for the kids! All six of our babies started school at CT on Wednesday. We've got a Junior, a Freshman, a sixth grader, a fourth grader, and two kindergartners this year! Tabitha of five years ago tried to imagine this day (all her kids old enough for school) and it seemed impossible by every account - not the baby being five which then made the biggest 16!? But here we are because as my dear friend Shelley said to me recently, "Time always wins" and ain't that the truth? What a beautiful and terrible truth it is! Everyone did great on their first day and although it is hectic in the mornings, it is very relieving to have everyone all in one school together with Brandon. (God Bless that man, getting six kids out the door. I have to leave before they leave and I send a little prayer up for a smooth morning for all of them each day as I drive down the driveway.) Babe, another man could never. I don't deserve you, but good Lord am I grateful I got you!

My 43rd birthday! The perfect day! A true Virgo over here about my birthday meaning I'd rather not talk about it because I'm going through a lot of reflections and soul searching in my heart. The gratitude, it literally consumes me and I mostly silently cry all day at the beauty of the world and my life and the people who love me. It's a lot for my internal self (Lol) so I am incredibly thankful for all the friends and family who know that and give me grace for my retreat-into-self. All six of my babies headed off to school happy and excited, I got to make it to every one of my kids' activities that was going on (Violet manager at the JrH soccer game, Rusty's scrimmage, and Gemma's scrimmage). B got me an ice cream cake to sing at night, Heather had my lunch delivered to my school (it was even the perfect order! thank you!!). I got so many texts and voice notes from friends and family, a hug from my momma (who did all the work 43 years ago - thank you momma!), and enough time at night to make sure that we were prepped for the next morning of school. A mostly normal day...because honestly, what is better than my normal days of life? Literally nothing. This wonderful chaos is my perfect day.

Starting antibiotics for Gemma who was ASO+ in her bloodwork from last week meaning she has strep in her system. At no point did she show signs of strep this summer, but apparently, she had it and it's been lingering in her system untreated (!!?) Do not google what untreated strep can do to a body unless you want to panic spiral (obviously I did. ugh. God bless the peds nurse who talked me through her bloodwork to assure me that this was not a panic situation). We have been tracking her heart rate and o2 levels with a pulse ox at soccer practice (bless her coaches and our trainer Ms Jenilee) when she has her 'episodes' which we were thinking was maybe POTS but now that we know she has been battling untreated strep (!!!?!) maybe part of her issues were that? She gets super dizzy and lightheaded, and then will feel like she can't breathe. She mostly has episodes at soccer practice, but she had one at the sideline at the football game too (less strenuous). Maybe some of it is anxiety based? Maybe it is low iron and teenage girl hormones? Literally no idea but I am determined to get to the bottom of this. Glad the antibiotics will fix one piece of the puzzle and get the strep out of her!

Camo season brewing and I got Violet registered for the Hunter Safety Course in September. Luckily her friend Evaley is also a future hunter and they'll attend together! Shout out to Ev's mom, Onara for keeping me on track with the registration link!

Time with family & friends Red and Olive had a fun last day of summer with Pappy on their Kindergarten orientation half day while everyone else was in school (hah!). Violet spent the night with Bria at the Somerset County fair where Bria won multiple events showing her animals (we are proud of you Bria! and thank you to the McDannell family for allowing Violet the experience of being a AG kid without us having to raise animals for show! xxoxo!) Gemma babysat the Moore nephews twice this week and had the Varsity soccer sleepover. We all stopped by to visit my mom on the night before her heart appointment (Update: she did great and is feeling better! We love you Abba!)

Teaching Prep with a full week of in-service days. It was a really nice ease into the school year, especially with the staggered start with my own kids. Not having students all week at school helped me get all organized while still being able to focus on my own kiddos first weeks of school. I don't know how the stars aligned this year, but I hope it does every year from now on out! hahaha, I'm spoiled! Both my high school and elementary classrooms are all set up, Schoology is prepped, a fun staff scavenger hunt organized by our asst principal that took us all over the school and community for team building. We had our Back to School open house was on Thursday night and I got to meet some new-to-me eighth graders and say hello to some of my upperclassmen students. It was a good and productive week and I am grateful for it!

Sporting with one basketball practice for Reddy. Rusty had two minors football practice, one scrimmage, and his first Minors football game on Saturday. Violet was the JrH soccer manager for one scrimmage and practiced with the team once. Gemma had four Varsity soccer practices and one scrimmage. Grey had a sports massage with Miss Emma at Peak Performance Therapy, four football practices and the first Friday Night Lights game at Purchase Line. Grey, Coach Dad, and the football team had their annual car wash on Sunday morning - thank you so much to all of the community that showed up for them! All the kids and Brandon participated in the Fall Sports Pep Rally and the team vs. all star CT Staff tug of war was great! It's Fels-Naptha season for scrubbing uniforms but only occasionally as half the football fields are turf. Unfortunately for me, Grey played on grass this week in a white jersey - so to scrubbing I got. I transported the soccer players who are also the sideline crew for football from their Friday practice to the away football game [some of my favorite memories of fall will be driving out with a car full of teenage girls (and my three littlest) with the music blasting while they pass a box of pizza back and forth and put their mascara on as we head to the football games. Gosh, these are truly the good 'ole days - I love these kids.]

Making bbq shredded chicken sammies, turkey taco pasta, chicken and gravy over mashed potatoes, Mississippi Roast over egg noodles, take out pizza for the ride to the football game, I also made confetti muffins for the first day of school and a double batch of peanut butter oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for dessert. B got me an ice cream cake for my birthday (my fav!) Always a little bit of a relief on my brain to get the kids back to school where they eat breakfast and lunch on the weekdays. A little less groceries to keep in stock and a little less mental work trying to come up with meal plans. So yay for me - hah! B and I went out to eat on Saturday night for a belated birthday dinner at Westmont Gardens. I ordered the Goat Cheese flatbread with pickled beets and it was amazing. He was like, 'of all the things, you pick that?!' and I argued, "this is what I LIKE. I'm surviving off of sloppy joes and mac&cheese at home because of our kids!!" Story of a mom's life, honestly.

Intentional Movement. I rollerbladed less than a mile, but still was glad to get out and blade during Rusty's football practice.

Around Here Week 33: 08/16-22

2026-09-20T10:41:55.819-04:00

A glimpse into what it is like to be in our family just this moment. Buckle up it's camp week!

photo cred Ms Hannah

photo cred: Ms Hannah

photo cred: Jenn V

photo cred: Peyton L

photo cred: Becky C

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 444+ hours (of 1000)
We have another rooster! I suspected that it would be simply by the way he was looking, but the little guy started to try to crow this week. Fingers crossed that he's a sweet one like the last one was (very sorry that the fox got him!)

Reading Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith but very little. Not much reading at all though if I'm being honest. Like literally maybe 4 pages. Also kind of re-skimming The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini because Grey is reading it for his Global Studies summer required reading. Remember that book?! SO good!

Summer to do list completed:

Put away (finally) the beach wagon with sand supplies to the storage unit (thank you Rusty for the help!)
B deep cleaned the bathrooms and I could not be more grateful. That was a to do list item that was slowly killing me and he went into scrub and scour mode and did I mention I love this freaking man?
Took Gemma for her bloodwork and EKG on Friday afternoon. She did great and was a brave trooper for her first time for bloodwork! Now we wait to see if it offers any insight to see what is going on with our girl.

Back to school/ Fall sports completed:

purchased Gemma's soccer sock guards
Staples/Locker supplies shopping run with Violet, including poster board for the first day signs
put in my order for team manager shirts for Violet & Bria with cousin Becky who uses her cricket to make cool stuff (thank you!!)
set up plans for kindergarten orientation half day for Red and Olive and other logistics for next week's back to school plans
I got Grey scheduled with Miss Emma for football season sports massages (weekly in season!)

First tooth out for Livy Lou! That thing was hanging on by a thread and she finally let Brandon pull it out. Our last baby's first tooth lost. The last first visit for the tooth fairy. ouch...motherhood.

Playdate with Ms Hannah and Cooper at the Que. The three littlest, Hannah, baby Cooper, and I spend a beautiful sunshiney day at the que chatting and watching the kids wander and play. It was such a nice time to catch up with Hannah. She is doing an incredible job with her sweet sonny boy (almost one year old!) and I am so proud and thankful to know and love her. Hannah has been in our life since she was in high school (!) and she is Reddy's godmomma too. We love you so much Hannah & Cooper!

Concussion check for Rust who slipped on the cement tubes at the Que playground and smashed his head off the tube. Sheesh, right as we were leaving and he was pretty brave about it. Grateful his cousins Brookie and Benny were there to help him get up and check on him. No concussion (even Miss Jenilee checked) but this child - so prone to bumps and bruises!

Sending love and hugs to our friends and family dropping off their babies at college this week and next! Our cousin Reid started at Juniata this week and will be studying and swimming for the Juniata team this year as a freshman. We love you and are so proud of you Reid! (sending a big hug to you cousin Lisa and Ray!! First baby off to college - it's unbelievable!) Barty stopped by to say goodbye and drop off Coach's favorite hot sauce (the sweetest!) And we have four former football players in college playing football: So proud of you Barty, Brennan, Josh, and Ethan!

Sixth grade orientation with Violet. Our girl has been so excited and eager to move up to the big school, she was thrilled to get her locker combo and schedule this week. She's opening her locker like a pro and painted a little lighted sign to hang up in it too. She is going to crush it and I'm so happy for her. God bless you sixth grade teachers for your patience and encouragement!! We appreciate you!

Gemma's 14 and a half birthday. Our girly pop. We had a whole pumpkin roll leftover from the football team dinner (thank you Sherry!) so we sang over that and got her measured on the height chart before her belated birthday/ half birthday celebration the next day.

Gemma's bonfire to celebrate her half birthday/ belated birthday/ end of summer. She had a bunch of friends over to do the slip 'n slide and have a fire and shoot hoops on the black top. There was food, music, and even some jailbreak at the end of the night.

Time with family and friends. All the kids got a playdate and swim at the Lasure's house while I ran out to grocery shop for team breakfast supplies (thank you Jenilee & Matt!) We all got to snuggle Lady dog when we babysat her over the weekend while our Moore cousins were camping for Wells' birthday (we love you Welly!) Rusty and Violet got to spend most of the day at the Wiffleball tournament with their friends Liam and Kaylee (thank you Laura for such a fun day!) Violet had a sleepover at the Lasure's house. Gemma attended Jennabel's sweet 16 soiree birthday, and babysit sweet Lily U once. Grey went to Texas Roadhouse with the football team (post-scrimmage annual tradition) and then had a sleepover at Gabey's. Coach Dad and Grey had football team sleepover on the Sunday of football camp, and football team dinner on Thursday at Jim & Jimmies (thank you Boosters and Jim & Jimmies!)

Teaching preparations. I updated all my course photos and set my categories in Schoology. Rusty, Red, and Olive stopped into my classroom for forty-five minutes to drop off my plants, hook up my new floor lamp, and open some of my order boxes (new copies of some Spanish language learning novels - yay!)

Sporting with CAMP WEEK! Reddy had one basketball practice and Rusty had three minors football practices and football pictures on Saturday (also turned in the fundraiser gun tix). Violet had five days of manager with the jr high soccer team (3:30-5p) and also worked as a water girl four days this week at football camp (8a-3:30p). Gemma had four days of soccer camp (7a-12p), one day of soccer camp (6a-7:30a) followed by team photos, and also worked as asst trainer at football camp four days (12-5p). Grey and Coach Dad had the football team sleepover on Sunday night, four days of football camp (8:30a-5p) and then Friday football camp of photos and community service (8:30-2p). On Saturday, the football team had their scrimmage game at home vs. Homer Center. I worked on the booster Tailgate plans for the first home game, finalized the games for the community pep rally, did social media work, and did so much chauffeuring between practices and fields (back and back and back and forth all week!) B and I attended the annual coaches&wives hang at the Valentines on Saturday night (thank you for hosting Jenn&Joel!)

Making grilled cheese sammies and tomato soup, meat spaghetti, slow cooker cream cheese chicken taquitos, sloppy joes with shells&cheese and Hunsberger sweet corn on the cob (!!), Hawaiian Meatballs over rice (Gemma's favorite for her half birthday). For breakfast, I made banana bread. For football camp breakfast on Monday morning I made 36 egg/ sausage/ cheese sandwiches on English muffins and cut up three watermelons and plated mini donuts. Jenilee made 36 egg/ Canadian bacon/ cheese/ bagel sammies too! For Gemma's birthday I made 48 ham & cheese sliders, cousin Becky's fruit dip, and buffalo chicken dip. For soccer camp snacks - I made peanut butter power balls and double chocolate muffins for Gemma's soccer team. We also surprised the football team with popsicles on a very hot camp day too.

Intentional Movement: 1.2 miles weighted vest walking during Reddy's basketball practice!

Around Here Week 32: 08/09-15

2026-09-12T12:13:49.713-04:00

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

2020 vs 2026

Rusty can climb to the top of the uprights to watch practice. LOL

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 426+ hours (of 1000)
Summer is still reigning supreme, but the gnats are slowly driving everyone mad. Maybe because of all the rain sitting wet in the ground(?), but good grief - the gnats are out of control. Anytime we stand in the grass they swarm our faces; trying to climb in ears, eyes, and nostrils. It's actually insane. I have to stand with my arm raised while filling up the water buckets at the farm and while watching kids' practices (the gnats go to the highest point) but even then they are still aggressive. LOL, you can easily see the swarms floating around the yard and fields. eww.

Reading Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. I missed book club this week with the Somerset teachers which was a bummer but I was glad to be able to take Gem and Abby out to soccer team camp at SFU.

Summer to do list completed:

Registered Grey for Driving School with TDS Driving Academy (we do not have driver's ed at our high school) so that he will get 6hrs behind the wheel practice with not his parents and complete his driver's test at the end of the training. Also completing the program will earn a discount on insurance for a teenage driver!
Cleared out the closet floor in our room and switched all our Spirit Week items into a bigger tub so that it would all actually fit! (Spirit week items = random clothes/ costumes that can be worn in the various school spirit weeks throughout the year. Like tie-dye, crazy socks, reindeer antlers, Christmas jammies, spooky shirts, Hawaiian leis, Steeler shirts, etc) It's all in a tub for easy grab when needed.

Back to school/ Fall sports prep completed:

Rusty and Grey got their football cleats and I ordered Grey's QB towel
Took Gemma to the Peds to check in about her POTS symptoms. We are going to do bloodwork and an EKG to make sure there is no other underlying issues next
Paid for: Reddy's basketball uniform and fall program happy ads
I ordered my teacher planners!
I brought out my football season tea towels and oven mitts to add some football season sparkle to the kitchen! lol
I renewed my state clearances that were set to expire in December (future Tab says thank you!)
B schedule back to school hair cuts with Lamont for next week!

A belated SURPRISE birthday party for Rusty at the Quemahoming Dam. We booked campsite #7 near the back dock and had a lowkey fishing/ swimming afternoon at the Que. Well, as lowkey as five 9&10 year old boys can offer - hah! Rusty was truly surprised; he did know we were going to the Que but thought it was just to hang out. He was baffled trying to figure out why they were all there! We had hot dogs and buffalo chicken dip and I repurposed the family reunion sheet cake into gob cake in the shape of the number 10 to sing. It was a beautiful sunny, hot afternoon to celebrate our Mr. Handsome.

End of Summer Que day with the Conns as is our annual tradition for the last six years. It was me and Grey's first solo drive while hauling the boat, but we did it successfully, mostly to his diligence and care. Grey, Reed, and Rusty got to go out fishing for a little bit while Brycey hung back with the little kids and helped Reddy fish from the dock. Then a storm rolled in and trapped us in the pavilion for an hour eating and playing Spot it. We tried to wait out the storms, but to no end so the trip was short but always worth it to spend time with our Conn bonus family and keep the end of summer tradition!

Dog-sitting Rosie while Pappy is in South Dakota exploring on his motorcycle! Rosie got royally spoiled with snuggles and books read to her. She loved chasing the chickens like a real farm dog! It was nice to have a pup in the house for the week and now the kids are even more eager to get another dog - but not until after football season!!

Time with family and friends Violet had a playdate with Evaley at our house and had Bria over for a sleepover. Gemma went to breakfast with the Varsity soccer team at Gather at Flood City and babysat Lily U this week. Grey went to Old Tollgate Inn for wing night with the football team and went golfing with Chum on Thursday and golfing with Gabey on Saturday. We got to babysit the Moore boy cousins on Tuesday and then had a playdate with them and Uchie at our house on Saturday night.

Sporting with fall sports blast off! Reddy had one basketball practice and he got his 'drippy' ice cream jersey! Rusty had two minors football practices, weigh-in day, and one football scrimmage. Violet participated in three jr high soccer practices as the manager (but she and Bria go through all the drills and conditioning along with the team). Gemma had two Varsity soccer conditioning practices, one weight lifting day to finish summer testing, and then she had sleepover Team Camp at Saint Francis from Thursday to Saturday! Grey had five days of Heat Acc for Varsity football and participated in two weightlifting and conditioning days to finish summer testing. Coach Dad ran Heat Acc week and also attended the PIAA rules meeting. I attended the Football booster meeting and signed up for our team dinner (09/13), signed up to lead the tailgate event, and got squared up on my money due for happy ads and booster concessions. I also signed up for our concession duty for youth football and organized the Varsity players to volunteer as the chain gang for a home youth game. God bless all of those booster organizations in all sports! Thank you for making sure our athletes are supported!

Making sheetpan chicken fajitas, mini chicken meatballs with shells&cheese, copycat Olive Garden chicken over noodles with roasted broccoli, takeout pizza, instagram chicken with pasta peas&cheese, chicken/ veggie/ biscuit casserole, Korean beef with rice and green beans, and smash burgers. For breakfasts we had double chocolate pumpkin muffins and chocolate croissants. For dessert, I made a double batch of oatmeal, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and for the LAST weightroom Wednesday I made chocolate chip cookie sheet cake with homemade icing

Intentional Movement: I rollerbladed 0 miles and weighted vest walked 0 miles! YIKES, but I was pretty tired and honestly, on the very crappy side of things (pun intended): I had been adding a heavy tablespoon of chia seeds to my yogurt every morning for about a week and the fiber caught up to me. It was several days of suffering through fiber shock which was pretty miserable (like 3 days of urgency and then another 3 days of general malaise). I'm not giving up chia seeds; just making sure I soak them first and using only a teaspoon.

Around Here Week 31: 08/02-08

2026-09-07T17:42:39.572-04:00

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

ODU campus

The Bluestone Playground Norfolk, VA

The Dirty Buffalo Norfolk, VA

Uch & Kevin exactly in front of us!

photo cred: Becky C

photo cred: B

Heritage Conference Media Day

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 400+ hours (of 1000)
I took down the hummingbird feeder to refill it after vacation and forgot for literally one day and a hummingbird flew up to me when I was outside like, "um, what's the wait, lady?" I said aloud, "oh honey, I'm sorry!" ...Like what in the Disney Princess is going on over here? LOL. I don't hate it even though I do already talk to and care for so many living things over here at Studer HQ. I made a bee waterer with things I found from all my deep cleaning/ organizing and put it in the flower bed, but don't tell the kids or Brandon, they already think I'm out of control.

Reading I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith and Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine

Summer to do list completed:

Rusty had his orthodontist appointment to check on the progression of his front top tooth (#8 tooth!) to see if it is going to break free on its own. It really looks promising on the x-rays and he has orders to use his tooth brush to lightly brush the gum there to try to stimulate the break. If not, in February we will check again and have the orthodontist break it free or put partial braces on to move his other teeth out of the way. Fingers crossed that thing finally breaks free (it's been 3+ years waiting on it!!)
I went through all the shoes in the laundry room, dining room, and foyer and got them organized which produces a giant garbage bag of donations. Sports shoes (cleats, etc) get stored upstairs for future last minute panics in seasons, and anything that was busted went into the trash. I am trying to clear the space for the kitchen-dining wall break through to make an island project
I also house mapped the foyer that generally becomes a dumping ground and I picked up a chair, a basket (for shoes that inevitably find their way there), and tiny end table on Clearance from TJ Maxx to put there.
I moved the GIANT, viney pothos plant from the dining room to the hallway and got it all wrapped up and stacked up like a bush instead of snaking all over the place.
I picked up Grey's eye contacts (finally!)
I picked out a new possible front door and set ambitious timelines for the three big projects: Front door by start of school (!), roof over front porch before the first snow (!), and my kitchen/ dining island before the annual Christmas eve party (!!!) A girl can dream.
Violet sewed a couch cushion back together with her sewing machine. The zipper broke so it's been hiding in our closet all summer because the stuffing is such a problem. But she and I worked together to feed it through her machine (a million re-tries and tangles, but my Vi does not give up! Thank goodness!) It is all closed up and back on the couch!

Back to School & Fall Sports Prep:

Made my back to school snacks order for Brandon's office so the kids have snacks before and after school. I send my order to Heather and she gets them for me through Sam's Club and delivers them to my house! Thank youuuuu - appreciate you!
I ordered Grey's football gear: base layer pants, compression shirts, and his towel
Both Grey and Rusty got their mouthguards fitted
I submitted my artwork for the Fall Sports program for Coach Daddy, Grey, and Gemma

Feeling weirdly relaxed though about going back to school. Like whatever, it will all be fine...? I don't know why I'm being delulu but I'm going to keep chilling in this state of relaxation until panic sets in. HAHAH.

ODU unofficial college visit just to get a feel for what a college campus could look like in a completely different town/state. Grey doesn't have very many thoughts yet for post-high school graduation besides a hope to play sports at the next level (any sport, anywhere essentially). I was given great advice from a mom of an older athlete to make a list of the top 3 wish list items and Grey's top 3 wish list is: 1) fishable streams nearby (LOL, but seriously) 2) scholarships/ financial aide 3) gets to play all four years. So since ODU was on the way home from the beach, we made a stop in Norfolk, VA to check it out (we got to walk around campus, popped into the student center, and checked out the baseball and football fields. While Pappy, Daddy, and the oldest two walked back across campus to get the cars - the littles and I visited The Bluestone Playground next to the ODU football field. Then we all got lunch in Norfolk (The Dirty Buffalo) before making the long trek back home after vacation.

The long drive back home after vacation. Oof, the long ride home with a car full of stuff that needs unpacked is always a bit of a bummer. We hit crazy torrential rain in northern VA along with traffic and we were all about to go a little bonkers. Grey and Violet drove home in the truck with Pappy and the rest of the crew was in our car. We made it all the way back to Bedford (one hour from home) after stopping for the ODU visit, eating lunch, and hitting the traffic/weather only to pull up to the light AND KEVIN AND TASHA AND THE BOYS were exactly in front of us. Absolutely insane considering they left Sandbridge and stopped two random places on the way back to let the boys play, run, and eat. And then somehow, we all pull up to the light in Bedford at exactly the same time. (the same thing happened last year when we both stopped at the same random park/ playground on the way home without planning it!)

Took a couple days to dig out of the vacation backlog of laundry and unpacking. Our poor washer & dryer took a beating with some sandy bathing suits. Most of the kids did well unpacking their own bags although Olive wanted to play 'travel girl' with her suitcase all week and I kept finding it refilled with clothes - she was not happy to unpack every single day, but girl...maybe choose a different game!? By Thursday though, I felt like maybe we were back to baseline.

Learning more about POTS because I suspect Gemma has it. She has been experiencing lightheadedness/ dizziness, fast heart rate, nausea, and anxiety when she exercises (especially in the sun) or after waking up in the morning or even after a long hot shower. All of which are signs/symptoms of POTS. It first started about a year ago and her flare ups were months apart, but within the last few weeks they have becoming more frequent. There is no cure but it is not life threatening and some people with POTS have found ways to eliminate symptoms all together through lifestyle changes like removing blue light at night, decreasing sugar in diet, drinking way more water, adding more salt in diet, and increasing electrolytes. First things first, I scheduled an appointment to check with the pediatrician.

Camo season starting again. Brandon took most of the kids to the woods to hang tree stands and trail cams this week (although they got caught in a huge thunderstorm and waited it out under a pine tree!) and Grey went to Archery Zone with Pappy to get his bow all sighted in and get new arrows.

Uzelac family reunion on Saturday with our extended family. It is always nice to see great aunts and uncles and cousins, especially our Forte/Burgh cousins! My godbaby, Mallory, is heading into her senior year!! (crying with pride every time I think of it!) The kids had a blast all day on the playground, running the BINGO table, singing karaoke (!), and playing wiffleball. Grey and B played in the horseshoe tournament, we ate delicious potluck food, and everyone smiled while the little kids completed the annual costume parade and listened to the money tree story. It was a good day with family and I am grateful my momma is one of the cousins that keeps up the tradition! (good job, Abba! and the reunion falling on your birthday! you are loved!!)

Time with family and friends Gemma went to see the new Spiderman movie with Peyton and had a day with Abba and babysat the Moore nephews this week. Violet had a playdate with Giada (she got a ride down through the neighborhood on Pappy's motorcycle!) Grey went golfing with the fellas, went to play pickleball with the friend group, and also fishing at the big bass pond with Bryce and Reed.

Sporting with Reddy's first basketball practice! He is obsessed and we are very grateful that Coach Jeremy has taken on the task of coaching this K-2nd grade team (the patience! Bless you!) Rusty had three minors football practices, and Gemma participated in the Alumini vs. Varsity soccer fundraising game on Thursday. Violet and Rusty volunteered to be ball runners for the game. Grey and Gemma attended five weight lifting/ conditioning practices. Grey and the boys went to personally request sponsorships from local businesses for our upcoming football program. Coach Daddy, Grey, and four football players attended the Heritage Conference Media Day to talk to local news and newspapers about the upcoming season. I attended the soccer booster meeting and Coach Daddy sent out the August football schedule that includes Heat Acc, Team Camp, the first scrimmage, the first Friday night game, and the first team dinner! Here comes the Boom, baby.

Making homemade stromboli, crack chicken sammies, sheet pan kielbasa/ veggies/ tortellini, ground turkey tacos (Violet did most of the cooking!), viral chicken kebabs on naan (with gr chicken), shredded beef and cheddar sammies, Marry Me Chicken over orzo, and meatloaf with roasted potatoes and carrots. The cost of ground beef is killing me honestly. For the reunion, I brought a crockpot of meatballs for meatball sub sammies. For desserts, Loopy helped me make rice krispie treats, and I made cowboy cookies too. For weightroom Wednesday I made Tandy Cake.

Movement with 2.5 miles of weighted vest walks and no miles rollerblading. I did start mindful eating (aka tracking all my food to see true calorie intake) and trying to eat more protein at every meal. I just want to feel good - perimenopause is truly kicking the shit out of me right now so I'm trying to be better focused on the fuel I'm putting in my body and the rest I'm getting.

Around Here Week 30: VACATION WEEK! 07/26-08/01

2026-09-06T13:05:40.268-04:00

A glimpse into our life as a family on our beach vacation with three generations at Sandbridge, VA

The Corner Deli in Remington, VA

Gino's Pizzeria by Maurizio

Golf cart ride with Mrs. U and Cooper!

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 386+ hours (of 1000)
What a beautiful weather week we had at the beach! We had just a few mini thunderstorm bursts but mostly it was perfectly sunny and hot. We did a pretty good sunscreen job and no one really suffered from sunburn (yay!) we did have a very sand-rashed child named Rusty who loves to play right in the wave crash area. The deck was decorated so magically with lights at night, but the mosquitos were out in full force so we didn't spend too much time outside after dark (bummer)

Reading and finishing First Time Caller by BK Morison. It was alright but I do think there is such a thing as too slow of a slow burn and this book was definitely that. Then I started reading Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine and also continuing I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Catching up on sleep because my body literally forced me to! I was asleep by 9pm the first three nights of vacation against my own will (hhah). It was wonderfully healing to float in the ocean or sit in the hammock on the pool deck at the house reading my book or planting my beach chair close enough to the water that the waves hit my feet while I read and watch the kids in the water. peace to my soul

Using PhotoCircle to share all the beach pics with everyone. I was introduced to Photo Circle from the soccer tournament in NJ (thank you teenage girls!) and it was very handy to be able to have everyone dump their photos into the same place for sharing and saving.

F I S H I N G. always with the fishing. All our boys were very happy to have their rods in the ocean. There was early morning fishing, dusk fishing, and even taking the paddleboard out to fish past the waves. The boys caught some cool stuff like flounder, croakers, and bluefish!

A lot of kid-led fun which is the whole point of the beach. When they want to swim in the pool - we head to the pool. When they want to go to the ocean - we walk to the ocean. If they are ready to get out of the sun, we let them watch tv and fall asleep mid day. We wake up slow and we don't rush out the door. We linger around the kitchen island after meals or before bed. It is slow and relaxed and a perfect break from our normal hustle bustle.

Smiling at our Ocean babies. Our kids love being in the waves of the ocean and that makes me so happy. They boogie board, play kind of the mountain on the paddleboard, body surf, jump waves, try to withstand the waves crashing on them, dive under waves, surf (!), and dive down for shells. We spent considerable time in the ocean every day. Olive, Red, and Rusty also loved going from the ocean to the pool to keep the swimming going at lunch time. I thought they were maybe going to start growing gills with as much time as the youngest three spent in the water over the week!

Playing nighttime games which is my kids' very favorite part of hanging out with extended family. We played werewolf most nights which is probably the biggest family favorite. The kids played Hitster, The Game of Life, magnetic stones, and Spot-It. Abba and Chum organized a treasure hunt with a real treasure chest for the kids one night. Rusty and Violet got to help set it up and we all cracked up as the kids ran all over the beach looking for clues while other beach goers smiled at the mayhem of the little kids giggling and sprinting.

Family photo night on the beach. Everyone got dressed up-ish and we got to the ocean in time for Golden Hour. The boys all held it together long enough to get pictures and then as soon as we were done, they were running and diving everywhere into the sand and got properly dirty in their niceish clothes they brought with them (hah).

Night time Crab spotting. We all headed out to the beach on the last night to spot crabs and the kids had a blast. Grateful we did it and kind of glad we waited until the last night because we would have had to do it every night otherwise - hah! Reddy was diving everywhere to catch the crabs and we had enough phone flashlights or headlamps to keep most of the kids satisfied. Next time we'll need to remember more head lamps!

Time with family and friends - well the whole week was time with family! But we got even a few more added time! Violet and Rusty got a golf cart nighttime ride with the their friend Cooper and his aunt Abby. They were visiting Sandbridge the same week as us! Our family friends Josh, Marjorie and their kids who leave near Viriginia Beach came down to Sandbridge to visit too which made Violet happy that she could get some one-on-one surf lessons from Marjorie! (thank you!)

Sporting with a whole week off! Although all the kids boogie boarded like little maniacs, Olive swam like a mermaid in the pool, Reddy chased down and snagged crabs like they were recovered fumbles, Rusty played multiple games of ping pong, Violet learned to surf (!), and Grey and Gem went nearly undefeated in Spike ball (only lost one game all week!) I did a few sports chores though like ordering the boys' mouthguards, paying for Gemma's alumni soccer game jersey, and getting Gemma registered for the Saint Francis soccer team camp.

Making enough for 19 this week! It was a group effort and many Walmart deliveries to keep the fridge stocked. I packed my crockpot and we also had the stove and grill at the house. We had elk burgers/ hot dogs with roasted potatoes, meatball sub sammies in the crockpot, church picnic chicken on the grill with peas&cheese pasta, sloppy joes with shells & cheese and roasted broccoli, take out pizza from Gino's Pizzeria by Maurizio, buffalo chicken dip with chips and veggie dippers, sheet pan chicken fajitas, spaghetti, beef roast with potatoes and green beans, seafood boil with shrimp and kielbasa, and teriyaki chicken and broccoli with noodles. For breakfasts we had dbl chocolate pumpkin muffins, egg casserole, egg wraps, pancakes, and lots of bacon. For desserts we had Aunt Kitty's salted chocolate chip cookies and treats from the ice cream truck from Abba and Aunt Carli who spoils these babies so well!

Intentional Movement: well, kind of a bust in the sense of weighted vest walks and rollerblading. I did rollerblade half a mile on our street and fell once because I hit a patch of sand. After that, I was kind of uninterested in rollerblading LOL. I spent most of the time in the water when we were at the beach helping kids dive through waves, surf, or swimming. I got up to standing on the paddleboard once to prove to the kids that first of all I could and secondly that if their old momma could - they certainly could!

Around Here Week 29: 07/19-25

2026-08-19T13:19:06.872-04:00

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

selfie cred: B

photo cred: Lena D

photo cred: Jenn V

photo cred: Kitty

Incredible cookies by @jill_bakes_stuff

selfie cred: B

photo cred: Lena D

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 344+ hours (of 1000)
Summer time and the livin' is easy. Beautiful weather and the blackberries are abundant! A great summer weather week!

Reading and finishing Heart the Lover by Lily King. Ripped me open in the way readers love to be filleted. Finished it while sitting in the front yard sobbing my eyes out while multiple kids randomly walked up to me to ask, "Mum, you okay?"

"She (mom) never knew my boys, but she has helped me raise them. I know how much she loves them. I feel that. I talk to her. I pray to her. I shut my eyes now and beg her to keep them all healthy and safe while I'm away" (pg. 164)

"You know how you can remember exactly when and where you read certain books? A great novel, a truly great one, not only captures a particular fictional experience, it alters and intensifies the way you experience your own life while you're reading it. And it preserves it, like a time capsule" (pg. 189)

"But standing here in line, with all these good people working to help others get better, it feels okay to me to have this moment and nothing else. It feels vast, open, beautiful. Only this right here right now." (pg. 239)

I also started and finished This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. The first few pages I almost quit because what the hell was even going on (!?) and then I pushed through and absolutely fell in love with it. One of my top 10 books of all time (!!) I want to write love poems because of it. The importance of words and time and love. Good Lord. After I finished it, I laid my head down on the book and took deep breaths trying to take it into my lungs and bloodstream and mycelium, so it becomes part of the make-up of me.

"I love you. I love you. I love you. I'll write it in the waves. In skies. In my heart. You'll never see, but you will know. I'll be all the poets...and every time love's written in all the strands it will be to you." (pg. 150)

"Sometimes you have to hold a person, though they'll mistake embrace for strangulation." (pg 182) [if parenting teens could be simplified down to one single sentence, LOL]

"Books are letters in bottles, cast into the waves of time, from one person trying to save the world to another. Keep reading. Keep writing. Keep fighting. We're all still here." (acknowledgments pg 201) [this is the truest sentiment in my heart to the way I feel about books. deep deep in my bone marrow, I know this to be true.]

Hosting the Lit ladies book club meeting at my house since Heart the Lover was my book choice! It was the perfect evening of weather to be on the back patio eating delicious food, deep existential conversation, and a little activity at the end to let go of the things (or people) that have an unhealthy hold on us. We had fresh quinoa and cherry tomato salad, a gorgeous charcuterie plate, tiramisu, apple crumble, ambrosia salad, seltzers, and @jill_bakes_stuff made the most incredibly detailed cookies to go with the book. I made ham and cheese slider sammies and Ramen noodle salad.

Watching two movies on repeat because the kids' love of laughing and quoting them. First, She's the Man because that movie never tires and makes us all laugh. Second, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls which is a new one for them - B introduced the boys to it while I was in NJ for beach blast and they think it's the most hilarious movie of all time now Both lead actors, Amanda Bynes and Jim Carrey win the kids over with their brilliance at physical comedy, exaggerated facial expressions, and incredible one-liners. God bless cult classics that score terribly on Rotten Tomatoes. (another one that fits that criteria for my kids is Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell. we haven't watched it in a while but man - they can really get on a kick with that one too).

Summer to do list completed:

I finished the registrations on the school athletics page which is always a terrible hassle (all the signatures and checkboxes and uploading physical forms, etc) but it's done! Got both Gem and Grey in and paid for and now I can not think about it again until next summer - LOL.
cleared all the egg cartons off the top of the fridge
B cleared out and mowed part of the goat pasture (I helped a little bit!) It was a big job and looks so much better now. He replaced the tarp on one of the shelters, emptied and cleaned out the food tubs, and removed some broken pallets. The electric fence needed a fix up too because the goats got out several times this week, but now it's all good to go for vacation! (God bless my handsome goat and chicken dadda)
Reddy had a dentist appointment and I got his kindergarten dental paperwork which was the last of the paperwork I need before the start of school! Yay!
I did one last chiro appt before the school year starts (and scheduled my next one for late September!)
Did Round1 of cleaning out the cupboards near the fridge of craft/ office supplies. (this is a clean out that will be multiple rounds, yikes)

Road trip back from NJ to PA. After the last soccer game on Sunday morning, the girls and I grabbed pizza on the boardwalk and then made the long road trip back home. Nearly seven hours after hitting traffic near Philly. I was really hopeful that Olive would have slept most of the way; alas, she slept about a half hour and yapped, sang, or complained the rest of the ride (LOL). We are a no screens in the car family, so we find a way to get through and it generally makes for funny memories even if it is frustrating in the moment. She was a trooper though, along for the weekend and long rides at only five years old!

Golf Outing for the Football fundraiser. A successful and great day for the fundraiser; big shout out to the coaches and the football boosters who worked to make it great. There were over 90 golfers and all the booster moms and grandmas made sweet treats. Booster parents made raffle baskets and we had beautiful weather. B played on a team with Coach Joel, Uncle Johnny, and Jimmy McCann. Grey played on a foursome with Uncle Buck, Huffy, and Mr. Telenko. Thank you to Oakbrook Golf course for hosting us and our football fundraiser!

Vacation Prep all week with laundry, stocking up on farm food and securing farm care (thank you C.Dail; football player/ friend), creating packing lists for the kids to follow and pack independently, plotting the route back home with a stop in Norfolk with a college visit for fun, intentionally adding perishable foods into our home meal plan for this week, choosing my beach reads (I picked First Time Caller by B.K. Boris and Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine - which also happens to be the August Laurel & Leaf book club choice).

Occupying excited-for-vacation kids with lots of chores and games. Everyone was pretty antsy-pantsy this week anticipating the beach, so we had to be intentional with adding fun non-screen distractions. Everyone had vacation prep chores and regular chores to do. We played games at the kitchen table like Famous Person Go-Around (3 rounds: describe, then just one word, and finally charades/ no words), a game called Contact (Grey taught us all this one - we are not good at it but that makes it more funny somehow), Uno, and Spot It. We took several walks in the wood to snack on blackberries. The kids took off a paper chain every morning to count down the days too.

Making blackberry pie from scratch with Violet. The blackberries were perfect and ripe this week for collecting six cups (!) to make Violet's pie. Olive, Red, Violet, and I went out on the hunt! The kids were very serious about it and did such a good job picking them and not eating them this time (hahha). Vi and I used a recipe from Pinterest to make the crust and get the blackberries ready as filling. The pie crust recipe was perfect and now I'm thinking I want to make more pies with this crust recipe. Am I a pie girl now? Violet weaved the pie crust and everyone got at least a taste. But that pie didn't make it 24 hours in our house - it was devoured. All that work - gone in a flash! Vi was very happy to make another one (she and I made one a few summers ago and now she insists it is our tradition - just she & I - so I am glad we got to make one this year!)

Cousin play day! We got to babysit the nephews on Thursday which meant it was fun all day! The kids played outside and we went on a blackberry walk where Blairy ate his body weight in fresh blackberries; he had stainted hands and cheeks for most of the afternoon. I swear by feeding little kids via charcuterie that has lots of random options that you can guess everyone is going to get at least a decent amount of quality calories. So we had a hot dog/ veggies with Ranch dip/ cut & open fruit/ protein granola pieces/ chippies charcuterie for lunch.

Extended Adams/ Plunkett family picnic. The whole crew went to Uncle Matt and Aunt Lisa's house on Friday night for a cookout and fire to spend time with our extended family. Very yummy food, a lot of great catching up, and the kids had a blast on the blow ups that were there for the little ones. Our Plunkett family reunion was on Saturday but we weren't able to make it because of football and soccer tournaments. Thankfully we got to see a bunch of our family (including all three Hagerich girl cousins and their babies!) on Friday night at the picnic. Thank you for hosting Uncle Matt and Aunt Lisa!

Taking Reddy to the Peds to check his bee sting. Red has skeeter syndrome and a general overreaction to any insect bite. Mosquito bites swell up so dramatically and then this week he got a bee sting on the bottom of his foot. He got very red and then slowly over the next few days started to look like red streaks leading from the bite up his foot!!? So I got him in to be seen on Saturday and they also thought it looked wild. He's on antibiotics for infection and we also got some antibiotic cream to apply to it. I felt much better getting ready to drive six hours from home and spend the week in sand and sea water with some antibiotics in his system and instructions on what to watch for to make sure it is healing.

Tetris level extreme in Pappy's truck bed and our car to prepare for the vacation. Pappy and Brandon were impressive in the feat to make all the things fit (beach chairs, boogie boards, clothes bags, beach wagon, sand toys and floats, crockpot, and all the things!?) Everything was loaded up before we went to bed so that the morning could just be taking kids from their beds to their cars!

Time with family and friends. Rusty and Reddy got a swim day at Pappy's during the golf outing. Rusty had his friend Liam over for a playdate and played 20 games of ping pong. Violet had a playday with Bristol and Bria at the Maurer's house and a sleepover at Evaley's house. Violet and Gemma got a nail date with Aunt Kitty so they could be fancy for the beach trip (thank you Aunt Kitty!) Gemma babysat Norah at our house. Grey went swimming at Gabey's and went out to eat with the football boys once for breakfast and once for dinner.

Sporting with Gemma's last Beach Blast soccer game with the Gators on Sunday, had two Varsity soccer kickarounds, one 7v7 soccer tournament at Somerset, and three days of weightlifting & conditioning. Grey had five days of weightlifting and conditioning, one football practice, and one 7v7 football tournament at Richland. Also, Grey and Coach Dad played in the football golf fundraiser.

Making ground beef tacos, toast deli sammies, bbq chicken sammies with tater tots, kielbasa and hot dogs with sauerkraut, Pioneer Woman Lasagna, and lots of leftovers because I'm trying to get rid of food pre-beach! For desserts, we had blackberry pie For weight room Wednesday I made snickerdoodles For breakfast I made zucchini bread For my book club night I made ham and cheese sliders and Ramen noodle salad.

Movement with no rollerblading this week because I actually think I pulled something in my calf last week when I did my speed blading! I want to be able to rollerblade at the beach next week, so I took this week off to let it rest. I did weighted vest walk 6 miles though

PS If I were to list my top 10 novels of all time in this current moment:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
This is How you Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Legend Born by Tracy Deonn

PPS to be in the top 10, that means I think about it regularly - The writing, the story, the characters; live in my mind and come to the surface randomly.

PPPS in that way, those writers have reached through space and time and will live through me and my thoughts. how incredibly superpower-y to be an writer. books and stories and writing are ways to collapse time and space. I will never not be amazed by this.

PPPPS if you read Time War then I'm winking at you in these postscripts

Around Here Week 28: 07/12-18

2026-08-14T14:26:24.021-04:00

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

photo cred: Abba

photo cred: Becky C (thank you!)

Violet's Junior counselor; Lily

photo cred: B

photo cred: Kristy H

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 321+ hrs (of 1000)
Beautiful (although hot) weather until Thursday when our state was blasted by the smoke coming from the Canadian wildfires. The low air quality is very frustrating (and has me worried about our goaties, chickens, and Osa) but I cannot stop thinking of how terrible it must be up there if it looks and smells like this all the way down here! Our air quality around our home got as high as 310

Reading and finishing Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe. I really loved it at multiple levels and made so many notes in the margins. Then I started Heart the Lover by Lily King which is my book club pick for my Lit Ladies club. Also still reading, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

Summer To Do List Accomplished:

created the happy ads for my varsity players and Coach Daddy
Rusty and I worked hard in the basement den to clean up, clear out, and deep clean. We had two big bags of garbage and one donation bag. Moved the shelf cupboard in to hold children's books (the shelf cupboard that used to be on the back porch) and rearranged the furniture layout.
Updated the August calendar to include school dates (eek!)
Finished my PD course and earned 5 Act 48 hours

Grey visits Montana for fly fishing with his best friends! What a wonderful experience for him to get to travel with his best friends' family to fly fish and explore all week! They had a river right in their backyard and also booked a float with an experienced MT fisherman. I loved seeing pictures all week of him smiling and holding up beautiful trout. The Conns also visited Idaho, saw wild animals at the Bison range (including bison, elk, and a bear!), and got to fish with Nick (who married cousin Morgan and who lives in Montana with their two daughters). I am so very grateful to have Becky and Dan who took such good care of my sonny boy and invited him along on this incredible vacation! It takes so much more than just including him - I know you worried about him, cooked for him, cleaned up after him, endured three teenage boys silliness and antics, got him through the airport and traveling, and sent me pics and updates throughout. Thank you a million times; love you guys like family.

Violet spends five days at Camp PARC as a peer buddy. She volunteered as a neurotypical designated friend to a neurodivergent camper alongside her junior counselor, Lily (a neurotypical teen) Violet slept in a camp bunk and participated in activities (like crafts and games) and meals together too. Her junior counselor, Lily, was so sweet, encouraging, and supportive (Vi loved her!) Violet's friend Brady let her borrow her phone at night to text me updates on how the day went each night (thank you, Brady!) and she sounded happy each day, which gave me peace of heart.

However, it was a tough week for a momma's heart. Two kids out of the house for more days than I'm used to. I know that I am the one that needs practice at space (and I told them both that) but I cannot get over what a heartbreaking plan it is that as a parent you spend so much time loving, teaching, supporting, and being near your kids and if you do a good job then they grow up and leave you?! What the actual hell?! I am holding on to two mantras over the next several years as we continue to see our kids grow up and make a wider world for themselves:

1) young adults don't spend their time thinking about their parents. They are LIVING and having fun and learning about themselves. They think about their parents when things go sideways. If you're not hearing from them while they are away, it probably means they are having fun and everything is mostly good. (thank you Kate and Bunny for that peace of mind when I'm spiraling in worry).

2) "A goldfish will grow 2inches in a bowl, 4inches in an aquarium, 6inches in a creek, 12 inches in a pond, and over a foot in a lake. Still the same fish, it just got to grow." My kids need a bigger world (literally, emotionally, independently, experience-ly) to grow bigger and better. Let go of your grip, momma. Let that goldfish grow. (I'm the momma in this scenario)...The love though.... so big it literally hurts.

Pura Vida dinner with my friends in Washington DC on Monday night. Back in 2004, as a junior in college, I got to study abroad in Costa Rica for the spring semester. I met some amazing people including some that I still talk to. I went to my friend Emily's wedding (and she to mine) and we are all friends on social media and still comment and send DMs occasionally. In some serendipitous pura vida magic - five of us were all able to meet up on the same night in DC to have drinks and dinner together - after 22 years! Emily, Meg, Marisa, Vicki, and I enjoyed an incredible dinner at ISLA and then B got to meet us all up for drinks at The Crown & Crow. How fun it was to catch up on each others' live (everyone went around the table and did a five minute highlight spiel of the last 22 years, LOL) and then reminiscing over our time in Costa Rica and sharing photos and music that we remembered listening to and dancing to in Costa Rica. How wonderful it was to collapse time on itself and laugh with friends.

Night away for Mom & Dad since we were already going to be in DC for the Pura Vida reunion dinner - B reserved us a hotel (thank you credit card points!) and we got a road trip, night in a hotel, breakfast, and a walk in the park just the two of us. It will never not be hilarious to me the deep deep sleep that comes with a night in a hotel bed with no kids. A solid, comalike sleep; I'll take that joyfully!

Camp PARC visit & pick up. Olive and I headed out to Camp PARC on Wednesday to see the finale show, it was America themed in honor of the 250th anniversary. Violet got to square-dance with her group. The show was very sweet and included all campers, counselors, and peer buddies. We got a dinner afterwards and got to meet Violet's camper and her junior counselor who she spent most of the five days of camp with. She had a great time and said already that she wants to go back again next year! So proud of our girl and so very happy that she is back home again!

Girls Trip to Wildwood, NJ. Gemma, Violet, Olive, and I all headed out on a six hour road trip towards NJ for Gemma's Gators team at the Beach Blast soccer tournament on the beach! We stopped four hours in for food at Chili's (finally used a gift card from Christmas!) and then pushed through the last two hours to finally make it to the beach. We shared a VRBO apartment with Kristy (thank you for booking!) and two other soccer players: Gina and Molly. It was tight, but we made the most of it and all found a way to share space and a tiny bathroom between 7 girls! Bless those big girls who played a million games of UNO with Olive and were patient and sweet with both my girls. I packed food (#bigfamilymombrain ) and we were only a block from the beach so it was easy to get back and forth. Gemma and her soccer team visited the boardwalk amusement park on Friday night while Violet, Olive, and I went to the beach until dark. We even got fireworks on Friday night! Saturday morning, Gemma had two soccer games and in between the games - we did a lot of swimming and wave jumping. The Gators didn't win their games, but they looked awesome and played tough; never giving up the whole time. Gem got a fancy girl dinner out with the team on Saturday evening while the little girls and I got ice cream from the boardwalk and barely outrun a severe thunderstorm! I will never get over that I get to be the mom of three daughters; that they get to be sisters. I.will.never.get.over.it.

Thankful for hard working boys who spent the boys-only weekend at home working on projects! Rusty and Reddy helped get the yard cleaned up while Pappy and B cleaned up trees and trimming all around the house between the rainstorms on Saturday. Grateful for you handymen and for teaching our sons to be handymen! Their hard work was happily rewarded with chicken wings from Old Tollgate Inn!

Time with family and friends: Rusty and Reddy got a sleepover with Chum and Olive and Gemma got a sleepover with Pappy while B and I spent the night in DC on Monday (thank you!!)

Sporting with the fall sports on the horizon. Rusty finished his all stars baseball tournament on Sunday and then picked up his helmet/ pads/ and jersey for youth football (from summer to fall sports in one week! hah!) Gemma attended three days of weightlifting/ conditioning, had two basketball games, two soccer kick arounds, and the Gators Beach Blast soccer tournament on the weekend. I attended the football booster meeting and signed up for all my duties for the season (team dinner, coordinating senior night game, away game food scheduling, and organizing the red & white game) Gentle and loving reminder: if a mom of six kids, full-time public school teacher, and the wife of the Varsity head football coach can volunteer her time and talents - you certainly can too (I say that with love and encouragement!) B and I both worked the concession stand at the all stars baseball game too - a romantic day date! (LOL).

Making hot honey chicken nachos, crack chicken sammies, pizza quesadillas, chicken fried rice, meatloaf with potatoes and carrots, and copycat Olive Garden chicken pasta. On Thursday, I spent most of the day cooking and baking to prepare for the weekend. For the golf outing cookie table I made: 4 dozen pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, 2 dozen rice krispies treats, and 2 dozen chocolate covered pretzels. For the soccer tourney in Wildwood I made, 2 dozen chocolate chip cookie bars, 2 dozen double chocolate muffins, french toast (ready-made for reheating), sloppy joes (ready-made for the crockpot), and shredded chicken (ready-made for teriyaki noodles). While in Wildwood, NJ for the soccer tourney in our apartment airbnb, we had: buffalo chicken dip, sloppy joes with microwavable mac&cheese, chicken and broccoli teriyaki noodles, ordered in local pizza, and Hawaiian deli sammies.

Movement: not a great week for exercise over here, bummer but I rollerbladed 1.1 miles and weighted vest walked NO miles! I did hit a PR in speed on my rollerblades on Tuesday night but in that also made my leg muscles so sore that I was kind of hobbling on Wednesday and Thursday. To add to my minimal exercise this week though, we did walk the boardwalk and very long beach Friday & Saturday and I played in the ocean with the girls twice on Saturday. Moving for FUN! That is the point anyway.

My life in numbers, edit 2

2026-08-06T11:11:11.151-04:00

I wrote the first My Life in Numbers post back in 2020 - you can find it here. And now six years later with a span of children ages 16 to 5 years old; my Life in Numbers looks a little different.

My little sister has three boys under five and it is such a vivid reminder of those days of little little kids that are so full of physical needs. Everyone hanging on you and needing assistance in every single thing. It's so physically exhausting AND mentally exhausting. God bless you mommas out there in the thick of little little kids. I promise, it gets physically easier (a lot of different hard to come too, but the physicality of raising little kids was just a brutal assault...literally). Sometimes my sis calls me at 11a on a weekend and I whisper to talk because all my kids are still asleep?! Meanwhile, she's been up since 5a and put a full day of mom'ing in. Good grief, remember those days!? Again, God bless you mommas of little littles - I'm sending you all the hugs.

Those days have passed for me, and although I still love a good snuggle from a nephew or rocking a toddler to sleep - I am fully relieved that part of day in and day out is over. Because we are really living in the very sweetest spot right now with kids that are independent leaving my body free most of the day (although I still have plenty of kids trying to sit on my lap all day or literally follow like my shadow all around the house) What a gift it is that they still want to be around me, but also - why are you following me?! LOL, B says at least once a day, "Okay, everyone out; I get to talk to Mom by myself for a second!"

The physical part of mothering has mostly ended, but it is now emotionally and mentally exhausting (big kids = big problems) Truly though, it is mostly blind joy...because these kids are hilarious and interesting and helpful (mostly) and thoughtful (mostly) and patient (mostly). I sit around in awe and wonder that I get to be the mom of these kids stretching across this canyon of ages and stages. Because we have teenagers and we know the struggles there; we are able to appreciate and have patience for our littlest kids' struggles and we can see how fast they grow up (look at these teens and tweens!) so it is easier to cherish and recognize that little kid magic. And because we have little kids we are able to appreciate all the big kids' independence and thoughtfulness. We can still catch little glimpses of those toddler eyelashes and have such appreciation for seeing them go from small to big.

We are currently living in such a brief moment in time of the whole span under one roof and it is dazzling to be on the mom side of it.

I'm not saying it's not hard every single day still (it is - have you tried feeding a family of 8 with four of them athletes? How about laundry for 8 - LOL. How about back to school paperwork for 6? Now put it all together, balance that calendar of sports, homework, laundry, and meals. Girl, it's wild over here).

But I also know that I am about the luckiest freaking son of a gun in the world to be the mom of these six kids in this house with this man right now in this moment. So, I'm setting my eyes to gratitude and holding on for dear life. (I wish you were here to see this Tab of six years ago, you could not have even dreamed!)

My life today by numbers:

42 years old

27 years kissing Brandon

17 years married

6 children

3 nephews

6 goats

16 chickens

1 dog

1 cat

15 years in our current home

5 bedrooms

4 tvs

3 vehicles

2 tractors

5 tattoos

3 baskets of clean laundry that need folded in our home today

2 times the dishwasher gets run daily

2 cups of coffee this AM

2 books being read currently

8 tabs open on my computer right now

3 lbs of ground beef to feed our whole family at dinner

2.5 years teaching Spanish at my current school

10.5 years experience teaching total

5 years youth cheer coach

8 years youth soccer coach

3 years varsity football coach's wife

7 countries visited

2 languages

3 college diplomas

1 Master's degree

20 books read this year so far
3 book clubs I participate in

9, 878 words finished in my novel

59, 440 words finished in my blog compilation book

2 blogs I manage (this one and TeamStuder Mom)

17 years writing this blog

1,454 posts ever written on this blog

6, 642, 843 views ever on this blog (thanks mostly to this and this)

My raising up kids so far in fractions:

0 out of 6 kids has a tv in their bedroom

0 out of 6 has a consistent schedule at a paying (real) job

0 out of 6 kids can drive a car (but 1 out of 6 kids has their driving permit!)

0 out of 6 kids has graduated high school

0 out of 6 kids wears diapers!

0 out of 6 kids can vote

0 out of 6 kids have had parents called to the principal's office

1 out of 6 kids have been involved in a fist fight on the school bus

1 out of 6 kids understand basic Spanish

2 out of 6 kids are taller than me

2 out of 6 kids have their own phone

2 out of 6 kids have had a significant other

2 out of 6 kids have had braces

2 out of 6 kids can operate the tractor

2 out of 6 kids have worked for pay outside of our family

3 out of 6 kids have had the birds & the bees talk

3 out of 6 kids have broken a bone (4 broken bones in all)

3 out of 6 kids can do a backflip on the trampoline

3 out of 6 kids have been out of the country

3 out of 6 kids can use the stove/oven unassisted

3 out of 6 kids can fry an egg unassisted

3 out of 6 kids trim their own fingernails
3 out of 6 kids have been out of the country

4 out of 6 kids can read (more than sight words)
4 out of 6 kids can do a 3-string braid

4 out of 6 kids can blow a chewing gum bubble

4 out of 6 kids can tie shoes

4 out of 6 kids can whistle

4 out of 6 kids have had a sleepover at a friends' house

4 out of 6 kids believe in Santa

4 out of 6 kids can consistently sleep in their own bed every night

4 out of 6 kids have double digit ages

5 out of 6 kids have lost a tooth

5 out of 6 kids can ride a bike without training wheels

6 out of 6 kids can write their full name

6 out of 6 kids can wink

6 out of 6 kids can do a front flip on the trampoline

6 out of 6 kids can swim unassisted (Praise the Lord!)

6 out of 6 kids will be in school this fall (span of kindergarten - 11th grade)

6 out of 6 kids can take a shower unassisted

6 out of 6 kids participated in an organized sport this year

6 out of 6 kids can change a diaper

6 out of 6 kids can change their own clothes

6 out of 6 kids have been to the ocean

6 out of 6 kids live at home full time

6 out of 6 kids hug or snuggle their parents daily

6 out of 6 kids kiss their parents goodbye

Around Here Week 27: 07/05-11

2026-08-04T08:59:29.368-04:00

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

photo cred: Bobby B

photo cred: Jenilee L

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 298+ hours (of 1000)
Up 15+ hours this week with lots of sunshiney summer weather. The blackberries are getting ripe and we have been able to find sweet ones hit or miss on our walks. In about two weeks, I think the majority of them will be ready and Violet is eager to make our blackberry pie! Lots of lightening bugs at night too, Olive is our current lightening bug catcher master! Plus we did a hay delivery this week too!

Reading Margot's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. I am liking them both, just a little distracted this week with other things going on. Not much reading done this week.

Summer to do list items completed:

I cleared out the upstairs hallway corner that became a dumping ground (clothes that don't fit, a box of trophies) and then redecorated it with a shelf to try to keep it from becoming a dumping zone in the future (this is called house-mapping which I recently discovered and I want to learn more!) It looks very cute.
Brandon went through all his dresser drawers and put a bunch of clothes in the donation pile
We cleaned out the cupboards in the laundry room and even removed one cupboard (I'm hoping to have the fellas make me a shelf that would hide the water pipes)
We took apart the boys' old beds (bunks we've had for 13+ years!) and reassembled two new-to-us beds in their room (thank you Aunt Kitty & Tall boy for gifting them to us in the move!) The kids and I did the project while B was at work and we were all very annoyed but also could not stop laughing because it was a logistical nightmare to get the frames and mattresses up two sets of steps from the basement to the boys' room. Gem and Rusty at the bottom of the steps, Grey in the middle at the turn, and me at the top with all four of us grunting, shouting, and hysterically laughing might be a core memory of motherhood for me. So very grateful to have teenagers in the house who can use power tools and carry heavy things; Gem and Grey did most of the room while I peeked in occasionally to check on them. God bless teens, honestly.
B burned the huge pile of wood that we have been collecting over time on a rainy and overcast day. He also took down the old dog shelter in the front yard and burned those pallets too!
I went through and sorted all the canned goods into a) food we eat b) cans that can be donated c) cans that are expired (oldest one: 2021!) Once I cleared out the can cupboard, I reorganized them in the pantry because the cupboard they used to be in will be removed for the kitchen/dining room facelift project
I organized and cleared out the kitchen pantry - huge job and I was mostly cranky about it (sorry everyone! LOL). I got a bunch of mini lazy susans so I could see what we have in stock before randomly buying all the regular stuff without really knowing. I put the non-expired canned goods in there, I put together a shelf for the top to make use of the high ceiling space, and I went through all our reusable and grocery bags (#Lordsavemefrommyself)
All three of the boys had their well checks and everyone looks good and healthy. Rusty and Grey had vaccines too. I got everyone's paperwork done and ready for the upcoming school year!

Cousin backyard campout! Violet and I set up the tent in the yard and we made smores over the fire ring. We met a little toad friend on the back patio and then all settled into the tent for the sleepover. It wasn't more than about 20 minutes until all the kids decided they were too chicken to sleep outside all night LOL. So it turned into a kid campout in the living room which was just as fun anyway! We tried! hah! We got a full day of playing on Thursday as I was babysitting the fella boys - we went blackberry picking and played Titanic on the swing on my Agnes Tree.

Haircuts for my fellas - always appreciate you Lamont!

Smiling at the videos of Big Boy the steam engine passing through. My family went to go see it and sent videos and our Aunt Marlene brought photos of our gram and pap to the track because they would have loved to see it (crying forever!).

Dropping Violet off at Camp PARC on Saturday afternoon for the next five days! Camp PARC is "a residential summer camp experience...for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their neurotypical peers." Violet is attending as a peer buddy for the youth mini camp session. So she will be a friend to her camper and then she and her camper also share a junior counselor (a neurotypical teen volunteer). Many young people in our community volunteer at Camp PARC including some of Violet's friends and teammates, so she knows other peer buddies and junior counselors. It's no surprise to anyone that follows along with our family, that Violet was excited to try something new (this girl wants to do all the things!) I dropped her off mid-day and helped her get unpacked in her bunk and we learned her junior counselor and camper's names and then I left her there! I didn't cry the whole time (good job, me) until I was pulling out of the camp and whispered - "see you on Wednesday, baby. proud of you."

Dropping Grey off with the Conns late Saturday night for their trip to Montana. So grateful he gets to go and with such good friends (and safe and loving family - thank you Becky and Dann!!) but good grief, a whole week! I know he will have such an amazing time and experience a new place and that makes me so grateful and happy. HappySad. all the dang time in motherhood - I swear.

Grad parties this week: friend/ football teammate Kaden Valentine

Time with family and friends Rusty had a play/quad day with Abe and Calvin, Violet visited Giada's house and G slept at our house that night then she had a play day with Evaley at our house (Ev went Camp supplies shopping with us!) Gemma did a lot of babysitting this week: once for Norah and three times for the Bridges boys. Gem also had a sleepover with Abby at our house and a night swim at the Lasure girls' house too. Grey went to the driving range with Gabey, Brycey, and Reedy. We had a late night swim at Pappy's house with friends (Brycey, Reedy, Peyton, and Brady) after football and basketball games. The kids cannonballed and swam until 11:30pm!

Heartache for the family of Nolan Xavier Wells. I am astounded every day that it is not a universal understanding that we should all take care of one another. Your kids are my kids. His kids are my kids. Her kids are my kids. Their kids are my kids. All the kids are my kids. One thing about me is I'm going to wait until your baby gets in the door. My kids know that - all their teammates and friends know this. I am not driving away until I see you open that door and walk in. You will be getting home to your momma and dad and I will watch you do it before I leave you. I have stayed long after practices have ended until parents pick up their kids. I have seen kids that did not even come with us waiting and have given rides home or offered my phone to call parents and then waited with them until their parents arrived. I will not leave you until I can see you are safe. Are we not all doing that? Are we not all teaching and modeling that for our children?

Sporting with one all-star baseball practice for Rusty and then the start of the all star baseball tourney and home run derby on Saturday. Gemma had two soccer kick arounds and one basketball game. She and Grey attended five weight lifting and conditioning sessions too. Grey also had one football joint practice with CV. B went golfing with the football coaches for their annual playdate.

Making bbq chicken fried rice on the Blackstone, smash burgers (Grey made and grilled), spaghetti, copycat crunchwrap supreme tacos, hot dogs with shells&cheese for the cousin campout, homemade pizza, sheetpan chicken fajitas, takeout pizza for the night swim, For breakfast, I made pumpkin double chocolate muffins, french toast, pancakes, and chocolate croissants. I've also been adding cottage cheese into the scrambled eggs for extra protein for everyone and it is delicious! For weight room Wednesday I made strawberry crinkle cookies and for dessert I made cowboy cookies (3 dozen of which I packed up and put in Grey's suitcase for Montana!)

Movement: I skated 3.4 miles this week and weight vest walked 5.1 miles this week. Renee and I met at a skating rink that a friend has in his farm fields (her husband plays in a pick-up roller hockey league there and all the guys pitch in to keep it asphalted every few years. There are even lights for night time games - how cool!) What a perfect evening yapping and skating with a friend - we hope to keep it on the schedule!

Around Here Week 26: 06/28-07/04

2026-07-22T13:12:53.244-04:00

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

photo cred: Eva McD

before & after

photo cred: Peyt

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 283+ hours (of 1000)
Oof, a heat wave slammed PA this week and it was brutal with temps in the 90's (feel like temp was 98+) with humidity usually over 80%. The air was THICK and hot this week. So it was multiple trips to the farm to refresh with cold water and we froze little chicken treats too (veggies frozen in water). We swam in Pappy's pool most days this week too!

Reading and finishing My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix. We had our Lit Ladies book club at Ryan's Artisan (after hours! thank you Jacinda!) and it was a great time. I didn't love the book (Horror and campy isn't my thing, but it was enjoyable and book club saved it for me because Katelyn - who picked the book - did a DnD style game where we all had roles that went along with the book and she read it really dramatically and it was so cute and fun actually! Bravo!) I'm also still reading I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith which I am enjoying, I just need to dedicate more focused time to reading. Because I picked the next Lit Ladies book: Heart the Lover by Lily King and I'm reading along with the Laurel & Leaf Bookshop book club: Margot's got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe.

Watching The Sheep Detectives with the kids and it was very cute. We watched it all together (the four littles and parents) on the back porch! The kids had so much fun guessing whodunit - we are going to have to watch more mysteries as a family!

Summer to do list completed:

The back porch space is done - and just in time for our Fourth of July party! Our furniture pieces all arrived and Grey and B got to work assembling and screwing everything together. B picked up a discounted tv and wall hanger (hooray for saving money because we took the already-opened ones!)
Grey got his eye appointment done and contacts ordered (he was the last one of the crew!)
I emptied and cleaned out my purse
We printed off Violet's Camp PARC peer buddy packet
I talked to cousin Morgan in MT to help plan Grey's upcoming vacation with the Conn family and Becky and I have been chatting nonstop about packing lists and plans (!! so excited for Grey! Thank you Conns!)
School: I started work on an ACT 48 (Professional Development class) online. I'm taking a class on family communication - one thing I know I can be better at as a teacher (I just want to be more consistent and for it to feel meaningful and not forced)
Updated the beach vacation spreadsheet with to pack and dinner plans (thank you Uchie for keeping us all organized!)
Well check-ups for Olive and Gemma and got all the paperwork for all the girls for the upcoming school year. (PIAA physical for Gem, sixth grade & kindergarten doctor/vaccine records for Vi and Liv!)
I had a chiro appointment
I cleaned off the kitchen window ledge (collecting zone for all things tiny: earrings, bobby pins, change, etc) and washed the windows and the screens

Rejoicing that all six of the kids can swim! Olive had an aha! moment and realized that the last barrier she had to swimming was being brave enough to try! She got a little courage at the Que at her birthday party last week, and then at Pappy's pool, she gave it a try and has been a little fish all week. She can swim underwater no problem - and now we are working on coming up for breaths and practicing doggy-paddling. Not that anyone younger than 14 is allowed to swim without an adult still - Rusty and Violet, even though they are incredible swimmers, still know they need to wait for a grown up - it is still an huge sigh of relief to know that everyone can swim!

Printed off and working on editing my motherhood book! Over the last year or so, I have been collecting some of the best posts over the last 18 years of writing this blog and organizing them in Reedsy in hopes to publish a compilation of my blogposts about motherhood. This week, I printed them all off and started editing/ revising/ re-organizing to see if I can get one step closer to actually publishing the thing. Even if no one else wants a copy - I do! So documenting this here to keep myself accountable to keep working towards the goal!

Ebensburg pool day with my sisters and the kids! A very fun day at the public pool with sisters and cousins in the sunshine. Olive got brave enough to go down the big red slide only to have a grown up man go down the slide before she came out at the bottom. Very scary for a second, she was right at the edge of the slide and he came barreling down super fast and his feet pushed her off the ledge and she was dragged under by undertow of him. He did not even apologize or come over to see if she was okay?! The young lifeguard came over apologizing profusely and asking what she needed, while the man audibly said to his buddy, "the lifeguard told me to go" with a shrug of his shoulders. Needless to say, Olive did not go down the slide again but we all still had a good time and moved on because I set the mood. I let it go (because I know we live in a time that many adults and children do not have any social decorum and I refuse to let their tactlessness ruin my day!) so we swam and Red and Liv loved touching the bottom of the 5ft area and then pushing off and the girls delight in being near their aunts and Rusty and I helped the babies practice treading water, and my little nephews were hilarious as usual, and my sisters were beautiful and funny and everything good in the world. It was a good day!

Fourth of July Party at our house! We hosted a second annual party at our house this year with Uncle Drip as the firework master. The kids were vocal about hosting again (I debated because it makes me pretty nervous with all the potential for bodily injury, but alas, the kids win). We had lots of guests despite the rainy weather and there was enough of a break in the rain that Kev and half the football team were able to put on a great firework show (God bless Uncle Kev for directing all those kids with cool under pressure and safety. Appreciate you!!) When it was a full downpour at the start of the party, you know I deferred to putting on Just Dance on the back porch as a distraction. LOL, can't help myself. There were basketball games, the Roman Candle / Harry Potter line, sparklers galore, great conversation, and yummy food. Even Osa joined us for the fireworks to try to keep her feeling calm (kind of worked).

Graduation parties this week: we had three stacked on Sunday! All football players/friends: Jacob Bartis, Dawson Statler, and Brennan Lohr. We definitely got our fill of delicious graduation party food!

Time with family and friends. Violet had a sleepover at Bria's house. Gemma had a night swim at Zolina's house. Both Violet and Gemma had a mini shopping trip with Abba and went with the Lasure girls to see the fireworks in Somerset. Grey continued his summer with friends - he went to his friend Josey's birthday party, swam at his friend Gabe's house, visited the Que to go paddle boarding with friends, went fishing with the fellas, and went to the Millrats baseball game with the friend group. We all went swimming at Pappy's house four times this week! (it was hot hot)

Sporting with all star baseball practice for Rusty two times this week. Gemma and Grey both went to Weightlifting and Conditioning three days this week (two days were cancelled because of the parking lot re-asphalting). Gem had two soccer kickarounds, one basketball shoot around, and one basketball game. Grey had two basketball games to end the summer league season.

Making homemade pizza, chicken Caesar wraps with Instagram chicken, meatball sub sammies, ground beef tacos, chicken, veggies, & biscuits casserole, beef&cheddar sammies, and lots of leftover meals. We went out for dinner with Pappy for the unofficial summertime local wing tour - this week we tried Morris's Tavern and our teammate and friend Macy was our waitress (she did awesome!) For the fourth of July party - I made buff chicken dip, shortcake with flag themed fruit toppings, dipped wafer cookies, and Grey's best friend Bryce helped make the Firecracker 'lil smokies. For breakfast I made banana bread. For desserts, the kids helped make thumbprint cookies with blueberry and peach jam for my book club meeting. For weight room Wednesday I made patriotic monster cookies (with red, white, & blue m&ms)

Movement: I rollerbladed 4.1 miles this week. I am so proud of how much stronger I am on rollerblades now; I am having fun and much less worried about falling. Little pebbles or slight unevenness aren't tripping me up like they have in weeks past. My ankles and lower back feel stronger and more capable. And it is honestly so fun! My goals are to keep building stamina, get better at stopping, and eventually learn to skate backwards (!) My friend Renee and I are in talks about roller-skating together once a week because she also has skates and my sister Uch has been practicing on her rollerblades...are we starting a community?! I hope so! My weighted vest also arrived this week and I have been wearing it down to the farm (weighted vests are beneficial specifically for perimenopause because the loss of estrogen increases bone loss and muscle decline...ugh - growing up is hard to do).

Around Here Week 25: 06/21-27

2026-07-14T18:36:47.687-04:00

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

photo cred: Violet

yummy drinks and food from Flood City Cafe after the dentist!

photo cred: Eva McD

selfie cred: Heather R

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 256+ hours (of 1000)
Lots of time outside this week with outdoor chores and swimming. The weather is holding up pretty beautifully for summer; warm and sunny but not too too hot. I'll take it!

Reading I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (liking it!) and My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix (meh, not liking it much but going to finish it for book club!)

Watching Voicemails for Isabelle (on Netflix). I cried and laughed so much. 10/10!

Summer to do list completed:

deep cleaning the back porch - everyone worked together to move everything off the porch - including the cupboard where B found the skunk hiding the other day (no skunk this day - thank goodness) and we got the space pressure washed
we moved the pieces of furniture from Aunt Kitty up into the house to help organize. In her move, she gifted us with a hutch with a built in fireplace which we moved into the living room - which meant we rehomed a bookshelf to Gemma's room and an end table to the back porch. We had to move all the kids' books to the basement 'kid cave' and the family yearbooks fit in the hutch (yay!) She also gifted us a long dresser that fits in the laundry room and immediately made the shoe situation in there at least look better! Thank you so much Aunt Kitty - happy to give them a home, we didn't even know how much we needed them!
I finalized the summer chore chart and got it printed and hung in the kitchen!
I printed off Grey's MT packing list and fishing license for his July vacation with the Conns - thank you Becky C for walking us through the steps. I did have Grey do it instead of just doing it myself which would have been faster and easier - but I have to keep reminding myself (even / especially ) in teenager raising, that they need lots of opportunities to do stuff by themselves
Rusty, Violet, and Gemma all had dentist appointments
Rusty had an eye appointment
Gemma had her last Physical Therapy and was discharged!
I power washed the rugs from the living room and the girls' room. What a difference! Immediate gratification!
I sent out the invitations for our Fourth of July party
Brandon, Grey, and Pappy replaced the roof on the goat house
Violet and I brushed Osa until we couldn't get the smell of dog hair/mats out of our her hands and I literally was googling "can you get tendinitis in your elbow from brushing a Great Pyr" (spoiler alert: yes - ugghhhhh) and then Rusty and I took Osa for her annual Lyme's vaccine
I ordered the back porch furniture and carpet (!)

A day at the pool for Father's Day. Grey was on the grill with the chicken Philly cheesesteaks and I made and brought cake mix chocolate chip cookies. The kids all got in to swim, but it was still a little too chilly for me! It was a great day hanging out and laughing - Red is getting so much more comfortable in the water and Olive was not quite ready to try swimming on Sunday (although by the end of the week at the Que, she was going under with no floaties at the Que!) We got our annual HoponPop picture with Brandon who refuses to give up even though we all tried to get him to agree to be held this time. He did it! If even only a for second for Grey and Gem's feet to be off the ground. Hilarious and wild always to set that up. How incredibly blessed the kids and I are to have these father figures in our lives, especially B, my Dad, and Pappy (but also shout out to all our uncles, godfathers, coaches, and family friends who are role modeling out there what good and decent men look like. I am so grateful for you!)

Waving to the helicopters that were so low near our house because the farm fields behind are house are used as training grounds for the army helicopters. The boys were loving how close they were (turned into a whole story line in their nerf gun battle)!

Finally having Olive's birthday party at the Que. It was Teen Beach Movie themed including a sign for Big Momma's House, surfboards, and lei's! Abba brought the paper products and snackies, while Ms. Heather brought juice bags and watermelon. I made hot dogs & sauerkraut, mac&cheese, and made the beach cupcakes and 'tire' mini donuts. Peyton and Gemma did Olive's hair with braids and curls and all of her favorite people were there to spend the day at the Que. The weather was nice enough and the water was warm enough (for the kids at least!) to swim and splash. Grey took the fishing boat and he was thrilled to get it out on the water - very lucky for him that his baby sister loves his friends like bonus big brothers - Gabey, Cooper, Brycey, and Reedy were all invited to her party too (hah)! Imagine being a five year old and getting to invite so many big kids! At Olive's request; bonus big sisters Abigail and Peyton were there with Gemma and bonus big sister Evaley was there with Violet. And she got to play with some of her own friends too like Bowen and the Mazz boys and her Moore-boy cousins; just a girl surrounded by fellas - good thing she is sassy and can hold her own!

Out to the theater to see Hadestown. Many of my former NS students are actors in the Potter's Players theater group and this summer they were putting on Hadestown at the Greensburg Garden and Civic Center. What a coincidence, because earlier this spring, our friend and semi-neighbor Michelle told me that her favorite musical was Hadestown when we were yapping for an hour+ about books and musicals and history and all things nerd (MY FAV CHATS!! love you Michelle! xxo) So I reached out to her and her daughters and we all bought tickets and went together! I loved seeing my students; both that were acting in the show and that had come to the show to support their friends (#oncemykidalwaysmykid !!) and THE SHOW. My God, the show. I cried and then cried again on the way home talking the girls through some of the parts, and then sobbed again describing it to Brandon. Brilliant in the ways that some stories live on for generations, brilliant in the way we keep telling sad stories even though we know the endings, brilliant in the power of love, brilliant in talent of my former students' talents. Okay, crying again. If you get a chance to see Hadestown - I cannot overexaggerate this: You Must.

Grad parties this week: friend Nathan Dail and friend/football player DJ Bambino

Time with family and friends Olive & Reddy got a movie date with Miss Heather - they went to see Toy Story 5 and then got ice cream at Silver Bell and got to visit with cousin Caleb who was working ( thank you Heather - best day!!) Violet enjoyed Bria's birthday sleepover and then had a sleepover with her friend Evaley at Abba's house (thank you for hosting them, Mum!) Gemma went thrift shopping with the Lasure girls. Grey went fishing at our Bedford camp with his buddies and had a sleepover at Gabey's house

Isn't it so bizarre to live in a dystopian story? Like actually living in it. If we were reading a book about this moment in time, we would be screaming at the characters because how do they just go about their normal every day lives while all this insanity happens around them? I know the reflecting pool debacle is the absolute least of the egregious offenses...but it is also a blatant metaphor for the entire administration. And the literal lying directly to our faces about it. It is so far gone now that it feels futile to get worked up - like yeah, we all know he is lying, we all know millions of dollars were wasted and/or funneled to his friends - but like whatever I guess?! (by the way this is one of the goals of a cult of personality leadership style: to wear you down so far that you give up caring...so if you can still find it in your guts to be regularly pissed off- proud of you!)

Sporting with weightlifting/conditioning five days this week for Grey and Gem. Also, Gem had three basketball games, her last physical therapy on her ankle, volunteered twice at the youth soccer camp, and asst trained at football practice. Grey took a break from basketball games this week because of his ankle sprain at basketball team camp over the weekend but had football practice on top of WL/C. I attended the football booster meeting on Thursday night and signed up for our team dinner (and maybe to help with the volunteer schedule or for the games meal coordination)

Making chicken Philly cheesesteaks on Pap's Blackstone for Father's Day (Grey did most of the dinner from prepping/cutting to grilling!), meatloaf and roasted broccoli, spaghetti, sloppy joes with mac & cheese and baked beans, baked turkey and cheese sammies, copycat Olive Garden chicken over pasta, For breakfasts I made chocolate croissants For desserts we had cake mix chocolate chip cookies (Father's day), I made chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for Weightroom Wednesday, and for Olive's birthday I made beach cupcakes (graham cracker crumbs for sand), broccoli salad, a crockpot of hot dogs and brats with sauerkraut, shells & cheese, and baked beans. The girls and I stopped at 7 Brew for our first time on the way home from Hadestown

Movement This week I skated 4.7 miles in total. New rollerblading skills: I can do 2 miles straight! Very proud and definitely feeling stronger. It feels very similar to running: the first mile you are miserable and then after the first mile you feel totally fine and energized! I bladed at Sandyvale (my favorite spot!), the elementary school parking lot, and the fire hall parking lot near Pappy's house,

Around Here Week 24: 06/14-20

2026-07-07T07:28:02.763-04:00

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

photo cred: Malinda C

photo cred: Abba

at Ryan's Artisans

our in-house whittler

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 230+ hours (of 1000)
The investigation was underway to figure out who/what is breaking the chicken eggs and eating the contents. Fox problem seems to have dissipated (thank goodness) but now we have something else, eating the eggs. Some of our chickens lay in the coop and then some of them lay in spots around the house: under a pine in the front flower beds and in the cat house on the back porch. We check both of the spots everyday to get the eggs, but twice this week, the eggs were broken in both spots. On Friday night, B heard something in the outside cupboard and saw a black tail and said, "Come on Nova" and out waddled a skunk!

Reading I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (really enjoying it, Cassandra is a sweet and funny narrator. Definitely giving Francie vibes - from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) Also reading, My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix (our next Lit Ladies book club pick!) which is pretty engaging but campy horror isn't really my favorite. I attended book club with the Somerset teachers and we chatted about It's Not Her by Mary Kubica at Pour on Center in Ebensburg. It was a beautiful afternoon and we had an outside table - perfection! Most of us did not like the book, which was a relief since I absolutely hated it. hah.

Summer to do list completed: (I want this summer to be a very strong mix of getting things done + relaxing + growing as a person...very eldest daughter/Virgo coded of me, I'm aware).

eye appointments for Gemma and Reddy and I picked up my glasses
the summer feeding program started through the school and we picked up our food items (so helpful and always grateful for it!)
Gemma had two PT sessions and a check in with the orthopedic doctor who is discharging her from PT after her eighth session next week because she's made great progress (yay!)
I created and printed off the summer chore charts for the kids!
I organized my week into a flow: Monday = Home admin tasks (to do list randoms, website checking in needs, party planning, etc) Tuesdays and Thursdays = creative days (blogging, family yearbook, working on my book, creating videos, etc). Wednesday = school focused (Spanish podcasts, Spanish teacher blogs, working on curriculum map, professional development, etc) Friday = limit screen time, play, read
Violet and I rearranged the girls' bedroom to make for more space (which included her making some tough choices on getting rid of some stuffies - this girl loves her some cozy comforts like blankies and squishies, but her bed was too full! even she agreed)
I cleared out the snack cupboard and re-organized
I cleared out and purged the expired items from the medicine cabinet
I emptied my school bags and got rid of papers, organized office supplies, and stashed away old planners (which are my form of journal, lol)
Grey and I had a chiropractor appointment
Red & Olive helped me spread wildflower seeds at the turn in the driveway. Maybe they'll grow, maybe nothing will happen. Worth a try!
Gemma completed an enormous undertaking of clearing out clothes from the attic steps and her drawers - she filled 8 garbage bags full for donation!! (the handmedowns we receive are always appreciated but can certainly build up to overwhelming status quickly).

Mini road trip date to Altoona for B and I to return his wedding tux. Thank you to Abba & Chum who gave the kids a fun afternoon so that we could run out there together! (shhh! we got ice cream on the way home)

Massive change (mind, body, soul, & logistics) from Shutterfly to Mixbooks to make family yearbooks (!!) If you know me, you know this is shocking. Brandon literally said, "Holy shit, how are you feeling?" because he gets what an insane pivot this is. I have been making my family yearbooks and using Shutterfly exclusively for 15+ years!! But within this past year, they updated their book creation editor and I absolutely hate it. It is so clunky and unhelpful and really appears that it does not want the user to make the book- they just want everyone to pick for the tool to make it for them. I go full custom and resize photos and move things around and this new user interface makes it awful. I have been seeking out internet users' reviews and everyone agrees that it is terrible - someone even saying it feels 'anti-user aggressive' and honestly, yes. I waited six months because I was hoping they'd give an option for people to go back to the original editor (they did not) or change it back because everyone is reviewing it poorly (they did not) and this week, I just abandoned ship. I'm now going through the painstaking process of moving all photos from this year August-Present from google photos to Mixbooks (actually not too terrible because it syncs with google photos - which was one of my criteria) and the editor is very similar to the old editor from Shutterfly. I have A LOT of catching up to do since I'm losing any work I did in this year's yearbook already which feels pretty overwhelming but that's how committed I am!

Afternoon fishing camp visit when B suggested we load up and head out. Reddy is always asking to go fishing and we had a free afternoon, so we hopped in the truck and headed out to Bedford. Grey was at team basketball camp and Violet was at a sleepover with her friend, Bristol - so it was just B and I with four kids! Gemma and I mostly read on the shore (she's currently reading First and Forever by Lynn Painter and liking it), Olive waded into the water and played games about witches making potions, Rusty fished, waded with Liv, and whittled, and Reddy fished from the moment we got there until the moment we were literally dragging him out of the stream to leave.

Going out for Father's day. My sisters, Dad, and I went out for drinks and dinner to Tall Pines Distillery on Friday night. The place is so cool with tons of outdoor seating and such a relaxed vibe. We had a great evening chatting and laughing. We tried a tiny whiskey tasting flight and shared great appetizers. It was the perfect evening with just Dad and his daughters for father's day! Love you Dad!

Celebrating Tanner and Zion's wedding! We all (minus Grey who was at team basketball camp) hitched a ride on a tractor over to Tanner's wedding on Saturday afternoon which was perfect and so cute; Tanner and Zion both come from farming families. The ceremony was beautiful, the reception was meaningful and so fun. Tanner has a beautiful voice and she sang and recorded the father/daughter dance song as a surprise for her dad (okay, sobbing!) Tanner was also the football asst trainer all through high school, including for Brandon - so we got a picture of her and the two football coaches to share to the football page! What a perfect day and congratulations to Tanner and Zion!

Grad Parties this week: football player/friend Cohen "Curly" Stahl and basketball teammate/friend Carson Brotz

Time with family and friends. Rusty got a sleepover and fun with Chum this week, Violet had Evaley over to play and got a sleepover with Bristol at the Maurer's house. Gemma had vacation care duty of Peaches the pup and babysat Norah and let Olive tag along to play (Olive's best day!) Grey went fishing with Gabe, The kids spent the afternoon at Abba&Chum's house while B and I went to Gemma's soccer game and then returned the wedding tuxes in Altoona (thank you!)

Sporting with one all-star baseball practice for Rusty. Gemma had two soccer kick-arounds, two basketball open gyms, three summer league basketball games, her last Gators soccer game, and two physical therapy sessions on her ankle. Grey had one football practice, one summer league basketball game, and then left for basketball team camp at Juniata on Friday morning that will go through Sunday. They played seven games in two days and won six of them (six-sevennnnnn). He patiently sent me updates on his feet because you know I be worrying after this past basketball season's fiasco!! Grey and Gemma also went to weightlifting/ conditioning five days this week.

Making church picnic grill chicken salads, teriyaki chicken, roasted broccoli and noodles, take out sub sammies from Em's, Leftovers with a side of mac&cheese, Korean beef over noodles with green beans, and crack chicken sammies. B, Grey, Violet, and Pappy made the first stop on their unofficial summer local chicken wing tour at The Grove and B, Gemma, and I had brunch at Ryan's Artisan Goods after her PT appointment and after B's iCare appt where he picked up a Zpack for a viral infection (my poor honey). I made a quad batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies for our house and also for Weightroom Wednesday snack. For breakfast, I made banana bread.

Movement: I skated 4.9 miles in total this week! I rollerbladed four times and took another fall which ripped up the same knee; removing the previous scab. Yikes (!!), it was gross and pretty painful. I took a long walk with the kids (to let my knee injury scab over!) instead of blading two days in a row. I am getting strong enough now to track miles while rollerblading and I'm doing a mile with ease (and usually NOT falling, hah). I tried out a new rollerblading spot - Sandyvale Memorial Park while Gem was at PT (I liked it!)

Around Here Week 23: 06/07-13

2026-06-30T10:00:14.378-04:00

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

my former NS student, Drew!
(once my kid, always my kid - even when you're literally an adult with a job, LOL!)

photo cred: Lisa G

photo cred: Tausha G

photo cred: Heather R

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 204+ hrs (of 1000)
It was a hot and muggy one! We did get a really great summer thunderstorm that hit right at the point that everyone was feeling like the mugginess was absolutely unbearable and then the cool driving rain brought the temperature down to manageable (it was perfection). I did choose to turn on the AC on Friday because I had a big day of baking cookies for the wedding and I knew the oven was going to be on all day. Friday morning at 6:15am the house was already at 79 degrees with a forecast of a high of 80 degrees and humidity of 90%. Yikesss.

Reading and finishing The Correspondent by Virginia Evans It was beautiful and terribly heartbreaking. But I loved it. (readers get it). The style of the book - all the letters was such an engaging way to give enough unique and specific details to feel like you really knew the characters. It was not the whole story; so much was left out: spans of time, what people ate and drank, descriptions of settings...but then it was intimate enough through the letters. I loved it. Then started I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith which was a recommendation for people who like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (my favorite book). I feel the same vibe and I'm really liking it so far.

Summer to do list completed:

Violet and I went to the eye doctor where my former student Drew was our technician!! So proud of him and loved seeing him and catching up. #oncemykidalwaysmykid
Gemma went to physical therapy twice this week for her ankle/foot
Reddy, Rusty, and Olive washed the car for me with the hose and sponges!
Stopped by The Laurel & Leaf bookstore to pick up summer reading for the girls (and I unnecessarily bought three more books to add to my list...I cannot be trusted in a bookstore - this is a well documented fact). I got Margo's Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe (and joined the Laurel&Leaf book club with this first pick!), Theo of Golden by Allen Levi, and First Time Caller by BK Borison
Figured out how to clean up the storage on my phone so I stop getting error messages. I have so many photos and videos and I was hesitant to delete them because I couldn't figure out how to delete them from my phone but NOT delete them from google photos (cloud storage). But the internet provided helpful information - I needed to delete them from Google Files on my phone which only removes them from my device and NOT from google photos(cloud). YAY! (this was also one of my 100 small things!)

sad, sad, sad. we assisted Bullet over the rainbow bridge on Tuesday evening. Our kindhearted vet made a home visit for our 17year old boy. He has honestly been a menace his whole life up until these last two years where he was such an old man, he couldn't get into much trouble. We got him as a pup from the shelter and ever since then he has been his own special kind of nutty. Over the years, he has been skunked innumerous amounts of times, once porcupine quill'ed in the face, ate many full sticks of butter, brought a playing-dead possum into our house and set it under the Christmas tree, was caught in a fox trap thrice. He snatched food from tables, counters, and hands if you weren't paying attention. He terrorized every single person that drove up our driveway (sorrynotsorry to all! We always knew if someone was here). When large groups of people were here, we had to put Bullet in our room because it was too overwhelming for him and he was always too overwhelming for everyone else. If you have met Bullet, you remember Bullet because he probably did some bizarre thing while you were here and probably thought to yourself- why the heck do the Studers keep this dog?!

But also, he was our first dog as a married couple. We rescued him from the shelter six months before our first kid was born. He saw and cared for every baby we ever brought into this house including our kids, our nephews, any friends' kids, and all baby animals (chickies, duckies, puppies, kitties). He was a child's dog for sure - they dressed him up, rode his back, made him wear party hats, danced and snuggled with him. He loved catching snowballs in winter and jumping through leaf piles in the fall. He would swim until he drowned if we let him. Bullet and I have walked hundreds of miles together just to get his energy out. On Christmas morning, he would wait until the kids were all downstairs, then sniff out his gift and sit in the middle of the room among piles of wrapping paper gnawing on his bone while surrounded by Christmas morning joy. He did his job when I was here up on the mountain alone with all these babies - no one was ever showing up to the house unannounced - Bullet was sure of that. He was not a very well behaved dog (understatement of 17 years) but he was a good boy in his own way. This pup had one hell of a ride. Bullboy, we loved you and were blessed to be loved by you. Your loyalty to us was unmatched.

Officially summer with pool days! We hung out at Pappy's house on Sunday and the boys grilled lunch (kielbasa, veggies, tortellini on the blackstone). It was hot enough that we were all able to get in and enjoy the very cold first time in the pool for the season. Then later in the week, the kids and I headed out to Altoona to spend the afternoon with our favorites, the Fiores! Delicious snacks, yapping the entire time with Kate, and the kids laughing and playing - a perfect afternoon! Thank you for hosting, Kate!

Clapping for our solar panels because we got our electric bill this month and it was -89$. hahhaha, NEGATIVE dollars. I'll take it! (fyi: that doesn't come as a check, it will be applied to our account and put towards the winter months when the panels aren't making so much - but still a win for sure!)

Wedding outfit shopping with just the girls. I am grateful that all the boys (even Grey!) just trusts me to get something that looks good on them and goes with the vibe. And thank goodness for Marshalls who always has things that we need for all the sizes of our family and affordable enough to swing it in our big family (not sponsored, just actually thankful. but by all means Marshalls - we'd love a brand deal - LOL).

Rolling our eyes at the guinea chickens because they chatter so much. All day long they squawk around in a little group. Olive calls them "The Goonies" and sometimes when they start yapping, she says, "Hit it Goonies!" and starts dancing to their sounds. (this child! She is a riot!) The Goonies have started tapping on the sliding glass door in the mornings to let me know they are ready for me to come feed them (!) We do still have a fox situation going on, so when they get super loud at the same time Osa starts barking, we know to look out to for the fox trying to sneak in. (swiper, no swiping!)

Cousin day at our house with the Moore Boys. We got to host the nephews at our house on Friday and it is always more fun with cousins around. They played nerf battles and jumped on the trampoline and had picnic lunches together.

Thankful for Lamont who got all the boys trimmed and shaved up just in time for the wedding! (We love you 'Mont!)

Crafting all week for the WWE surprise entrances for the wedding. B's cousin Butter was obsessed with WWE growing up and the cousins wanted to honor that with a WWE surprise entrance mid-way through the reception - we got permission from the bride! (we love you Becky - what a good sport!) The boy cousins all spent the last two weeks studying their characters and we got the parts of their costumes ordered. This week, I made streamer arms in yellow and purple and a pair of yellow (duct tape) boots for Brandon Macho Man Randy Savage. We procured chaps from Uncle Buck for Greyson Sexy Boy Shawn Michaels, and I hot glued spikes onto Rusty & Rowen's Legion of Doom shoulder pads. I also coordinated with the DJ to make sure he had the music and vision - LOL.

Butter & Becky's wedding! What a perfect day! First we attended the rehearsal and dinner on Friday. The kids were overjoyed to see their Gilmore cousins! We all were secretly chatting about the wrestling entrance surprises for the wedding, trying to not let Butter hear us. We met up for a little post-rehearsal hang at the Tollgate too and laughed and chatted with all the cousins. I love seeing B so happy surrounded by his cousins. (xxo). On wedding day - B, Grey, and Rusty headed out to the groom's suite at The Willow early in the morning to hang out and get ready with Butter. They took the xbox and wiffle ball game supplies and had a great morning hanging out with the dudes. Gemma and Violet spent the morning with Becky in the bridal suite helping set up the reception hall and even getting their hair done professionally (Becky - you were so sweet to include them!) Reddy, Olive, and I met up with cousin Lisa at the hotel pool to swim for awhile and then get ready. The weather was perfect, the ceremony was meaningful (never been to a wedding I didn't cry at!) and the reception was gorgeous and so fun. The wrestling entrances went on without a hitch and Butter smiled and laughed the whole way through it (so did all the guests!) The boys played outside including a giant wiffle ball game and my girls danced the entire time. We were so thankful to be part of your day - congrats Becky & Butter, we love you!

Smiling when Reddy was whispering to me during the ceremony. First when B walked in with his wedding partner he said, "Who is that?! Daddy should be walking with you only!" Then when Becky walked in, he said, "She looks so beautiful! I bet Butter loves this day!" and then later when I asked him who he thought he would marry someday, he said, "I don't know - maybe Becky because she is so beautiful!"

Grad parties this week: cousin Grace at the Quemahoming Dam - so proud of you Gracie girl!

Time with family and friends. Rusty went to his baseball games this week with friends and family (thank you Maurers and Pappy!) Violet hosted a sleepover with Evaley at our house and got to babysit Lily at our house this week, Gemma had a playdate with Abigail and got her nails done at her friend Amiyah's house (thank you Amiyah!) Grey went to main moon with the football guys and had a pool hang with friends at Quinn's house

Sporting with the first week of offseason weightlifting and conditioning with our amazing strength coach, Coach Mike! Gem & Grey (as varsity athletes) go to WL/C every single day. MWF from 7a-9a and TTh 6-8p. Coach Mike builds programs for all our Varsity athletes for the positions they will be playing in the fall and he is awesome and the kids love him. On Wednesday mornings, I send in baked goods to all the fall athletes who show up for WL/C - this week they had cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing! This week was also the youth basketball camp that Grey and Gemma volunteered at - Grey all five days and Gemma volunteered three days because she had physical therapy for her ankle twice during camp time. Gemma also volunteered as a Ref at a 10U AYSO game, and had three basketball games, and was asst trainer at the Ken Lantzy football game. Grey had two basketball games, a football practice, and two basketball practices (on top of WL/C and volunteering at the youth bball camp). Violet had her last Sparks soccer game (thanks for hosting the post-season picnic, Mocks!). Rusty had his last youth minors baseball games (but confirmed that he will play in the upcoming allstars Slamfest tournament), and Reddy had his last coach pitch baseball game. Thank you youth league coaches - we appreciate your time and patience!!

Making kielbasa tortellini on the blackstone at Pappy's pool, smash burgers with roasted potatoes, sheet pan chicken fajitas, ground turkey egg roll in a bowl, mini sub sammies bar, beef and cheddar sammies, For desserts I made Lucky Charms rice krispie treats. For Weightroom Wednesday (the first of the summer!) I made cinnamon rolls with cream cheese icing. For Butter & Becky's wedding cookie table (a PA wedding tradition!) I made four dozen each of Sugar cookie swirls, strawberry crinkle cookies, and Mexican wedding cookies.

Movement: rollerblading five days this week and two weightlifting sessions with B. New rollerblading skills - increasing speed tolerance, "Lemon" motion with my feet, and overall stamina. I learned pretty quickly that I am NOT ready for sidewalks. I tried skating down a beautiful tree lined street in Westmont and then promptly busted and got a new scrape on my knee. I stuck to parking lots after that for the rest of the week, hah. I keep my rollerblades in the trunk of the car, so anytime we go some where that has a parking lot, I tell the kids, "Hold on, I'm going to get a quick blade in" - which makes me laugh every single time and gets an eye rolled, "Mommmmm, no you are not" from them.

Around Here Week 22: 05/31-06/06

2026-06-24T07:47:18.646-04:00

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

photo cred: Becky C

photo cred: B

photo cred: Becky C

photo cred: Abby U

photo cred: Becky C

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 186+ hours (of 1000)
My first week of Summer but doesn't quite feel like it because it's still pretty much mayhem with the big kids' last three days and all the sports and places to be at certain times. I know it is right there on the horizon and I am very relieved to not be rushing in the morning for school. I'm starting off by getting organized (my planner and lists are going wild) and by trying to catch up on all the very obvious things that have been building up in the last sprint of end of school year - mainly LAUNDRY. The kids and I did take Osa on a walk though and that felt like summertime at least.

Reading The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, really liking it and enjoying the style of the book through all the letters. Just enough of a glimpse into her life that I feel very invested.

Listening to and finishing It's Not Her by Mary Kubica (still hate it).

School stuff this week:

Violet went to the Flight 93 memorial for a field trip
Grey & Gemma both participated in the annual SHOFCO soccer tournament at their school. Grey's team did great and made it to the semifinals. Gemma's jr high team made it all the way to the championship games at night and she got to participate in the student vs. teacher game!
Rusty took his birthday snack in for his classmates and teachers
I took the last day of school photos of the kids

Summer to do tasks completed:

Called the vet to discuss options for our old man, Bullet
scheduled an Orthodontist appointment for Rusty
created a custom gift for our ELEVEN football seniors who graduated this year (so proud of you fellas!) and who all invited us to their graduation parties this summer
I updated the girls' mini flyers to hand out to their teachers before they left for the school year offering their babysitting services (Gemma - actual babysitter that can be home with kids with no parents and/or house sitter for vacations. And, Violet - "mother's helper" to be available to play with kids while the parent is still home)
Updated the June fridge calendar and did my monthly doodle design (limes & lemons!)
Brushed Osa really good (she loved it)
Olive had a check up with the dentist because her filling fell out (ugh). It was a very traumatic experience getting the filling last summer, but our dentist is the best (Dr. Garver) and he gave her a temporary fix up in hopes that her baby teeth will fall out before it really starts bothering her - fingers crossed!

Rusty turns TEN! My Mr. Handsome had his tenth birthday on the last day of school! Two whole hands worth of life and as always, it went incomprehensibly fast (even if the kids think it took for.ev.errrrr) We celebrated at night at our house with a fire and smores. He wanted pumpkin roll as the official birthday dessert, and he also got to take mini donuts into school, and I made baseball donuts to share with his teammates after his baseball game. We are planning a summer party!

It's summer vacation! The kids had their last day of school on Wednesday (Rusty's 10th birthday!) and everyone is relieved to have the wide open summer waiting for us. Although, in a family of eight with four athletes and a football coach for Dad...you can imagine we are not looking at summer with full freedom of time - but we try to make as many opportunities for rest, catching up on projects/chores, and fun as possible.

Celebrating Aunt Kitty's birthday. We had a cookout and fire at Uch&Kevin's house. Everyone secretly prepared a poem for kitty and we got to read it aloud at the party. The kids ziplined and went on the swing like little maniacs. I made a chocolate chip cookie cake with homemade icing (my both time for both - I learned how to stack/ cut out the numbers!) and we had yummy rice bowls (thanks uch!) A great summer night celebrating Kitty!

Grad parties this week: for two friends/football players: Stephen Stango and Aiden "Burnie" Burnworth

Time with family and friends Violet celebrated the last day of school by going to the Que with her friend Brody then got to spend the day with Chum (they went golfing!), Gemma kicked off summer with a house sitting gig for the Altimore's and got to go out to eat and get new sneakers with Chum (who took her to PT on Thursday - thank you!!), Grey is starting his summer off with a lot of fun (will be the summer of friends, I suspect!) He went to the pool parties at Gina's house (twice) and Quinn's house with the friend group. We all had dinner with Pappy on the way home from the soccer tournament at a cool place called Bube's Brewery in Lancaster County.

Sporting with Olive and Coach Mom who had their last three games this week (we celebrated with a mini snack party after our last game). Red had two baseball games adn Rusty had three baseball games (one where we had baseball donuts to celebrate). Violet had two 12U AYSO games, 1 Sparks soccer game (finishing the Alliance Tournament on Sunday), two Sparks soccer practices, two AYSO All star soccer practices, and the AYSO All Star tournament at CT on Saturday (her team won first place!) Gemma Ref'ed two AYSO games, had two physical therapy sessions on her ankle, had one summer league basketball game, and was asst trainer at the 7v7 for football. Grey had four summer league basketball games, one football practice, and a football 7v7 at River Valley on Saturday. Grey and Gem both played in the annual schoolwide SHOFCO soccer tournament! Grey & Gem both also finished their weight lifting/conditioning testing days to set their baseline with Coach Mike and the Varsity sports off season programs. Brandon and I each got a day in the youth league concessions stands too!

Making sloppy joes with peas&cheese noodles, chicken, broccoli alfredo pasta, hot dogs and buff chicken dip with veggie dippers, homemade stromboli and homemade pizza (dbl batch of dough), instagram chicken with green beans, meat spaghetti, and crack chicken sammies. I made oatmeal/ pb/ choco chip cookies for home, pumpkin roll with cream cheese icing for Rusty's birthday, and cookie cake with homemade buttercream icing for Kitty's birthday party. For breakfast on Saturday, I made chocolate croissants.

Movement: I saw a reel that said, "it was easier to move when we were younger because we just did the thing that we loved" and when I was young, I loved jumping on the trampoline (VERY difficult now after six kids and a bladder that just cannot). But I also loved rollerblading - inspired by this reel and really wanting to MOVE; I purchased rollerblades and truly believed that I was just going to strap them on and be able to do it again. LOL FOREVER, girl you were out of your mind!? It is a re-learning for sure and holy heck does rollerblading take a lot of muscles, balance, and stamina that I have not used in probably 30 years. And believe me, I have the scrapes and bruises to show for it after this week! I literally was able to go only about 5 minutes without my ankles throbbing and staying balance at the start of the week. But I kept trying, a little each day and watching tutorials on instagram and slowly (SLOWLY) I am getting stronger and better. This week, I rollerbladed six days! New rollerblading skills - increasing stamina and I went from rollerblading on our blacktop to making (slow and cautious) loops around the elementary school parking lot! I only have one injury - a big scrape on my elbow! (I know you're asking - are you wearing protective gear? and the answer is no because I'm stubborn and dumb).

Around Here Week 21: 05/24-05/31

2026-06-19T08:08:45.441-04:00

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

photo cred: Deanna M

photo cred: Violet

photo cred: Eva Mc

photo cred: Gabey

photo cred: Onara C

my velcro children. hah.

photo cred: Miss Emma

happy birthday in heaven, gigi.

photo cred: Onara C

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 152+ hours (of 1000)
hammock is up, let the summer reading in the hammock begin! Up 16 hours this week thanks to sports, graduation, and pretty evenings!

Reading and finishing Mistakes Were Made by Lucy Score. Cute and exactly what I expect from Lucy Score. A nice, brainless read that has me smiling at the romcom. I stopped by my favorite local book store The Leaf and Laurel Bookshop and picked up my summer reading book haul! The first true sign that summer vacation is here: A giant pile of TBR books! Brandon and the kids had to endure my read aloud of the back of every book and then we participated in a sniff test and decided that Heart the Lover by Lily King had the best book smell!

Listening to It's Not Her by Mary Kubica and sorry, I'm hating it. Pushing through though because it is a book club choice...but literally rolling my eyes constantly at the awful writing. The story plot isn't terrible but the writing is so terrible I am completely disengaged as a reader/listener.

School stuff this week:

Violet had a field trip to the aviary with the fifth grade
Since Red and Olive didn't have school all week, we made arrangements for their care - Pappy had a playdate with them on Tuesday, Miss Baylee came to our house on Wednesday, and they got to hang out with their Moore cousins and Miss Emma on Thursday and Friday (including a sleepover - thank you Uch & Kev!)
Grey had finals this week which meant after tests, they were dismissed early. Grey and his friends took advantage of that by fishing literally every single afternoon!
Violet and I finished organizing, labeling, and packing all the fifth grade promo tshirts and delivered them to the ceremony on Thursday night. Our dining room table was filled with the bags all week
Fifth grade promotion ceremony and party this week for Violet!

Blessed with bonus kids - I don't ever remember anyone telling me how wonderful it will be to love your kids' friends as they grow up, so let me be the one to tell YOU! The bonus kids we have in our kids' friends is some bigtime joy as a mom. There are some of our kids' friends that we have known, had over to our house, and cheered for in sports for 10 years now! And we know there are still friends of our kids that we don't even know yet as they continue to grow up. If our kids (who we adore) pick a friend who they like - it's pretty much a guarantee that we are going to enjoy that kid too. (our kids have picked some pretty freaking awesome young people to spend their days with!) Not just a bonus kid to Brandon and I, but bonus siblings/friends to all our kids too. All of our kids are cushioned in joy from the friendships of their siblings. As just one example - Grey's besties Reed and Bryce helped Rusty with his pitching this week and I couldn't help but marvel at how cool it would be as a ten year old to get pitching tips from three of the starting infield Varsity players (big bro Grey and his two best friends). Our little kids get high fives and hugs from so many teenagers (siblings' friends, teammates, and the entire football team). Our big kids have their names shouted across fields and rooms by younger kids (siblings' friends and teammates) who are looking for recognition and high fives. Truly, what a gift it is to be part of a community and let people in.

Celebrating Violet who had her fifth grade promotion ceremony and party this week! She and I got all the tshirts organized just in time! Then Brandon got to give her the promotion letter on stage at the ceremony since he works at the school. On Friday, B and I both volunteered at the PTA organized annual 5th grade promotion party where the kids rollerbladed through the school, played on the bounce houses, and got their faces painted. B helped with bubble soccer and Rusty and I manned the dance party room. It was a great party and our fearless PTA leader Jess Claycomb did an incredible job making the entire promotion events go beautifully (we appreciate you, Jess!) So proud of our Violet and she cannot wait to get to the big school next year!

Wishing a happy heavenly birthday to our Gigi. We sang over cookies to her. miss you everyday, gigi.

Releasing our painted butterflies. Red, Olive, and I let our butterflies loose on Saturday morning. We had four survive (one didn't form it's chrysalis correctly). We let them go in the front yard, right near our blooming flowers.

Sending Uchie and the Moore boys big hugs and kisses for taking care of the farm while we were away at the soccer tournament and graduation party. My speech for anyone who takes care of our farm while we are away is, "Thank you so much and if animals die, they die. It's fine." LOL, if you have a farm, you get that. It's the wild wild west out here man; foxes that eat chickens, goats that get fatally sick at the drop of a dime, a 17year old dog...you never know what's going to happen in a day. Thankfully no animals died while we were away, however, I did get a text, "Two goats are out, so now what?" I told her if she felt safe leading them into the pasture with goat feed she can do that, or whatever leave them out too if she was nervous to which she responded, "I am not letting them eat your flowers!!" So it was Uchie to the goat retrieval rescue with her three little boys helping lead the parade! (Officially Goat Queen, we appreciate you Uch!)

Driving practice for Grey continuing to go very well. I am grateful he is a cautious driver and honestly, being a passenger princess is just fine with me! He got big time practice this week when he drove the Turnpike from Pittsburgh to Elizabethtown!! Teaching a kid to drive is such a great reflection on all the things that need talked through for decision making. We have always been a No Screens Car with the kids, so they have watched us as drivers their whole lives - often times asking us why we make choices or noticing how close we are to grandparents' houses by looking out the window. But now with an actual kid driving, the little things that are so random that could use talking through and practiced keep popping up. I am a forward thinking and preparing person, so I prefer to talk through and practice as many things as possible together before my teen driver has to face them on his own. Some of the things I have added to our practice list include (and probably will continue to grow as things come up naturally):

Highway/turnpike: cruise control, blind spots of tractor trailers, etc
Bad weather: downpours (you know the ones I mean - like a bucket of water thrown at your windshield), windshield wipers speeds, four-ways, braking on wet roads, etc
Busy times of tricky intersections: right-a-ways and why
Windshield madness: ya know when the windshield starts fogging up and you don't know what combination of what to press to clear it (AC/heat/wipers/wiper fluid) - LOL, that is the worst.
Using GPS maps while driving (not relying on the passenger)
Alternative routes: when you miss an exit or turn onto the highway by accident, or just taking alt routes through our town to frequented places

Grad parties this week: cousin Reid Gilmore in Elizabethtown

Time with family & friends. Violet and Rusty had a great time at Yogi Bear with the Maurers, although I had to pick Rusty a little early because he had too much fun and ended up getting sick. Violet stayed on over the Memorial Day and came home with the cutest beaded braid in her hair and lots of memories (thank you Maurers!) Fishing for the boys, B, Pappy, and the Conns on Memorial Day.

Teaching the last week of school! No classes at the elementary school because of their early summer break, but I did get all my stuff packed up and moved to my new space for next year. Thankfully everything fit inside of the closet space and it can just hide there through renovations! At the high school, we had Somerstock (annual field day) and I got to spend the afternoon with my friend and coworker Loni as we chaperoned all the outdoor activities, including Live music from our school's rock band and a student band (so proud to know them!) We also had Tractor day (students drive their farm tractors to school), and awards and the last short day. It was a whirlwind, but my students all helped me take my room down and they finished Selena the movie just in time! Oh, and lots of Just Dance (duh). Graduation was on Friday night and I have never attended a graduation ceremony that I didn't cry - that still holds true. So proud of those kids and so excited for what is to come next in their lives. Congrats class of 2026! I know you'll make the world a better place. xxo

Sporting with Rusty's two youth league minors baseball games.Violet had one AYSO All-stars soccer practice, one Sparks soccer practice, and it was the Alliance tournament this weekend for Sparks (she played two games on Saturday). Gemma had physical therapy for her ankle twice this week, She had one kickaround for SHOFCO, and one summer league basketball game. Grey had one summer league basketball game and attended the QB Combine at Valley HS on Saturday morning (thank you for taking him Pappy!)

Making Ranch porkchops with green beans, sheetpan chicken fajitas, roasted broccoli and mac&cheese, copycat Olive Garden chicken and pasta, take out pizza.

Around Here Week 20: 05/17-23

2026-06-13T08:24:27.130-04:00

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

photo cred: CTASD

photo cred: Sam R

photo cred: Heather R

three graduates in the family!

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Deanna M

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 136+ hours (of 1000)
It is definitely spring in Pennsylvania which means you have to change your wardrobe five times in the day to accommodate for the weather. It's a surprise everyday (sometimes every hour) which season we will experience - almost summer like with blue skies and sun so bright you're squinting and sweating to strong winds and chilly light rain that gives football season vibes to downright cold and questioning if those are raindrops or snowflakes. Western PA is not a place to live if you like consistency or predictability when it comes to your weather.

Reading and finishing Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. An important and incredibly well done coming of age story. Thank you Jenn V for the borrow and suggestion! Next I started Mistakes Were Made by Lucy Score which I am reading alongside my friend and coworker Elizabeth. We both purchased our book at the book launch party for my friend Renee's book shop The Laurel & Leaf. Lucy Score is generally a good time, so it is easy to get back into the small town vibes story. Speaking of The Laurel & Leaf bookstore, I got my summer reading book list sent to Renee to be ordered this week, yay!!

Listening to and finishing The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough. Holy Cow, what an amazing, detailed account of that event. I got to have dinner and chatting with the people who participated in The Path of the Flood reading group too! For the past few months, I have managed a facebook group with other readers as we read the book and we finally got together in person to discuss the book. It was so nice to hear everyone's thoughts and reflections. How grateful I was to go into the restaurant that night, not really knowing who (if anyone!) would be there and in total there were seven of us - three of whom are good friends and educators! (thank you for participating Megan, Jakeb, and Renee!)

School stuff this week:

Rusty and the third graders had their Pittsburgh zoo field trip
Violet and her group did their presentation on France
Olive had her snack day on her birthday - she took in mini donuts to share
Grey and Gem took their necessary Keystone state testing exams this week (Lit & Bio for Grey and Algebra for Gem)
I emailed photos of Violet and her friends over the years for the fifth grade promotion video
Red & Olive graduated from PreK and had their last day of school on Friday!

Thinking of Gigi on the second year anniversary of her passing. Two years later and I am no way exaggerating in the least when I say I still cannot believe it. Just impossible that she is not alive. I miss her everyday, most days in a dull heartache, but some days in a flash of shock and absolute despair. For the smallest reason, the grief washes over in a tidal wave and feels unbearable. But I let the tears come and take some deep breaths and can get through the surprise of how deep the water still feels without her. (Grief is like glitter). We talk about her all the time, I send photos to B and Pappy and the big kids when they pop up in my memory feed. The windchime in our back yard rings and we say that is Gigi talking to us (Olive sits out there under the tree and says 'hi Gigi'). Gemma wears her jewelry, Violet wears her smile. We are all always looking at the clock right at 4:44 and know it's her. Brandon finds quarters every where and says, "Mom, how about you start leaving my $20 dollar bills - you know I got all these kids to feed!" She is part of our lives every single day. Love you gigi.

Celebrating our FIVE YEAR OLD babiest baby Olive! We had tacos and confetti cake gobs with homemade whip cream filling for dinner. She took in mini donuts to school for snack and mini cupcakes to her soccer game to share with teammates. We have a Teen Beach Movie birthday party planned but had to reschedule it because the weather is not giving beach vibes (at all - high of 40 degrees and rain!?) My youngest baby is five years old which seems an impossibility - although she sure has the sassiness to match! She is the perfect amount of sweet and sassy and she is absolutely adored (and babied) by everyone in the family. Our little queenie Loopy Lou, she rules the roost!

Applauding our two pre-K graduates! Maple Ridge held their PreK graduation ceremony on Thursday night and B and I got to watch Red and Liv sing their songs, dance, and receive their diplomas. What a blessing the PreK teachers and Maple Ridge have been to our family this year. Red and Olive learned and grew so much - they made friends, read great stories, and took field trips. Their lives (all our lives) were enriched by the educators that helped them get ready for Kindergarten. They adore the teachers, principals, aides, and all school workers that they were encouraged by this year. Some favorites were their teachers (obviously) Mrs. Gongloff, Mrs. Lesko, and Mrs. Cook and the classroom aides, Ms. Heather and Ms. Cookie. Their beloved principal Mr. Spangler, their funny and cool gym teacher Mr. McCormick, and their amazing bus driver, Mr. Brandon were among the ones most talked about at home.

Giving Violet & Rusty a kiss goodbye as they headed off to Yogi bear campground with the Maurer family for Memorial day weekend. A long weekend full of camping, swimming, Spike ball, biking, and time with friends - the luckiest! (thank you for having them!)

Cheering on the runners at the Path of the Flood race on Saturday morning. Uch was part of the Path of the Flood race committee this year (bravo!) and we set up our aide/water/cheer station in the usual spot - in Woodvale before the tunnel only about a mile from the finish line. We are the last spot to charge up and make it to the end. We take it as a personal challenge to motivate the runners and get them to smile and keep on keeping on. One runner said to us, "I really thought I was going to get up here and there was going to be like 50 people cheering and here is just you four." Hahhhaa, we take our jobs of motivating the runners with fun and joy very very seriously. It was a great morning spent with my Mumma and sisters. (xxox love you more)

Taking a day of rest on Saturday and doing literally the bare minimum. We mostly lounged around, read, and took a long hot shower. I literally went to bed at 7p on Saturday and it was amazing. The weather was perfect for doing nothing (rainy, chilly, and dreary) and I think my soul really was grateful to have no expectations. Brandon and I kept looking at chores (laundry, vacuuming, etc) and saying, "I think that's a tomorrow problem, right?" LOL, sorry Tomorrow Tab & Brandon!

Time with family and friends. Gemma went thrift shopping with Aunt Kitty, out to eat with Abba and Chum, and had two soccer kickarounds with her friends at the high school field. Grey went to the outdoor store with the Conn family (thank you!) and then to Applebee's all you can eat ribs with the guys. We had lots of help for rides/games on Thursday night of PreK graduation - thank you to Chum, Pappy, and Kitty who all snagged big kids to go to games/practices while B and I attended preK graduation.

Teaching the last week of elementary school! The lower grades were done one week earlier than the upper grades because they are having massive renovations over the summer and all the teachers needed time to get packed up and ready. The younger kids had zero complaints - hah! In expo, we finished the geography unit and started on week 4, but abbreviated because the eighth graders had some special events planned. Spanish 1 learned about Selena and we started watching the movie while also de-decorating my room (a very big task). Spanish 2 turned in their final house projects with essays and their speaking presentations. So proud of all of them - I loved seeing their creativity on their house designs.

Sporting with two 6U AYSO soccer games for Olive and Coach Momma (we had birthday snacks after our game on her birthday!) Reddy had one coach pitch baseball game and Rusty had two minor youth league baseball games. Violet had one Sparks soccer practice and three 12U AYSO soccer games. Gemma turned in her softball uniform, REFed 14U and 10U AYSO soccer games, and had one Gators soccer game. Gem also went to get her ankle/foot checked that has been giving her trouble for the last year. No breaks were found, but she does have some weakness and stretched tendons - so she'll attend Physical Therapy for eight sessions and have it rechecked. Grey had four baseball practices and one District5 semifinal baseball game (we lost - our first loss of the season which also made it our last game of the season!! Heartbreaking, but a record of 19-1 is something to be proud of - You can hold your heads up high, fellas!)

Making kielbasa, veggies, and tortellini on the blackstone, ground beef tacos, crack chicken sammies, church picnic chicken on the blackstone with roasted broccoli, and buffalo chicken dip. We also had dinner out to celebrate Red and Olive's PreK graduation at Tailgatez (my favorite grilled chicken salad!) and I made brownies with peanut butter on top (just like Gigi) and confetti cake cookie gobs for Olive's birthday.

Around Here Week 19: 05/10-16

2026-06-10T11:09:25.772-04:00

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

photo cred: Candace M

Mother's day charcuterie by Gemma

photo cred: Jenilee L

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

end of year shenanigans

photo cred: Deanna M

photo cred: B

photo cred: Jamie K

photo cred: Candace M

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 123+ hours (of 1000)
I love you, spring. welcome back.

Reading and finishing Lost Man's Lane by Scott Carson. I really enjoyed the book and laughed a lot of the time thanks to the character Weller specifically but also just the narration of a teen growing up in the 90's. It was spooky at times and supernatural and really great characters. Giving Stranger Things coming of age vibes - thank you Russell T for the recommendation! Next up is Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. It has been great so far and I am flying through it (graphic novel). Thank you Jenn V for the borrow! Two coming of age stories back to back with polar opposite settings and experiences!? wild.

Listening to The Johnstown Flood. I also scheduled our Path of the Flood book club meeting for Wednesday of next week so we can discuss the book before the race on Saturday!

Proud to stand with our Gemmi who was confirmed at St. David's on Sunday morning - a perfect Mother's day start! The mass was beautiful and Ms. Christy said kind and heartfelt words about each confirmand. A big thank you to all the youth mentors and teachers at St Davids - we appreciate you so much.

Celebrating Mother's day with Gemma's confirmation, Violet's sparks soccer game, and then my favorite foods at home (perfect!) Gemma made me a charcuterie board (you know your girl loves to be snacking!) and B made so much food on the grill - all my favorites: chicken, shrimp, fried rice with green onions on top! So many sweet texts from mom friends who I am grateful to walk alongside in this journey of motherhood. I will take the pampering, but it is honestly the privilege of my life to be their mother and his wife.

School stuff this week

Violet performed a solo in her spring concert
Rusty had a speaking part in his spring concert
Red & Olive enjoyed carnival day at PreK with a petting zoo, helicopter and fire truck visits, snow cones, and lots of games
Reddy & Liv got to visit the book fair at their school
Violet participated in the Math24 competition and made it to semi-finals
I ordered the babies' preK graduation outfits

So thankful to make it to everybody's stuff, even if only for a little bit. Many of the days this week were stacked with multiple activities, but through the grace of the universe and some logistical planning I was able to make it to see all the kids do some of their stuff. Monday alone was Gemma's softball game, Grey's parking lot send off for the Heritage championship baseball game, Coaching Olive's 6U AYSO soccer game, Reddy's baseball game, Violet's solo at her spring concert, and then rushing out to Marion Center (55min drive) to catch the last two innings of the championship baseball game - and they won! Thank goodness for grandparents and teammates who helped make sure all the kids got to where they needed and had cheering faces for the entire length of their activities. Our schedule is definitely full, but our hearts are even more so.

Smh because how did this outside cat become an inside/outside cat? Nova is living his best life running wild and free and hunting all the things outside and then takes long cat naps in the house (he loves the hallway closet upstairs, Olive's bed, and the yellow chair in the living room). The land of no rules because we all cherish snuggles and creatures too much.

Outside work day on Saturday so that we could get started on spring chores. Brandon and Grey stained/painted a bunch of things that needed some TLC (back porch posts and shutters) and everyone pitched in to mulch the flower beds around the house. I spent over an hour brushing Osa which she loved so much. We moved some seedlings to outside and did a lot of mowing. Grey and B even got the string lights hung up under my direction (hahhaa, they love that) It looks refreshed and ready for spring around here (at least on the outside of the house! hah!)

Happy birthday party to my baby sister Uchie. We hosted Uchie's party and I made the cake, but Kevin did all the planning and food prep! We hung around by the fire ring eating delicious food while the kids all ran around and played. We had got the string lights up just in time for the party (thank you B and Grey!) so it was all the right vibes while Gemma manned the playlist. Happiest birthday to my babyiest sis.

Time with family and friends: Rusty got a sleepover and fishing with his friend Liam, Violet had a birthday sleepover at Lillian's house. Grey went fishing with his buddies too. Heather and I had an end of the year lunch together in my classroom with sandwiches from Awakened Brewery (delicious!)

Teaching and really feeling the end of the year looming. I am sporadically seeing my elementary classes as they are bouncing around on field trips, but I got to celebrate with them at the end of year carnival day (where the PTA gets the teachers a coffee from the Tom's Coffee truck - yay!) The high school students had state testing this week, so the week is all off for scheduling - I missed two of my classes three times this week due to the scheduling changes.

Sporting with two 6U AYSO soccer games for Olive and Coach Momma. Reddy had one coach pitch youth baseball game and Rusty had one youth minors baseball game. Violet had one sparks soccer practice, two Sparks soccer games, and as a 'mathlete' she participated as the only girl on her team in the Math24 competition where she made it to semifinals! Gemma had one Gators soccer game, two softball games, and her last softball practice with the end of the year pizza party. Grey had one baseball practice, two baseball games - including the Heritage conference championship game that they won! Heritage Conference Champs! He also had his sports massage with Miss Emma this week. We all got to line the school parking lot on Monday afternoon to lead the baseball team out on their way to the championship game with cheers and honking! I got Rusty signed up for fall youth football, and scheduled everyone's well checks for the summer months so they could get their sports physicals for next season.

Gemma pitched for the first time ever (in her whole life) at one of her games this week and it was the epitome of what we believe is the value of sports as a parents. It was brutal, she's never pitched in a game before (practiced pitching for only the first time this season at home and at practice a few times) but her team needed her. It was brutal...brutal because pitching is just hard, because everyone at the field is literally looking at you do something you don't feel confident doing, because the entire game hinges on your performance. (It's still nerve-wracking to watch Grey pitch and he's been pitching since he was 9 years old). But despite the pressure, our girl HUNG IN THERE. She tried, tried, and tried again. She walked plenty of players, she struck out a few, she took deep breaths, her teammates gave her encouragement, she looked to her coaches for words of guidance and she tried so many times that the merciful other coach had his players make intentional errors to get out of the inning (which she was embarrassed by because she just couldn't make it happen herself while I was sending gratitude vibes to the coach for being so gracious about it). It was one of the bravest thing we've watched Gem do in a long time. She stuck it out and just kept trying. She kept herself composed on the mound, took a breath and faced the batter time and time again. At the end of the inning, she sobbed in the dugout out of frustration, out of disappointment, out of shame that she couldn't just do the thing she wanted her body to do. I got to hug her and said, "That was so brave!! Your team needed you and you stepped up to do it even though it felt like an impossible task! There is no shame in the way you held you head high and didn't give up. We are so proud of you!"

At Grey's championship game, he went to the mound to pitch the last two innings. I knew his shoulder has been bothering him and I sat wide eyed as he walked out there with the game on the line. (mommas to pitcher, IYKYK). He stayed calm and level headed, even as the game was incredibly high pressure. At one point, the count was full and the batter hit (I'm not even kidding) five foul balls - I knew Grey's shoulder was killing him, but he took a deep breath and shook it out and locked in to his job for his team. In the bottom of the last inning in which the game was tied up, I was wishing with all my might for a run - please don't let him have to go out again...I knew he would though, he would do what was needed for his team. God Bless, Brycey Conn (one of Grey's best friends) who hit the walk off RBI. When I got down to the field after the game, I gave Grey a hug and was overwhelmed with the smell of Biofreeze (thank you Reedy Conn for loading him up!)

That is why we value sports: of course, it is great to win, it is cool to be athletic - but sports expose and exploit your weaknesses and if you have the mental toughness to not give up - you get to stare the challenges in the face and say, "I'm going to try anyway." When the pressure is on and your teammates and coach are looking to you and saying, 'we need someone to keep their head even when the stakes feel high. We need someone who is going to help lead us to glory or carry the burden of defeat, can you be that guy?' and THOSE are the skills that serve you for the rest of your life.

Making instagram chicken with rice, meatball sub sammies, sheet pan chicken fajitas, beef ramen, take out pizza from Martin's (our fav!), spaghetti, For Uchie's birthday I made funfetti cake with homemade whipped cream icing and Kevin brought delicious food (burgers, shrimp, crab cakes!)

Around Here Week 18: 05/03-09

2026-06-06T21:47:52.084-04:00

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

photo cred: Serena B

photo cred: Heather R

both Studer boys pitching: Grey at CH on gamechanger and Rusty on the field!

selfie cred: my kids' Bonus Momma; Becky C!

photo cred: Eva M

photo cred: Coach Chad

LOL, this gamechanger while I'm at Reddy's baseball game!

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: CTHS

photo cred: Pappy

photo cred: Uch

Intentional Outdoor hours: 104+ hours (of 1000)
Lots of time at the fields this week to earn the hours. The weather is making its turn towards spring and we are getting more sunshine than rain, but still kind of chilly. I'm ready to lose shoes and jackets all together!

Reading Lost Man's Lane by Scott Carson. still very much enjoying it.

Listening to The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough which I am actually liking way more than reading the actual book. The narrator reads it more like a novel rather than me slogging through it like a nonfiction. I don't know how to explain it, but I'm able to get through it a lot easier than reading. I need to finish it as the Path of the Flood Race is this month and I'm literally the leader of the book club, LOL! The story is absolutely devastating and I keep ripping my headphones off to look at B and say, "My gosh, I can't not believe how terrible this was?!" The first person accounts are heartbreaking but I am warmed by how many people chose to be helpers even in the moments of pure terror and panic.

Pg 115, "A locomotive whistle was a matter of some personal importance to a railroad engineer....The whistle was part of the make-up of the man; he was known for it as much as he was known for the engine he drove....it could be used to aggravate a cranky preacher in the middle of his Sunday sermon or to signal hello through the night to a wife or a lady friend. But there was no horseplay about tying down the cord....The whistle of John Hess's engine had been going now for maybe five minutes at most...and nearly everyone in East Conemaugh heard it and understood almost instantly what it meant."

Shopping with the biggest three and something about being in a shopping center with my bigger kids makes me want to hug my younger self with little kids. What a nightmare it was to take the kids shopping when they were little - hahhaha, touching everything, hiding in the clothes racks, looking around panicked if they snuck away, everything tempting them closer to a tantrum to get what they wanted, ugh - it used to be terrible. And NOW?! it's actually fun and a great experience to see their personalities and find inside jokes. We needed to get the girls' upcoming concert outfits and Grey came with so he could drive us and it was such a nice little evening trip with just the big three. Oh younger Tab, hang in there girl - so much good and easier days to come (also a lot of different hard stuff too, but so so much good).

School stuff this week:

I donated blood at my school's student council blood drive
Violet & Evaley did an experiment and presentation on an egg parachute
Gemma had her spring chorus concert
Violet had her spring band concert
Reddy had his snack day
Gemma got to volunteer as a basketball player at the middle school assembly
The fifth grade promotion shirts were delivered (they look great!), now Violet and I have to organize before the end of the month!
I ordered Violet's outfit for promotion (she wanted a purple romper)

Helping Grey get his X account set up because we keep hearing that it is a good idea for athletes looking to play in college. Who knows?! (not me! but I'm trying to learn!) He is all set up and we are going to keep trying to figure out the next steps for literally everything because poor first baby has to drag his parents kicking and screaming into the next phase because we are so dang clueless and just want to hug and love him like he is only 7 years old forever. LOL. (Thank you always for being gracious and patient with us Booboo.)

Our caterpillars arrived! It is an annual spring tradition to order a cup of caterpillars from Insect Lore O raise and then release butterflies. The big kids don't care so much anymore, but Olive and Reddy were so excited and check in on them every single day to see how they are growing.

Chaperoning the PreK field trip to Jellystone Yogi Bear Campground, what incredible humans PreK teachers are! (we love you Mrs. Gongloff and Mrs. Cook and Mrs. Lesko!) I met the classes out at the campground and then we got to ride the train, the wagon, and a fire truck! The kids got to 'mine' for gemstones and play mini golf too. It was a fun day and I loved spending time with the babies and all their little friends they made this year.

Mothers' Day brunch at the Grey Goose with my mom, sisters, and Shelly. A perfect afternoon! We all rode out to Ligonier together and then had a delicious lunch with great chatting and laughter.

Time with family and friends We all got to celebrate our friend Bowen who had his birthday party with a bounce house (thank you Uch for taking the babies until the soccer game ended!) Red and Olive had a the best day ever with Miss Emma and their cousins on their day off from school for the Act 80 day (thank you Pappy for dropping them off in the morning!) Rusty got off the bus at Chum and Abba's house on Thursday and then they got him to his baseball game and sent videos to me (thank you!) Violet got to feed Bria's baby goats after Sparks practice (thank you Eva for all the rides!) Gemma got to babysit for the Bridges and then went to the movies with her friends. Grey and his friends played pickleball at Roxbury this week and he got to go fishing with Pappy.

Teaching only three days (honestly thank goodness) because we had an Act 80 day on Friday (lunch with Loni at Höm - delicious!) and I got to chaperone the PreK field trip to Yogi on Thursday! Elementary school continued watching Ferdinand and I had my last class with some of my students because of upcoming field trips and/or celebration days that happen on my special day for classes. Expo started week 2 of the class learning about camina/corre. Spanish 1 finished their novel Tumba and took their final test including the speaking portion. Spanish 2 learned about their final project Una Casa Famosa and selected their famous person to design their house around - then they got started on researching and designing!

Sporting with a packed week (aka, LOTS of laundry) Olive and Coach Momma had an AYSO 6U game and I made all the line-ups for the rest of the season which my future self is so thankful for that. Reddy had two coach pitch baseball games and Rusty had two minors youth baseball games. Violet had two AYSO 12U soccer games, two Sparks soccer practices, and she, Olive, and I had AYSO photos on Saturday too. Gemma had two softball games, two softball practices, and on Gators soccer game. Grey had three baseball games, one baseball practice, and a football Showcase with SAFCA and Coach Dad. I made rice krispie treats and haluski for the baseball end of season tailgate event (on Thursday).

Making breakfast for dinner (pancakes, bacon, and egg sandwiches), slow cooker cream cheese chicken tacos, chipped beef sammies, Philly cheesesteak sammies. I made blueberry muffins on Saturday morning too. For the baseball tailgate I made haluski and rice krispie treats with red and black sprinkles.

Around Here Week 17: 04/26-05/02

2026-05-30T10:54:07.256-04:00

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

photo cred: St Davids Youth

photo cred: Michael O'Ship

photo cred: Becky C

photo cred: Diane F

photo cred: Megan M

photo cred: Maria G

selfie cred: B

selfie credit: B

photo cred: B

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 89+ hours (of 1000)
Spring feels like it's trying to wake up, especially with the rain that wiped out two days of spring sports this week!

Reading Lost Man's Lane by Scott Carson and The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough.

Listening to and finishing Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser. I really liked it and appreciated how much detail was added to make the story come to life from a historical fiction lens. I unfortunately couldn't attend book club this time because on we had five games on the same night - but I did send my book notes over our host in time for the meeting! Then I started listening to Say You'll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez so I could finish some cleaning/organizing house projects.

Hanging out with our favorites, the Kochs, after the girls' soccer games. We had pizza and played and laughed and started the Sunday evening in the best way possible - with friends. Always so nice to be with our people. love youns xxo

School events this week:

Violet had scrabble practice this week and then participated in the Somerset County scrabble tournament (with her partner Alina!)
Olive and Reddy had their first PreK field trip to the fire and police stations in Somerset
Violet & Jayce got to visit with the high school video production class to learn about videoing, acting, and editing! (thank you Mrs. Feathers and high school kids!)
I updated the calendars as we are about to flip into May and start the Maycember madness (spring concerts, field trips, carnivals, and finals!!)
So endeared that two of my Spanish 2 students continue to write notes back and forth with Red and Olive. They both know how to spell only a few words on their own (mom, dad, love, from, to) but they both know how to spell Abby and Emilia because of the penpal notes!
Down to the last 20 days of school!

Thankful for our barber, Lamont, who have all the fellas in my house looking fresh and handsome after haircut this week.

Date night with B to Nyko's for sushi. We had a gift card that has been burning a whole in our pocket, so when we had a free night because of the weather - we ventured out for some one on one time and yummy food. Lucky for us we also ran into Miss Emma and Kolten who were there too!

Butter's bachelor fishing party in Potter County. B and Grey went up on Friday to set up and check out the streams (and also fish!) Pappy and Rusty went up on Saturday after the baseball games. They fished, hung out by the fire, had good food, and laughed like the good 'ole days at fishing camp when they were young with our Gilmore cousins. We are all so excited for Butter & Becky's wedding (in June!)

Feeling very grateful for all the family, friends, and sports' families that squeeze in during every season - but especially spring sports season when we have SIX athletes in the house! We have grandparents and teammates' families making sure we have rides to all the things and smiling, cheering faces in the stands. Reminders texted, photos and videos sent, camp chairs shared, snacks offered, and concession stand money sneakily slipped into little sibling hands. We could never do it without all the support - we are so grateful for you!

Time with family and friends. Violet got a sleepover with Bria at our house and then had a playdate with Bristol and Bria! Gemma volunteered with the St David's youth group to help paint a cabin at Camp Sequanota. She also had a playdate with Abigail at our house and babysat two days for the Bridges. We all stopped by Silver Bell to get ice cream and visit cousin Caleb and our friend Zolina who was working. The rest of our crew stayed home and the babies were happy to sleep on Daddy's side of the bed so I wouldn't be sad while Dad was away- hahhaa. those sneaky, sweet babies.

Teaching and watching Ferdinand in the elementary school because it was the last week of state testing - so I also proctored this week for my small group who finished their Math State Testing. I got the last group of eighth graders for my Spanish Expo class! Spanish 1 started reading TUMBA chapters 1-8 and completed mini quizzes and activities to make sure comprehension is clicking since they are mostly reading it alone/with a partner for the final novel of the year. Spanish 2 continued practicing present progressive verbs and furniture/house vocab as they prepare for their final projects: Una Casa Famosa. They will each randomly pull a name out of a bucket of a well known Hispanic person (Bad Bunny to Frida Kahlo to Roberto Clemente to Rey Mysterio, etc) and then design at least four rooms in a house inspired by their life based off of their research. I completed the example house this week and used Diego Rivera as the person. Nerding out so much with gleeful joy to design the house and then write the essay to go along with it. #lovemyjob

Sporting with no games for Olive and Coach Momma in 6U AYSO because both nights were rained out! Reddy and Rusty each had two baseball games this week including Opening day ceremonies. Violet had two 12U AYSO soccer games, one Sparks soccer practice, and one Sparks game. Gemma had one Gators soccer game and two softball games. Grey had one baseball practice and two baseball games this week. I worked the concession stand at Gemma's softball game, donated 2dozen strawberry crinkle cookies to Opening day at the little league fields, and scheduled Grey's next sports massage with Miss Emma at Peak Performance Therapy.

Making copycat Olive Garden chicken pasta, cheddar and beef sammies, ground beef taco pasta, teriyaki chicken, broccoli, and noodles, pierogies, homemade pizza, sheet pan kielbasa tortelini. For desserts I made pb oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (the boys took some to Potter county too), and I made strawberry crinkle cookies to donate to the Opening Day baseball concession stand.

Around Here Week 16: 04/19-25

2026-05-22T17:22:40.263-04:00

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

selfie cred: Uchie

photo cred: CTHS

photo cred: Maria G

photo cred: Becky C

photo cred: Tribune Democrat

photo cred: SASD

photo cred: Uchie

photo cred: Uch

photo cred: Uchie

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 79+ hours (of 1000)
The chill in the air is holding on - I wore a winter hat to Gemma's soccer game and I was wishing I would have worn my winter coat too! Blairy's birthday party was a maybe for awhile because the weather was rainy and cold (thankfully it cleared up in time!) And then somedays it is beautiful sunshine and I'm filled with hope that the season is changing over - I even laid in the front yard reading my book with Nova to bask in the sun. Only to have my heart broken when the next day is cold again.

Reading Lost Man's Lane by Scott Carson and The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough

Listening to Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser

Looking ahead into the next few weeks and making sure all my t's are crossed and i's are dotted in my planner because holy cow it's about to get even more wacky around here. AYSO soccer games will start with baseball and softball still going strong. Add in a mix of end of year concerts, assemblies, field trips, spirit days, mother's day, birthdays, Gemma's confirmation, and a bachelor party weekend. Yeesh, hang on to your horses, Tabitha!

School projects underway this week:

proofreading Gemma's senior high student council essay
proofreading Violet's jr high student council essay
Grey attended the track meet to do his video production assignment taping
I created activity packets for the kids to do while they are exempt from state testing
Violet had scrabble practice after school once this week
Olive had snack day!
B had a school board meeting
Reddy won the coloring contest in Pre-K, first place!

Snacks with someone special for Red and Olive at Maple Ridge. Chum, Pappy, and Aunt Kitty all got to have snacks and make crafts with the babies for a while in the morning. They were so proud to have them there!

Dazzled by our Gemmi who attended her jr high semiformal dance. Uchie came over to do her make-up (God bless and thank goodness because I am basically no help at all in that department). I attempted to do her hair but quite honestly, Gem is just better at it herself so I provided the enthusiasm and photography (LOL). Uch and I took her over for photos at Zolina's house and all the kids looked so great all dressed up. Gemma went with her good friend Abram and he was such a good sport at all the different poses and photos I requested (hahha - thank you Abe!) The dance was fun (as reported by the kids!) and then B and I transported most of them in Lucille the Studermobile to Chili's for the post-dance dinner and then to Zolina's house for the post-dance hang out. Sometimes I just cannot believe we get front row seats to our kids' lives unfolding! so so grateful to be their momma.

Outdoorsmen and their equipment all over this place. The fishermen were at it again on Sunday at the Wilmore fishing tournament (B, Grey, The Conn Twins, Rusty, and Reddy). How lucky we had a double sleepover with the Conn boys; our bonus big brothers! Pappy took Grey and Rusty turkey hunting on Saturday for youth day too (they saw some and Rusty took a shot, but no luck!)

Celebrating our nephew Blair's 2nd birthday. The party was at Tia's house and we had good enough weather for rockets and playing outside! Blairy picked baseball and grass cupcakes for his cake and I was honored to make them for him. (this sweet fella boy is obsessed with the Sandlot and it's so cute it's unbearable. like literally hurts me with the sweetness). It was a perfect night with family and all the cousins running around and playing for the Blairykins.

Time with family and friends. Olive and Red had the best day ever when they got to sleepover at Uch and Kevin's and then spend the whole day with their cousins while Miss Emma babysit everyone (five kids six and under! She's the best nanny ever and we are so lucky to have her in our lives - we love you Miss Emma!!). Rusty had a playdate at his friend Logan's house (while all the big siblings attended the semi-formal). Violet had a sleepover at Evaley's house and got to go out to eat with the Moores after her sleepover with Uch, Kevin, and the boys. Gemma slept over Zolina's house after the semi-formal and we hosted Abigail and Amiyah at our house on Thursday night so the girls could do their nails for the semi-formal (they turned out beautiful!) The Moores and Pappy came to hang out on Friday night to catch a glimpse of Gemma before she was off to her dance and we played and shot off rockets (hahaha, Uncle Drip - a professional).

In international news this week, the US has decided to blockade the Strait of Hormuz. Does this effect my family right this second? No. But will it have global and eventually local effects, yes. Also, like wtf? I bought a rain barrel kit because we've had a barrel here for a long time to turn into a water collector and now is a good time as any.

Teaching during PSSA testing week! I had a small group for ELA testing at the elementary school (3 days) and the other days, we were watching Ferdinand. My Spanish Expo 8th graders also had state testing, so we took it easy doing our last week of learning the classroom objects vocab. Spanish 1 started their pre-novel work about Mexico and Cenotes before we read the last novel of the year. Spanish 2 worked through Somos Unit 16 about La Guerra Sucia - but it was a wacky week for them with many students out for the last period of the day due to track, softball, and tennis. On Friday, I had a substitute because Ella and I spent the day at the Methodology conference at IUP.

Sporting with two 6U AYSO soccer practices for Olive and Coach Momma. Reddy had one coach pitch baseball game. Rusty had two baseball practices and Violet had two 12U AYSO soccer practices, two Sparks soccer practices, and one Sparks soccer game. Gemma had two softball practices, two softball games, one open gym for basketball, and one Gators soccer game. Gemma also attended a six hour training to ref for the AYSO season on Saturday (!) Greyson had one baseball practice and three baseball games. B had a meeting with the football coaches to plan the 7v7 alumni event, attended the college signing event with the football seniors going to play sports next year - Congrats Baker, Barty, Brennan, and Burnie! We are so proud of you!! We all waited patiently to hear the final vote on the Shade co-op (they will stay with us! Yay!!) I worked with Jenn V to plan and organized the upcoming baseball tailgate event and I organized and sent the full spring sports schedule to our family and friends.

Making bbq chicken sammies, homemade stromboli, buffalo chicken dip, chili, chicken/ broccoli alfredo, Korean beef over rice with green beans. For desserts I made cake box chocolate chip cookies and I made pumpkin roll at the request of Violet's friend Brookie for her birthday on Friday (love you sweetie pie!). I made baseball and grass cupcakes for Blairy's birthday party!

Around Here Week 15: 04/12-18

2026-05-16T10:31:40.739-04:00

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

photo cred: Becky C

Hug machine money raised! Way to go Violet & Ella!

photo cred: Mrs. Roman

photo cred: uchie

selfie cred: Gemmi

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 69+ hours (of 1000)
Mowing! Weirdly happy to get on the tractor for the first time this season. The kids and I are very attuned to the smell of cut grass. Randomly while driving someone will shout out, "SMELL THE GRASS!" while we all take exaggerated inhalations.

Reading The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough and Lost Man's Lane by Scott Carson

Listening to Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser

Reluctantly grateful for living in PA's winter. No one complains and whines about it as much as me...I literally regularly ask, "Why do we live here?" when it is March and still snowing and freezing. But honestly, this week is why. Because only when we are finally out of the snowing and blowing and the blooming trees are gorgeous, and the grass is long enough to be mowed for the first time, and the breeze has the warmness of spring, do I realize there is so much darn natural beauty and I have been starved enough for it that I can actually appreciate it. Reddy and Livy had their hands out the windows in the car shouting, "This is my dream life!!!" and yes, gosh. it is.

Both vehicles went in to have the winter tires switched out and get a little tune up. It is always a little hectic trying to juggle when the cars are at the shop. Grey hates to drive Lucille the Studermobile (the 12 passenger van) to school and he absolutely never thinks it's funny and B and I tell him that Lucille will be his car when he gets his driver's license. It is endlessly funny to us though.

Big week for Violet as she was captain for the reading competition (they did not place this time but still had fun), she also was part of the school news announcements (her and her friend Jayce have such a blast being goofballs on there), and she and her friend Ella raised enough money through a dress down fundraiser at school for a hug machine for the special needs classroom!! This girl is insatiable in life and I both love and fear that as her mom. On Saturday, we attended the PA Maple Festival to see Violet's quilt on display in the quilt competition! She earned second place in the children's division! We walked around the Maple Festival with Kuma, Kitty, and Bryan and got to try Spotza.

God Bless GameChanger. honestly. I can't be in more than one place at once (um, hello inventors - how have we not figured this out yet for moms?!) but I can stay up to date with three of my kids' games at one time in spring sports season and I am so grateful for that! I was cracking up this week when I got three separate requests in gamechanger to approve the 'aunties and uncles' of Grey who were all local friends. Each separately mentioned to me that when they went to sign up to follow our Varsity team, they searched the list of players and thought, "Oh, I can be an aunt/uncle of Grey!" Hhaha, YES!! I will always joyfully accept encouragers as our sports family! And lots of fans are following our Varsity baseball team as the boys continue to go undefeated!

Burst of panic when after five days from the surgery, Nova started to act very lethargic and stopped eating. Of course the internet made it worse by suggesting maybe he was on the brink of death. Brandon took Nova in to be checked out on Thursday and they determined that he was dehydrated and gave him Subcutaneous fluids and he was back to zooming around and eating again in 24 hours.

Rusty took his baby book in for show & tell so the night before I spent some time adding new photos and details into his book to get it fully up to date. Updating the kids' baby books is a task on my 100 small things list this year - so I was happy and glad to do it. Such a squeeze to my heart though to look back through the book and all those photos of my Rustman. my Mr. Handsome; then and still.

Signed off on the state testing exemption for the kiddos at school.

Fishbrains. These boys in my house. All they can think about is fishing - especially the youngest boy Reddy who is absolutely obsessed with fishing. Reddy begged enough on Sunday, much to Grey's joy, to get some time in the creek at the girls' soccer games (God bless my husband who packs all the fishing gear up!) Saturday was an all day fishing tournament at Wilmore which Brandon, Grey, the Conn twins, and Pappy all headed over at 5a to get started. Reddy got to go over at lunchtime to hang out at the creek too (the only thing he could think about all morning!)

Time with family and friends: Reddy got some time in the dugout with Pappy when he was volunteered by me (oops!) to help out at the game. Reddy was so excited though and said, "I'm going to tell all my buddies,' you see that old man? that's my Pappy!" Hahhha, the sweetest! Rusty went to his friend Brody's birthday party at Slinky's Action zone. Rusty and Violet both took the bus to Abba and Chum's house on Monday and then Chum got them to and from their practices that night while Brandon and I were both tied up in other things (thank you!!) Violet got a sleepover at Uchie's house and Gemma got the afternoon with Abba and Chum and went out to dinner with them and had Peyton over for a playday on Saturday (they made brownies!). Grey had a double sleepover at our house with Bryce and Reed (all the kids thrilled because they are truly bonus big bros to all of them) for two nights in a row for the fishing tourney.

Teaching and watching Ferdinand in my elementary school classes. We are reviewing all the Spanish words that are in the movie (even though it is in English - we still get lots of Spanish words, and not that you're listening for them it's like your in on the jokes! They have been having fun listening for them and shouting them out when they hear them). Spanish Expo took their map test at the end of the geography lessons this week. Spanish 1 closed out their location preposition phrase week and worked on their photo assignments. Spanish 2 finished Robo en la Noche and took their final book test.

Sporting with one 6U AYSO practice for Olive and Coach Momma. Reddy had two baseball games, and Rusty had two baseball practices. Violet had one Sparks soccer practice, two 12U AYSO practices, and one Sparks soccer game. Gemma had three softball practices, two softball games, and one Gators soccer game. Grey had two baseball practices, two baseball games, and attended the school board meeting and delivered a speech at the podium to support his friend and teammate Eddie in our football co-op. Brandon also attended the school board meeting for the co-op and gave a speech at the podium - thank you to Becky C who sent pictures, videos, and messages to keep me posted on the meeting while I was at Reddy's baseball game (grateful for and love you!) I got Grey's baseball fundraiser turned in, washed a million uniforms, added money to the kids' venmo cards for post-game food, and braided lots of hair for game days.

Making meatloaf with roasted potatoes and carrots, copycat Olive Garden chicken pasta, sheet pan chicken fajitas, sloppy joes and shells & cheese, chicken/ biscuit/ veggie casserole, smash burgers with roasted potato fries, and take out pizza. For dessert, I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies