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A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this minute. Intentional Hours Outdoors :  21 hours (of 1000) (that's eight more hours than this time last year! whoot whoot!) we racked up some time this week with the weather unusually beautiful for February.  I'm talking 55-70 degrees almost everyday this week.  Several days we got out for two hours or so even which made for very sleepy kids which is always the added bonus of outdoor time.  We even headed out to the high school track one night this week as a whole family so I could get in a three mile run while the boys tossed the football back and forth and the girls played pretend on the bleachers and argued over who got to push Rust in the stroller.  We've had the windows open and a blanket out on the grass with snacks, it's gotten us all mixed up about the seasons.  I had to remind the kids that it is actually still winter and that the cold will blow back in next week, so we're hoarding up on the vitamin

my dearest Roey, five. five!! it seems impossible both because it's happened too fast and because surely you've been older than five for forever now.  If we get asked one more time if you're our oldest child by a random stranger again I think Grey's going to pull his hair out!  (he dislikes being asked if you two are twins only slightly worse). You, Gemmi, have always been trying to be older than you are - even since you were only one week old flashing those bonafide smiles at everyone.  You walked at ten months and have been chatting off all of our ears as soon as you realized you had a voice that could communicate.  You have always acted older than you are and yet, every year at your birthday I am shocked that we are celebrating another year of the brilliant, shining star that you are. Our Gemmi, who feels each emotion with every single cell in her body.  The joy that floats off of you, I swear, comes with it's own sweet melody that can be heard in reverberations

look what we got in the mail today! Our newest Team Studer family yearbook to add to our collection, which makes our coverage through six years now:  every year of our family since having kids! I first started making our family yearbooks in 2012 and as you can see above, as it was my first year and I had little self control, I went overboard with photo selection and ended up making two books just to cover the one year! As time has gone on, I have become more selective as to what makes it into our yearbooks and how they are organized. I try to make our yearbooks cover most of the things that make up our days in any given year.  A glimpse into what it is like to be in our family for that time (kind of like my Around Here posts but only stretched out over the course of an entire year).  It is one of my very favorite activities to sit and look back through the years over a cup of tea in the afternoon with kids asking questions about every page and begging, "when can we do that again!

A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this minute. Intentional Outdoor Hours : 12 hours (of 1000) We snuck outside one afternoon and braved the cold temperatures just to get in some fun while the sun was shining.  The girls drove around in the Powerwheels Jeep and Grey was deliriously happy to get his roller blades on and hit the hockey puck around the garage.  Also, a tractor ride (see below). Reading The Gift of an Ordinary Day by Katrina Kenison which has been on my To Read list for about two years.  I have been feeling pretty melancholy these past few weeks with Gemma's fifth birthday on the horizon and Rusty growing and changing so quickly.  I knew it was a good time to dig into a reflective type of memoir.  And I'm sharing a quote that hit my heart already at only seven pages in...yeah, it's going to be a dog-eared mess by the end of it, I'm guessing. "I learned a lot about myself, and many lessons in mindfulness during those long days.  In

He had a work thing on valentines day, so She texted the day before and asked, 'valentines dinner tonight?' to which He texted back a gif of Phil Dunphy giving a thumbs up.  She enlisted the help of the two biggest kids to make their own dinner and as She was preparing and He was helping one child fall asleep, She peeked into the living room and said, "um, we don't have any butter - do you think it'd be weird if I asked the neighbors to borrow some and I'll just send the kids over through the path with a flashlight?" and He said, "I don't like that idea because of that coyote that was just caught behind the house.  I'll just run to dollar general quick."  And so She quickly jotted down a list that included not only the butter but also seven more items.   So the pots were bubbling and the oven timer was dinging and when the steak finally got tossed in the pan with the newly purchased butter, steam billowed out with a fierceness reserved fo

A glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this minute. Intentional Outdoor Hours :  11 hours (of 1000) We had a beautiful day or two sprinkled in the last two weeks that we were able to add another two hours to my goal, but between the sicknesses and the cold - we've been hanging inside and trying to recoup.  I was able to get a 3mile run in this week doing yard laps after two full weeks off (!) and that half marathon date just keeps inching closer and closer (hah).  Hoping to get in at least two runs this weekend no matter the weather!  And don't think I'm not looking back every week to see if my hours this year is beating my hours at this time last year. ..cause I am.  Hah, I'm still about two hours ahead of myself last year and that gives me hope! Reading   Leaving Time by Jodi Piccoult and finishing it!  I have always loved her books and I was glad to dive into one to get back into the swing of reading.  I've just been off lately and it was nice t