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It's Screen Free Week again! I have been so looking forward to this week this year, because I know I am in need of a week-long reboot of screens so badly and I just can't wait to be 'off the hook' of knowing and seeing all.the.things all.the.time. The kids, as every year so far, won't even really flinch because they are much less tuned into screens than Bud and I.  It really boils down to the access to phones and since only the adults in our home have those currently, the main screen zombies are us! This year will be our fifth year participating in Screen Free Week and it's become another one of those mini-holidays we celebrate at our house.  The kids know it's coming, they know the drill, and we act like it's just another special week during a year of little (and big) celebrations. In preparation, the kids and I sat down to draft up a list of the kinds of things we could do that didn't involve screens - just in case we needed a reminder during the w...

a glimpse into what it is like to live in our home just this minute. Intentional Outdoor Hours : 81+ hours (of 1000) We had a very Spring-like week that bounced between rainy, chilly, sunny, cloudy, hot, and windy.  Everyday was a new experience with weather over here.  I am loving the beauty of all of our trees and bushes in high blossom.  Our hours this week came from my half marathon training, mowing the yard (for a full three hours yesterday which awarded me the ever-trendy farmer sunburn), and racking up time at the baseball field, of course. Reading not much of anything this week!  As a suggestion from my dearest Kate, I started listening to the Serial podcast during my 12mile training run this week and what a difference that made to my run!  And well, now, I'm hooked!  I realize I'm two years late to the Serial craze, but I'm full in now and looking forward to my training just to get in an episode or two! Celebrating our beautiful, sweet goddaughter ...

Our holidays tend to be very busy; at least three different meals at three different homes, lots of hugs, gifts, and goodie bags.  But as I say every time we gear up for a marathon holiday, 'we can't complain about having places to go where people love us and give us yummy things to eat!" Easter started at our house with a late night whip up of a batch of my Grandma Helen's sugar cookies.  We got home on Saturday evening and while Brandon put the kids through the shower rotation, they also came through the rolling out the dough/cookie cutter wiggling station in the kitchen with me.  They helped ice them too with Gram's famous boiled icing...a little bit before they were all ready to hop off to bed before the bunny came. We started Easter bright and early at our house as we woke up to our baskets and a little egg hunt out on the front patio that the bunny left us.  Bullet kept sniffing out the hidden eggs and cracking them to spill jelly beans all over the sidewalk....

First up in our fishing season was Mentor fishing day - which falls the weekend before the First day of Trout that is set up to encourage and promote kids to learn to fish.  Our two biggest kids filled out their youth fishing licenses and packed their backpacks for a fishing camp sleepover with their cousins the night before. The two little ones and I stayed home, so I woke up to this little face in our bed.  I got text pics all morning of everyone having a great time on the creek and lots of updates about how much fun the cousins were all having together.  We had plenty of mentors to go around for all the kids, including my Dad (Chum) who drove out for the day.  It's nice to have lots of adults around to help with all the different aspects of fishing and to keep an eye on kids who are baiting hooks, chopping wood (!), cooking over the fire, and hanging out near rushing water. We got a visit at our house with cousins Lisa and Rowan and then we all packed up and heade...