kcaleece

It's extra bad when students come and ask me things like, "I was gone yesterday, what did we do in class?" and I legitimately don't remember. Though that has honestly happened for a while now, given that I'm run ragged with twenty thousand things on my plate at work. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not even 100% sure how many years I've worked here...is this year 3 or 4? 🤔 Thanks! Though of course yesterday's doctor appointment has me all worried about my supply all over again, despite the measurable increase... Oh yeah, we'd be up a creek without a paddle if the range was out too!! Honestly it would be annoying but not a problem except my favorite chicken and my lactation cookies are both baked. Though our pediatrician always asks if we need any help with food, housing, or transportation so my husband goes, "yeah, do you know where to get a cheap oven?" 🤦‍♀️ Not what they meant by that question honey... Baby Girl got a great report from the doctor overall. She's growing lengthwise beautifully, hanging out right about the 70th percentile still (where she has been steadily practically since birth) but her weight percentile plummeted. We made it all the way up to the 50th percentile at 2 months and today at 4 months we were down to the 29th percentile She did gain weight between appointments (from 11 pounds 4 ounces to 13 pounds 8 ounces) so the pediatrician isn't worried, but it wasn't enough weight to keep her percentile even close to steady, so I'm fretting about it even though they told me not to!! We also got our next round of vaccines, which led to a fever last night and some extra fussiness this morning, but infant Tylenol and cuddles are helping her through it 👍 Also, the kindergartener came home with his first major school project - an oral presentation on an animal they will see at the zoo! They are going on a field trip next Wednesday, so they are doing research ahead of time, will visit the animals on Wednesday, and then on Thursday they each have to present their information about their animal to their classmates. Of course, my son said he couldn't pick an animal so the teacher assigned him one...then he told the teacher he forgot which animal he was assigned, so he picked a second animal...and now he's trying to talk us and his teacher into letting him do two oral presentations. What's funniest is that he is very much not the overachiever type of kid either, he just legit is that indecisive about what animal to present on! So hopefully his teacher will get back to me today about that issue because we are planning on a library session on Saturday to work on this. Though I've already submitted holds for books on both animals...just in case 😂 Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - More breakfast egg wraps; yesterday's lunch ended up being mac and cheese with chicken mixed in and today's lunch will be another round of greek yogurt + mix-ins 96 ounces of water - Yesterday I beat this but not by as much as usual, ending around 110 ounces in total. Today I'm only about 44 ounces in so far, but it'll start adding up here soon! Mornings always are slow because I drink my coffee first but don't count anything for this that isn't water. Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - nothing more yesterday Quest 3 - Family Quilt - no more progress yet Weekly post on Moment Garden - Nothing else posted yet... Quest 4 - (28 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - At 15 out of 18 still, really super duper need to get going on this again ER quizzes - still at 8/15, also need to get my butt moving here... Japanese - Still failing at this, not sure how much I care right this second though honestly 🤷‍♀️ It honestly did matter to me at the start of the challenge, just not right at this moment in time anymore

I love the swimming tracker!! Okay, okay, so I just tend to love a tracker in general. I'm a nut for spreadsheets 😆 But I do think that sounds like fun and hope you get to earn that first prize soon!! The Happiness Trap book sounds really interesting too. It's not one I'm familiar with, but it sounds like it could be talking about some issues my cousins and I have run into (basically getting constantly distracted by thinking there must be an option out there that will make us "happier" than we are now, to the point where it's tough to just pick something and commit to it even when it turns out to be imperfect because, duh, that's how real life works). Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it!

To be honest, if you know where to look, there is a tiny visible stain still. But it's small, pretty light in color, doesn't have any type of texture to it, and the onesie itself is too special to me to throw out for a little stain. Not the first or last item of baby clothing where we've accepted a bit of discoloration! The good news is that these quests do seem to be helping with the milk production at least a little bit. Not sure if it's being more careful to eat lots of protein, drink lots of water, eat the lactation cookies, or what, but I did calculate my average started at 13.6 ounces per day and last week I averaged 14.8 every day. A small increase, but an important one! Baby Girl is drinking 15 ounces most days so the fact that I'm getting SO close to that mark is really exciting, even if I am super annoyed that it's taken this much work and I'm still falling ever so slightly short... Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - More breakfast egg wraps (will I eventually get tired of these? Yeah, probably, but not yet apparently!) and then lunch yesterday was...is it bad I don't remember, but I know I brought a big pile of food with me to work and ate almost all of it?? 88 ounces of water - Done yesterday with a final total just shy of 120 ounces, yay! I'm currently at 76 ounces for the day so I should hit 88 pretty easy. Going to bump up to that 96 mark tomorrow, I think! Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - nothing yesterday, it was a beautiful night for baseball practice but Baby Girl and I ended up staying home because she was so cranky and hungry Quest 3 - Family Quilt - no more progress yet Weekly post on Moment Garden - Got the "celebrity sunglasses baby" photos up! I'd still like to get a second post up for my son this week...we'll see, there's nothing coming up in the next few days off the top of my head at least... Quest 4 - (28 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - At 15 out of 18 still ER quizzes - still at 8/15 Japanese - Still failing at this, I didn't even touch it yesterday despite posting about it and telling myself to get back to it 🤷‍♀️

No cute photo with Baby Girl in the special French onesie on Thursday; about 20 minutes before I picked her up, she had a massive diaper blowout and they had to change her entire outfit! That's alright, it happens with babies sometimes and it came out in the wash anyway! Busy weekend - Saturday was a lot of chores plus the Sporting vs Miami game. I've never been so happy to lose a soccer game in my entire life! And the Messi goal was legit right in front of us!!! I paid quite a bit of money for us to sit in the lower bowl (row 17, not bad!) but in order to make that something closer to affordable, we had to sit towards a corner and ended up being about even with the penalty spot. So it really was the perfect spot - we lucked out big time! Sunday we all slept in because we got back from the game super late, finished the chores after baseball practice, and then went for a family walk. Which was wonderful, but so hot lol. We're getting our first "heat wave" of spring and even though it's only the mid 80s, after so many months of bone chilling cold, it always takes us a few days of this to acclimate and not sweat to death. It drops back into the upper 60s after tomorrow anyway 🤷‍♀️ Then the worst bit of the weekend struck - my husband turned on the oven to bake our meatballs for dinner, and there was a giant pop and a spark and the whole kitchen lost power! We got it restored to everything except the oven, and honestly I think the oven just died entirely because the range is working again (thank the gods we still have a way to cook!) So that's something else to add to the to do list over the next few days... Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - I made this happen all weekend, though Sunday was flipped from my normal with oatmeal for breakfast and eggs with toast for lunch 88 ounces of water - Done everyday, though I'm not pleased with yesterday. I wanted to drink an extra 32 ounce bottle due to how much I sweated on that walk, but I only barely made it to 96 ounces so I definitely fell short of that mark. Currently behind again at about 40 ounces down for the day, ugh, Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - I'm counting our walk yesterday even though Baby Girl was in a stroller, not her carrier, because it was a tough one! A bit over 2 miles of hills in the first heat of the year, ugh. Very sweaty for all of us (except Baby Girl, who spent the entire time napping under her shade!) Quest 3 - Family Quilt - no more progress yet, ugh Weekly post on Moment Garden - I got a BUNCH of posts up from the soccer game (3 for each kid! Moment Garden forces you to make each photo its own post unless you pay for the premium version, which I refuse to do). I also want to post a photo of Baby Girl looking like a celebrity riding around in her stroller wearing her sparkly, still-too-big sunglasses yesterday 😂 Quest 4 - (28 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - At 15 out of 18 still ER quizzes - still at 8/15 Japanese - Fell way short on this last week...honestly I kinda forgot it even existed after my last post, oops

Very much so. My husband keeps on trying to say maybe it's allergies, but I truly believe everything points to a bad head cold for both me and Baby Girl. It's hit her daycare room hard! On that note - today is Baby Girl's 4 month "birthday"! I'm hoping I'll get a cute picture of her later to post on Moment Garden. It's too cold for the would-be Easter dress, but I did get to put her in a special onesie I brought back from France (we found out I was pregnant for the first time on our honeymoon, so I bought a few cute outfits - that pregnancy ended in a miscarriage, but I still have the clothing). One of my absolute favorite photos of my son as a baby was taken in that same onesie, so I think it would be so sweet to get a photo of her in it too! Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - More egg wraps for breakfast and more greek yogurt + mix-ins for lunch. I've also started bringing string cheese to work as one of my snacks for a bit more protein! 88 ounces of water - Yesterday I think I ended up somewhere around the 130-ish mark again? I know I filled my water bottle 5 times (and it's 32 ounces) but I had a lot left in the last fill when I went to bed. Today I'm at about 70 ounces at the end of the school day, should get to 88 pretty easy Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - nothing yesterday Quest 3 - Family Quilt - no more progress yet Weekly post on Moment Garden - no posts yesterday Quest 4 - (30 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - At 15 out of 18 now, though I'm getting grumpier and grumpier with the district on this particular project. They keep on emphasizing that we cannot change the curriculum after this without a lot of very specific data, but not only is that dumb, it's extra punitive for programs like mine that are very young and therefore in much more flux than programs that have been taught here for the last 50 years. Also I've seen some of my co-worker's completed work...this is nothing but a waste of my time 🙄 ER quizzes - still at 8/15 Japanese - Going with 2/4, I went on DuoCards yesterday but I forgot to check the time to see if I got to my 20 minutes. I think I did though?

Thanks! I hadn't heard about any salary schedule changes coming from the Board but I did miss the 3 months right at the beginning of hiring season, so maybe it was announced while I was gone. So for me it was a very pleasant surprise! That'll put me just above $50k next fall, the highest salary I've ever gotten 💸 Today I got to help out with the interviews for the new Spanish position! Kinda. Sorta. Not really. My principal forgot to get coverage for me, so the only thing I saw was the demo lesson. Not that it will matter anyway, because the other two applicants both dropped (one due to our low salary schedule, wonder what they would have thought of this new one! and one because they got an offer in the city which will almost certainly be a better gig - at minimum it'll pay more and have more resources available for their use). I think I can probably work with this lady though - she made a few mistakes in her 15 minutes, one that boiled down to simply not knowing our school culture and two comments that really could be problematic, to be honest, but she seems like she is a real, actual Spanish teacher. It sounds dumb but that's more than I've had to work with in the last 4 years, so I'm reasonably pleased to see she actually, you know, might meet the basic qualifications for the job for a change? Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - More egg wraps for breakfast, and lunch today was an almond butter + apple + cheese sandwich my husband was kind enough to throw together for me this morning because I went to bed without making myself lunch yesterday, oops 80 ounces of water - Honestly I lost track after 120 ounces yesterday but I think it was somewhere around the 140-ish mark?? At about 60 ounces today so far, so 80 isn't far away at all. Going to make my official minimum goal 88 ounces as of today, just to give myself a little bit of a "slow rise" in that minimum before trying for 96 Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - nothing yesterday, I'm definitely getting Baby Girl's cold so I sat on my butt and coughed most of the evening instead hahaha Quest 3 - Family Quilt - no more progress yet Weekly post on Moment Garden - no posts yesterday Quest 4 - (33 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - Technically at 14 out of 18 now, though I really feel like that new Spanish 3 unit is poorly planned and will be changing far more than the district wants it to. Thankfully I will have a chance to teach it before the curriculum is actually due, which might help? ER quizzes - still at 8/15 Japanese - Eh, going to say I'm still at 1/4? I did do some DuoCards yesterday but definitely not 20 minutes worth

Oooh, good idea! I've definitely seen brewer's yeast on lactation lists but never made the extra connection to beer. I love stouts so maybe that'll be a good excuse to buy a few Except I'm at the age where beer can make me sleepy, which is certainly already a problem with a baby in the house, so I'll have to choose my evenings carefully! Especially right now...looks like we're in for "first" cold round #2 and she was up and down all night wanting comfort and milk. He's a sweet kid who is just so excited to finally be a big brother ❤️ Baby Girl's 4 month "birthday" is on Thursday and I don't think it will be warm enough to wear her purple dress, as it's short sleeves and the weather here is supposed to be 65 but rainy. But maybe for her 5 month? I bought it in a size 3-6 months to be safe, so it should still fit by then. Or May Day! It has flowers on it, so that makes it kinda May Day appropriate, right? Debating applying to a very part time remote job that would really dovetail nicely with my greater career goals. Short version is: a very popular Spanish curriculum service is hiring someone to write 5 highly simplified summaries of real news stories + short comprehension activities that other teachers can use in their classrooms every other week. I've used this exact service before and found the summaries strong but the comprehension activities too stupidly easy, so I've been making my own to replace them anyway. It would max out at about 1,000 words every 2 weeks and they project about 5-15 hours at $30/hour. Do I really want to add something to my plate? I shouldn't. But that's a manageable something and I use it anyway...plus it would be a super major feather in my cap in interviews...and honestly I've been hoping they'd expand into French too, maybe I could spearhead that... Though, speaking of jobs, I am very happy to report that I got my contract for next year and I'm getting a raise that I didn't know I was going to get! Only $1500 more than I expected, but I will definitely still take it!! 🥳 Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - More egg wraps for breakfasts, and a second round of strawberry Greek yogurt + almonds and Cocoa Pebbles for lunch. 80 ounces of water - Yesterday I ended up at about 120 ounces. Today so far I'm at 52, which is a little farther back than I thought I was to be honest but that's what my water bottle says 🤷‍♀️ Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - I sat on my butt for a big part of baseball practice last night, hahaha so no more progress yet! Quest 3 - Family Quilt - no more progress yet Weekly post on Moment Garden - Yesterday at school my son's class made "eclipse hats" (paper crowns with the sun on one side, the Earth on another, and the moon in the middle) so I got a picture of him in that and wearing a leftover pair of filter glasses 😂 Quest 4 - (33 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - Still at 12 out of 18 ER quizzes - still at 8/15 Japanese - Counting yesterday as 1/4 though I'm getting very irritated with Lingo Legend. Repetition is critical but I've been translating and writing the exact same sentences for several days now and I'm bored as hell with them. I found another app called DuoCards that I think is good for vocabulary (not really much else though) so I'm going to start saying "20 points on Lingo Legend or 20 minutes on DuoCards"

Are gladiolus hard to grow? I'm not exactly great at gardening but they've always been on my "maybe someday when I know what I'm doing" list. Great work on using the spoon to see the eclipse! We're just outside of totality (we were at like 92% or something like that) and my principal spent just under $1,100 to buy the special filter glasses for the whole school - about 700 people when including staff - and get them shipped here on time. I told my husband that and he just about fell over laughing. Apparently his principal completely forgot about it, went to a local hardware store chain, and just cleared out their entire stock at like 75 cents per pair because the store knew they wouldn't sell them anymore after it was all said and done!

Yeah I remember hearing about them when I had my son, but I had way too much milk with him so I never tried any 🤷‍♀️ I think the times when I was being really consistent about eating multiple cookies every day for a few days in a row, I did see some increases while pumping, but I was so inconsistent with creating that situation that it's really hard to say if it was due to the cookies or just a random good day or two. Not to mention the issues regarding cookie size as well - which I think I might have figured out this second time around? The directions say to make rounded tablespoons to bake, but I noticed while making this second batch (just yesterday, sigh) that the nutrition facts say per cookie but list it as a 1.66 tablespoon serving. That's one hell of a rounded tablespoon!! But the math made sense based on the yield from my first batch, so I sized up to a 1.5 tablespoon scoop and got 21 cookies this time, right in the 18-24 range they say I should end up with 👍 Otherwise it was a busy weekend. Easter part 2 happened on Sunday with my side of the family, which meant all the weekly chores and errands had to be squeezed into Sunday after baseball practice. I was a little disappointed that Baby Girl didn't get to wear the Easter dress I picked out for her, but it was because I bought a "fancy shirt" (a nice pastel plaid button-up) for my son just in case he wanted to wear it - which he did not on actual Easter, but decided he wanted to for Easter part 2 - and then we realized that the pastel plaid summer dress I bought for my daughter was actually the exact same fabric just being marketed differently (yes, they both came from Carter's, so it was way less weird that they happened to be perfect matches!) and then the boy desperately wanted to match with his sister and...well...how can you possibly say no to that? So the beautiful purple dress I specifically bought for Baby Girl's first Easter was not actually worn to either Easter celebration 🤦‍♀️🤣 and in fact she still hasn't actually worn it anywhere yet! It's really too dressy to be just a random everyday outfit but maybe Baby Girl will just have to be a very fancy baby a few times this spring? Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - More eggs for breakfasts, lunches were chicken and gyros Today I have more egg wraps, unsurprisingly, and some strawberry Greek yogurt with almonds and more Cocoa Pebbles to mix in for lunch. 80 ounces of water - I hit my goal every day this weekend but Sunday was the lowest day by a good margin with a total of 96 ounces. Kinda thinking I should try to bump my minimum goal up this week? Maybe I'll ramp up for that 96 as a new minimum. I have a 32 ounce water bottle I use at school, so it's a nice easy measure if I start using that over the weekends too... Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - Knocked out early at Sunday's baseball practice (which will not be a thing all season, but it is here at the start!) Honestly my shoulders hurt this time rather than my legs because it was super windy and I feel like I was hunched over Baby Girl trying to be her own personal windbreak. But she fell asleep for most of practice, so I must have been doing something right! Quest 3 - Family Quilt - Rows 2 and 3 are now 100% together, I just have to attach them to row #1 👍 And then start on rows 4 and 5 of course! Weekly post on Moment Garden - The egg drop assignment didn't go very well (the egg did not break when he tested it at home but it did break at school and he cried, the poor boy. He was so confident since it survived at home!) so no photos. But I did get a photo of the kids in their matching Easter outfits posted at least and gave my son credit for it being his idea! Quest 4 - (33 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - Still at 12 out of 18 ER quizzes - still at 8/15 Lingo Legend Japanese - I did indeed make it to 5/4 sessions on Saturday! However, I skipped yesterday, so I am currently still at 0/4 for this week, whomp whomp

Cookies made with ingredients that are supposed to help support lactation in one way or another! According to my doctor, the only ingredient that anyone can really and truly agree on is oatmeal, but there are lots of other possibilities that have some studies/people that say it's helpful and other studies/people that say it doesn't make a difference (for example, flax seeds, brewer's yeast, almonds, etc.) But she agreed with me that "might help but might do nothing" at least does no harm, so why not give it a try? I bought a mix to make mine just because I didn't want to have to buy a bunch of different ingredients I had no other use for, but I messed something up because the bag said it should make 18 to 24 cookies and mine made 30? Also I was eating them occasionally but you're supposed to eat them super regularly. The lactation consultant who recommended this mix to me said to think of them like vitamins rather than cookies - looking up the company that made the mix I used, they say to eat 2 a day to get the full effect, though I wonder if mine were smaller should I have gone for maybe 3 a day instead? 🤔 Anyway I bought a second bag in a different flavor to test it again, because I just can't be sure if it helped or not and I'm willing to say the questionable first attempt was probably my fault, not theirs. I'm going to try my best to make it tonight because I'm about to eat the last one from the first batch after school today. At least the first batch tasted good, though after 30 cookies I'm looking forward to switching flavors!

D'awwww, thank you! It's a challenge some days for sure, but it's important to me to at least try. Not that I'm against formula if and when needed, but some of the benefits that are unique to breastmilk (such as expressing antibodies in response to the specific pathogens I've encounters) are important enough to me to keep at it while I can. Also when she's with me in person, I do find it can be a relaxing, bonding experience - usually! We've definitely had some rough sessions that didn't exactly hit that mark, but no one bats 1000 🤷‍♀️ Actually today's biggest challenge so far has come directly from feeding Baby Girl - I was so tired today, I forgot to pack any of her clean bottles in her school bag 🤦‍♀️ So she has milk for the day, but nothing to drink it out of!! I really thought I was going to have to beg for coverage to drive home and fetch some, which would have made my front office mad (we're already super shorthanded today with about half a dozen teachers out and no subs), but thankfully the infant room keeps a few emergency bottles on hand. According to her teacher, Baby Girl hated the first emergency bottle they tried, but they switched to a different one that they thought looked more like the one we normally use, and apparently she grudgingly accepted that one, so yay! Crisis adverted 😅 I'm going to buy a few more of her normal bottles to keep there as an emergency stash - they said they normally like to keep one anyway in case of more immediate emergencies like having to evacuate the building, that way they have one bag they can just grab and know they can feed and diaper all the babies until the parents get there or they can re-enter the classrooms, but they've just been forgetting to ask me! So keeping two or three there would probably be best for all of us. Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - More egg wraps for breakfast today, with mac and cheese plus lots of shredded chicken breast for lunch. Honestly this wasn't planned, it was a "oh crap, I forgot to pack lunch so what's in the fridge?" thrown together thing. It was tasty at least though! 80 ounces of water - Another great day yesterday with about 125 ounces down. I'm getting more convinced the focus on water intake plus the lactation cookies I've been trying to eat super regularly is helping with the pumping - I got 5 ounces in my first pump this morning and another 4 at my second! Off to a great start on today's numbers again 👍 Currently at 52 ounces down so far Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - I did this at baseball practice again last night (a reschedule from Monday due to storms) though I was late to practice because I was feeding Baby Girl, so we only walked for about 20 minutes. Not enough to make me feel it anywhere, especially since we were on a much nicer field so the ground was a lot more leveled and cleaned than at the field last week (long story short, what will be the normal practice field was made quite hastily in about two weeks because the city decided the league could no longer use the fields in official city parks, so they had to build another one on super short notice just to have enough space to not cancel the season). Quest 3 - Family Quilt - no additional progress yet Weekly post on Moment Garden - I posted a 10 second video of Baby Girl swinging and napping at school today just because she looked so cute! I'm hoping my son will let me take a photo to post after school today with his egg drop assignment too 🤞 Quest 4 - (35 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - Now up to 12 out of 18! Not because I'm awesome, but because I finally sat down and aligned standards to the unit I moved and then realized there was another unit I structured but hadn't gotten around to aligning, so I knocked them both out at once. ER quizzes - up to 8/15 now! And almost done with Piratas, which is 10 chapters. Don't worry, I have another book being delivered today Not to mention several smaller non-chapter books sitting around too. Lingo Legend Japanese - I have started on my "lessons" today but haven't finished the first 20 energy points yet, so I'll call it 3.5/4 at this exact moment

I kind of agree, honestly, though the art teacher seems far more kindly and permissive than strict. Though personally I am well aware of monochromatic pieces being lauded - as a French speaker, Monet's blue works come to mind almost immediately - knowing the education department here, I wouldn't be surprised if "uses multiple colors in a work of art" is a state standard for elementary school. It definitely sounds like one, though I've never asked or looked myself to be fair. The captions/descriptions thing is his classroom teacher's way of hitting a state Language Arts standard, which is essentially the beginning of informative writing (too lazy to look up the wording, but it's along the lines of "uses a combination of drawing and words to name and explain about a topic") My son hates writing - he's a great reader and loves math, but making him write anything more than his own name makes him act like you're slowly torturing him to death - so it's good practice regardless imo

Early post today! I'm quite pleased with the way the morning has started, even if I'm super tired. I managed to pump 4 whole ounces in one go before Baby Girl woke up (which was extra impressive to me because she woke up around 2am demanding to feed and I start my first morning pump at 5:15!) which gives me a great running start on my daily goal. Baby Girl was happy from the start today, even if she seems pretty tired too, and I got her into an adorable spring outfit 🥰 My son, who has started to really struggle to get up in the morning, took forever and a year to get out of bed but somehow got dressed at the speed of light so we still got to do the normal goodbye routine. And my classes this morning are super easy for me - I start with 3 back-to-back sessions of Spanish 2, who are doing oral presentations in small groups, so I just give them a chunk of time to practice and then wander around listening for the last 15-20 minutes of class. Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - More egg wraps for breakfast today, with more meatloaf packed for lunch. I'm almost out of the meatloaf at least so I'll have to come up with some more ideas soon! 80 ounces of water - Had a great day yesterday with a total of 130 ounces (maybe that's one reason my pumping went so well this morning?) Only at 10 so far for today but it's only 9am and I'm almost done with my morning coffee, I'm not mad at that. Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - nothing for this week yet Quest 3 - Family Quilt - no additional progress yet Weekly post on Moment Garden - no posts yesterday either Quest 4 - (35 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - Still at that 10.5 out of 18 mark, should get going on that a bit today though ER quizzes - up to 6/15 now! Yay, officially caught up for the week's goal at least, hoping I can get ahead on this and bump up the challenge total to 20 or 25 even... Lingo Legend Japanese - I did indeed go back and do some Lingo Legend after all, so I'm up to 3/4 now! Still hoping to get a solid 5/4 done to help make up for last week and I definitely have a good chance at making that happen 👍

Not being an artist myself, do you think those kinds of online groups would be welcoming to little kids? My son really likes painting but his classroom teacher has told us multiple times that he's struggling to write captions/descriptions of his pictures and the art teacher says he needs to work on including multiple colors more often. Wondering if online sharing could be a way to encourage him to practice both of those skills (under close parental supervision, of course!)

Thank you! Honestly, we lucked into it a bit. I didn't reserve it until February, so we thought we'd be a bit too late to grab a spot in early June but it was worth checking anyway. Not only did they have a basic site open, it's arguably the best one! Of the 3 basic campsites, the one I got is the closest to the nearest hiking trail head, closest to the bathrooms, and has the flattest ground 😄👍 It'll be #11 on our quest to camp in every single state park (where camping is legal of course!) Thanks, I need that for sure! I breastfed my son too but I was a massive overproducer with him, so this is new territory for me. Especially given the journey to get her (4 years of infertility treatments, after conceiving my son required no medical intervention and took less than 6 months), it's super easy to see it as yet another way my body is failing to support the family we want to have. But I've said that I have no idea how my high school students were fed as infants, so it's not something with life long impacts or anything like that...now just to get myself to actually believe it's not a big deal instead of just saying it 😅 Baby Girl was drinking 12 ounces daily at daycare until yesterday when she downed 15 "without hesitating", according to the infant room teachers, so I'm trying to fit in even more pumping sessions to encourage my body to make more, but the balance between "I can take an extra ounce out to stash and try chugging/stuffing my face to replace it more quickly than before" and "crap the baby is hungry for more right this second and I've pumped too much out to satisfy her" can be a tricky one. Today is going to be a long day just because there is so much going on in the evening after work, but at least my guts are being (relatively) well behaved today and I was able to convince my principal to let me be a part of the interview team to pick the next Spanish teacher I get to work with, so I'm very happy to get some say in that process! Perhaps a benefit of becoming de facto department head even if the actual new department head hasn't been officially decided? Especially since updated national guidelines for foreign language classes came out just yesterday afternoon for the first time in 12 years, so there's going to be some great opportunities to work together to right some nonsense that's crept into the program, especially at the first year level (where the new person will spend most, if not all, of their day). Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - More egg wraps (for both meals, actually) yesterday and today! I do have a bit of meatloaf with rice left so I'm thinking about making that my post-first-afternoon-pump snack. Which I'd have to eat during my French 2 class, but they won't care. 80 ounces of water - Fell short again yesterday with a total of 64 ounces. Not sure why, really. I just plain wasn't thirsty, to the point where forcing myself to drink more water was difficult. I'm already at 48 for today though, so that's encouraging! I should be able to break 64 before I even leave work today 🤞 Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - nothing for this week yet, yesterday was cold and rainy and tonight is super busy. Hopefully Thursday or Friday though! Quest 3 - Family Quilt - no additional progress yet Weekly post on Moment Garden - no posts yesterday either Quest 4 - (37 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - I officially moved Spanish 3 Unit 7 to Spanish 4 Unit 2, which means it's now technically not complete anymore because I have to go through and align it to the Spanish 4 standards instead. It shouldn't take long, but I'm officially down to like 10.5 folders done now hahaha. ER quizzes - no progress so I'm still at 4.6/15, am planning on getting this to at least 5 done before I leave work today though Lingo Legend Japanese - Well I downloaded a different app called LingoDeer that I thought I was going to switch to because it's superior in almost every way...and then I found out, after finishing the first lesson today, that LingoDeer forces you to buy a subscription if you want to see Lesson 2 or above 🤦‍♀️ So while I haven't done Lingo Legend, I have technically studied some Japanese today? I'll probably just suck it up and do Lingo Legend today too...I'm definitely not paying for an app if I don't have a specific goal in mind for Japanese at the moment!