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Day 4:   Taekwondo:   ✔️ 40-minute class Conditioning: ❌ No wakey, no worky  Recovery:         ✔️ Decent sleep…tweaks coming, though. Nutrition:       ✔️  Stuck to all the numbers, and some tilapia rolled in for the proteins   The week has just been chaotic, but there are some good developments.  I’m trying to decide whether to blow this challenge up or save it for the next one. We’ll see.

Awww, I found the toddler sizes for you but it looks like 4T specifically is sold out. Carter's is really annoying about putting different sizes of the same item into separate categories so you have to look under "toddler dresses" instead of just finding what you want and seeing every size they make. (Honestly, their entire website is a pain in the butt for multiple reasons, but clearly not awful enough to impact business and make them fix it...)    This was really nice to read after I overheard students in a totally different class loudly bitching about me - apparently all I ever do is "give them work and tell them to do it", which I know is a weird combination of not true and also sometimes true but a combination of them not understanding how language acquisition actually works and also just them being lazy because projects where you have to figure things out for yourself is hard. And you can't let teenagers get under your skin and so on and so forth. But it always stings! It's admittedly a small group, but the ones I get tend to be fiercely loyal (if that doesn't make me sound too arrogant...) This is only my third year at this particular school but my class has directly inspired three seniors to change their college plans as far as I know - one girl changed her major entirely to become a Spanish teacher and two others decided to add Spanish minors to their goal degrees (one in nursing and one in business). They have all agreed that my class is a challenge but one that pays off if you legit engage with it, which I would agree with. But clearly I am missing something to help a majority of kids engage here...sometimes I think it's a far broader community culture issue, as a lot of the problems in my classroom are not unique to me at all (there's a reason we have the lowest End of Course exam scores in the entire conference), but then at other times I think I'm just using that as an excuse 🤷‍♀️ Hard to say, honestly...probably both.   Challenge update: Quest One: Nutrition (Slash Pumping) 3 meals a day with good protein - pretty okay, though I have definitely been resorting to more protein snacks and carb-heavy quick meals than I was before. I think it's a combination of comfort food (box noodles and frozen pumpkin muffins) and just plain habit, as I've always been a huge carb person with little protein and most of the things I've gotten used to grabbing for protein hits are more snack-like (my husband makes protein balls routinely, I tend to grab nuts or nut butter with apples for the afternoon, string cheese is a family-wide favorite, etc.) But I do make my sausage or ham egg wraps at breakfast and am usually pretty good about getting some form of meat in at least at dinner - lunch is the hardest. 112 ounces - I missed one more day (yesterday actually!) but otherwise have been making this juuuuuuuust barely. Like, there have been multiple days when I'm ending right at the 112 mark. Guess that proves it's a reasonable goal though, right?   Quest Two: Don't Get Fired Grading - grading for everyone else has now been started, but only barely - I got in podcast projects for 1st hour Spanish 2. Goal for tonight: podcast projects for 3rd hour Spanish 2. And ideally 4th hour Spanish 2, but let's start small. Lesson planning - everyone has lessons through Monday on account of the fact we're on Unit 7 mini-projects, so there was minimal other lesson planning to be done honestly. Embarc - Still at 14 units left to put in, I'm sitting here pumping for a few more minutes before I go home so I might try to get one more in after I post this Required events - graduation complete! It was a pain but at least the ceremonies in this district are short (only about an hour and ten minutes, which is great!) Next required event I don't want to go to but don't have a real choice: the world's dumbest after-contract-hours meeting next Thursday the 16th which is all about "levels of knowledge" 🙄 Seriously, if you've been teaching for more than a few months, you could probably recite this stupid meeting in your sleep, but our assistant superintendent seems to think it's groundbreaking information, so we show up and try to hide what we're really working on while waiting for the clock to run out   Quest Three: Try to Maintain (Some) Sanity Weekly Moment Garden posts - my husband got an absolutely precious set of photos last night while I was at graduation!! He was holding the baby while getting the boy ready for his shower. They have this evening routine where the boy sits in my husband's lap while the water is "warming up for a minute" and they talk about the best and worst things in their day. It's really sweet and last night my husband got the cutest set of 3 photos where both kids are on his lap and smiling at the same time. A minor miracle getting good smiles from both kids simultaneously!   Quilt - still untouched, hopefully this weekend? At least the one seam? Maybe?

Big congrats on noticing moods!!!

Oh my gosh, traveling while sick is no fun. I feel like most college students dont pack soon enough. Lol i didnt my freshman year. By senior year, I had most of my stuff home and could just drive myself and a few suitcases home lol. I’m glad Peach is going to be closer to home, 9 hours is so far.    i hope the allergies clear up soon for you.

Ummm, I do an okay job of staying on top of it for my actual hiking boots because there can be traction issues on real trails (or off trail) when there isn't enough tread, but for most other shoes...well...I really hate shopping, so yes, I probably need new shoes. I think the tread on the ones I use for walking outdoors is pretty bad, so yeah, that much longer than usual walk on Monday could very well be the problem. There should be an REI sale/coupon coming up this month, and I should probably get some shoes then.

Day 4 summary: Jobs applied for: 2 Food goal met: 2   Yesterday was an equal split on meals, so no points.  I didn't apply for any more jobs,  but I did get a screening interview set up for a position I previously applied for, so that's cool.

Pachinko. I need to not be in charge of my reading choices, because my avoidant brain chooses low effort pablum for me. So I just looked up the NY times recommendations because they always seem to be talking about books on their books section. Unfortunately it's subscription only so I cannot look through all the articles completely. I also bought anxious people. So far, Pachinko is readable. It is about interpersonal drama, but it's not the detailed emotional close up that I hate that seemed to be popular for a while and was especially liked by my mother and her friends. 

I hope Saturdays work out! ❤️ 

*discreetly whispers* The first book is called "The Eyre Affair" even though one of the sequels is named "Thursday Next", just so you grab the right one.   Last night I tried my hand at making Cidran's specialty, bell pepper casserole. It turned out really good. I also finished off the cheeses from that finale a few weeks ago. They were starting to show their age. But I think I'll get more brie. It was nummy!   Still no doodles. I spent last night playing CMS with CR on in the background. Cidran fell asleep, but I was loving this week's episode. 😍 Also I turned on Epic the Musical, and was enjoying it in the background while I worked on dinner. This morning I turned on the last few songs and was BAWLING over my breakfast as the songs of the Underworld Saga played. 😭 May need to test if that always happens. 🤔   Anyway, hope your day is lovely! Maerad 

Ooh, what novel?  Are you enjoying it, or does it feel like a slog?