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!

We never took my son camping as an infant either - he was about a month shy of 2 when we went for the first time with him - but I finally managed to grab a basic campsite in early June at a very nearby park (it's barely outside of the city, so it's always crowded and fully reserved for months ahead of time, and they only have 3 basic campsites total in the whole park because so many people come with RVs, so getting this reservation has taken several tries!), so we'll be taking her out just a few days shy of 6 months. A big difference for sure! But early June is a pretty good bet for camping here, it's only going to be 2 nights at the one park, and the park is just under an hour from home if we run into trouble (and honestly downtown will be much closer than home if we just feel like we're missing generic supplies or something), so hopefully it'll be a good bridge to camping as a family of four now 🤞 Though I do still need to buy a camping bassinet/crib, that's the next major step. Otherwise I'm back at work again already, sigh. Yesterday evening was rough - Baby Girl was screaming every hour or so (she seemed angry in general, but I also think she's wanting to eat more than my body is producing at the moment - hopefully this is just part of a normal growth spurt and not a sign my body is starting to fail her with the return to work), my guts were angry again though not as angry as last week, my son was super whiny because he doesn't have class today due to his school being a voting station for the local elections but he still has to go to child care because his dad and I are both at work, etc. etc. But not all is lost! We also got my son's 3rd quarter report card - he failed "keeping an organized and clean work area" and got a 'needs growth' in writing 2+ word captions for his drawings, but passed all his other kindergarten standards pretty handily so we're happy with that. Getting the report card helped convince him to finally tackle his big Spring Break assignment (a classic egg drop challenge) and the egg survived his practice run at home, so hopefully it'll go as well at school on Friday. And honestly it was kinda nice that baseball practice got rained out last night since it was a tough enough time at home, but it's been rescheduled for Thursday so hopefully that'll end up being a much better time for us. Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - Well I did get breakfast and lunch yesterday, but they weren't very healthy choices and had little protein (some doughnut holes followed by mac and cheese with sausage mixed in) which might have also been part of why my guts hurt somewhat? I've found that I've gotten a bit more sensitive to sugar overloads than I have been in the past...which honestly might be kind of a good thing if it helps keep me from eating an entire Easter basket of candy and calling it a meal? 80 ounces of water - Made my goal on Sunday, though I genuinely don't remember my final count, and fell short yesterday due to not feeling well again. I'm a bit slow this morning with a current total of only 16 ounces but I will get a chance to refill my water bottle here in about 10 minutes 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 Quest 4 - (37 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - no change yet but the more I think about it, the more I want to get rid of the first unit of Spanish 4 and replace it...which I should theoretically do by moving a Spanish 3 unit into 4 because I really mostly ignore the travel standard in year 3 (we do it as an assignment but it's obvious the state intended that to be at least a mini-unit 🤷‍♀️ I still hit it, so they technically can't complain at me!) Maybe I'll move the Transatlantic Music History unit up to 4? It could kinda mirror the first unit of 3 which is Television, and it's certainly academic enough to belong in 4, but it might honestly be too intense for the first unit of the year...pondering this one still. ER quizzes - no extra progress so I'm still at 4.6/15 Lingo Legend Japanese - I did this on Sunday for 1/4 this week but failed to open the app yesterday. It's fairly clear to me at this point that this is not exactly the most effective way to learn Japanese, but I don't have an actual goal application for this right now so maybe that's not necessarily a bad thing?

Ooooh, enjoy your break!! Sounds like it's off to a great start

Thanks! The coffeeshop time was much needed, for sure. I'm not even mad at my guts as much as I am worried that I'm developing a new trigger without knowing what it is. It took a long time to figure out what my list was and I've always felt grateful that my list is a lot shorter than other patients with similar disease progression, so the idea that a new item might be sneaking its way on there is disconcerting. However, I was back to normal by yesterday and I can't think of anything new or different I ate over the last week, so we're crossing our fingers it was just a touch of bad luck that maybe got worsened by the mild head cold and transition back into the workplace. Baby Girl got her first cold within 3 days of starting "school" so maybe it's reasonable to think my body did a similar thing 🤷‍♀️ It's been a fun holiday weekend so far! We're a little bit bummed because Easter is our traditional weekend to kick off the camping season, but we decided not to go this year because a) we would have needed to sign up quite a while ago, and we were hesitant to do so before we had a better guess about how Baby Girl will take it, given that she's only 3 months old and we would have needed to sign up when she was at most 2 months old to get a spot, b) Easter is so early this year that it would be perfectly seasonable around here to still be freezing cold and nasty out, and c) again, Easter is so early this year it's actually before the state turns on the water at their campgrounds, and while I have done plenty of backcountry camping before and am not bothered by that, my husband and 6 year old have not and given points a and b, it didn't feel like a good year to introduce that extra hurdle. And then the weekend has turned out to be beautifully warm and perfect for a first camping trip! 😅 It's okay though, because we've been out at our fire pit every night and we were given free tickets to the local professional women's soccer game yesterday. We' re proud to have the first stadium ever built specifically for a women's pro sports team right here in KC, and we were at the second game ever held there! A friend of my husband's works for the investment bank that did a lot of the financial work for the stadium build, so they all got season tickets but he and his wife couldn't make it yesterday so they gave them to us. We definitely should have bought better noise cancelling headphones but other than that we had a great time - and now I have two sets of upgraded headphones on their way to us before we go to our next pro soccer game on April 13th 😄 (Messi is coming to KC and you'd best believe we were willing to pay the extremely inflated ticket prices to see the GOAT!!) Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - Managed this even at the soccer game, mostly because my husband was willing to pay the ridiculously inflated concession prices because I was really hungry and we got the tickets themselves for free 😆 80 ounces of water - I got to about 110 on Friday and somewhere around 90 yesterday. I'm slightly behind today due to a late start but am currently at 56 ounces so I should make it pretty easily. Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - nothing extra, I brought the carrier yesterday expecting to have to walk a good way to the stadium (there's been a lot oof kerfuffle about the very inadequate parking available) but we got a free parking pass with the free tickets, so we didn't end up using it at all Quest 3 - Family Quilt - rows 2 and 3 have all the pieces made but they need to be sewn together and then attached to row 1 still Weekly post on Moment Garden - Plenty of photos to post from yesterday's soccer game, dying Easter eggs, this morning's egg hunt, and opening their baskets! This was kinda a gimme weekend, so I'll still be looking for something during this week Quest 4 - (37 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - no change currently but I'm thinking I'm more and more likely going to achieve at least 1 folder from Spanish 4... ER quizzes - no extra progress so I'm still at 4.6/15 Lingo Legend Japanese - I got this in on Friday but straight up forgot on Saturday with everything else going on. Whoops. So I'm giving myself credit for 3/4 and hoping to get 5/4 this week to make up for it!

Ugh so Wednesday and Thursday ended up being pretty crap days. My intestines got all in a knot - potentially literally? - even though I have been very careful to avoid any known triggers. I do have a bit of a head cold though, so that's at least not helping. Anyway so Wednesday I was in a lot of pain and Thursday was better but not back up to normal, which extra sucked because that was our last chance at a date until June (my husband and I both had the day off work but my son had to go to school...Baby Girl was with us, because her daycare schedule is tied to my work schedule, but she's young enough that a date lunch still feels like a date, you know?) We had plans to go try this local Cuban restaurant we heard really great things about, but my guts made us too nervous so we ended up chatting at a coffeeshop for about two hours instead. It's a relatively new-to-me spot, with yesterday only being my second visit, but it's such a cool place it was nice to get to visit again. If it wasn't so far from the house we'd go a lot more often! Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - Surprisingly, I did manage to eat all of these meals on Wednesday and Thursday (today was a large brunch, which I will probably count for both...is that cheating? I haven't decided). However lunch yesterday did not include any protein outside of some cheese. 80 ounces of water - I fell pretty short on Wednesday with a total of about 55 ounces; when my intestines get that mad, even water will set them off so I basically stopped eating and drinking entirely after about 2pm. I did get to 100 ounces yesterday though and am at 32 so far today. Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - nothing extra, though we did walk a little yesterday to get to the coffeeshop, as it is in a more urban area that doesn't have immediately nearby parking Quest 3 - Family Quilt - no progress yet, but my husband has promised I will get time today! Weekly post on Moment Garden - Posted the baseball practice for my son on Wednesday (my husband only took 2 photos, hahaha, but one of them was okay at least) and then went ahead and posted the baby yesterday just hanging out in her cradle because we dressed her in Royals colors for opening day Quest 4 - (37 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - still at 11 folders done out of 18 and spent a decent amount of time last night thinking that I might end up changing some units around to better fit the annual standards, which might mean at least one of those 11 folders will get at minimum moved, if not archived entirely... ER quizzes - slight progress on Wednesday before I left for break with one more chapter of Piratas después del mediodía completed and another started but not done yet, which brings me to 4.6/15, technically Lingo Legend Japanese - I genuinely no longer remember if I did this on Wednesday or not (I think I did, but don't want to cheat?) I definitely played about 35 points yesterday though, so I feel good about giving myself 2/4 so far. Gotta hit today and tomorrow to keep the goal alive though!

Baby Girl woke up almost 2 hours early today 😰 So I'm even more sleepy than my students today despite drinking plenty of coffee and taking a walk around campus in the cold wind over the last passing period. Super early wake up also means she got fed about 45 minutes earlier than usual because she wouldn't stop screaming, which has me worried that she'll eat way more than normal today. I'm barely pumping enough to keep up with her demand as is! I made some lactation cookies to hopefully help; I'm not sure I can believe their claims to be honest (it just seems a bit too impressive, honestly) but even a little bit of boost would be helpful because I'm either barely meeting her needs or I'm just slightly under. She's been averaging 12 ounces daily so far and I'm averaging about 12.5 ounces...too close for comfort, especially since the last two days' worth of pumps have dragged that down by only averaging 9 ounces despite me eating and drinking quite a lot. Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - egg and sausage wraps for breakfast again, and I packed meatloaf with some rice for lunch 80 ounces of water - Yesterday I ended up getting 100 ounces of water; today I was running late due to Baby Girl's schedule change + some intestinal upset, so I still haven't filled my water bottle yet. Will happen over the next passing period! Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - nothing yesterday Quest 3 - Family Quilt - no progress yet Weekly post on Moment Garden - no posts yesterday, but my husband is taking our son to see an open MLB practice this afternoon and I have commanded him to be on the lookout for good photo opportunities 😆 Quest 4 - (38 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - no progress, still at 11 folders done out of 18. ER quizzes - slight progress yesterday with one more chapter of Piratas después del mediodía being posted, which brings me to 3/15 Lingo Legend Japanese - I did play some more yesterday, though not enough to reach all 60 energy points. Nothing yet this morning, but it's still early! 1/4 done for the week thus far

Eeep! My husband and I were making Harvey jokes for the next hour, but Donnie Darko would be far worse! I was in the infant room this morning feeding Baby Girl over my plan when they had the Easter Bunny come visit them as well. I thought about your comment while watching the infants and 1 year olds freak out and yeah, I think you might have something there! The school's costume was less creepy than the grocery store one, but that face is so uncannily flat. Huh, that's interesting! The only other district I know of in my city that gives time off for Easter is actually the charter district where my husband works, and that's only because their entire support staff (janitors, lunch ladies, secretaries, etc.) are technically employed by the community center that backs the school, not the school itself. Since the community center gets Good Friday and Easter Monday off, school shuts down too because how are they supposed to run with zero support staff for two days? Though my son's school district does kinda have Good Friday off this year too - it's a teacher PD/meeting day, so he doesn't have classes but the district technically isn't closed. Not sure if that was planned to match Easter or if that was just where the next meeting day happened to fall, since they had school on Good Friday last year. Actually most teachers in my district are kinda mad about it this year - in the past, we've always gotten a Thursday-Tuesday in March as Spring Break and then a 4 day weekend (Friday-Monday) whenever Easter is. This year, since Easter is so early, we're only getting the one break that's Thursday-Monday. I feel cheated out of my break days! I genuinely can't remember how it started, but we've done it for a few years now and it's so nice! While we eat, we listen to the NPR puzzle and then go around the table picking different songs to play on the sound system. My son talks about what songs he's going to pick all week ❤️ Challenge update: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - egg and sausage wraps for breakfast again, followed by some Greek yogurt with strawberries and cocoa pebbles mixed in for lunch (I can't stand eating yogurt without some kind of crunchy add-in like cereal, and I figured maybe I'd get a chocolate-covered strawberry type of vibe?) Honestly it was kinda this challenge that made that happen, because last night I was so tired and irritated I fully intended to just grab a muffin or something and call it good, but mama guilt and needing to post here made me think of the yogurt idea! Plus I grabbed more apples + almond butter in case the yogurt lunch isn't enough and I get hungry again in the afternoon. 80 ounces of water - Yesterday I barely squeaked out about 86 ounces, and today I'm behind again with only my first 22 ounces down by lunch. I do tend to drink a little more in the afternoons and evenings though, so I'm going to buckle down and get it knocked out! Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - the rain did hold off, baseball practice did happen, and Baby Girl and I did get to walk in the carrier! For about 40 minutes of a 1 hour practice, because as soon as the sun hit the horizon it got really cold really fast and neither one of us were very happy about that. Also my legs were burning something awful because I had to make my strides super bouncy to keep her happy (I think we're hitting a growth spurt? She's been extra hungry, sleepy, and cranky since Sunday night). Otherwise I wasn't exactly speed walking or anything, but slow and steady was pretty manageable. If I didn't have to bounce so much and it was warmer, I think I could have done the hour without too much extra pain - the only other issue I was having was in my lower back where the carrier wrapped around me, but I think that was still from the bouncing of her weight on the bottom of the carrier and it wasn't nearly as painful as my poor legs. Quest 3 - Family Quilt - no progress yet Weekly post on Moment Garden - I posted a picture of Baby Girl snoozing away on my lap this morning, but I'm hoping to find something else more interesting for her this week too! Quest 4 - (39 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - I was actively avoiding grading last night, so now ALL of Spanish 3 is completely uploaded!!! I'm up to 11 folders done out of 18 total already, woah. Assuming I get Spanish 4 up relatively easily (that will be my hardest one though since it is the least developed curriculum), I'll go ahead and start adding in French 1 this challenge as well so I don't have to worry about it in May. That would be nice! ER quizzes - no progress yesterday, still at 2/15 Lingo Legend Japanese - I failed to play again yesterday, so I made sure that I played early today during one of my pumping sessions. I still have the last 40 energy points to play (probably will knock out at least some of those during my next pumping session here in about 30 minutes) but I at least got to that 20 energy points spent mark. 1/4 days done for the week, yay!

Intriguingly, because I always love thinking about modern Romance languages when discussing Latin roots, this is true in France French (I don't know for sure, but I would not be the slightest bit surprised to find out that this made it into English via French) and is reflected only slightly oddly in Canadian French where a car trunk literally translates to "suitcase", but I personally have always enjoyed the Spanish term maletero, or porter. Like a hotel porter who is paid to carry people's bags for them. Just a fun little bit of everyday personification (I should probably also point out that's the term I've heard in use in Puebla, Mexico; with Spanish being the way that it is, I'm sure there are 14 different regional variations!)

Okay, here we go for reals!!! The weekend wasn't bad, but it did turn out to be much busier and full of more work than I was hoping for. But this is a short week for me teaching-wise (we get Thursday - Monday off for Easter despite being a public school...what can I say except it's a small rural town 🤷‍♀️ not my favorite thing ever but I do appreciate the days off, so I don't complain). Hopefully that will help open up some time soon? The news around school is all about our band teacher though. He's been a community favorite for ages, but he's super pissed off that we replaced both admin last summer and he didn't get picked for either job despite being very open about how much he wanted it, so he finally announced his resignation this morning. I've seen it coming since August but it's still interesting to know that I was right and he did have one foot out the door this entire year. Also with him gone, I will officially be the most senior electives teacher next year. I wonder if that means I'm required to be on the building lead team? Need to figure that one out...which could be extra interesting because the band teacher's wife is pregnant, due in June (or July?) and I know they've already signed the new baby up to be classmates with my Baby Girl at the district daycare starting next fall - his wife also works for the district, so even if he leaves, the new baby has a spot - so we'll still be seeing each other regularly for the next several years. We both have beef with the district but not with each other (we've certainly had our disagreements but no lasting grudges, as far as I know) so hopefully that won't be weird. Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - had more egg and sausage wraps on Saturday and today, unsurprisingly (if you've never seen my threads before, that was my breakfast 95% of the time through my entire pregnancy, so why mess with a good thing?). Yesterday was "special breakfast" which we do as a family once every weekend though which day it is on changes. That's our "fancy" breakfast with cheesy scrambled eggs, sausage or bacon, and some kind of carb (toast, waffle, pancake, French toast, etc.) This Sunday was apple sausages and leftover chocolate chip pancakes! Lunches were more of a mess over the weekend, per usual (the lack of a schedule tends to encourage me to skip meals), but I did manage to scarf down some leftovers. And I have some more meatloaf for lunch today! 80 ounces of water - Saturday was a good day at about 100 ounces, Sunday I barely hit 80 but I did make it. Today I've only had coffee so far but I'll be starting on some water as soon as passing period hits in a few minutes (forgot to fill up my water bottle before school started, oops) Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - nothing over the weekend; we were planning on doing a family walk on Sunday afternoon (which turned out nicer than was forecast) so I kept waiting for that but for a variety of reasons, it kept getting pushed off (baby needed something, the boy hadn't done his chore yet, etc. etc.) and then it was too dark to go anymore. If the rain holds off, tonight will be my son's first baseball practice of the season, so I'm thinking I'll strap the baby into the carrier and walk around the park for at least part of practice to make up for it. Quest 3 - Family Quilt - no progress yet, despite that being a weekend... Weekly post on Moment Garden - I posted a photo of my son meeting the Easter Bunny at the grocery store on Saturday (is it just me or are those Easter Bunny costumes always mildly terrifying??? Why are they so creepy??) but my husband is planning on taking him out of school about an hour early on Wednesday to go see an open MLB practice, so I'm hoping to get some much more awesome photos from that!! Quest 4 - (40 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - Spanish 3 Unit 4 is now completely uploaded, bringing the total to 7 folders done out of 18 total ER quizzes - I did get the first 2 quizzes of Piratas después del mediodía done! Was hoping for the first 3 but 2 is a great start given how late into the week I started Lingo Legend Japanese - To make life a little bit easier, I'm going to define this as "using up at least the first 20 energy points" (since after that you have to watch a video ad to get the rest). If that is my working definition, then I played on Saturday but not Sunday. I did finally figure out how to tell it to stop with the anime/manga category (title recognition) though - I get that anime/manga is an incredibly common motivator for Japanese students, but I genuinely couldn't care less about it, and it was irritating me to the point where I was losing interest in playing. Starting this week off with zero plays so far

Love the flowers!! ❤️ I highly recommend ribollita for a delicious way to incorporate a bunch of veggies into a meal! I have no idea if my recipe is traditional or not, but between my medical needs and taste preferences, I can be very picky about vegetables and we get through a double batch of ribollita in just a few days. And it's what we call a "leftover sink" (you can "sink in random leftovers" you need to use up and get out of the fridge without making the final dish weird) so it's super versatile and simple to change as needed or desired.

Thank you so much everyone! I'm glad to be back on here. Honestly sometimes I feel kinda bad about being on here since it is, at heart, a fitness forum, and my fitness goals have been so much smaller than just my general life stuff for...about 2 years now. Since spring 2022 when my Crohn's first flared back up, then we hit the egg retrievals, then pregnancy, then the second Crohn's surgery...I really appreciate still being welcomed here, for real Baby Girl definitely has a cold and we might be hitting the next growth spurt at the same time? Either that or she's extra hungry due to fighting off the cold, it's hard to say. She is definitely getting too long for her 0-3 month onsies either way! Some of them are starting to look like scoop necks in order to reach all the way to her legs 😂 We're in that weird annoying phase where some 0-3 month clothes are too small but some still fit and some 3-6 month clothes fit but others are still too big. Honestly, one thing I did not see coming about having a baby girl was that baby dresses are actually wonderful for this kind of fitting issue - they're wide enough to fit for longer than the onesies or sleepers, and we put pants or leggings on her under them anyway (just so her little legs aren't hanging out bare and chilly all day long) so length isn't an issue. Anyway, I always feel a little silly doing a challenge update this quickly, but I did try to get going yesterday, so here it is: Quest 1 - Nutrition Breakfast/lunch - my husband made me egg and sausage wraps both yesterday morning and today, gods bless him. I ate one at breakfast yesterday, another one at lunch, and one for breakfast today. I also brought some meatloaf with rice for lunch today. Plus I brought apple slices with peanut butter for my morning snack for a bit more protein! 80 ounces of water - hit vaguely around 110 Quest 2 - Movement “Extra movement” - nothing yesterday (or likely today) because I'm so flipping tired, but I'm hoping it'll be nice for a walk on Saturday because it's supposed to storm all Sunday and Monday Quest 3 - Family Quilt - no progress yet, this usually happens on weekends just due to time and work issues during the week Weekly post on Moment Garden - I actually got posts up for both kids on Wednesday, which is kinda cheating but also not. I did technically post a new picture today but it's definitely cheating because I posted the same photo on both kids' Gardens (it's a precious photo though, with Baby Girl on her back in her activity gym and Big Brother laying on his stomach next to her just chatting away about all the stuff he had done at school that day ❤️) Quest 4 - (41 days of) Work Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - I did get started on Spanish 3 yesterday. Each school day has to be accounted for, which means 7 units + 2 summative exams = 9 folders per course. Spanish 3 already had the first semester's 4 folders done, and I got about 75% of the way through folder #5. Spanish 4 currently has 2 folders done I believe? I think it's Units 1 and 3 because 3 is our novel study and those go up really fast, and there's no rule that says we have to upload them in order as long as they're all there by May 23rd 🤷‍♀️ ER quizzes - no real progress...technically I wrote the first question for the first chapter of Piratas después del mediodía but that's not exactly an achievement yet. Lingo Legend Japanese - technically I played yesterday but not as many turns as I could have; each battle takes 5 "energy" and you get up to 60 energy points a day. I played 35 points yesterday and then gave up because I was tired and grumpy. I'm still tired so I started playing early today during one of my pumping sessions (which also make me sleepy! I think it's dumb that milk expression makes you sleepy, but I guess biology doesn't have to ask my permission to do dumb things 😂). I do still have 20 more energy points to play later tonight though!