[Everstorm]

11 minutes ago, kcaleece said:

Crisis averted 😅

Thank goodness they were prepared!

 

12 minutes ago, kcaleece said:

the lactation cookies

What are those?

[kcaleece]

56 minutes ago, Everstorm said:

What are those?

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!

[Everstorm]

1 hour ago, kcaleece said:

the only ingredient that anyone can really and truly agree on is oatmeal

Oh interesting.   I don't think I ever heard about that one when I was breastfeeding.  Then again, underproduction generally wasn't my issue.  I swear I never had a dry shirt the first 6 months after my oldest was born. 🙈

[kcaleece]

On 4/5/2024 at 3:25 PM, Everstorm said:

Oh interesting.   I don't think I ever heard about that one when I was breastfeeding.  Then again, underproduction generally wasn't my issue.  I swear I never had a dry shirt the first 6 months after my oldest was born. 🙈

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 

[Everstorm]

46 minutes ago, kcaleece said:

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?

💯  Might as well

[athousandwords]

If you're a beer drinker, I was always told that milk stouts were great for production - or any beer really because I think it's the brewer's yeast that helps. 🍻

 

Your son wanting to match is sister is just 😍! I love that! Sounds like you need to have another fancy dress day to get some use out of the purple dress!

[kcaleece]

2 hours ago, athousandwords said:

If you're a beer drinker, I was always told that milk stouts were great for production - or any beer really because I think it's the brewer's yeast that helps. 🍻

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.

 

 

2 hours ago, athousandwords said:

Your son wanting to match is sister is just 😍! I love that! Sounds like you need to have another fancy dress day to get some use out of the purple dress!

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"

[Everstorm]

Congrats on the pay raise!  I'm glad to hear your school system appreciates all the work you do.

[kcaleece]

19 hours ago, Everstorm said:

Congrats on the pay raise!  I'm glad to hear your school system appreciates all the work you do.

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

[Everstorm]

8 minutes ago, kcaleece said:

I'm definitely getting Baby Girl's cold so I sat on my butt and coughed most of the evening instead hahaha

Boo.  My son is sick, too, as are several people here on NF.  Seems to be the season.

[kcaleece]

23 hours ago, Everstorm said:

Boo.  My son is sick, too, as are several people here on NF.  Seems to be the season.

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?

[kcaleece]

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

[Everstorm]

Yay for super fun soccer game!

 

So lucky the dress came clean.  I couldn't even tell you how many sets of clothes I lost to diaper blow-outs.  Once, I even had to throw out my own shirt.  *shudders*

[kcaleece]

15 hours ago, Everstorm said:

So lucky the dress came clean.  I couldn't even tell you how many sets of clothes I lost to diaper blow-outs.  Once, I even had to throw out my own shirt.  *shudders*

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 🤷‍♀️

[Everstorm]

3 hours ago, kcaleece said:

lunch yesterday was...is it bad I don't remember,

Mom Brain™️ hard at work.  I won't tell you how many times this week I asked my husband "what did I eat for lunch yesterday?" so I could record it and he knew when I didn't.  🙈

[athousandwords]

Congrats about the increased supply! Glad to quest is helping! 🥛🎉

 

Bummer about the oven though. 😩 At least you still have a way to cook... and no one wants to cook in the oven during the summer anyway? 😬 

[kcaleece]

On 4/16/2024 at 5:17 PM, Everstorm said:

Mom Brain™️ hard at work.  I won't tell you how many times this week I asked my husband "what did I eat for lunch yesterday?" so I could record it and he knew when I didn't.  🙈

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? 🤔

 

On 4/16/2024 at 7:10 PM, athousandwords said:

Congrats about the increased supply! Glad to quest is helping! 🥛🎉

Thanks! Though of course yesterday's doctor appointment has me all worried about my supply all over again, despite the measurable increase...

 

On 4/16/2024 at 7:10 PM, athousandwords said:

Bummer about the oven though. 😩 At least you still have a way to cook... and no one wants to cook in the oven during the summer anyway? 😬 

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

[kcaleece]

Aye aye aye! I 100% did not mean to abandon this thread so mercilessly. One of these years I will make it through an entire challenge without missing a big chunk of time, I swear it...just apparently not during this challenge, oops. In my defense, Baby Girl and I both came down with bad head colds, we started state testing at work, and all graduation stuff (senior final exams, grades, etc.) are due no later than Tuesday, so I've been deep into survival mode. 

 

Let's see though - the kindergartener desperately tried to convince us to let him do 2 animal presentations, but even just one ended up taking him forever and a thousand years, so he only ended up presenting about frogs and we've promised that he can present to his grandparents about hippos sometime over the summer. It was a fight and a half but we made him be the one to actually do all of it, minus some of the logistical stuff like Googling and printing frog pictures that matched what he said he wanted for his visual aid (I managed to find a miniature trifold at WalMart that was the absolute perfect size!) And I splurged just a little on the biggest set of glitter glue colors they had + a box of 50 3"x3" frog stickers so he could decorate to his heart's content  The extra $25 won't break anything for the month, so why not? And it paid off, because not only was my son brave enough to volunteer to present first (always a struggle in any age classroom!!) but he scored a 20/20 and came home SO proud of himself, he was practically bursting at the seams  

 

It did make us realize that he's been sneaking under the radar when it comes to his handwriting though - we thought it was just messy because kindergarten, but he makes his letters in the absolutely strangest ways, like a lowercase f apparently starts off as a lowercase r and then he traces a straight line hard over the top for the cross and then adds the top of the f as a completely separate line?? So I bought him a handwriting book to practice with and some primary story journals (think a composition notebook but the top half of the page is blank for a drawing and the bottom half has the lines to write on) and that how he's going to earn his spending money this summer instead of doing extra chores around the house. He's big enough we're really expanding the things he can spend his money on too - last year it was basically just treats at the pool, but this year we're also going to let him buy his favorite paletas from a local Mexican restaurant (think more like Dairy Queen than On the Border, where it wouldn't be weird to just a small snack), single day fishing licenses for the local lakes, extra tank tops he wants to buy (on top of the 3 he gets to pick out every summer, of course. But if that boy could get away with wearing a new tank top every day of his life, he would!), etc. 

 

We have also decided that we really super need to prioritize getting back to Mexico. My son doesn't remember any of his last trip (which to be fair, was 4.5 whole years ago now!) and his Spanish is getting really terrible because we have admittedly done a very poor job of making him use it at home. And Baby Girl has obviously never been, and not only do we need to introduce her to the family down there, but we need to get as much of that early input as possible! So we're going to visit in summer 2025. Baby Girl will be 18 months, only very slightly younger than her brother was on his first trip, and that gives us more time to save now that the boy is too big to qualify for a lap seat on an airplane anymore. I'm so excited!! Now it's on to the planning stages, since we always go for as long as possible - the expensive part is the airplane and since we both have plenty of time off in the summer, it makes sense to try to go for a few weeks rather than just a couple of days. And the faster we can at least decide on cities and major "wants", the more accurate we can make the budget. Mexico City and Puebla are must-visits every time for family reasons, but we always try to see at least one other city to help all of us learn the country better as a whole, since my husband just did the same couple of places in rotation before he met me and hasn't traveled much outside of those areas either. And besides, there's still plenty of new-to-us things to do in Mexico City! (and a few in Puebla, just not as many)

 

Anyway - on to the March/April challenge final counts:

Quest 1 - Nutrition

Breakfast/lunch - A lot of egg wraps, yes, but that's not surprising. I actually ended up doing way better at this than I expected to!! I think I only missed one day??
96 ounces of water - Also one I did better at than I thought I would with only two days missed. I will have to increase both of these in the next challenge I think! 

 

Quest 2 - Movement

“Extra movement” - hit every week except for this last one. Between work loads, head colds, and lots of thunderstorms, it just never happened. Still, I'm glad I managed the rest of the weeks!

 

Quest 3 - Family

Quilt - never did many any more progress, so I'm still at the step where I need to add rows 2 and 3 to row 1. To be honest, that was probably the more realistic goal anyway 🤷‍♀️

Weekly post on Moment Garden - This was honestly a bit harder than I thought...a lot of the cool stuff my son is doing isn't necessarily things I got pictures of, though I tried my best, and it ended up feeling like I posted a lot of "Baby Girl is smiling at us from her bassinet!" for my daughter. I did technically meet the goal though, so that's good?
 

Quest 4 - (28 days of) Work

Spanish 3 and 4 curriculums - At 15 out of 18 all the way to the finish line, whomp whomp
 

ER quizzes - got up to 10/15, which isn't bad but I do feel a little crappy that I couldn't finish this one after I even bought some more books to make it happen
 
Japanese - Ended up dropping this entirely when it was proving to be a bit too much work with little to no reward compared to the time and energy I had. Will probably pick it back up in the summer though?

[Everstorm]

Wow, a trip to Mexico sounds amazing!  Good luck wrapping up your school year.