Bump Watch: 29 Weeks

Wow.

This pregnancy sure is flying by!

It's hard to believe that in less than 11 weeks our little one will make his or her debut.

Due Date?  January 17th. 

How far along?  29 weeks yesterday.

Size of baby?  He/she is the size of a butternut squash, which was coincidentally on sale this week!

Weight gain?  I'm not saying...I'm still in the "normal" range, but it's harder than I thought.

I am feeling very insecure about the whole thing, but know I am getting the best kind of reward.

I'm loving all of these vitamins!

My hair is growing sooooo fast!

Maternity clothes?  Oh, totally!  Can't live without them!

Movement?  All. Day. Long. I love it.  It's a super weird feeling though.

Almost like I have wicked bubble gut but none of the stinky side effects. :)

Food cravings?  SUGAR.

I passed my glucose tolerance test with flying colors thankfully!

I'm craving all sorts of naughty stuff, but trying to stick to something reasonable.

Hence the reason we had chicken, veggies and brown rice on a Friday night!

Gender?  Still unknown.  Seriously one of the best decisions we have made.

I love the anticipation!

Labor?  None.

Bellybutton in or out?  In.

What I miss?  

Easily rolling over in bed.

Having a relatively normal-sized set of knockers.

Ankles.

Wine.

Being able to go more than 30 minutes without peeing.

Looking forward to...?  Setting up the nursery.  We are starting that tomorrow!

Also, we have our first baby shower next weekend.

We have already gotten a few gifts so I started on thank you notes today.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. B

Life Happens

Man.

I was so proud of myself for getting a blog post out almost 2 (two!!!) weeks ago and then life got in the way again.

I have kind of resigned myself to the reality that I am probably not going to be a daily blogger again for a while.

A long while.

Don't get me wrong...I LOVE writing and sharing things on my blog.

However, I am enjoying my last few months of being Jordan before entering the world of Mom.

I've been crocheting my brains out and actually making money doing it!

I have started crocheting hats and such for friends and family.

I find crochet to be so blissfully relaxing and love that I can do it for other people!
I love this football hat that I've made for a few people (included someone I only knew through Instagram!!).

I am done with the rows on my ripple baby blanket for Baby B.

I just need to sew the ends in and add a border!

I am so dang in love with this blanket that I am 95% sure that I will be starting one for myself here SOON.
This photo is from when it was 1/3 of the way done.
I suffered from a bit of baby brain and stopped a row too soon which is why there are now skinny rows incorporated as well.
However, it turned out AWESOME.
So, yay for baby brain!

I started watching "Breaking Bad" on Labor Day at the (not so gentle) urging of Handsome Husband.

I am pretty dang proud of myself because I managed to keep up on all of my work, feed HH and myself, and catch up to the current episodes by September 15th!

My iPad went EVERYWHERE with me.

Totally not exaggerating...you name the place and the iPad was there.

I'm now "hooked" (pun intended) on "Once Upon a Time".

My dad started watching it first and really liked it so I decided to try it.

It's nothing intense or mind-boggling, but I find it enjoyable.

Plus, there is some real eye-candy in it! :)

On a baby note, Handsome Husband got to feel the baby kicking for the first time last night!

He/She was super active as I was getting ready to fall asleep, so I made him get off his phone and had him wrap his whole arm around my belly (more surface area = more of a chance he'd feel it).

It was so cool!

I feel it all the time and he's been saying that he wished he could.

Man, to say that I love that little eggplant (thank you, What to Expect app) would be the understatement of the year.

I didn't know that I had a hole in my being that needed to be filled.
I am getting so excited to meet our little one in January!

I hope you're having a great start to your week!

Laters,

Mrs. B

Hello?? Is This Thing On?

Sooo...

I AM alive.

I swear.

Growing a baby + teaching 75 nuggets each day = one tired teacher.

I seriously thought that this year was going to be easier (not any less busy...just easier to manage) since I was teaching the same thing 3 times a day.

I.  WAS.  WRONG.

Dead wrong.

It is actually much harder AND busier this year.

Planning has been super easy, though.

It takes me less than an hour to plan and prep my entire week.

That rocks.

Don't get me wrong...I wouldn't have it any other way.

I love teaching writing and grammar.

I feel that it's my strong suit and that I am able to get the students to truly understand the writing process without dumbing it down or giving up.

I have had some seriously awesome lessons this year.

However, I just don't have the time or energy to write about them later.

That's sad...the writing teacher doesn't have time to write!

Here is some of what I have been up to in the million years since I last posted:

Pregnancy craving

Killer student t-shirt

My toes are disappearing.

Story of my life

Tide Pods are ruining my clothes.

Free diaper bag from a friend

20 week ultrasound

We are trying to scrimp and save so that means Sunday night manis and pedis in the bathroom.

I'm loving the progression of ultrasounds hanging from our fridge.

 Need.  This.  Onsie.

The bump has arrived.

(This is 20 weeks...it's definitely bigger since then.)

I've been crocheting up a storm.

Made for Baby B by a friend.  

Love!

Tried and tried to learn a new pattern.

Backed off for a week, tried a different version and nailed it.

Found this on a paper a few weeks ago...not sure what it's supposed to be. ;-)

Began registering for Baby B.

Went on a church golf outing with my daddio.

 Found some cute packaging for my crocheting at Target.

I.  Love.  Polka-dots.

Finally nailed it!

Registered for cloth diapers.

I love second grade writing sometimes.

"The moral of the story is never play soccer when you have to pee."

Last night's pregnancy craving.

Progress on the baby's blanket.

Don't mind the fact that I TOTALLY messed up and quit the white to soon.

Only Jesus is perfect, right?

Let's hope I can get back on her sooner rather than later!

Have a great week!

Mrs. B

He Had a Dream...

**This is part of an email that my mom sent out this morning.

I loved reading it and got permission to share.**

Jordan, just letting you know that you were there.  You might have looked like an almond or something, but you were there for the commemorative march.

(source)

Thirty years ago today, my husband and I celebrated our first anniversary on a charter bus with a group from the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker group, headed to DC to attend the 20^th Commemorative March on Washington.  I was 2 months pregnant and am lucky I did not miscarry because it was 105 degrees in the shade.  People were dropping like flies.  I credit popsicles and the two 2-liter bottles of water I carried in my backpack.

It was a bittersweet day for me.  I was a young idealistic woman who was naïve enough to think that everyone in attendance was on the same page, joined in unity and moving forward to break down barriers.  I was disheartened to find that this was not true.  The ones who made this most clear were the ones for whom we were marching.  I don’t fault them; I realize their battle was a tougher one than mine and, now, I realize the power of White Privilege and the benefits I’ve had just by being born white.  It breaks my heart.

In fifth grade, I learned about the Melting Pot and fell in love with the notion that we were all one.  Young, naïve, and hopeful.

I am still filled with that hope and am fighting the good fight. 

Though it may sound like it, this email response is not about me.  [This] email just caused me to wax nostalgic.  I pray we move forward.  For our kids’s sake, I hope we move forward.

Some photos from that day.

My beautiful momma.

(And me!)

Mrs. B

First Day!

I can't believe it!

Another first day has come and gone!

I was very calm going into this one.

Like I said yesterday, I didn't label anything before my new nuggets arrived.

Those students who came to school for our open house the night before had already picked lockers and I simply assigned the rest.  

The lockers were still only labeled with marker since I wasn't sure who was going to actually show up yet.

The nuggets were thrown for a bit of a loop when they discovered that they could pick where they sat to begin the day.

Don't worry...there's a method to my madness.

I haven't assigned desks prior to the first day for a few years now.

I like to see how the group interacts with each other first.

Who bugs whom.

Who the besties seem to be.

Which couplings are Chatty Cathies.

Etcetera.

I have found that this works the absolute best because I don't have to do a ton of rearranging after the fact.

Over my lunch break I worked up a quick seating chart and moved them around in the afternoon.

Some things I like to do on the first day:

get-to-know-you activities

share about our summers

let them ask questions about me

give them a quick tour of the room

a couple simple worksheets

go over expectations and procedures

practice expectations and procedures

give lots of bathroom breaks but let them know which times will be our regularly scheduled break times

finding out how they get home each day

I had a few nuggets that tried to push my buttons on the first day.

However, since I had already gone over the expectations I let them know that their behavior wouldn't fly by reminding them of the expectations and talking through how they could be more successful.

There are a few that are going to be definite "toughies".

I ended the day with some simplified end-of-the-day procedures.

While lining up I had 4 of my new boys wearing their backpacks on their fronts and saying, "Look!  I'm having a baby, too!"

Characters!

I can't wait to get to know their little personalities!

Laters!

Mrs. B

Back to School...

Is it just me or does anyone else hear Billy Madison (as played by Adam Sandler) singing this whenever it's said?

Just me?

Ok.

I approached the dawning of this school year more calmly than I ever have.

I didn't set foot into the school until last Monday.

That's unheard of for me.

I am usually the teacher that will go in every few weeks to clean and organize or spend hours online looking for new projects and ideas.

Well, not this summer.

It can best be summed up like this:

I needed time to be "Jordan" and not "Mrs. B" for a while.

My teacher batteries were running on empty.

**I wouldn't let my phone battery get that low, if you know what I mean!

So, I geared myself up and headed back to school.

I had a meeting Monday morning, student home-visits all day Tuesday, and meetings all day Wednesday (our first contract day).

Thursday was a work day followed by our back to school Meet, Greet and Eat night where the students and parents can come into the school, drop supplies off and meet their new teachers.

I spent the day purging cupboards and organizing anything I could get my newly-polished nails on.

It was very cathartic.

However, that meant that I was scrambling to clean the visible parts of my room an hour before parents were set to arrive!

Whoopsie.

I like to begin the year with my walls being a clean slate.

I get overwhelmed by visual clutter and know that my nuggets usually appreciate a visually non-stimulating environment as well.

Also, since we start fresh each year with anchor charts and such it lets the children slowly adjust to where learning resources (anchor charts, posters, signs, etc) are located in the room.

One thing that I changed this year is that I didn't label ANYTHING before the children arrived.

I usually label their lockers, books, and supplies.

However, we had some major glitches in our student data system which left class lists very up-in-the-air.

So, I decided to take labeling off my plate.

During the Meet, Greet and Eat I carried a dry-erase marker with me and let the nuggets pick their locker placements.

They loved the ownership and I loved that it took some work out of it for me.

Here are some hastily snapped photos of what my room looks like so far:

Carpet area (view from door)

Mrs. Miller's corner (our Title One Instructor) 

View from the back door of the room 

Where my class' writing binders are stored. 

 Science book storage
Classroom library
Writing binder storage for the other two classes
(I was so bummed to find out that they didn't fit in the desks and take up a TON of room!)

Our SLANT poster (from Teach Like a Champion) ((will be framed by tomorrow))
Daily and End of the Week objective frames

Work display area
Coffee nook

 View from behind my desk

Isn't this the most perfect writing teacher sign?!

Important information
(The schedules will be framed by tomorrow...had to go the the dollar store!)

I think that the best recurring tidbit of advice I hear is "Be flexible."

I agree whole-heartedly.

These are a few of the ways that I started off flexible this year.

Laters!

Mrs. B