Year 5: End of first quarter updates

Friday is the end of our first quarter, and now that I actually look a little pregnant, people constantly ask me how I'm feeling. Physically I'm great. Mentally, I'm tired.  The end of a grading period will do that to a teacher...here's some updates on the major areas of my life right now, and hopefully I can do more soon!

SCHOOL UPDATE

Homecoming pep rally - I'm glad this week is back to normal

I have several essays for all my classes to grade, which is not remotely news, but otherwise school is going well.  With the fall weather finally lowering my classroom temperature to a comfortable 70 degrees (from the average of 86 we had most days in August and September), more teaching is getting done. My AP kids are wrapping up The Scarlet Letter after reading The Crucible, and will be spending a few weeks with shorter, non-fiction argument pieces before jumping into Uncle Tom's Cabin, our new novel for this year's curriculum.

My freshmen finished their short story unit and will start Romeo and Juliet with the new quarter next week.  We're going to pair it with Fault in Our Stars again this year but with some tweaks, so I'm looking forward to that.

I'm still pretty much making up my sociology class as we go, but I got them started brainstorming their final project topic and research last week as we finish our unit on poverty, and they have some really cool ideas - I'll update more soon.

BABY UPDATE

I think this is an interesting sociological phenomenon; normally we casually ask people, "How are you?" but pregnant women get, "How are you feeling?"

Besides lots of prego brain moments, I'm feeling great.  We found out a few weeks ago that Spartacus is getting a little sister, which is very exciting. He tells us we're mistaken though: "You're getting a little baby girl!" "No momma, boy. Baby boy." "No sweetheart, girl." "No! Boy!"

Due date is still around January 31 and I dug out all my maternity wear this weekend from the basement.  Probably my biggest issue is remembering I'm pregnant - I feel so busy right now I need to remind myself to drink water, eat well, go walking, etc.  At least when I had morning sickness I remembered to eat a proper breakfast.  I know my baby will be resilient, but I did a much better job with the first pregnancy - I'm sure this is a common phenomenon for busy mommas.

TODDLER UPDATE

Our little two-year-old gets a little bigger and a little two-er every day.  Up in the choir loft Sunday, he dumped an entire box of colored pencils on the floor during the sermon, and repeated, "Uh-oh" loudly as he fumbled to retrieve them, and he insisted I hold him while the choir sang (We hear, "Uppie uppie!" 80 times a day).

My job as a soprano in our church choir is pretty much to hit whatever higher-than-G notes are required. When I had the high A at the end of an arrangement of Then Sings My Soul, my child put his hand over my mouth and very earnestly said, "No sing, Momma!" I was so surprised I started laughing and crying at the same time.

In other news, Spartacus is obsessed with:

Sunglasses AND Batman ears

Superman - we watch the cartoon on Amazon Prime, and he launches himself off furniture frequently, but usually sticks his landing - we will be looking for a tumbling class next spring

Batman - my sister-in-law got him a sweatshirt with Batman ears and it's all he ever wants to wear. Daycare mistakenly put it on another child last week, and apparently, my child made it very clear to them this was unacceptable.

Singing - In Daddy's car, they listen to What does the Fox say on loop during the morning daycare run.  In momma's car and at bedtime his playlist includes:
- the "baseball song" (Take me out to the ball game)
- the "football song" (I taught him our high school fight song)
- ABC-da-da-da (this is one he kind of made up when he is too lazy to sing all the letters)
- He's got the whole world in his hands - as long as the verse is "He's got Sparky and Baby in his hands"
- Jesus Loves Me - but mostly the line "they are weak but He is strong" so he can make his muscles
- The Annabelle song - to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle, the lyrics are eloquently: "Annabelle Annabelle, woof woof woof, Annabelle Annabelle, woof woof woof"

Trucks, Buses, and Trains - yellow school buses, dump trucks, and anything related to Thomas the Tank Engine still top his list as the coolest

Pizza, football, mismatched socks

Football - this kid has an arm.  He loves throwing his football inside and outside, actually gets a spiral sometimes, and loves watching any football on TV.  His favorite is going to Grandma's house and eating pizza and watching football.

Picking out his own socks - they don't match anymore, but then I don't have to fold them anymore either. Win for both parties.

Grapes, cottage cheese, and pizza - When we have time to cook he has fancy foodie things like butternut squash lasagna; this fall quarter with school it's a lot of hot dogs and cottage cheese.  And drinking without a lid on his cup like he does at daycare. And lots of shirt changes when he dumps cups of milk down his front.

HUBSTER UPDATE

The husband is in his second year of seminary coming out of his summer chaplain training and Hebrew.  He joined the seminary's Kantorei choir, which rehearses Monday nights and does some regional concerts during the year.  He has a wonderful baritone range, so I'm excited for him to get more professional training, even if it means another weekday evening gone for rehearsal.  He also spends time at a local nursing home for his field work class, learning chaplain-type skills. He finds it both very challenging, as many of those he meets are not Christian, and rewarding in-the-field practice.

We made beeswax candles at a date night

We started teaching Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University class at our church on Thursday nights.  This is the third time we are teaching the class, and are psyched to have 16 people signed up for it - and who came back the second week!  It's a 9-week class, and will run until the week before Thanksgiving. I know it is definitely good for us, as we've been slacking on our budget lately, but I also pray it will be beneficial for all those who attend as well.  We're very excited about it.

Daddy & Sparky and BIG trains

We try to build in at least one family day or date night every few weeks.  We took Spartacus to a Railroad open house a few weeks ago, and we attended a "Bees and Brew" event a local honey farm put on last week that was very fun.  Otherwise, we are both so busy between the reserve drill weekends, rehearsals, grading, church obligations, and the like it feels like we sometimes go days without saying more than, "Is the dishwasher clean?" or "I started the coffee pot."  It will be a busy next few months for both of us, but we're working to dig in some couple time, especially before baby #2 makes her appearance.  HUGE shout-out to both our sets of parents who pick up so much extra free babysitting to help us get things done and spend some time together.