Books about Baby!

I crawled into bed last night and started reading a young adult book from my classroom, Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie. I've had this book in my classroom library for quite a while, but have never read it. This past week, after scouring many teacher blogs, I heard amazing things about it and decided that it needed to be read this weekend.

I mention this because most of my reading has been about pregnancy and babies! This is what the pile on my desk looks like:

I've read parts of each book, but haven't read one from cover-to-cover yet. I like to keep up with information about where I am in my current week of pregnancy and then I read a little bit ahead. My favorite "book" so far has been a magazine that I received from Destination Maternity.  It's titled "Baby Basics, Infants Didn't Come with Instructions Until Now" - from the editors of Parents & American Baby. I love the quick and basic information that will guide us through the sleepless, joyful, and crazy early months of parenthood. My husband loved this one, too! :-)

High Five for Friday: Fall Morning Temperatures

High Five for Friday! Here are a few reflections on my week:

1. Surviving an entire week of school. This was our first full 5 day week and it felt good! I was happy to see Friday afternoon, though. Who isn't? ;-)

2. "Fall" morning temperatures. After surviving a very warm first week of school, I was so happy to welcome the cooler temperatures this week. My favorite part of the day sometimes was walking from my car to the school entrance in the morning. I loved starting my day with a cool, fall breeze and fresh start! 

3. I'm thankful for a husband who likes to cook. I'm exhausted by the end of the day and cooking an entire dinner is sometimes the last thing I want to do. My husband cooked dinner a few times this week and I'm extremely grateful. 

4. Baby movement. Lying in bed at night is not only the best part of my day, but it's also when I start to feel more movement from the baby. Movement is starting to pick up more and more, and it's AMAZING!

5. Ending the week and weekend with friends. These visits were so long overdue. Life flies by too quickly and there's so much to catch up on. These conversations were the best food for my soul! 

One of the toughest days of the year.

Not many people understand the true gut-wrenching feeling like New Yorkers do.  September 11, 2001 is a day that will be forever etched in my memory.  

I was going to tell you all about what my day was like 13 years ago, but today isn't about me.  It's about all the heroes who put their lives on the line to save others, one of those heroes was my cousin, Billy Wik.  

Today, at school, we stood for a moment of silence after we said the Pledge of Allegiance.  I couldn't help but think about the family members whose hearts still ache for the ones they lost, especially Billy's family.  My thoughts and prayers are with them today, and always.

I'm proud to be an American.  God Bless the USA.  

13 years later. We will never forget.

Remembering 13 years ago today with a heavy heart. 

Sharing words that were shared in school today:

As the saying goes, “The light shines the brightest when it is the darkest.” That day,  we witnessed incredible acts of heroism, bravery, courage and the greatest acts of humanity we have ever seen. 

We remember that day and it lives within us for the rest of our days.  We honor those that lost their lives and those that gave their lives so others may live.  That day created a sense of value in each of us—that life is precious and not one moment with the ones you love should be taken for granted.  Today, many of the victims’ families are thinking about their lost love ones and our thoughts and prayers go out to them today and forever more.

Some people tell us that 9-11 taught them that there is a real evil in this world.  We learned another lesson.  No matter how bad things are, there will always be those people who do what is right by helping others and see beyond the smoke and dust to ease human suffering and pain.

Teacher Exhaustion.

I was deciding on what to blog about tonight and I couldn't think of anything better than to admit that I'm exhausted. Teacher exhausted and run down... already. I'm embarrassed to say that on my ride home from work, I started daydreaming about a vacation on the beach. I know, I know! If you're not a teacher and reading this, you probably want to kill me! Please don't hate me! I was just day dreaming about a little siesta on the beach... the place where I feel most relaxed. I'm sure many of my teacher friends are experiencing the same exact thing. I know that being pregnant doesn't help the feeling of being exhausted. But, the truth is, I strive to be superwoman all day and by 8:30 pm, I'm ready for bed! 

Apple Pie Craving

With the cool weather this week, I was craving a slice of an apple pie. I love making my own apple pie, but I was too exhausted to make it happen after dinner. So... womp, womp... we bought one from the store. It really wasn't good and didn't satisfy the craving like I had expected. I can't wait to make my own soon.

Here's a similar recipe that I use from Taste of Home:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar

• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 6 to 7 cups thinly sliced peeled tart apples

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• Pastry for double-crust pie (9 inches)

• 1 tablespoon butter

• 1 egg white

• Additional sugar

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine the sugars, flour and spices; set aside. In a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice. Add sugar mixture; toss to coat.
2. Line a 9-in. pie plate with bottom crust; trim pastry even with edge. Fill with apple mixture; dot with butter. Roll out remaining pastry to fit top of pie. Place over filling. Trim, seal and flute edges. Cut slits in pastry.
3. Beat egg white until foamy; brush over pastry. Sprinkle with sugar. Cover edges loosely with foil.
4. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake 20-25 minutes longer or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool on a wire rack. Yield: 8 servings.

If I could be the youngest person in the world...

Last week, I gave my students their "on demand writing assessment." This assessment requires them to respond to a writing prompt and write "on demand" for an entire period. It's amazing how much we can learn about our students (as writers and kids) through this one piece of writing. This year, we created a prompt that related to the World Cup. Soccer player, Julian Green, became the youngest player in U.S. history to score a goal in the World Cup. We asked students, "If you could be the youngest person in the country to accomplish something, what would it be?"

The responses that I received from my students were... typical for sixth graders. But some of them really blew my mind!

Here's one of my favorites that I wanted to share. It obviously touched my heart because of the photography part:

Today, I had to matter the most.

Inspired by Shop Compliment's Instagram post tonight. I've blogged about Shop Compliment before- so worth checking out! Love the messages, the jewelry and the fact that she's a teacher! :-)

I wanted to share her words tonight before we begin our big week back at school. Today I took care of me and put school work to the side. "Today, I had to matter the most."

Inspired by a post I saw on @yesandyesblog, I slowed things down a lot today to take care of me. Today, I had to matter the most. Because, after all, if there's no me, there's no way I can move forward with anything else that must be done. So. There you have it. A little #selfcare. A little #soulcare. A lot of getting better at both and learning that this leads to me being "self-full," not selfish.