Five Minute Friday: Joining Leagues and Orders

Clearly, you can tell that the school year has begun, because once again, I have dropped off the face of the world.  Well, the blog world and other computer-related world.

What better way to try to get back into things than a Five-Minute-Friday post?  I have class in 20 minutes and have to make sure I'm ready to teach those 30 lovely high schoolers, so I really can only afford 5 minutes, anyways.

Today's topic?  Join.

Here goes.

It's the beginning of the school year.  This is the part of the year where connections are made.  Connections between myself and my students, connections between students and students, connections between "real life" and "work life" or "school life."  Everyone here is joining something.  Joining a new class, a new group of friends, a new idealogy for what life is going to be like this year.

Me?  I've joined the League of Moms Who Work Full Time.  Moms whose babies spend more time awake during the week with their daycare provider than their mommy, Moms who leave work on time (a first!) to go pick up and snuggle that baby.  Moms who love their jobs,  but love their babies more.  Moms who learn to operate on not-enough sleep, becuse there is no way to get everything done without staying up a little later and getting up a little earlier.  Moms who teach themselves to be disciplined and orgazined and think ahead, because otherwise the normal 5 minutes late out the door in the morning is 25 minutes late.   

I've joined the Order of Women Whose Husbands Work and Go to School.  Women who try to support and challenge and be there for their men.  To encourage, to edit, to do our own work while they do their homework.  Women who try to put meals on the table around their husband's class schedule, who stay up later to make sure they get to have a good conversation with their man, who want to do everything possible to help Hubby be successful.

I want to write more, but my five minutes are up, and I don't have time to "cheat" and expand on my thoughts, anyway.  So here's to joining Leagues and Orders and being the woman God would have me be, okay?

Lastly, today is my little man's 5 month birthday.  As a present, I took him to the doctor and got him an antibiotic for his very first ear infection.  Yeay!  But seriously, isn't he cute?

Uncertainty and Expectation

Joining in with Gypsy Mama today to take five minutes to write.  The topic?  Expectation.

Ready?

Go.

Expectation.  My first thought?  Is that a real word?  It sounds funny to me, but I think it must be real. 

Husband and I are in a season that is sort of terrifying, sort of amazing, and definitely full of expectation.  He's on his way to a job interview as I write, just pulled out of his parking spot.  He's registered for his first three classes to go to college, to be an electrical engineer, to do something he finds interesting and purposeful with his life. 

Life is full of uncertainty at the moment.  Will he get a job that he likes for the interim?  Will he be able to find a job soon?  Will we be able to continue to afford living in our townhome, or will we have to sell and move to an apartment or in with my family?  Will we be able to manage both of us with full time jobs, him in school, and a new baby, our first?  Will the challenges we'll be facing stretch us too much, or in just the ways we need to be stretched?  Will our marriage be tested in ways we are not prepared for?  So much uncertainty, so many things that could terrify me.

Expectation though, well, expectation is the positive twist to uncertainty.  Even with all these things, there is much to expect.  Much joy, much growth, much life.

Expectation, then, instead of uncertainty.  I'll take it.

Grit, Growing, and Waiting...oh, and Coffee and 35 Weeks

Linking up with two different groups today, but attempting to combine my post into one, sort-of unified thought process.  We'll see how it goes.  I can't be held responsible for what comes out, okay? 
Today's 5 Minute Friday prompt?  Grit.  I am going to do my darndest (that should be a word if it isn't) to keep my writing to 5 minutes, because today's class schedule is a mess due to an unexpected snow day yesterday (lovely, by the way, I got caught up on almost all of my grading), and so my first class is starting much sooner than expected.

I titled this post Grit, Growing, and Waiting.  Because right now, at 35 weeks pregnant, I'm gritting my teeth and plowing into the things I need to do, growing a lot (pun most definitely intended), and waiting for the next stage of this experience.

Grit.  We're coming up just over a month until our due date, and less than a month until my last day of work. That month is full, though.  There are a bunch of things that have to get done for work, and I'm not being a control freak, I promise.  I need to just grit my teeth through the tired and do them.  This should be no problem, I'm independent and strong and stubborn, but it's overwhelming at times.  It's gritty to know that I'm about to embark on something I'm not going to do perfectly.  There are things I do need to let go of, like having my house be as clean as I want it to be before he comes, which means there is going to be a lot more grit than I'd like. 

Growing.  There's a lot of growth going on here, related to that grit.  Obviously my belly is still growing expansively, as people love to comment, and that's gritty for me.  I've had some body image issues in my life, and while I realize this is different, it's still hard.  I don't recognize myself at all, and I don't always like it.  But there's more growth due to the grit going on here, too.  I'm learning more and more about God, about family, about priorities, because as I pursue Relationship with Him, He's calling me to realize new, and sometimes hard to do, things.

Waiting.  Growth is often accompanied by waiting, don't you think?  There's a wait-time for the things you're pondering to sink in, truly.  There's a wait-time for you to really start to practice things, and much of the time, a lot of practice is required before we even get close to doing things well.  And of course, despite all the things on my "to-do before baby" list, I'm waiting.  Waiting for it to be done and my little boy to be here.  Waiting to see what it's really going to be like, to see if I can do labor naturally, to see his face and the color of his eyes, to take him home to a hopefully finished nursery, to be a mom.  Waiting.  And waiting, well, it's gritty sometimes.  And it grows me.  And so we're back again.

That was my 5 minutes.  I think I did okay, don't you?

 I do, just for fun, want to add in a quick pregnancy update as I sip on my coffee (yes, mostly it's decaf), but I wanted to be honest and not count it in my 5 minutes.

Pregnancy Update

How Far Along: Nearly 35 Weeks.  Baby Center tells me I'm there on Mondays, but our due date is officially 5 weeks away from tomorrow.  I keep thinking this feels really close, but my doctor keeps saying "in the last month we'll....such and such," so apparently 36+ weeks is when we will have "arrived" at the close stage.

Size of Baby:  According to my belly, HUGE!  But really, about the weight of a honeydew (between 5 and a half pounds) and 18 inches long.  We haven't had an ultrasound for a long time, and I don't know if we will, so we may just find out officially on his birthday.

Maternity Clothes: Yes, and I am back to hating the idea.  I'm tired of them, but I don't want to spend more money since it's only a month more.  I was just looking at pictures of me when I first started to wear them, and really, it's astounding how much my belly has grown.  I'm huge, people.  Huge.  See for yourself (and yes, I know, it's only baby weight, I haven't gained too much elsewhere, but still.  Huge).

Gender: Boy!  At least, that's what we're going with.  Recently I've got it into my head that maybe the ultrasound tech was wrong, and he's a she, but I'm trying to not think about it.  We just spent a week with my cousin's boys (4 and 1), and I'm really starting to get it, this boy thing, and be excited.

Movement: Still lots, but it's uncomfortable sometimes as I feel like he's pushing my insides apart.  The other day he really punched me in class and I was like, "oh!" which concerned my students, of course.  They were in awe then, because they could see my belly moving from where they were sitting.  I like it, but sometimes I think he should be nicer to me.

Sleep:  Depends.  Last night was rough, but the last hour this morning was awesome.  It's hard to be comfortable at this point, so of course it's difficult to sleep.  But I'm getting enough to be functional, and I'm still ignoring the people who tell me it's practice for the rest of my life when I won't apparently sleep again.

What I Miss: As mentioned above, my body. I don't know who this person is sometimes.  Sometimes I feel cute and pretty, other times I feel yucky and unattractive.  Being able to tie my sneakers comfortably.  Being able to bend over comfortably.  Being able to sit comfortably.  Ha, I'm such a whiner.  It's not that bad.

Cravings: Grapefruit is my new favorite thing.  But besides that, I'll still take my salty food whenever.

Symptoms: Is feeling ready to do this thing a symptom?  If so, I have it.  Otherwise it's normal stuff, I think.  On the whole, despite the uncomfortable thing, I'd say I'm doing great.  A funny story: there was a question on a Spanish test I gave last week that asked, "What is probably that Mrs. C will do in class?"  Most kids responded with things like, "It's probably she'll give us homework or candy or play games" and things like that.  One student's response?  "It's probable that she'll go to the bathroom during class."  Oh, so sad, so hilarious, so true.

Words: Of Wisdom? To take each day as it comes.  Of Ridiculousness?  "Wow, you've gotten even bigger in the last week!"  "Wait, you're pregnant?" 

Best Moment of the Week: I suspect it will actually be tonight and tomorrow, when I have two baby showers and small group, so I'll have lots of time for some good connecting with friends - I've been feeling a little out of it as I've had a lot going on - and we'll get some hopefully fun and hopefully useful things for the Peanut!

What I'm Looking Forward To: Putting the nursery stuff and all Baby C's things away in his room and getting it all ready.  Holding my son.  Yeah, I'm pretty excited about that.  What else can compare to the fact that that is coming?

And here are my students, so it's time for me to get off the blog and do my job. Happy Friday!

5 Minutes in Which I Catch Up

Days go by without my blogging, but that doesn't mean I haven't had things to say or created posts in my head.  I just haven't done it.

So tonight I'm going to put into practice a new practice - the "do it for at least 5 minutes" system - because hey, 5 minutes is better than no minutes.

Let's begin.  It's 9:08.

It's finally gotten cold, which makes me happy, and we have even had our first two snows.  I use the word snows sort of loosely, since neither one resulted in much snow on the ground or a two-hour delay (it's true, teachers love delays just like students).  The first storm was bigger than the last, and I do have some pictures to show (but I fear that would cut into my 5 minutes).  It brought a huge smile to my face - I LOVE snow.  The second snow, today's wasn't much of anything, but still, I LOVE snow.  Did I mention that yet?

I have a firm policy that Christmas decorations can't go up before Thanksgiving, but I do confess, I saw that the neighbor's have started putting theirs up, and I am feeling a little wishful that next week were already here.

School has been good, but nuts.  This week (and last) Student Council has been partnerning in a food drive with a local organization.  Tomorrow night we're having our first annual dodgeball tournament  - we have 15 teams signed up and hope to have a lot of spectators.  It's going to be crazy, but ridiculously fun.  We're also selling cotton candy tomorrow.  I have no idea how to make cotton candy, but we rented the machine.  Hopefully it works.

There has been some hard stuff for me recently, particularly pertaining to how I feel about church and some struggles I'm having with feeling alone, but that will have to wait until another post, because the clock has just struck 5 minutes.

It's 9:12. 

Stay tuned for another 5 minute post where I continue catching up.