35 Weeks

35 weeks! I coached Saturday and decided to have Bryce snap this photo before I left to compare Baby E to a soccer ball. 

Well, the newest thing with pregnancy is "nesting." But maybe not in the way that normal pregnant people nest. I have been spending a LOT of time at school working on organizing, cleaning, decluttering, and preparing for baby girl. I feel this huge sense that I need to get ready ASAP for this baby to come. That includes 2 main things:

1. Sub plans. This is a lot more work than you would think. When a teacher is sick for, let's say, one day, it is a LOT more work to prepare stuff for a sub than it is to just suffer through a day of work while being sick. Well, just multiply your sick day preparation by 6 weeks, and that is what it is like getting ready for maternity leave. Although it is a lot of work, I actually have a lot of fun organizing and getting things ready for the sub. Yah, it takes a lot of time, but it kind of feels good getting this stuff ready. 

2. Getting my 4th graders ready for the annual 4th grade Lewis and Clark Play. This has been pretty fun and the kids are SO excited about it. But it is also a LOT of work. When I started working with my partner teachers getting things ready for the play, there was seriously an entire tub (like one of those big rubber made tubs) full of papers. Old play scripts. New play scripts. Play scripts with scribbled notes on it. Play songs. Parent notes. Old programs. Anything you can think of that has to do with a huge play production for ninety 4th graders. Nothing was organized. Nothing was digitized. Last year's program literally had one of the teacher's names whited out with a new name on top, and the picture they included with it was taped to the front so that they could make copies with the picture on it. All of this sort of looked like the stuff my nightmares are made of. But guess what. My nesting instincts kicked in, and I have almost completely finished typing up a brand new version of the play, prepared a new program, scanned in all the songs, compiled all of the audio, and typed up new notes for the parents. Then I put all the master copies in a 1/2 in binder and put all the digital versions of everything on a thumb drive and hooked that in the binder as well. Then I seriously threw away EVERYTHING from that tub and it felt great! I am excited that they will have this so nice and organized in the years to come! Also it was very therapeutic for me and my nesting urges. :) 

Anyway. That's it for now. :)