More Surprising Things about Pregnancy

I previously posted on those things that surprised me about pregnancy here. I'm continuing the thoughts here....

On pants and skirts: getting them to stay up takes work. Either the waists are too big and slip down regularly or they fit nice and comfy, but tend to slip down as I walk, or they are too tight and baby "fusses" against the restriction (if I sit down with close fitting pants, he starts kicking and punching very quickly, like he is uncomfortable with the tightness...).

Babies have amazing strength. He's gotten me in the ribs a few times and the pain lasts all day. Yesterday, I started to wonder if he'd cracked a rib or some such, but when the pain subsided in the afternoon, I figured he'd just hit a nerve or the bone.

People are very quick to help when your belly starts growing. If something drops in class, I often have 3 students jump to pick it up. I must be waddling (Hubby said I was) because I get offers of help carrying things very often.

Sometimes I forget I have a big belly until I bump it into something. Baby doesn't usually like that.

There's more, but its not blog-worthy or appropriate. And I"m sure there will be more yet to come!

Can you name the languages spoken in the sound clips? by 1447 | Online Games & Trivia by Sporcle

Can you name the languages spoken in the sound clips? by 1447 | Online Games & Trivia by Sporcle

I doubt I have very many linguists in my readership, I don't often write about my love of language and linguistics. I found this via a language and linguistics blog that I read regularly. If nothing else, its fun to hear the same phrase in 30 different language and to compare the basic sounds and intonation you hear.

I got 5 of the 30 correct: English, French, Japanese, German and Thai. Surprisingly, I missed Mandarin (I lived in China and speak some Chinese) and, less surprisingly, Korean (I studied it for a project during my M.A. work) and Arabic (which I studied for a class project).

If you feel intimated, just go and listen -- if only to see what its like to know its language but understand nothing. Its humbling.

the rough side of teaching

Even the roughest days dealing with unruly kids is nothing compared to cramming in trying to get grades done for the end of a quarter.  I've spent this week grading like crazy and all free time today entering grades, attendance, skills and subject summaries. Blah, paper work stinks. At least I got to watch X-men and X-2 while doing all this entering. :P

Tomorrow is game day! Yea! I like role playing, its a ton of fun,
and occasionally, we build towers of minis. And its not even our time for snacks. :D

On the positive side, today was a good day with the kids, and the baby-belly check went well. All is on track for a healthy baby and healthy mommy. Baby is moving like there is no tomorrow, and occasionally gets me in a painful spot. Its more than before, but still not too bad.

On my mind... glider rockers

I've wanted a glider rocker for years.... we are talking YEARS that I've wanted one. I had one while living in China and LOVED it, but never felt I had room or good enough reason to get one till now. One must have a rocker to nurse a baby in, of course.  So.... [drum roll please]

Me in my new glider rocker. Its even got pockets on the sides!

See more "on my mind" posts at http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com/2011/03/on-my-mind_25.html

Like Mother, Like Daughter: The best part of being sick is getting your meal on a tray.

Like Mother, Like Daughter: The best part of being sick is getting your meal on a tray.

This was a great post about dealing with sick and potentially sick children as a mother. I need to get some trays, I'm sick enough to make use of them!

Weekly Menus

I have striven for several years to make a weekly menu, however simple, with a grocery list.  Many weeks I was successful, but we end up with pantry meals or last minute meals as often as not.  Recently, in a book I was reading about parenting, the author talked about having a plan where you make a specific type of meal on a particular night for the consistency and routine. I've also got an email that I printed out from flylady, Nov 2009, about designating each night with a theme (such as chicken, meatless, etc). I've been thinking on this for a long time, and have finally done something about it. See the tabs down the side? Those are the days of the week with the appropriate recipes behind them.

I just spent about 15 minutes doing the menu for this next week. This is record time for me. Having my food binder organized by night (which is theme oriented), it gave me a few recipes/meals to pick through, instead of the whole binder. I even spent several minutes looking through an old everyday food magazine, and I still didn't spend much  more than 15 minutes!

Here is what I did:
1. I thought of the types of meals I needed. Mondays are the day before the grocery run -- must be a pantry meal. We get home on the later side on Tuesday and Thursday, so something quick. But we are often loaded up on leftovers by Thursday. On Wednesday, we don't get home till quite late (for us) so crockpot meal it is. We usually game on Friday or Saturday, so pizza it is or something simple. But Saturday is a very open day, with time to cook, as is Sunday.

2. I sorted my recipes in to piles reflecting these themes: pasta and pantry meals, quick meals (45 minutes top), crock pot meals, and long cooking meals.

3. I created a cover page with a list of meals in a sheet protector for each night and put a tab on that page to serve as a divider.

Step #2 took the longest. Sometimes I had 2 different recipes on each side of a page, or 2 or more recipes on a single page, so I had to rewrite one or two. I did this over several nights of watching TV. And I didn't sort ALL my recipes, just the ones that were on top, which means they are most often used.

I still need to figure out how to deal with sides, but that might just mean adding notes with recipes of what sides go well with them. I imagine the ideal is to have a page per meal, with all recipes of main dish or side dish, and shopping list on that page. But that will take a lot more time (or lots of 15 minute intervals). Perhaps one or two meals an evening?  Alas, lots of ideas!

On my mind... food binders

Its only Thursday evening here, but I love participating, so here's my "On my mind..." for this week:

Its an unedited video, but explains my efforts at organizing my food binder...

Feeling Good

I feel good today. A tad distracted and aimless, but that easily fixable compared to feeling all tired and ooky. I should go about fixing it then!

Food Binder and Menus

A good friend recently wrote a post on planning menus with a reference to Auntie Leila's post on making menus. Thus, I was inspired to work on my menu planning skills.

I have a food binder that I use regularly to cook from. But it is full of recipes, not so much menus.


I write all over the recipes with notes about adjustments I made, or if we liked it lots or not at all, or if the leftovers were good or not. Plus, if we didn't like the dish at all, it gets pulled out and thrown away.

I have a few pages up front where I list the various dishes we like and where they are found. The idea was to make my weekly meal planning a quicker and easier process.

The post-its were for putting the meals on the calendar in such a way that they could be moved around as I almost never cook what I planned on the night I planned it.

I see ways that I lack finesse, though. For example, side dishes are almost always baby spinach from a box or bag with salad dressing. But that gets old. And I as often as not forget to start the rice, till I announce "Dinner's ready!" and Hubby says "Rice?" and I say "Oh, drat". 

Each week, I sit down (or at least aim to) and figure out what I can make each day for the next week. I make my grocery list from that menu and from looking in the pantry to see what is needed. But, as often as not, side dishes are an after-thought and forgotten as often as not.

I really have no idea how to get this to a better system. But if I ever figure it out, I'll let you know.

On my mind.... bellies

Everyone keeps telling me how small I am for only having 2 months till baby is due. You tell me!

Perhaps 2 or 3 months in -- Sept or Oct 2010

This was December 2010.

March 2011, with 2 months left. 

Boy was I proud of my belly in December when I first started "showing", but now there is no doubt! And I love it!

For more "On my mind..." see On my mind...