What a Week!

Whew...what a week!  I love teaching in December because there is so much fun to be had, but boy am I exhausted.  Thanksgiving Break is always such a tease...conferences are over, you have some time to relax and then...BAM!  Commence the 3 weeks of pre-Christmas chaos!  The kids' energy is amped up and I can't help but smile.  Ah, to be a kid again!

Here's a peek at my week, Five for Friday style...on Saturday!

1.  Glue and glitter snowflakes.

I found this idea at Whimsy Workshop and decided to give it a try.  I took the fall leaves off my year-round bulletin board and needed something wintery.  It's like 2 degrees here.  Literally. The leaves are long gone (unless we're talking about my back yard, in which case they are still on the ground...raked into piles, mind you.  But not bagged.  We did one round of raking and bagging already, but have a couple HUGE ash trees that hold onto their leaves FOREVER!) 

Returning from tangent: Snowflakes were the obvious choice for the bulletin board, but I wanted something different than just the traditional paper flakes.  I am so impressed with the result...does it look like these were made by firsties??? Because I promise they were!  My kids are fine motor geniuses this year.  Honestly, I've never seen the like!

 You need waxed paper, Elmer's glue, and glitter.  I printed out a couple clipart and blackline images of snowflakes and let the kids pick one to put under their waxed paper.  They then used the glue to trace over the snowflake image and we sprinkled glitter on top...and all over the floor, because that's how glitter works, don'tcha know. (Bwahahaha, the custodian hates glitter and normally I am nice to her and keep a really clean room, but after her comment this week, I felt  a wee bit vindictive).

 

So...anyhow, you let the things dry over night and peel them off the paper the next day and viola!

I only broke two trying to peel them because a couple girls went too light on the glue.  Theirs were the most beautiful and delicate snowflakes and I feel awful that I broke them, but I'll let them make new ones.  Thank goodness I am working with a very forgiving group.  I am in love with these kids.  They are probably the best group I've ever had!

 

2. Christmas Celebrations Around the World

Have you seen this?  It's Stephanie Stewart's (Falling Into First) Christmas Celebrations Around the World unit. I am SOOOO excited about using her stuff this year.  I've been doing some version of Christmas Around the World for years, but I've been working on updating things and making them cuter and including more academic work (like comparing and contrasting and questions to answer, etc. etc.)  But Stephanie already did that and her pack is awesome!  It's all cutesy and thorough and fun and academic and so on and so on.  The saying "time is money" implies the two commodities are equal.  IMHO, it's an insult to time...I would rather spend my money and keep my time, so there you go...time saved=money well spent.  Thanks Stephanie!

3. Three Dog Night

We actually have two dogs and a cat (Chester's on the left, Sadie's on the right, and Chocolate is our cat...we normally just call her Kitty).  All three pets slept on our bed this week because it has been so cold!  I think it's part of the reason I've been so tired.  Most days this week I hit snooze about 5 times.  This morning I slept until 10:30!!!  One of the best feelings in the world, I think, is turning the alarm off on Saturday morning.  I always let it buzz just so I can turn it off and not get up!
       
4. Hustle and Bustle of the Holiday Season

 

I normally decorate my house the weekend after Thanksgiving, but since we were out of town I am a week late.  I had hoped to do a little bit each night, but my week nights fill up with other things and when they don't, I just want to sit on the couch and watch TV or read a book or read blogs or something.  

This week I got together with one of my best friends and roomies from college...we try to see each other once every week or two.  I also had "Grandma Night" on Wednesday...this has been happening since my student teaching days (so, 8 years???).  I go to my Grandparent's house once a week for dinner and we watch Project Runway or play cards and drink tea.  Even my Grandpa joins us to watch all the crazy fashion shenanigans. On Thursday night I went to Shrek, the Musical with my dad.  One of the high schools in our district was putting it on.  I was so impressed by the talent of these kids!  They did a phenomenal job!  I always wished I had a good singing voice so I could do musical theater.  I love being on stage and becoming a character outside of myself.  My voice is one only a first grader could love...so I sing in class a lot. 

Currently, the kids have Christmas Carol books in their book bags and we sing different songs throughout the day.  I love how even my lower and struggling readers will say, "Mrs. Maguire, I can read this song!"  Of course, the truth is the kids know the song and begin tracking the words...it's a great confidence and fluency builder.  Often times the Christmas Carol book is an eye opener, literally, as keeping up with the tune forces eye movement across the page instead of focusing in on words individually.  

I need to check out if there are any copyright laws I would be breaking before sharing the book as a freebie with everyone...but I think it would be okay for me to send it to interested people, right?  Comment with your email address if you want it!  Also, can anyone explain to me how I would let people access it if there is no copyright infringement?  It has something to do with the google sky drive, right?

And finally...

5. What happened this month?

 

So, if you have been following my blog you'll know that I am in the midst of a fertility dilemma...apparently, my ovaries don't like to make/release organic eggs.  So I've been taking Clomid in hopes to facilitate a solution to said dilemma.  Well, so far, no dice.  Or, no eggs I should say.  Yesterday would have been a day of great hope and anxiety.  It would have been the day that I woke up early to go get my blood drawn before school to see if the Clomid worked its magic.  One of two things would have happened:

a. The results would have shown no sign of ovulation like with the 50mg and 100mg cycles.  But I would have spent the next week or two hyper-aware of EVERYTHING going on in my body and would have convinced myself that the results were wrong or I was going to ovulate later and that I was pregnant in spite of the results. 

b. The results would have confirmed ovulation and I would be bouncing off the walls because...YAY...that would do it for sure!  All I need is an egg!  And I'd spend the next ??? convincing myself I was pregnant.

But, this 150mg cycle only lasted 18 days...so instead of getting anxious about my blood work, I  spent the whole week trying to get information out of my doctor's office.  What does an 18 day cycle mean?  What happened? Did I ovulate? Did I miscarry?  Did my uterus say to hell with this shit and just give up early?  Where do we go next?  Hello?

I wish I had some answers to these questions, but after calls back and forth to the office every day this week, I still don't know what happened and have lost a bit of faith in my providers.  I don't feel like anyone is paying attention to my charts and information.  There was no sense of urgency in getting back to me...I don't feel like they are communicating or taking note of my questions and comments.  I spoke with the same lady every day and she had trouble remembering any of the information I gave her from one day to the next.  I like my doctor...but I am starting to wonder if I should go to someone else.  The reaches of the OBGYN are wearing out and I'm probably not far off from seeing an RE if I can find out whether or not insurance will help out.

The plan for now is this: I am forced into taking at least one cycle off because I missed my chance to start any new drugs.  Maybe this is good...I can just be "me" at Christmas...whatever that looks like.

Then, if I don't start a cycle on my own in 35 days I am supposed to call the office for a prescription to induce a cycle. Following that, I would do another round of 150 and hope to be able to do blood work to see if the 150 is successful.  Depending on what happens with that, I will make another decision.  I try not to map out too far in advance, because I just can't handle it.  There are lots of moving parts in my life right now that I don't have control over so I have to take things as they come.  I guess that is the silver lining to all of this.  I am learning to surrender my control...but at the same time I am becoming my own advocate...I have to be more assertive and direct with providers.  Those things seem to be at odds with each other, but both are things I have never been very good at. 

So...cheers to character building!