This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group® and Tyson Foods, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #JDgreatdays  http://my-disclosur.es/OBsstV

I'm not one to be controlled by my constant appetite but... Wait, I totally am. Y'all, especially when I'm pregnant, I'm SO prone to get completely and totally hangry if I don't get enough to eat. I've found that the best way to control this is to put myself on a fairly strict schedule of what to eat when, particularly when it comes to the first two meals of the day.

That's right: Breakfast and Second Breakfast.

My Sunday Best, Volume 15

Happy Sunday!

The boys magically slept until past 8 today, and since Andrew's off from his usual church job, we got to go to a later Mass and have a nice relaxed morning. But we only just got home, which is why this post is late!

It was a rather trying morning when it came to hairstyles... The twins each decided they HAD to have three bows in their hair, and they couldn't have two on one side and one on the other. Nope. Left, Right, Middle. 

They both ended up pulling them out of their hair by the end of Mass though, so the style was short-lived. Meanwhile everybody had to scream about who got what bow, because Cecilia really wanted to wear one of Mary Claire's and Mary Claire REALLY DID NOT WANT TO SHARE! Eventually she decided that since she had three bows in her hair already, Cecilia could have one of her others.

Because if you have four bows, the fourth bow is your neighbor's, right?

Blogging Conference News, Garden Updates, What I'm Reading {7 Quick Takes}

--1--

Hey you! If you're in the Southeast/Midatlantic area, you should come join us for a conference in Virginia on Saturday, September 3! Tickets are only $30 (purchase here) and you can find more info on our website here. Kelly Mantoan is our emcee, Mary Lenaburg, Elizabeth Foss, Jenny Ryan, and Ginny from Small Things will all be there, and you can check out the schedule here. You should come!

--2--

We're finally starting to reach that "abundance" season where the garden is really producing a decent amount - tons of sweet corn (which has been hit-or-miss, some of it too gummy to enjoy, maybe because of cross-pollination?), tomatoes galore, basil out my ears, a decent amount of okra and beans, all the cucumbers we can eat, and the sunflowers are making me so happy!

Nope, My Kids Aren't My Prison

In a very adult move on our part, we bought our first appliance the other day. Well, I spent hours researching online, only to be paralyzed with indecision, and Andrew went to Lowe's to buy the dishwasher that was closest to the one we had at our old house, which had such features as "actually gets dishes clean" and "doesn't have plastic parts that snap off on a daily basis" so that's a win.

Anyway, the appliance man came to install it this morning and was greeted at the screen door by the three littlest (ex-utero, at least) of our crew. I peeled them away from the glass and welcomed him in.

He glanced around, muttering, "Prison. Glad mine are all grown..."

The Worst Thing About Teaching (and How YOU Can Help)

When I went through my education program in college, we talked pedagogy. We talked philosophy. We talked big dreams and goals for changing lives.

But do you know what we didn't talk about?

Classroom budgets.

Or lack thereof.

It was a rude awakening for me to get my classroom budget my first year teaching and find out I had $100 to spend on every single thing I might need for 4 general music classes (2 per semester) and 4 choir classes. It wasn't even enough to cover music for one concert! Not to mention pencils, folders, replacement keyboards and headphones, etc... Over the years, I don't even want to think about how much of my personal money I spent on extra pencils, paper, and other general supplies. It was one of the worst things about teaching, the fact that I had to spend so much energy searching for good deals on school supplies and figuring out how to fundraise to cover the rest, when I should have been able to focus that energy on my students!