But there are little bright spots as usual, and a moment on Friday that made me grateful. I will admit that I was nervous about the 6-year-old’s parent-teacher conference. I don’t want to write too much about specifics as my kids get older but longtime readers know that he is…spirited. This plays out in various predictable ways. There had been a disciplinary incident on Thursday night at one of his activities that had me quite upset.

Anyway…his first grade teacher, bless her, is a wonderful person who has her methods for dealing with 6-year-olds (for instance, she hands out sheets of scented stickers like they’re candy on Halloween). She told us that he was a joy to have in class, and such a sweet boy, and that he had told her he was nervous about the conference (!) but she said he shouldn’t be because he was doing a good job.

Cue me finally exhaling. I then remembered that he had told me he had put something for me in his desk.

So we all went to look and this little sticky note is what I found. He is a sweet little boy. I left him a note too!

There is much to be grateful for on this Thanksgiving weekend. On the other hand, I have reached the stage of late pregnancy where everything is just physically uncomfortable. And while reaching this stage of pregnancy is itself a cause for gratitude (hello, I turn 41 this week!) it’s slightly harder to feel that way as I haul my heavy self around. Getting in the car is difficult. Bending over is an unpleasant experience. I get winded going up stairs. This is going to be a long next 6-7* weeks.

So I am just taking it day by day. In the morning: hey, I made it through another night (hopefully not too bad of one…I read or work if I can’t sleep). In the evening: another day in the books! I tend to fall asleep easily, even if I don’t stay asleep, so it’s kind of a treat to nestle into the comfy spot I have carefully constructed from what seems like a fort-worthy number of pillows.

In Off the Clock, I devote a section to how people get themselves through challenging times — more challenging than what I’m facing, but the same lessons apply.

First, know that the time frame is probably limited. Certainly that is the case with pregnancy. All time passes. If you need to stay in a miserable job for 2 years, well, 2 years is 17,520 hours, and you won’t work for all of them. When you can set a reasonable end on the time frame, you can pace yourself through a great many things.

Second, find little moments to enjoy as you can. I don’t always feel terrible. Even if my physical body is a mess there are some really cool things going on professionally and personally in my life. And sometimes there are good moments that are enjoyable precisely because of their contrast with the crummy situation. I loved Tough Mudder champion and ultrarunner Amelia Boone’s description (in Off the Clock) of seeing the sun rise after she’d been out all night on a freezing obstacle course. It was just a normal wintry sunrise, and someone out driving on the highway would have thought nothing of it. But there in the cold morning, Boone was elated. She had earned that dawn.

In any case, I’m trying to enjoy what I can of the holiday season. I got a particular kick (not the fetal variety!) this weekend out of seeing my kids select gifts for each other. It’s not always easy to roam a toy aisle and move beyond “I want that” to “I bet my brother would like that.” But they picked out fairly thoughtful things for each other. Apparently that empathy muscle is developing somewhere!

*I presume. With my advanced maternal age, there is pretty strong pressure not to go past the due date.

Photo: Last gasp of fall color. I snapped this photo, then we had wind and freezing temperatures and that was the end of that.