School and a new baby blanket OTN

Eight hours of my day (and I use eight loosely) is spent in my classroom. I spend it with 2 other adults (and sometimes more), and a roomful of children (starting with about eight this year). They are 3-4 year old children with some sort of developmental delay. There is NEVER a dull moment in my room and most of the time I can outsmart them, though some of you may question that. The withdrawal of not knitting during the day has not been too bad, but I have noticed that I am not accomplishing the same amount of work that I had been during the summer!
Anyway, here is one part of my classroom. It is where we have circle time, which is a time we dance and sing and talk and read stories. Right now it looks bare without the most important components -- the cherubs!!!!
I wonder if I can cram more hours into my days - there is more to do than I can fit in - I am now working on a baby's blanket, hopefully the mother will use it when the baby is baptized. I got the pattern from this book:Knit Along with Debbie Macomber - if you have read the book The Shop On Blossom Street you will remember this author writes about opening up a yarn shop - the Knit along book has 11 blankets for babies and young children, some traditional, some very different, but not too difficult. and for those of you that prefer the more plebian yarns, this may be for you. You can get a lot of the recommended yarns at Michael's, Walmart, and other places which have yarn for those who go into shock at their local yarn shop. I chose a nice acrylic yarn by Bernat that can be washed and dried without too much worry. I sit on the fence when it comes to yarn. I like the diversity of the yarns at yarn shops and I support them, but I am an "all inclusive knitter" that uses the yarn of commoners as well as those of the yarn snobs connoisseurs. Here is the beginning of the blanket (this one is labeled for knitters between beginner and intermediate and this is the center of the blanket - there is an edging to do):