This Week

This week has been rough. I’m back in the full swing of the academic year and I thought I worked hard over the summer… I teach on Mondays. I’m pretty sure I have a good group of students this semester – they’ve been responsive in class discussions and 80% of them are actually doing the homework. Win for me. I’m hoping to finalize all the last bits of class prep next week, so that I don’t have to plan anything else. It will be teaching, grading, and student issues; this is still quite a bit of work.

I have also been working like mad to finish a paper for my last Independent Study credits. The Incomplete needs to be resolved so that I can sit for my qualifying exam in a couple of months. This is a big deal exam and the last written one I will ever have to take. Ever. When I pass it will be all about the dissertation. We’ve also been working on revising the rejected manuscript to submit it elsewhere. I am back to reading and writing as a full time job. I’ve been working at night and on weekends way more than normal. I’ll be happy when things slow down again. At least I really hope they slow down again.

I am doing some freelance work too. Which isn’t huge, but it still takes time. Getting paid is nice through. Reminder: I need to send in that invoice.

Rob is working and working from home. He’s very busy because the day job just started but is home based the first few weeks, and he’s finishing up some freelance work at night. Basically the apartment is a wreck. We mentioned throwing everything out and starting fresh because keeping up with the dishes and cleaning is just not happening right now.

Simon has been sick with a stomach virus all week. He doesn’t feel bad, so that’s good, but the extra laundry caused me to switch to disposables for the week. I just couldn’t handle the gross. What I did find out is he is between a size 2 and a size 3 so the disposables were leaking too, but still less laundry than diapers and clothes. I’m really glad this is almost passed.

Simon hit 14 months this week. I’ll do a big monthly update next month. I think every three months is good from now on. He repeats tons of words and says “tree” and “doggy” unprompted and in the right context. He also calls most animals doggy. He can also roar like a lion only it comes out “AH-OR” which makes us laugh. The other night at dinner he stopped and roared at Rob. So funny. He also gives hi-fives and says “yeah” when he does it. Little man is proud of himself.

Toddler discipline is HARD. We are working on not hitting or throwing things when he doesn’t get his way. It is a work in progress.

The days I am home I am learning to just go with his agenda. So if that means he wants to looks at the sign on the fence at the zoo for 20 minutes, that’s what we will do. We go to the zoo quite often. I heart memberships. The playground is still a favorite. Today he tried to go down the slide by himself, meaning he sat at the top rather than trying to run down it. In a couple of months it will be so awesome when he can actually do this.

So busy busy week in a busy time of year. And I thought I’d pepper the post with some recent Instagrams and ipod pics. The yoga pic is a fan favorite.