It has been a long time since I have blogged, but in my defense, I have been busy as a grad student. My priorities go something like this on a typical week during the school year:
Sunday-Get any grad work assignments completed by midnight- if this is a lighter week, it might mean about 5 hours in front of the computer so I can go to church. If it is a typical week, I will be working for around 15 hours between Saturday and Sunday. If Saturday was especially productive- church is in! If not, the work must be completed or I could fall behind in my class lowering my GPA. Not an option.
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday-School days beginning at 5:30. Shower, wake up kids, devotions and breakfast,kids to school by 7:30 (hopefully) to school by 7:45. Off at 4:00ish, get home and change for the gym. Gym, dinner, clean-up,kids showers, etc. a little TV or reading and sleep!
Tuesday and Thursday-
Same schedule as M,W,F, except no gym. :-)
Saturday- Coffee on the porch with mom, housework, grad work, soccer for Cam, or basketball for Carter and Cam if it's winter. Dinner out with the fam most weeks.
It is a pretty busy schedule, and I wouldn't be able to do it AT ALL if Scott wasn't constantly helping with dinner and clean-up, laundry, grocery shopping, you name it. I don't know why he doesn't tire of me completely. I feel so blessed to have him, and I do tell him often and much!
Summer is a bit different for the 8 weeks I am free of my teaching responsibilities. I have much more time with the kids except for the time I spend on my intensive course work, which I did for the first time this summer. 10 days prior to the intensive course I received my textbook, and the day before that I had done a full day of observation at a local school as a field experience practicum. I worked for all 10 days almost all day, much to the kids dislike. They were stuck at home, and I didn't even have time to take a bike ride with them, or veg by the pool. I needed all the time I could muster to complete the pre-work. It was a beast. When that was completed, I headed to the intensive course with a colleague to spend the week in classes at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. It is about 8 hours from our home, so it wasn't too far. Thankfully, an old friend I knew from First Baptist back in the day lives in Lynchburg with his wife and son, and he let us stay at his home for the week. What a blessing! That saved me about $1000! Thanks so much, Nathan and Shani Roberts!
The intensive course itself was not as bad as it could have been. The classes were enjoyable and relevant. It definitely had the new three R's- Rigor, Relevance, and Relationship. The prof was great. She was against a typical lecture-style class, and encouraged community throughout the week. I was placed in a trio for the group project which I am sure had to be the best group in the class! They were so easy to work with! Everyone was willing to work hard and take on tasks wholeheartedly. (Which is a relief since most of the time groups usually have a slacker or two!) The tasks were huge, but somehow we got through them. I think our completed document was around 40 pages in length by the time it was complete. Then we had to present it to the class on the last day-- it went great! We even got extra credit for being especially creative! :D The final exam was almost all essay questions so it took a couple of hours to complete it, but I found that I was knowledgeable on all the topics, so obviously the prof had done a great job getting the material across to us. The week was great, all in all.
One drawback of the week was my eating. UGH. Tons of fast food left me feeling completely disgusted. It was just tough to eat on the fly and get all of my work completed. There was no time for prepared meals or healthy choices, including exercise. I am fairly certain I gained at least five pounds. Gross.
In the weeks before I left for Virginia, I read a little about the Dukan Diet- the one Princess Kate has popularized lately. I have decided to commit to it. It will be challenging, but I think I can do it. I have to take off this weight.
Another drawback was being away from my sweet family on the 4th of July. Scott took the week off (GASP! Scott took time off work!) and took the kids to Florida to visit family. I am so glad he was finally able to go down since it has been since Christmas for him. I was able to go for Spring Break, and just after school let out; unfortunately he was unable to go those past two times. They visited everyone and went to watch a Rowdies soccer match followed by fireworks on the 4th. I missed being with them so much on such a family day it was like a punch in the gut. I asked myself a hundred times if this master's degree was worth it that night. I hope it is. I think I got an A in the course, but I won't know for a couple weeks, at least.
Here is the campus at Liberty U where I spent the week.


Now I am back home, and SO glad to be here with them with NO school work to do for several weeks! Now I actually have time to ride bikes with them, swim in the pool, work in the house and garden. I plan to read them a novel before school starts. Ahhh. It is what summer should be!