Random Sunday – Weeds, School, and Heat

I bucked up and fought the battle against the weeds today.  See, this summer’s been so nuts between me not having time and the weather not cooperating that my poor gardens have not been weeded at all yet.  I know.  I’m rather embarrassed to admit that.  But I took on the challenge today and got the vast majority of it done.  The funniest part about the whole episode to me was my son.  He was outside playing while I was weeding and my husband was doing other chores.  I tried to get him to help me.  He wouldn’t pull a weed.  No way.  So I tried to hand him one I’d pulled to put in the bucket instead.  He took a grand total of one weed and put it in the bucket.  Then he wanted me to do it.  Yet he managed to get so grubby dirty it was pretty funny.  I’m glad he’s very washable because, boy oh boy was he a dirty little almost 2 year old today.

I started my new class last week for school.  Already the instructor has posted a 7 page guide about how to write discussion posts.  Yes.  The writing for a few of the posts was that bad.  Come on – one person attempted to write something and (I’m hoping) the spell-check auto-corrected it to syphilis.  From what I could gather of the sentence in which this took place, the word attempting to be used should have been a verb.  Last time I checked syphilis is not a verb.  How you get it is, but syphilis is not.  Multiple other areas made no sense at all.  And there’s more than one post like this.  This is grad school, people!  Step up your game a little!

I think we’ve gotten the first heat advisory issued for tomorrow.  It figures.  I was going to take my son out to the playground since I only have to work 2 hours tomorrow morning.  Now we have to come up with a fun inside activity instead.  It should be interesting as Daddy has to start his overnight shifts tomorrow night and will be sleeping in the afternoon.

Random Sunday – Socks, Lights and Papers

I made an interesting observation tonight.  Have you ever noticed that when you end up with a hole in the bottom of your sock, it feels more like your sock is wet as you’re walking around in it?  At least it feels that way to me.  Which is annoying when living in a place like Minnesota because you frequently are walking in wet spots from melted snow tracked in the house.  How are you supposed to tell the difference?

My son loves Christmas lights.  We’ve discovered that this year.  Actually, last year he loved to lay under the edge of the Christmas tree and watch the lights as well.  He was 4 months old at that time.  Amazingly, he’s left the lights alone.  He just stands in front of the tree and squeaks at us.  He was so excited when Daddy put lights on the Norfolk Pine in his room that he ran in there, stood in front of it and hollered at us as if he was saying “Look!  Lights on my tree!”.

I have decided.  I hate the end of a quarter.  I know.  I still have like 2 years of grad school left.  But, this sucks.  I am so sick of writing these big papers for the end of the quarter already.  Maybe this one is getting to me more because I’ve struggled more with understanding what the professor wants.  I’d love to just go back to my creative writing instead.  Oh well.  Time to wrap this up and get back to my school work.

Random Sunday – Long Weekends, Dishes, and Grad School

I love long weekends.  Who doesn't?  There are two issues I have with long weekends, though.  First, I never seem to get as much done with them as I want.  I don’t know what happens.  I even try to make lists so I’m not overwhelming myself with stuff.  It still doesn't work.  The other issue I have is that I’m never ready for them to be over.  I always want another day or two.  Regular weekends don’t seem to do that to me as badly.  Not sure what the deal with that is.

Remember a while ago when I commented on how much laundry I do every week?  Remember how I was convinced that there was some kind of conspiracy about how much there is even though there are only 3 of us I’m doing laundry for?  Well, whatever is going on with that is contagious.  It’s spread to the dishes.  I currently have the second load in the dishwasher and the sink is still full.  That’s what I get for trying to get my hubby to do the dishes.

At this point I’m starting to seriously doubt my decision to go to grad school.  I know it’s a good thing, and I will be better off in the long run for it.  But, this is killing me right now.  Maybe it’s just the class I’m in.  I don’t know.  The current class is brutal.  All of psychological testing in 10 weeks – including a few weeks spent on things like reliability and validity.  Too much to cram in over 10 weeks if you ask me.  Too bad they didn't.

Random Sunday – Chores, Shipping, and School

I feel pretty good.  I got quite a few chores done today.  It is a fleeting good feeling, though, because I know in a week many of them will be waiting for me to finish again.  Just like I commented on last week, the laundry tends to get out of control.  I tamed it again this week.  The dishes were almost as bad.  My hubby chipped in on the battle against them.  The floor got swept and mopped.  My son’s nails got clipped – and being he’s one this is quite a challenge.  But, in a week it won’t even look like I did much today.  For now I will bask in the feeling.

I was going to order some stuff online today.  I had several coupons for a favorite store I was going to use.  With the previously mentioned one year old son, online shopping often is much easier.  Today, though, I ran into a different issue.  I couldn't get two of the codes to work online.  Then, when I looked at the total, it was $14 to ship my order.  The only coupon I got working was the $10 off my order.  For $14, I think I’ll just go to the store and use the collection there.  My hubby even volunteered to go with and mind my son while I shop.

I've decided something.  Grad school isn't totally about what you learn.  I think part of it is whether or not you can survive it.  Holy crap is my latest class brutal.  We have to read like 200 pages, no kidding, per week, write 2 discussion responses per week, respond to at least 2 other posts per week, and research a 15-20 page paper before the 10 week quarter is over.  That 15-20 page paper has several required parts to submit before the final product is done.  If I were not working full time or didn't have my son, I think I would go nuts trying to finish this class.

Random Sunday – The Weather, Exhaustion and Zucchini

Yep.  You read that title right.  This week’s Random Sunday will hit on the weather, exhaustion, and zucchini.  So, hold on to your hats cuz here we go!

I’ve decided this just isn’t fair.  Today the high was about 77 degrees Fahrenheit.  Tomorrow it is supposed to hit 100 degrees.  Come on, people!  It’s September!  A – we’re not supposed to have 100 degree weather in September.  B – who ever said the high was allowed to swing that drastically in one day!  I just hope the air conditioning in all of the various locations I need to be in tomorrow holds out.

Wow.  I’m tired.  I’m wrapping up another class for grad school this week.  That involves a fifteen to twenty page paper.  I’m not done with it yet and it needs to be turned in by Friday.  Trying to finish that, keep up with my one year old son, and manage the rest of the daily household chores is about killing me this week.  I just gotta make it ‘til Friday.  Then I’ll get a break for a few weeks.

And here’s the zucchini.  I was grating zucchini tonight.  The plan is to be able to make zucchini bread as soon as it is cool enough to actually be willing to turn the oven on.  In the process of grating it, I’ve discovered zucchini will dry into an odd skin on one’s own skin.  It feels rather odd and I’ve washed my hands several times trying to get it off.

And there you have it.  The weather, exhaustion, and zucchini all in one post.  Now I’m off to wash my hands.  Again.

Random Sunday – School and Bruises and More Family Reunions

I know.  It’s actually late Monday night.  What can I say, I’m a little late.  Oh well.  School is part of my excuse.  I had to finish a big project by last Friday as that was my final.  I was getting rather stressed over it.  I got it done and got an A in the class.  So, I took a bit of a break over the weekend.

I did have other stuff going on over the weekend.  We went to my mother-in-law’s family reunion.  My son sat in the dirt chewing on sticks and trying to eat rocks.  I don’t think he succeeded in eating rocks.  I kept trying to stop him from chewing on the sticks, but, what can I say?  He is a little boy.  Oh well.  A little dirt and bark won’t hurt him.

On a completely random note, I noticed a big bruise on my calf tonight.  I have no idea where it came from.  That doesn’t seem fair to me.  How can I end up with a bruise like that and not remember getting it?  I don’t bruise that easily.

And that’s it for my randomness tonight.  It’s bedtime.

Swimming Pools and Grad School, Oh My!

I had every intention of coming up with some brilliant response to Write at the Merge’s prompt this week.  Instead, all I could come up with was basically the scene out of the beginning of The Avengers where Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a Scarlett Johansson, was conducting her interrogation while tied to a chair.  I didn’t figure ripping that scene off would constitute a brilliant blog post.  Then I got distracted playing with my son in his swimming pool at my mom’s house.  What can I say, cute baby in the water on a 90+ degree day – how can it get any better than that?

So, instead you’re getting a little more of my ramblings instead.  Besides, my brain is fried from reading a ton of responses to a discussion question for grad school.  It amazes me how poorly some of these people in grad school write, at least for these posts.  Some of them have basically copied straight out of the textbook with no original thought.  Others have written such short posts it makes me wonder if they even understood what they wrote.  I’m not trying to imply that I have these uber-intelligent posts and am blowing people away with them.  But, I mean, come on people!  Show some effort and some smattering of independent intelligent thought!  It is a master’s program, not undergrad.

Okay.  I’m off my soapbox.  For now.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

And Now the Explanation

First things first - If I have done this correctly, this post should automatically post on 7/10/2013.  If it did - yay me!  If not, I haven't managed to figure out how to write a post ahead of time and schedule it for later.  That will complicate my life more.

So, now, assuming I did everything right, here's the explanation for yesterday's Ode to a Neglected Blog.

My son is now 11 months old.  He crawls like crazy everywhere.  I estimated that in one day he crawls more than a mile.  Yep.  He's very busy.  That means I am too.  Here's the other kicker with him.  My father has taught him to LOVE computers, iPads, phones - in short, anything tech.  That means no using computers when he's around.  Yesterday he managed to peel two keys off my laptop keyboard.  I didn't even know those keys came off until then.

I also lost my job late last month.  The hospital I worked for decided they were not going to continue to have my program.  So, I got laid off.  Luckily, though, I did get a job right away.  The best part is that I don't start the new job until the end of July.  So, for the month of July, I get to have time off, get paid my severance from the hospital, and be able to relax knowing I have a job to start later.  But that also means I have been working overtime to subdue the laundry and dishes that were about to stage a walk out in protest of their neglect.

The last major thing that has been keeping me away from my blog and the writing prompts is that I also started grad school about 3 weeks before I got laid off.  Thankfully, it is all online.  That means I don't have to spend the time commuting to classes.  But it also means I tend to have a little more leg work on my own to do at home.

So, in a nutshell, that's my life right now.  I am working on developing some new habits to squeeze in more personal writing time and not neglect this blog quite so badly.  Wish me luck and hope to see you around a little more in the near future!