Monday, October 10, 2016

I'm still alive!

So, I've basically abandoned my blog, but life is so busy right now that I just haven't had time to sit down and write. And I have so many things to write about that it's a bummer that I'm not doing it. I have pictures I wanted to post and things I wanted to talk about, but I can't seem to fit blogging into my schedule lately.

But here is a super quick rundown.

In school news, I'm swamped. That's the biggest reason I haven't been blogging. In fact, I shouldn't be blogging now, because I have a pile of things I should be working on right now. I'm both enjoying and not enjoying school. I like having something to do to keep my brain busy all day and I'm incredibly proud of myself for doing the thing I always wanted to do. My grades are awesome right now, and it's HARD, so I'm proud of me. But I'm taking a math class that I absolutely despise, I'm working around the clock including most weekends to get everything done, I'm often overwhelmed and a little burned out. I feel like I do homework and sleep, and that's pretty much it.

College is a lot different than it used to be when I went the first time in the 90's. It used to be mostly lectures and tests. Online college is mostly reading (sooool much reading), writing (soooo much writing), posting on mandatory group discussion boards, and a pile of various assignments each week. My English class has three units a week. Which basically feels like a weeks worth of work, three times a week. It's a beast. My math class basically has no teacher (it has a teacher, but as far as I can tell he just monitors our grades and answers occasional questions) and we're basically teaching ourselves out of the text book, which does not work for me at all. I've basically abandoned my very expensive text book and I've moved on to searching for YouTube tutorials every week. It's a mess. Josh is usually my math tutor, but he's busier than I am right now, so I rarely ask him to help. He's taking more college credits than I am, plus he's working, he's in every extracurricular activity you can possibly imagine and he has an active social life. I'm fairly certain he still lives here, but judging by the amount of time I actually see him here, I'm not so sure.

I'm also taking an American History class, which is not super hard but it's so much dry reading each week. It's fine, just a little tedious, a religion class that is mostly just a lot of busy work, and an intro to Marriage and Family studies class that isn't hard, and will be over in a few weeks. Sadly, it's my favorite class. So I get to lose a class in a few weeks, but it's the one I actually like.

I could go on all day about group projects, my frustration with group projects, the gigantic amount of research I'm doing for an English paper right now, a 2,000 word rant about taking a math class with no teacher, and many more things, but I will stop here. Basically, I'm busy and tired and overwhelmed, but I'm doing things I never though I could do and I'm ridiculously proud of myself for hanging in there. I've got this.

In family news, Josh is rocking college. He's taking something like 18 credits, working as a pharmacy tech for Shawn in the afternoons, he's Vice President of the film club, running for president of the National History Day club, he's the senior member on the Academic Decathalon team and they're studying WWII this year, which his specialty, so he's really excited about that. He volunteers as a math tutor once a week at the school's tutoring center, he went to his first date dance, Homecoming, a few weeks ago with a girl from another school and he's going to his schools Homecoming dance with another girl this Saturday. I'm sure there some stuff I'm forgetting, but that's the gist of it. He's also getting straight A's. Oh, and he's considering running for student council this year.

Matthew is in 8th grade and doing awesome. He's in the gifted program and all the honors classes, and he's loving that. He's doing a really intense PE class this year that he likes and he discovered that he likes to run, so he's thinking of doing cross country next year. He's still playing the piano and he's awesome at it. He's writing his own music now. He can hear a piece and play it by ear, which mystifies me, because I don't understand how he does it, but it's cool to listen to. He's also the most social of our three kids and there is a steady stream of teenage boys in and out of this house all afternoon and weekends. Someone is always calling for him or knocking on the door. I told him he needs to hire a secretary.

Clarissa is in second grade and doing awesome! I wasn't super impressed with her teacher last year, but this year she has an amazing teacher. Clarissa really loves her. She excitedly comes home every day and tells me all the fun things they did. Clarissa likes to read, she's struggling in math a bit (you and me both, sister), but we're working on it, and she's an amazing artist. She loves to draw and paint and color and our whole house is covered in her artwork. It makes me so happy to look at. She's still joined at the hip with her best friend Sophia, which I love, and she's eagerly awaiting Halloween, which is one of her favorite holidays. Clarissa is obsessed with clothes and dressing up, so a holiday where she gets to dress up is pretty much her dream come true. I love that kid.

Shawn is doing awesome, just so incredibly busy at work. He's the manager and it's a daunting task sometimes. He's been really stressed over some recent changes, but he's pushing through it. That man is a rock star. We're all running around like chickens with our heads cut off lately, but there's no one I would rather ride out a storm with.

Oh, and in extended family news, my mom and stepdad, who just got back from an 18 month church mission to Malaysia in December, left yesterday to serve another 18 month mission in Ghana, Africa.

So that's us in a nutshell. There is a lot more I would love to blog about, but my homework isn't going to do itself and I've got quite a pile of it waiting for me.

I'm busy, I'm tired, and I'm stressed, but under all of that, I'm happy about what I'm accomplishing. Look at me, I'm doing it! :)