I just saw we hadn’t posted anything since last September. Oops! Sorry about that. Does anyone actually read this? If you do, please comment so we know you are there. 🙂
I wanted to update everyone on our life. To adapt a phrase from Timon from the Lion King, our lives feel busy yet satisfying. (We are thankful that they are not slimy.) This semester of grad school has really picked up as we both begin working on our thesis (how do you pluralize that?). Jay is studying community conflict resolution and communication for his thesis while I research how reading instruction has changed over the past 30 years through doing an in depth study at one school in Springfield. We are both nerdy-excited for the whole process.
I acquired two more jobs this semester, bringing that to a grand total of 4 jobs. Trust me, my schedule is far better than that makes it sound. I get to tutor children for two of my jobs. One job is through a private in home tutoring company here in Springfield. I only tutor one sixth grader through this right now, and that is enough. I also get to tutor kindergartners and first graders with the Park Board after school program four days a week. I really enjoy this because I get to make my own lesson plans and experiment with what I am learning through grad classes. I also try to substitute teach a couple mornings a week if I can. Since my availability is so low, this doesn’t happen super often, which is okay for me.
Finally, I have my GA that I work at for 20 hours a week. Can I just brag on how great the professors that I work for are for a second… Last weekend I forgot to submit a paper by the noon deadline. The professor of the class (whom I had just written a huge research article for) texted me to let me know she hadn’t received it yet and wanted to make sure I was okay! She didn’t even take points off because she said she knew she was asking a lot of me recently and wanted to go easy on me because she knew I had the paper finished far before the due date (which is true) and was just overwhelmed with all my duties right now. One professor I work for has asked me to do many small things this semester and she feels like she needs to pay me in food and gift cards! I already have my tuition paid for and I get paid for my GA, so it’s kind of my job to help her, but I will take what she gives! We have enjoyed some delicious burgers from Grad School, a few drinks from Starbucks, some gadgets from Amazon and I was introduced to the sheer deliciousness of the granola bars from The Brown Egg thanks to this professor!
I cannot even begin to fathom how wonderfully blessed we are right now. We both have GA’s that we love, meaningful work, a wonderful marriage, an awesome house church, and are near our families and friends whom we love. I am not sure life can get any better.
Thanks for reading our update. My next post is going to be about some experiments that we are trying out that were inspired by Jen Hatmaker’s book 7: An Experimental Mutiny in Excess.
Thanks for a little peek into your life!
I always enjoy reading your blog. Even though I know most of what is going on I still learn something! Love ya!! Mom