Busy, yet unproductive summer

Wow! Has it really been that long since I've last posted? Oh my dear little blog! I missed you! Is there anyone out there still checking in??

We've been busy over here at Chez Maude. Unfortunately, not busy with the work we should be doing, but busy nonetheless.

Actually, right now, I'm starting to lament the passing of summer into the Fall Quarter, which fortunately for me is still a couple of weeks away, and I need those two weeks like nothin' doin', yo.

And I'm stressed about the fact that I've accomplished very very very little this summer, once again, after I had deemed it an ALL IMPORTANT SUMMER FOR WORK! that just did not see fruition.

• I had two course proposals I wanted to write. Neither of those happened.
•  I had one little article and two big ones I wanted to write/research/get started on. The little one happened, was accepted, went through some minor revisions, and should be out in the fall. However, I needed a big one in the works to be ready by October or November, and well, now here we are.
• I had a ton of books that I needed and wanted to read for research and for the fall prep. --I've read two books. Just two in their entirety. I've started three others, but yeah. Harumph.
• I had hoped by the end of summer that I would have reached my weight loss and fitness goals. I'm still moving forward toward them, but it is much slower than I anticipated. Seriously. It's annoying, and I talk to the trainer about it, and it's a lot to do with me getting out of my own head and focusing more on the fitness than the numbers on the scale, but it's frustrating. At least the people at the box and the husband are supportive cheerleaders who "get it." 

One of the reasons that work has been so hard over the summer is because the husband has been home. He was gone of course while I was teaching, and because we were waiting for the job to start (that left us in the lurch for about a month), he had to quit school which meant he was back at home all day. And I like to spend time with him. Now that he's back at work, now that family has gone home and the trips are done, I should be able to get some stuff accomplished in the next couple of weeks.

There are three big things that I really need to do before the quarter starts:

1. Prep as much of the new stuff for the new class that I can before the quarter starts.
2. Write my syllabi.
3.  Finish the great reorganization/cleaning/donation project of summer 2012 that has been ongoing for the last two months.  

Because now that the quarter is about to start and I've got to spend the next year doing what I didn't do this summer, the office and the guest room have got to get organized. We've got to get rid of some stuff and make some more room for ourselves. Yes, we've been here a year now and still have unpacked boxes! But now that the husband will be gone during the day, there's no reason why I won't have time to get done what I need to get done.

The plan then is to read/work in the morning and clean/organize/purge/donate in the afternoons. But since the husband is off on Mondays, tomorrow he's helping me do the cabinets and the kitchen, and then get to work in the guest room and go through his clothes for the donation pile.

And I promise to be a better blogger. :)