Better Mood?

Wow, it seems to be a rollercoaster of sorts over in these parts here between my anger/angst and feelings of serenity. Perhaps it's time to go back on the meds till I get a handle on thing? Who knows. It's a sure sign of either depression, PMS, or both. In any case, it's wreaking havoc on me. And I don't want this place to be such a negative space. But I guess all that negativity, or a large portion of it is academic related, so oh well.

Anyway, yesterday, I came home and took a nap. Turns out that was just what I needed! It's the simplest things that make the biggest differences! I had already worked out in the morning before class (something that didn't happen this morning because it's too much of a rush to do so on TR mornings, but it looks like on MWF mornings it's going to start happening), so I didn't have to work out when I came home. The husband cleaned the kitchen, did his homework, and then cooked me dinner. I spent the afternoon sleeping and reading stuff for fun! Turns out, that was a great idea! I know I have grading and stuff to do, but I'm trying really hard to be protective of my time here at home. Because next week, for sure and for real!! is when I add the research time blocks to my calendar!!  Especially if I get into the habit of getting the MWF workouts done in the morning, then I have large blocks of time in the afternoon on those days to get that stuff done. Even on TRs if I work out when I get home, I have time in the afternoons for that. And I really have to start working on that article and that conference paper. I need to do the research for the conference paper. Right now, I'm refusing to grade at home. I refuse to bring that stuff home with me unless absolutely necessary. And I have plenty of office hours during the week in which to get that stuff done. And I don't have legions of students (or even a trickle for that matter) coming to see me yet, so there's no reason for me to bring any of it home, honestly.

Thankfully today I just give midterms. Tomorrow I take up essays and give a midterm. I think in the freshman class we're going to watch something. So I have plenty of time to ease into a new routine and start adding the research this coming week.

With any luck, I'll be motivated today and get the bulk of the take home midterm exams graded while the students take their in-class exam and during my office hours. So the goal by 11:00 is to:

• Finish the TR take home midterm exams
• Get halfway through the MWF take home midterm exams or more--Not quite. I only made it through 6 of them, but I did grade a total of 17 today which means I've got about 33/62 total done. That's pretty good progress. So I'm counting that as accomplishing today's grading goal.

And that's it. The actual in class midterms will be easy to grade, so I'm not worried about that.

The goal for tomorrow:

• Finish MWF take home midterms
• Get 1/3 way through 101 final drafts, so about 7 of them, at a minimum.--this did not happen. Rather I plowed through ALL of the midterms, in all their forms.

All right, now it's time to sally forth!

Have a great day all!