Catchin' Up is Hard to Do

I'm thinking spring is here--or at least the idea of spring is here. I have daffodils with their perky yellow faces smiling at the world. I have heather looking beautifully pink. And I found this rhododendron starting to bloom two weeks ago. The rhodie gave me hope :)

It has been over two weeks since I have been here. My life has been too busy to do anything except finish the term--I still have 20 finals to grade. I needed to get the next term classes ready--I still have a bit of tweaking to do on my online course. I needed to get the next term adjusted--I finally found an instructor who can take my second class so I can open another section of my online class. I needed to create Summer term--I still need a few instructors for summer. I needed to hire a new fulltime dance instructor--we had interviews for the past few days. And I needed to sleep at some point. Most everything has been accomplished.

Gawd Winter term is the shortest term of the year and I feel it is the longest!

Over the past two weeks I hit the 45 pound mark. In fact, I have now lost 46.5 pounds. This week I have partied hardy. I have grabbed things on my run and some of them have not been the best choices. But I also gave myself permission to just relax this aspect. I think I needed something to help me breathe because I wasn't able to breathe on the past few weeks schedule. But now it is back to keep on keepin' on. Life is good.

Peace~~
.

And the Beat Goes On

It's been an interesting week.

All week I have been hounded by a student who believes she deserves an "A" and I graded her with a "C." I applaud her persistence but every time I see email or hear her voice I have to take a deep breath and try to be patient. It doesn't matter that I am basing her assignment by national standards, she still believes I am being subjective. I have shown her the criteria; she has rejected it. And on top of this, she has decided I am too rigid with students and not flexible. She has continued with the idea that I am not thinking about the needs of the students but am making things easy for me.

You have to laugh :)

Now on top of this, I have a student who has plagiarized two essay exam questions, plagiarized to the point of simply cut and pasted the information from websites. When I told her she would not receive credit for the test questions, she tried to put it back on me, that I was not clear when I said to use the textbook and the Internet to support her answers. She did not plagiarize, she said, because she changed the words into her own. So I had to take both her work and the websites I found and paste them side-by-side, with all language and thoughts the same in red. Both the articles and her answers had little that was not red. A word here and there. I sent this to her. She said she understands why I might think it was plagiarism, but she just forgot to cite her references. One of these "references" was a t-shirt ad...she liked how they talked about a certain motif on the t-shirt... When I referred her to the student handbook, she asked if she could at least get credit for researching the questions.

You have to laugh :)

I lost 3.5 pounds this week, only a breath away from that magic 45 number. I asked Doug to take me out of town for the weekend as I have been feeling anxious and nervous. Probably waiting to hear back from one student of another... So we went to a hotel out of town. We relaxed. I still did school work but relaxed while I did it. The kitties were happy to see us this evening :)

Weekly pics are up. Things are not moving as quickly so I don't notice much change. Still worth seeing since I spent the weekend looking at myself with a whole different set of mirrors. Not a fun thing, seeing yourself from different angles and realizing how much you have to lose. I forget at home. I am just keepin' on keepin' here at home...go out and things look different.

But, between students and an unmanageable workload, I think I will, as Dory says in Finding Nemo just keep on swimming.
.

You are Looking at a Winner!

I have some great friends who blog here. Many of them are quilting friends. My friend Debi loves to hold contests and challenges. No matter what the season, Debi has something fun going on--challenges, giveaways, new blocks--something fun all the time. This week she is participating on another blogger's OP Challenge and weekend blog hop. The fabric in the challenge is orange. I love orange :)

Debi said, "Saturday, I am hosting a giveaway as part of the OP Challenge. My giveaway is this 19 piece set of Millefleur by P & B Textiles fat quarters." So who gets an email last evening that says, "Congratulations...You are the winner of my blog giveaway....." Yes! You are so right! ME! Look at those gorgeous fat quarters! Thank you thank you thank you so much, Debi!

I'm a winner! I'm a winner! I never win stuff! And I'm a winner! YippeeSkippee!!!!
.

Celebration: The Week is Over!

Celebration time c'mom!

We are celebrating that this week is finished and put to bed! Whew what a week! The struggle was tough, even as I was as busy as all get out. Scales showed half a pound up for the struggling effort. C'est la vie, n'est-ce pas?

I have been trying to figure out why I am having such difficulty with these past few weeks. I think I need to shake things up a bit. I feel the need to mix things up. Part of my struggle is that I am just doing the same things. It is time to mix things up, remotivate myself, get things moving. I want more time in the day :)

First I need to add some exercise into the mix. I have lots of excuses not to exercise. Let me list them.

TIME: When should this happen? I get up at 5:30 to catch the bus at 6:30. I arrive at school by 8:00 and leave at 4:00 to arrive home by 5:30. I make dinner. Doug gets home by 5:45. We eat by 6:00-6:30 and Jeopardy is on at 7...then I have a bit of time to relax and go upstairs to finish grading or getting ready for the next day. Bedtime...so I can get up at 5:30.

I could try to figure out how I can take some time during the work day to do this, but I have never been able to figure this out. I have tried to take a class now and again in the middle of the day but after about two weeks, I have to drop out. I just never can get away from my office. Too many things I need to do. I rarely get to visit with my colleagues. I can make more of an effort to do this, but I have my doubts.

With days longer, I could get in a little walking in after dinner. I can give up Jeopardy but Doug won't. It is our only TV watching and he really enjoys it. I could walk alone, but I won't. Motivation. I will find the answer to this. Before I started riding the bus, I did my biking before school. I sometimes can get on the bike between Jeopardy and finishing school work, but mostly I forget. And I want something besides the bike. I want to swim, but can't yet. In a few weeks I can but not yet.

MOVEMENT: What am I able to actually do? Most machines that helps one get good cardo I can't do. It is too difficult on my knee. But I can swim, if I get some good fins. My knee doesn't bend enough to get me moving, but a good pair of fins will help. Perhaps since I may never get my reward massage (that is another story), my rewrd for 30 pounds will be a set of fins :) If I stop riding the bus, I can swim in the morning at school. If I swim at the public pool (just down the street) the cost adds up, but might find lap swimming in the evening. I will check that out.

So as we celebrate this week finally coming to a conclusion, we can also celebrate a new mix. Whatever that new mix involves. I'll let you know how that goes... Weekly picture will soon be up (I have to wash my hair and get pretty).
.

Bright Eyes

I now see the world in bright colors
in all it's technicolor
without halos
the world without hesitation

Life is good :)
.