I think that this tough semester came at a good time in my life. My three-year old can play by himself, sleep well, obey well, and lend a hand. The one year old requires a lot more supervision, but he takes a nap and sleeps through most of the night, and I am healed enough from the pregnancy and birth now that I have enough energy. If I don't exert myself physically or mentally throughout the day I lie sleepless at night. That is normal for me and I'm glad to be back there. Although the house has never been as tidy as it was with only one kid, I can keep it together even when my husband isn't around to help. He's been working for 8 days (actually nights) now and I've managed to vacuum our too big house a couple of times (dog shedding season + baby phase throw food off of highchair), read to and bathe the kids each night, attend their activities, socialize with friends, exercise, and the most challenging for me: cook some great meals. Yes, even with a broken cooktop or maybe because of a broken cooktop, I've enjoyed some ham + sweet potato fries, salmon chowder, moose steak peanut broccoli stir fry, sausage red cabbage spring rolls, squash and kidney bean sofrito soup, and my favorite which was the most simple and spur of the moment: baked rock fish with fresh onions and tomatoes along with salted and buttered brussel sprouts.
I Can Even Cook
I am over a major hurdle. I have almost (besides the budget) finished a mock-research proposal for a class. I chose a topic that is dear to my heart (antibiotic contamination in milk and its effect on infant immune system) and here I sit surrounded by reams of printed publications in analytical chemistry, microbiology, and immunology that I am very excited to burn. I will not always readily accept a prescription from our physicians, eat a non-organic meat, vegetable or by-product, or trust the FDA like I did before. There is this whole world out there when you start reading written work that is only available through password protection vs what you can find on the open-access internet. I just have to figure out how to maintain this access to the library after I graduate so that I can continue to make educated decisions about our family's lifestyle. I knew this work was going to take me a long time and that is why I started it just after christmas. I am almost done spending every waking moment on this project and focus on the other remaining school work (and there is a lot).
