This morning I was tossing Ian up in the air, when I caught him wrong and wrenched my back. Perhaps it is time to admit that he's no longer a baby, but a seven year old who weighs nearly 50 pounds.
When the semester ended last month, I decompressed for two weeks. I caught up on doctor's appointments and cleaned the house. After my life got straightened out, I went back to work.
It took nearly three days for me to get the courage to open the research paper on my computer. I hadn't looked at it in at least six months and I had forgotten what the thing was about. I had to wade back into the paper taking little steps. Like getting used to the ocean water at the beginning of July.
I made the big plunge last week. The introduction was completely scrapped. A huge reorganization happened. I reorganized my whole lit review into Zotero and figured out how to make Skim my default .pdf reader. I found a couple of papers that on first glance were dangerously similar to what I'm doing. Small heart failure. Recovery.
New routines are being established. When I get the kids out the door, I start work either upstairs in the office or at the library. I have to get some form of exercise everyday even if it's just walking to the library. Then I work until Ian gets home at 3. That's a full 6-1/2 hours. It is possible to work nearly a full day while the kids are at school. The trick is to not use up that time with other stuff. More on my methods another day.
Life is so ridiculously good right now. I'm productive. The kids are doing well. I am making dinner every night with like real food. Soccer season has ended. Swim classes are finished. We can reclaim the weekends and start to drive places. I bought some really cute flipflops at J.Crew today with skulls on them. So, my wrenched back is really, very minor.
So your kids are in school this summer? Wow. Nice. I've had two days with the kids at home and although I'm making progress on the writing, there are lots of interruptions. And trying to make sure the kids are being semi-productive for at least a couple of hours is proving difficult. We go on vacation starting Tuesday of next week so I don't expect any kind of schedule to be in place until after that. I think I'm just going to have to learn to deal without schedules. I've done it before. I can do it again.
Posted by: Laura/Geekymom | June 18, 2009 at 08:33 AM
My kids are still in school. They have a bunch of half days next week, so I won't get much done then. I'm planning some afternoon trips with them. After a brief break, they go to camp and summer school through July.
Posted by: laura | June 18, 2009 at 08:58 AM
I am very glad that other people re-open papers or drafts of papers months later and have forgotten what they were about. I thought I was the only one.
Posted by: Drew | June 18, 2009 at 11:52 AM