Diet & writing

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I know the cliché is diet & exercise, but we have to start somewhere, don’t we? Effective today (no foolin’), I am starting a medically supervised weightloss program. This isn’t something I would normally broadcast, but I figured the four or five of you reading this could help to hold me accountable … and celebrate successes with me!  🙂

Also beginning today, I’m participating in Script Frenzy, which is a one-month screenplay/stage play writing contest. I’ve never written a play before, so it will be a fun challenge.

I was thinking last night about how to plan ahead so that I might be successful in both of these endeavors, then it dawned on me. One of my biggest obstacles with dieting is the lunch hour. It’s sooooo easy to just go out for lunch instead of bringing my lunch, especially when friends from work want to go.

So, for the month of April, I’m going to make a concerted effort to bring my lunch and write my play during the break. It sounds like a win-win solution to me! Aaannnnnd … ACTION!

Monday haiku

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It’s the middle of the spring semester and the end of a month. Faculty members are anxiously trying to fund summer salaries, graduate stipends and research projects. If only they didn’t wait till the eleventh hour!

Deadlines are looming
Monday, welcome to my world:
Month-end grant requests

"Have a grand day"

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Lately, I have tried to be mindful of commonplace moments with spiritual applications – recognizing the blessing or finding the meaning in the little things, day in and day out. It’s so easy to lapse into tunnel-vision and focus on all of my to-dos and scarcely notice the world around me.

Every morning when I drop off my little two at preschool, there are always one or two retiree volunteers from the church next door (the daycare is affiliated with that congregation) who open the doors and greet everyone. They know us and call us by name, and seeing them is a bright spot in our morning.

One lady, in particular, always says, “Have a grand day!” as I’m leaving. Her enthusiasm is contagious; it’s hard not to smile as I walk to my car, even if I’m not having such a grand morning. She spreads joy and kindness, and it reminds me often that God never fails to care about me, either.

China & Google

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I saw a great cartoon this morning about China & Google. It is political satire, but it’s so true. In case you haven’t heard, the search engine giant is putting pressure on China to stop censoring search results.

I’ve said before that truth is not something we should fear … that is, unless you are a dictator of a Communist country. When I was in China in 1997, some of my students shared confidentially (b/c they weren’t supposed to talk about it, they said) that many of their parents – and especially grandparents – did not believe that the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 really happened. The official news outlets denied it, and the government-run news is gospel; therefore, it didn’t happen.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Alone

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Sometimes I need to listen to music that I know will make me cry.

I recently discovered a fantastic open-source sound editor, Audacity, and I have enjoyed ripping snippets of songs from my cd collection to make my own ringtones. I love being able to customize the few seconds of the song that I want, and best of all – it’s free. I love free.

Anyway, in the process of skimming my music library, I found myself listening to ballads of grief, hope and praise – songs like “Never Alone” by Barlow Girl – and tearing up, but I didn’t want to quit listening.

I love the candor, the brutal honesty that cries out to God and says, “I don’t get it, Lord.” It resonates with my heart when I feel like I’m all alone. Even writing that looks a bit odd. I’m never alone. I’ve got five kids. You know the cliche about feeling alone in a crowd? Yeah, it’s kinda like that. Don’t get me wrong – I have a wonderful family; my mom and stepdad uprooted their lives and relocated to be nearby and help us. I also have a wonderful support network at church and with friends from work.

Still, there are moments … evenings … days … when I feel alone in the midst of it all. It is during these times that I lean on songs like “Never Alone” to remind me that God hasn’t changed. He is still present, even if it feels like he’s playing hide-and-seek.

Music can be very cathartic, and now that I’ve had a good cry, I feel like I imagine Bella did in New Moon when she says that the hole in her heart is still evident, but it’s healing.

Census 2010

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I’m confused. And frustrated. I know that the census is important, and I didn’t have any real qualms about filling it out, at first. When the form arrived, however, I began to ask questions.

Right off the bat, the form says NOT to include people in the military. Later on (Question 10, to be precise), it asks if the person “sometimes” lives/stays elsewhere, including the military. What the heck? What am I supposed to answer?

My concern is mainly how the results will be tabulated. If I don’t count Lane b/c he is away w/the military, then when references are made to the “number of children raised in single-parent homes based on the 2010 Census,” how do I know that my family won’t be counted in that number?

Furthermore, I already list all of my dependents’ full names & birthdays on my annual tax return, so couldn’t they pull that info by cross-referencing my name & address? Why do they need it all again?

I am a little surprised that there aren’t more questions about household income, level of education and other demographic details.

On a related note, I think the postage required for the pre-letters, census forms and postcard reminders should be enough to get the U.S. Postal Service back in the black this fiscal year.

Day 70: Plugging along

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Lane called today, and they are already looking at dates for summer leave, which is wonderful news. I haven’t told the boys for sure yet, b/c it’s still much too far away. The little ones barely register one week at a time (“Is it stay-home day today?” “Is it church day tomorrow?” “How many days till stay-up-late night?”).

His call came at a perfect time, though, b/c I was combing the calendar this afternoon and looking at schedules for summer camps & whatnot. If plans work out, then the boys will have a variety of fun activities to keep them busy this summer.

We’ve made it just two months and counting, yet I’m already thinking about Lane being stateside for a couple of weeks this summer. It feels like a lot more than two months, but the training in Nov & Dec didn’t count toward the 400 days of the official Orders. I try not to think about the fact that it’s really been 4+ months, b/c it just gets me down. If there is an area in the brain that processes grief, I think mine must be pretty screwed up. I’m still dealing with the loss of my brother, which, thankfully, doesn’t “hit” me as often as it used to, but it’s still heavy on my heart. Add Lane’s – albeit temporary – absence to the mix, and I’m sure my griefometer is out of whack.

Instead, I shall think about the summer and the fun we will have. Lane wants to go on a big family vacation, so I posed a question to the boys that if/when Dad gets to come home this summer, where would they like to go on vacation? They immediately threw out suggestions for day trip locations (amusement/water parks); one said the beach; one said Alaska! That prompted another to say Hawaii. lol! I clarified and said it had to be in the 48 contiguous United States. I was 99.9% certain that someone would say Disney World, but no one did!  😉

The tooth fairy flies again

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No. 3 woke up this morning with a quarter clutched in his fist as he showed it to me exuberantly: “Look! The tooth fairy came!” He pulled his first tooth yesterday evening, and that child fell asleep on his stomach with his arms wrapped under his pillow and holding the tooth-enclosed baggie with a death grip in both hands.

No kidding – he was snoring and soundly sleeping, and I had to go after that rascally tooth from both sides of the bed, gingerly trying to reach under his pillow to pull the baggie out of his hands without waking him up. I felt like The Tooth Fairy in all of his clumsy hockey gear!

The tooth fairy was out of dollar bills, so she left five quarters. When he showed me that one quarter this morning, I was happy for him but asked, “Are you sure that’s all?” and he replied, “Well, it was only one tooth.” LOL – glad to see that his expectations are more realistic now; last night, he proposed that the tooth fairy might leave him a thousand dollars! In his dreams!! I encouraged him to look some more, and lo & behold, he found the other quarters.

Look out, world – there’s one happy first grader on the loose!  🙂

"Ain't got time for PTA"

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The oldest boys have been hounding me all week for book fair money, and I kept forgetting to get cash. I very seldom carry cash, so I needed to either cash a check at work or swing by the atm, and I simply forgot. I promised them that I would give them some money to take tomorrow (the last day of the book fair – no pressure).

Anyway, as we were leaving karate tonight, No. 2 asked, “What time is it?? The book fair closes at 8:00!” I asked what he was talking about, since I thought tomorrow was the last day.

No. 1 piped up and said to his brother, “Tonight is just for the parents who go to the PTA meeting. She ain’t got any time for P-T-A!”

I LOLed and wondered where he came up with that. Granted, I am not especially eager to get involved in PTA (not because it is an unworthy organization, but mainly for the reason No. 1 so bluntly referenced). However, I don’t think I’ve ever verbalized that fact. It made me laugh, but it also reminded me to be VERY careful what I do say in front of them!

When all was said and done, they went to bed happy with cash in their backpacks for tomorrow.

Faculty positions

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The editorial in today’s Baylor Lariat student newspaper mentions that university faculty positions are “notoriously shaky” jobs. I actually LOLed when I read that. The context of the article had to do with a few dozen faculty contracts at UNT Dallas that were not renewed when the university gained independent status recently.

I have not researched the UNT Dallas situation, but I would hazard a guess that the contracts in question were lecturer or tenure-track (but not full tenure) positions. If the layoffs were tenured faculty, then that would be very odd, from what I’ve seen in academia over the years.

To say that faculty positions are unstable is laughable, seeing as it is nearly impossible to fire a tenured faculty member. Becoming tenured is akin to becoming a top exec with a golden parachute: you’re in for life, for all intents and purposes.