Weekly Update: 4/15 - 4/21

/
Weekly Update: 4/15 - 4/21

The biggest news of my week is that the results (for lack of a better word) of my third year review came back and were overwhelmingly positive! It feels good to be on the other side of that milestone. Moving forward, I’ll just keep on, keeping on! Despite feeling pretty confident after submitting my materials back in February, I saw the response letter in my inbox this week and my heart started racing. I was sitting on the train on my way to campus, debating on whether or not to read the letter right then and there, or wait until I got to the privacy of my office in case there were any surprises.

Read More

A Step by Step Guide To Moving Across the Country with a Baby + 2 Cats: Part 5

/
A Step by Step Guide To Moving Across the Country with a Baby + 2 Cats: Part 5

Once we knew where we’d be living, how we’d be moving, and what stuff we’d be moving, we needed to figure out how to pack everything. We could have done this in a more economical way; however, we were too exhausted to go hunting for free boxes. Using the list of everything we owned from step 8 (which also included potential box sizes), I estimated the number and sizes of the boxes we’d need, and sent Mike to buy them (with the funds coming from our $7000 moving budget from my university).

Read More

Weekly Update: 4/8 - 4/14

/
Weekly Update: 4/8 - 4/14

I have so much respect for people who travel regularly for work. I left for a conference in San Antonio on Tuesday morning and came back on Saturday morning (should have been Friday evening) and I am so exhausted. Prior to the conference I thought… I’ll have all this time to myself to get work done and work on the blog and relax and explore and watch cable TV and read… HA!

Read More

What’s Working For My Brain Right Now (April 2019)

/
What’s Working For My Brain Right Now (April 2019)

Generally speaking, I try to pay attention to what’s working and what’s not working in terms of managing the overwhelm that often comes with this job (or any job). Paying attention to these strategies is a lovely first step, but then I actually have to keep doing the things that are working and/or figure out how to adjust whatever isn’t working. I’m good at the noticing part, not as good with the follow through (always a work in progress!). To remind myself to continue to do what’s working and adjust what isn’t, I thought I’d share where I’m at right now.

Read More

Weekly Update: 4/1 - 4/7

/
Weekly Update: 4/1 - 4/7

This week marked the official start to my third spring term. My first year on the tenure track I “eased” into the school year, meaning that during my first quarter I served as an advisor but was not in the classroom. My second quarter I added one class, and my third quarter I added another class so that I was teaching two courses and had a full advising load. This strategy worked well, particularly because when fall term started, Ellie was four months old. It gave me a little bit a of chance to catch my breath before jumping into classes.

Read More

Weekly Update: 3/25 - 3/31

/
Weekly Update: 3/25 - 3/31

Spring break was meh. My online class opened up on the Friday of spring break, which meant everything needed to be ready to go by then. I’ve taught the class before so this shouldn’t have been a big deal; however, I’ve also decided to ditch the textbook this term and do a decent amount of content revision. So, while I wasn’t starting from scratch, I did need to go through all of the readings, replace anything from the old book that was relevant with an article or other online resource, and then also had to get my videos ready for the first week. Sure, all this was self-imposed, I didn’t have to do it, but I think it focuses the course a bit more (which helps me out in the long run).

Read More

A Step by Step Guide To Moving Across the Country with a Baby + 2 Cats: Part 4

/
A Step by Step Guide To Moving Across the Country with a Baby + 2 Cats: Part 4

Welcome back to the never ending multi-part blog post about moving across the country with a baby and 2 cats! By my count I’ve got at least 5 more posts in me on this topic… so get ready for a wild ride! In all seriousness, I’m writing this so that on the off chance there’s another me out there who is googling how to move across the country with a baby and two cats, that she will find these posts and see that’s it’s possible! For everyone else, you can skip on over these posts!

Read More

What it’s like to have a toddler on the tenure track

/
What it’s like to have a toddler on the tenure track

Back in February I got an email from Leigh of Teaching Academia. Teaching Academia is a wonderful resource that’s dedicated to helping people navigate and succeed in academia. Leigh asked if I’d write a guest post about being on the tenure track with a kid and I (of course!) said yes! Given a few other recent scheduling posts on the Teaching Academia blog (here and here), we decided my post would focus on a week in my life.

Read More

Weekly Update: 3/18 - 3/24

/
Weekly Update: 3/18 - 3/24

We took an impromptu trip to the beach (very unlike me… the impromptu part, not the beach part). I was joking with a friend the other week that I needed a beach trip. While she couldn’t provide me with a trip to the beach, she did offer up a night in her guest room, free of charge. We took her up on the offer and had a family sleepover (last week), which was lots of fun. We tried to have all the kids sleep in one room (two 2 year olds and one 4 year old)… didn’t work so well! Doing a little local getaway made me want to go to the beach even more!

Read More