Blog — Toddler on the Tenure Track

Start Off the Week with Two Minute Mondays

Mondays are for... all of those little administrative details that I just don’t want to do (across research, teaching, and service), catching up on emails, and planning (which I always want to do!)! In my mind, I’d prefer to start my week with my “hardest” work - lots of writing and thinking big thoughts! However, in reality my weeks haven’t been playing out this way. Instead, I’ve been starting the week with all the little things I put off at the end of the previous week. They aren’t necessarily mentally taxing, but when they pile up they can take a significant amount of time. Plus, I usually experience a bit of an uphill climb to get back into work mode after the weekend. Easing into the workweek suits my general work (and life) style!

Planning and ProductivityJillMay 18, 2019planning, planning for the day, planning for the weekComment

Weekly Update: 5/6 - 5/12

Continuing my trend of finding a workable balance between research, teaching, and service this week… with a heavy emphasis on research and teaching, and less so on service. Had a fair amount of meetings, mainly scheduled for Monday/Tuesday, which seems to work well for my working rhythm. I had a workshop scheduled for Friday afternoon that was cancelled and it happened to be a day when Ellie skipped a nap, so I texted Mike and they met me downtown and we walked along the waterfront, just like old times. No profound work related thoughts this week (maybe I’m tired… and I’m also attempting to write this while Ellie is talking, stream of consciousness style, in the background, so it’s hard to separate my thoughts from her talking!)

Tenure and Life UpdatesJillMay 12, 2019weekly update, course prep, working out, meditation, goals, reflection, paper writing, may, sleepComment

A Step by Step Guide To Moving Across the Country with a Baby + 2 Cats: Part 8

I did it! I got to the final entry of my super detailed multi-part post about the steps we took to move across the country with a baby and two cats. As I mentioned in my first post (steps 1 through 5), this process put the seeds of a blog in my mind, given that I looked around everywhere and couldn’t find anyone talking about moving in the amount of detail that I was interested in seeing. So… for anyone out there who might be trying to plan a cross country move with a baby and pets… here you go!

Academic LifeJillMay 11, 2019moving, job search, how to Comments

Weekly Update: 4/29 - 5/5

Like last week, I was able to get work in on 4 different research projects (that are all at the paper writing stage) this week, even amidst meetings and teaching and emails. I’m waiting on a response to an R+R (for a special issue) that we resubmitted back in December (…I think?!… has it really been that long?!). I checked in earlier this month for an update and they said to send another message at the end of the month if I hadn’t heard. April 30th came and went and still no notification. With lots of other things going on last week, I didn’t want to email, have them respond about another R+R and start the countdown clock on that (and not be able to spend any time on it)… so I’ll check in next week and see what they say.

Tenure and Life UpdatesJillMay 5, 2019weekly update, course prep, working out, meditation, goals, reflection, april, paper writing, may, R&R, sleepComment

April 2019 Budget

Holy groceries!!! We spent under $600 on groceries this month!!! It does come with a caveat… I was traveling for ~5 days, so there was only 1 adult to feed for 5 days of the month. However, we hosted a few meals at our house, cooked a meal for a friend with a new baby, and re-upped on some freezer meals… so we didn’t skimp on food purchases.

FinancesJillMay 4, 2019student loan debt, budget, groceries, grocery bill, april, april 2019, travelComment

A Step by Step Guide To Moving Across the Country with a Baby + 2 Cats: Part 7

This next step involves taking care of the “little” details. For the most part they aren’t terribly difficult to do and they have the potential to make a big difference in your trek.

Academic LifeJillMay 3, 2019moving, job search, how toComment

Back to Basics: Four Months of Sleep, Meditation, Movement, and Nutrition

The month of May kicks off a flurry of activity in our lives. We’ve got Ellie’s birthday, our anniversary, my birthday, and Mike’s birthday. In addition to all of these important milestones there’s also the end of the school year and travel to see family (and/or visitors who come to see us). Knowing that the next few months are going to be filled to the brim, I’m making an effort to focus on the “basics.” By basics I mean the things that make me feel like a whole person, but always seem to come last (if at all).

Work-Life BalanceJillMay 1, 2019sleep, meditation, movement, exercise, working out, nutritionComment

A Day in the Life of an Assistant Professor (April 2019)

In my previous “day in the life” posts I’ve focused on workdays. For this month’s post I thought I’d highlight a weekend day… a very mundane weekend day. We were quite the social butterflies the weekend before this one so we purposefully made sure that at least one of the days of the weekend was open for nothing in particular. I’ve also mentioned before that I do my best to not work on the weekends or evenings, and this weekend was no exception.

Academic LifeJillApril 29, 2019behind the scenes, a day in the life, aprilComment

Weekly Update: 4/22 - 4/28

I was able to do work on 4 different research projects (3 papers and 1 data collection project) this week, which feels like the most research related work I’ve done since the fall (has it really been that long?!). Honestly, I think it’s because my course prep feels under control and I’m not burning myself out with grading, so I have the mental energy to pick these projects back up. Plus, there aren’t any major advising related issues going on at the moment (knock on wood), which also helps.

Tenure and Life UpdatesJillApril 28, 2019weekly update, course prep, working out, meditation, goals, reflection, april, paper writing, good weekComment

A Step by Step Guide To Moving Across the Country with a Baby + 2 Cats: Part 6

We needed to get from Columbus, OH to Portland, OR by mid-September for my official start date. We closed on our condo in late August and our apartment move in date was at the beginning of September, giving us about a week to make the trek. There were a number of routes we could have taken in order to get from OH to OR. What helped us decide were family and friends living in a few cities along our potential routes.

Academic LifeJillApril 26, 2019moving, job search, how toComment