Lor-Dee BE! You know it has to be busy here for me to go this long without an update. Nearly a month. Did’ja miss me?!?
I am in my last week of school, barring finals week. Thank you, Jesus, that You have carried me through one more semester. I turned in my last homework assignments for the whole semester today. I have a sense of peace within me that could only come from knowing that I’m homework-free for the next six weeks.
Thanksgiving was relatively uneventful here. I was most thankful that I didn’t have to do the majority of the cooking for a change. We went to an aunt’s house and only brought dessert as our contribution to the meal. By 3pm, we were done eating, done visiting, and on our way home. That was a very good day. I had all of last week off, except for Monday,which was something else I was deeply thankful for. I rested a lot, slept late (for me), enjoyed time with my family (all of us were on vacation together), and read the last Harry Potter. I cried. It was good. I didn’t want it to end. Now I think I need to get them all and start over at the beginning. But that will have to wait until I go on winter break.
Man. It’s been almost a month since I updated…you’d think I would have more to talk about. My life has revolved around school, though, so I really don’t have much new to say. I haven’t talked about Weigh Down in a very, very long time, so I supposed I’ll touch on that for a moment. The truth is that I haven’t been keeping up with it very much. I was supposed to re-measure on the first but didn’t and every time I thought about it, I would promptly forget again. It obviously wasn’t a priority at the time, mainly because I had so many other things going on. When I get stressed and busy (which, strangely enough, usually happen simultaneously) everything else in my life tends to fall by the wayside until things are back under control. Sometimes, things have to give a little, you know? I want, and need, to read more of the book. I’ve been thinking that I really need to start the second section all over again so that I can really dig deeper into it. Of course, it’s one of the things on my “to-do” list for winter break, so in a couple of weeks, I should be getting back into it.
As for eating…things have been…meh. I have not gone completely back to what I had been doing, but I certainly have not been obedient. Most days, I just push the guilt to the back of my mind and focus on school and children and family and whatever else is in front of me to distract me at the moment. I just don’t want to think about how poorly I’ve been doing. The funny thing is, I am still struggling with the same issue I was struggling with before I dropped off the face of the Earth. I have no problems with waiting to eat until I’m hungry. In fact, sometimes I wait TOO long. As always, my problem is stopping once I’m satisfied. I can’t remember if I shared this before, but I realize that one of the reasons why I struggle to stop eating is because it’s such an interruption. This whole eating process is so annoying to me! I have better things to do! Yet, I must eat to live. I can recall actually thinking during breakfast one day that if I could just eat enough in the morning, then I could stave off hunger until dinner and not have to be interrupted during the day to eat again. Now, in some ways, being annoyed by the need to eat is a good thing. It’s an indication of how Jesus has all but broken my addiction to food and has put Himself in that place. But because I am imperfect and my personal tendency is to take things like this to extremes, I am now using that lack of desire to eat as an excuse to overeat! I swear, I should be tossed in the looney bin with the way my dumb brain works!
There’s another thing that I’m adding to my winter “to-do” list: Bible Study! I’ve been reading my Bible, but I had to drop the intensive study that I started out the semester doing. It was just too much for me to juggle. However, I did a lot of praying before I dropped doing it and God has really been faithful to me in my seemingly random Bible reading. I have focused a lot on the Psalms this semester, which is a good thing since they offer so much comfort to those who are in the midst of trial. In the past, I’ve treated the Psalms like a daily dose of medicine. A required daily reading that I must get out of the way before I get to the “real” stuff. Little did I know how much I was missing! They are beautiful! It makes me want to learn Hebrew and/or Aramaic so that I can read them in their original language. If they translate so beautifully to English, I can only imagine how much more beautiful they are in their “natural setting”.
I must confess that when I sat down tonight to update this blog, I began with a bit of trepediation. I wasn’t sure if I was willing to explore those typical guilty feelings that I get at the end of every semester. Guilt because I’ve neglected my relationship with my Savior for 4 long months. Guilt because He was only a part of my life when I was struggling with a test or a class. Guilt because, with all the reading I’d done for school, the Bible hadn’t been part of it. I didn’t really get that this time, and it surprises me. And I realize that I didn’t treat my spiritual life like it was disposable this time. I cannot think of a day in the past six months that I didn’t spend time in conversation with Jesus. I cannot think of a week that I failed to read something in my Bible. What does surprise me is that my semester is almost at an end. When did that happen? How? Are the semesters shorter at UofH? No. I have not been perfect – far, FAR from it! – but I have stayed, well, more faithful than usual this semester. Through this faithfulness, God has blessed me with some wonderful new people in my school life. I spent my time at Lee College very isolated – by choice. People would try to spend time with me and I would find reasons to be somewhere else. I was utterly focused on getting through my classes. This time, though, was vastly different. I had people that I actually have begun to count on that have helped me through the homework and studying for tests. They have stressed out with me. Because of them, I realized that I am not the only one struggling. I am not the slowest student in the class (I’m not the quickest, either!). In fact, we all pretty much get stuck at the same places, but we have worked through those places together. These are people that I will potentially work with someday. And if I do work with any of them, I will count myself lucky. They are unbelievably smart and ridiculously talented. I am honored to have spent the better part of the past two months in their company. My time at UH is only better because of them.
Okay, okay. Enough of the sap! Earlier this month was early registration for next semester. Because I altered my degree plan (see the previous entry), and the fact that I am pushing myself to graduate by this time next year(!), I am taking five classes next semester. Drum roll please…
1) Computer Use in the Classroom. I was actually signed up for this class at the beginning of this semester, but dropped it during the first week of classes. It’s a super-easy class, but there’s tons and TONS of busy work. Taking three HARD math classes is not conducive to taking other classes that are full of busy work. This spring should be much better because I only have two math classes, and only one of them is “hard”. Keep reading to see what I’m talking about.
2) Differential Equations. This is my “hard” math class. I don’t know why I feel compelled to put the word “hard” into quotations, but it feels right, so go with it. I’m sure that someone out there has taken Diff Eqs and thinks that I’m crazy with all this talk about it being hard, but let me just tell you something about the real world you crazy math nerd you. Anything that’s not called “math” or “algebra” is outside the realm of the normal person. As soon as you say “Calculus”, people tend to run for the hills, screaming. And rightly so. For all us normal folk out there, this is a HARD class. And I’m taking it. *gulp*
3) Survey of Reading. This is an education class that, according to my handy-dandy new degree plan, is now counted as a “general elective,” meaning that I can choose to take it or I can take underwater basketweaving. My choice. Like all education classes, this will not be intellectually difficult, but will have more of that busy work that they seem so fond of over in the school of Ed. I like to read. I should like this class. (I have a bad feeling about being so flippant. I’m going to be eating those words by the second week of class. You just watch.)
4) Modern Astronomy. I must be insane. I’m taking another science class that’s physics-based. My original schedule had a class called “Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometry” right here, but there was a scheduling conflict with the next class I have listed. I have been informed by those who claim to be “in the know” (i.e. “have taken this class before and passed with little to no work”) that I shouldn’t have a problem with this class. All the physics I’ve taken up to now have more than prepared me for this class, and it’s not math based. Thank God for small favors. Actually, I’ve been interested in taking an astronomy class since I started back to school, but Lee College never offered one, even though the catalog says they do. Never happened in three years. I hope I like it.
5) Problem Solving. This is my second math class that’s supposed to be “easy”. I understand my quotations on this one because I’m not convinced there is such a thing as an “easy math class” at this level. I have been told that they exist, but until I see it for myself, I will continue to believe that it is a creature of myth and will persist in my use of quotation marks, thank you very much. Modern Algebra was supposed to be “easy” too. And look how that turned out.
And that’s it. It’s quite enough, if you ask me. I actually think that I have a pretty fun class line-up, so there’s hope that I won’t gain any more grey hair from them. I’m looking forward to finishing this first semester and getting on with the rest of it.
And, on that fine note, I’m going to bed. Class is in 10 hours and I need to sleep.
