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Archive for the ‘Back to School’ Category

Learning to Trust

03 Nov

My silence is deafening, I know. Several people have emailed to check up on me and I so appreciate the kind thoughts and words. Nothing really awful has happened, but there’s not much good, either. My husband’s unemployment ran out and we’re really feeling that loss of income. He’s still teaching, but the small amount that comes in through that doesn’t even come close to paying all of the bills for a family of 5. A lot is going unpaid and I suspect it’s only a matter of time before things become desperate. I pray a lot and hope for things to happen soon. (Want to buy a house? I know a really awesome realtor!)

The good news is that I am taking my CNA licensing exam on Friday. Hopefully I’ll pass and can get a job right away. The money won’t be great, but the work should be available and flexible enough that I can continue school and be home for my kids in the evenings. That’s the best case scenario, especially since I’ll be earning experience in the healthcare field. All of the (non-medical) office jobs I’ve been called to interview for have required full time work during normal business hours, something I can’t commit to right now because I can’t afford to quit this far into the semester. Especially since I had a midterm average over 100 points…I need an A in this very difficult class!

I figured if the CNA thing didn’t pan out, I would just take my one remaining pre-req class in the evening this spring and work at the first place that called me. And then the spring class schedule got released and the only class I need wasn’t available at night and it conflicted with the classes my husband expected to teach. Which creates an additional 2 problems: childcare and transportation. We only have one reliable vehicle now and there’s no way we could afford to pay for childcare the 2 mornings a week we’d have overlapping schedules. But if he didn’t teach, I couldn’t afford to keep going in school. But we can’t afford for me to quit at this point…it was such a catch-22 and I finally just asked God to work it out if He truly was calling me to be a nurse.

Less than 24 hours later, the solution was handed to us. He’ll be teaching 2 classes again, but one is online only and the other is a hybrid that doesn’t conflict with my class schedule. So clearly I just needed to step back and give up the worrying and let God handle it. You’d think I would have learned this lesson by now, but apparently I needed a reminder. (Hey God…could you help me figure out a way to pay the mortgage, too? Thanks! You’re awesome!)

 
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Posted in Back to School, Faith/Religion, Me Stuff

 

Tales from the Library

29 Sep

So if you follow me on Twitter, you have no doubt read the ongoing saga of the inappropriateness that happens in the library while I’m trying to study on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Things like construction noise, study groups talking loudly, people playing music over their computer speakers, etc. All quite distracting.

And then there’s the guy I’ve named “Library Farter” which is incredibly crude (I never claimed to be a lady!) but is an apt description. This guy is almost always there when I am. And he passes gas. A lot. In an audible and quite smelly manner. Now, I know we all have gas from time to time. And sometimes it escapes if you forget where you are for a moment or it just becomes too much to handle…but there are bathrooms quite close to the tables where I sit to go over my notes and do homework. And frankly, I wouldn’t forget more than once where I am, no matter how comfortable or engrossed in my studies I happened to be. Inexcusable, considering it has now happened on 2-3 different days, right?

So this morning I’m working on memorizing the bones and other landmarks of the skull (frontal, lambdoidal, sphenoid, crista galli…10 points if you know what all of these are without looking them up!) and in walks Library Farter. And he sits down less than 4 feet from me, at the next table. Really? REALLY? I didn’t want to get up immediately and find another table. No matter how irritating he is, I didn’t want to do anything that might hurt his feelings. But today, he managed to control this particular problem.

However, today’s behavior might have been worse. He reeked of cologne. Even on a good day, cologne bothers me. It makes me feel queasy and gives me a headache and a sore throat. Today, with the rain and asthma issues I’ve got going on it was torture. And then…THEN! He started talking to himself. For a person who needs zero distractions to study effectively (Which is why I go to the library, trying to study with kids around is simply not possible.) this is unbearable. I didn’t know what to do…as I debated, though, he grabbed all of his things and ran off. Whether he was late to class or had some other issue, I don’t know. I was simply relieved to have the distraction gone.

This episode just underscores the whole sad situation I’m facing when it comes to studying. Even when I escape the house, there are distractions that leave me unable to focus. If it’s not the kids, it’s the fact that I decide I need a snack, or to check Facebook for just a minute, or feeling like I should be sorting laundry while I read about the integument. But if I go to the library, I have to face the distraction of other people and their unusual behaviors. I’m sure I do things that are distracting to others in the library. No matter how hard you try, something will be annoying to the people around you. I just hope that I don’t smell bad or make too much noise. So far, I feel like I’m accomplishing those two simple tasks! If only everyone else tried to do the same…

 
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Posted in Back to School, Me Stuff

 

Standing in Awe

16 Sep

Today’s SITS Back to Blogging challenge is to write about a woman who inspires you.  This is hard, because it’s not any one person who inspires me…I am more inspired by qualities in a person.  Right now, I am particularly inspired by one thing: women who hold it all together without whining.

I’m a whiner.  I know it.  I own it.  I’ve made my peace with it.  I do not, however, like it.  I hate this quality in myself…the constant whining and complaining are so very unattractive!  But it’s so deeply ingrained into my being, it’s become a part of who I am.  So when I get stressed out and feel overwhelmed and hopeless, instead of doing something about the situation, I whine.  I sit down and have a little pity party cry-fest.  I do eventually do something about it, but first I have to break down and be an ugly person for a little while.

I admire the women who have been where I am…going back to school, keeping her kids and husband fed, clothed, and well cared for, managing her various volunteer activities with grace and style, taking care of a home, and for some, working on top of all of that.  I want a job, but I feel like I’m already failing at everything else!  How will I throw in a 40 hour/week job, too?  But I have to do it.  And the best part?  It will make me a better woman.  Maybe someday, I’ll be the one inspiring.  Until then, I know I’m not doing a good job at anything in my life right now.  I’m sorry to the people who are experiencing that first hand, and I promise I’m trying to do better.  I never thought it would be easy, but I never imagined it could be this hard!

If you’ve done this…going back to school, taking care of your family, volunteering, working…how?  What advice do you have?  I’d love to hear how you managed it all!

And because this is an event that carries with it a super duper prize, I’m linking you up to Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen & Bath, and Florida Builder Appliances. I really want Thelma and Louise to come live with me and be my bestest friends!

 
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Posted in Back to Blogging, Back to School, Family, Me Stuff

 

Wild Wednesday

08 Sep

Just to give you an idea of what my Wednesdays look like for the rest of the semester, based on today’s events:

Up at 6:30am.  (Normal wake-up is between 8am and 9am.  Or 10am.  Or whenever I feel like it.)

Get ready…drink copious amounts of coffee.  Practice placing IV so I can have a continuous caffeine drip.

Leave house at 7:30am.

Leave oldest child at school on one end of town.

Detach suddenly very clingy middle child from leg and leave him at school on opposite end of town.

Go to my school, where youngest child screams as I get out of the car, making me feel guilty for trying to make something of myself.

Cry as my husband drives off with crying baby in backseat.

Kill 2 hours by “studying” while trying to ignore construction noise outside library.

Walk across campus while eating some granola.

Spend 3 hours looking into a microscope in lab.

Try to cram some pretzels and string cheese in my mouth while walking to class and trying to readjust my eyes.

Spend an hour and 15 minutes listening to very boring anatomy & physiology lecture, needing to pee the entire time because I chose to eat instead of go to the bathroom during my very short break.

Get picked up by husband and 2 youngest children who insist they did not miss me at all, despite the way they acted the last time I saw them.

Cry some more.

Realize that my blood sugar levels are dangerously low and suck down a soda.

Get heartburn that’s so painful I want to cry some more.

Oldest child gets home from school, insists on getting materials for homework project tonight despite it not being due for several more days.

He cries.

Everybody piles in car, goes to Dollar Tree.

They don’t have what we need.  All 3 children act like heathens the entire time we’re there.

Find alternate materials.

Have argument about dinner.

Give up and go out to eat because it’s not worth the fight.

Children continue to be atrocious during dinner.

Come home, everyone gets disciplined for bad behavior and I snap and send them all to bed early.

Cry some more.

Attempt more studying, give up and watch bad Netflix movie instead.

Whine and complain about hellish day on blog.

Go to bed at 11:30, thankful that Wednesdays happen only once a week.

 
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Posted in Back to School, Family, Me Stuff, Parenting

 

How do you study?

27 Aug

As I sit down to go over some notes and arrange my folders and such, I was struck by this question.  It’s been a long time since I really had to spend a lot of time studying and though I’ve managed a 4.0 thus far on college career #2, it’s not due to stellar study skills.  So I ask:  How do you study?!?!?

I’ve contemplated things like typing the notes I take during lecture so they’re clear and concise.  Not only will I be reviewing it while typing, but if I do it quickly enough it means I’ll probably remember any shorthand I might have had to use during lecture.  The only problem is that my computer is shutting down every time I try to open a document (it needs a RAM upgrade) and my printer needs $50 worth of ink cartridges.  I may need to take time to go over to the computer lab at school to do this.  (Not a bad idea anyway, what with the 500 kids running around my house distracting me, right?)

I’m still without the textbook, but I’m not sure it’s going to be a problem.  I have my old A&P text from the first time around (it’s dated 1992…yikes!) and my lab instructor told me that the one I have is pretty much considered the gold standard.  Plus the lecture instructor doesn’t seem to be married to the textbook.  I suspect that I may be able to get by with the online resources from the publisher, the old text I have, and the lab manual.  That’s my hope, anyway!  I’ve got the textbook on my swaptree want list so if it becomes available by some miracle I’ll be able to get it.

And frankly, I love that I can access the publisher’s online materials without the book.  I can test myself with quizzes, get podcasts, and other learning activities.  It’s a pretty awesome resource and completely free.  Can’t beat that.  I definitely intend to fully utilize this resource.

But there’s got to be more to studying, right?  I mean, reading over the lecture notes, reading the text, participating in lab, doing the practice quizzes…surely there’s more to it, some better way to organize my time and make sure I am staying caught up?  Tell me how you study, because I am determined to keep my 4.0 GPA.  This is the toughest class yet and I don’t want to get behind even before it all starts!

 
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Posted in Back to School

 
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