Calm before the Storm?

Merry Christmas!!!

This calm, quiet, brisk, Christmas morning has been very different from those of years past and even those in recent years.  Having stayed up until 3:30am on Christmas Eve wrapping last minute gifts for my niece and nephews as I listened to Christmas music, Mom baked Christmas cookies, Dusty chewed his new bone, and Dad rested by the fireplace, I tried to sleep in this morning for a bit. 

What a nice lazy start to the day I had in packing for tomorrow's return to NC.  It has been nice to be up here in Pennsylvania visiting with friends and family and only doing schoolwork sporadically throughout the day or every other day rather than spending hours on end daily working on projects/writing/preparation.

However, time management is more crucial now than ever as I think about my return to the south. A lot of folks have been asking what do I plan to do in the spring semester now that I'm almost "done" with my dissertation.  I wish I could say that was all that was on my agenda.  However, submitting the dissertation to my committee for the Jan. 24th defense is just one of many more steps that will need completed before I can, with confidence, say I will be graduating in May (God and committee-willing!).

Looking at my to-do list for the next 4.5 months, my heart skips more than a few beats.  It's easy to get lost in the feelings of panic that creep up on me when I stop to think of all that actually has to happen before May 9th gets here.  Then, when I recall what a professor shared with a colleague about always having at least six projects spinning on one's plate (e.g., have two research projects happening at all times, be thinking ahead of two other projects that would be started at the conclusion of the current two, and be writing about two projects that have just been completed prior to the current projects), I'm ready to just open a bottle of Jacquin's Peach Schnapps, or several bottles of wine, to calm the jittery nerves. 

 

Looking at the above to do-list that is quite frankly VERY ambitious in thinking I can get these things accomplished in the attempted timeframe and which is also a skeletal outline that does not list several moving parts to achieving the completion of the items, I can't help but wonder, what about time with family?  What about time with friends?  What about down time of just vegging out and relaxing?  What about spending time with your puppy and with significant others?  What about just being and living in the moment?

This past semester, I was so busy with teaching, job hunting, and dissertating that these items on my to-do list were placed on the back burner.  Sadly, I made it to just a handful of Zumba classes during the Fall semester and have written even fewer blog postings (both are my top two ways of destressing).

Well, the New Year is almost upon us and my time in NC is rapidly dwindling with that light at the end of the tunnel looming larger than ever.  My goals for the first half of 2014, other than to cross off more items on my to-do list, are to do a better job of finding that balance of down time and work time especially since my responsibilities at work will be changing again and I take on supervision of ten student teachers in addition to the workload.  If anyone has any secret tricks on how to get all that needs to get done dooooone, please send them my way!!

This past Advent, in the days leading up to Christmas, God graced me with the ability to a.)  function on even less sleep than before, b.)  the opportunity to really slow down and live more in the present (surprisingly, I did not freak out as much as I thought I would as I fell further and further behind on the to-do list; yet loose ends still got tied, projects were still wrapped up, and/or progress was still made in other areas), and c.)  the resolve to achieve more balance as well as steam to keep chugging along and continue up the mountain.  I may be worse for the wear and a little ragged by the time I make it to the top but come May 9th, it would be nice to have many of these items crossed off, to have a job, and to be working toward completion of another to-do list that will be in progress.  As Dr. Seuss would say, the possibilities are endless and oh the places I could go?!

Yes, I really don't want a lot for Christmas this year.  Just time or more hours in the day (don't we all?!), better time management, and the resiliency to keep at it when more gets piled onto my plate without feeling terribly overwhelmed as I've felt in the past.  Perhaps it's from the peaceful Advent I just experienced or maybe it's from the daily theme of the word, hope, appearing at least once every single day since 12/12, when I came home for the holidays but I have confidence, desire, and the actions (motivation) to get through the next couple months.  I stumbled upon the picture below and the message I posted back on May 1st when I was feeling extra hopeful, much as I feel on this Christmas morning as a sense of calm surrounds me before the upcoming storm of projects, defending, writing, and simply being loom on the horizon.  What an exciting time this is!!

 

1 academic school year. 7 conference presentations. 5 states. Countless hours of preparation. Yes, feeling like jumping for joy after the quickest conference presentation known to mankind with the oh so fabulous Rachel...so lucky I am! Now on to enjoy the last night here, Fisherman's Wharf-style, with the awesome Ashley & Monika and hopefully Tiffany!