Currently

It's a quiet week here at the house, relatively speaking.

Darian is at Grandma's for his annual summer week with her. Collin is in Montana teaching some medical training at a wind farm. So it's just me and the animals for a few days. The good news is that the timing is pretty much perfect because this week is the last week of my summer courses and things are going to be crazy.

Watching :

Source

Before Collin left yesterday, we had a little bit of together time. We have a tradition that at least twice a year we watch my favorite movie Love, Actually together. (I think it has become one of his favorites as well). It had been a while, so we cuddled up on the bed and watched it on Saturday night. It was really quite nice.


Reading :

It's just been a whole lot of academic reading over here for the past few days. But better things are on the horizon!

I recently got a digital ARC of Nicola Yoon's Everything, Everything. I am SO excited to start this book. As soon as I am done with this semester, I'm diving in.


Listening :

I got speakers for my office computer last week! Yay! The Spotify playing has resumed. Among the fun ones playing on my list... Joywave's "Now".

Learning :

I've discovered that I actually quite like linguistics. Since the English major that I'm going for has a slot for emphasis, I have been toying with the idea of changing that emphasis from creative writing to linguistics. I think I'll probably take another linguistics course to fill some of my necessary upper division credits and see how I feel. The good news is that I'm also fairly decent at it. That's a change from my first degree in biology, where those classes were always the most difficult for me and the hardest fought grades.


Making :

Today I did a crap ton of food prep. I started the 21 Day Fix (it's a workout plan by BeachBody -- the same company that does Insanity and P90x). I'm not historically big on plans like this, but after gaining 25 pounds since our wedding two years ago, I've pretty much had it with my ever expanding waistline and thighs.

I picked up a ton of good fruits and veggies this morning. I then spent a few hours getting things chopped and divided, cooked some chicken, roasted some sweet potatoes, and cooked brown rice, lentils, and quinoa. Things are all bagged or in Tupperware in the fridge so that portioning out will be easy for the next week or so. Doing this stuff ahead of time is pretty much the only way to ensure that I'll have a lunch made and won't be tempted to eat out on the days I work.


Thinking :

I cannot tell you how happy I will be when I finish up this semester. The last seven weeks have been intense. Last week was probably the worst one. Working five full days and having things to do during my evenings really didn't leave a ton of time for school work. When each class requires about 3-4 hours of dedication each day, that can be a bit of a problem. There were more nights that I went to bed after 2am than there were nights when I went to bed before then. Not cool.


Feeling :

My thighs are on freaking fire. Seriously. I knew I was out of shape, but holy heck. I did my first workout this morning (it's 30 minutes every day) and I have been hobbling around ever since. I'm a little bit worried about what things are going to be like for me tomorrow. Even worse...what kind of shape am I going to be in when I have to go to work on Wednesday? Oy...


Wanting / Needing :

I both want and need to start going to bed earlier at night. I'm totally drained. So...I think I'm going to have to overhaul my daily routine in a few weeks. I say a few weeks because my next semester starts on the week of the 24th. I know that trying to restructure right now will be completely worthless since I'll just have to do it again once classes start. Either way...the goal is to start having lights out by no later than midnight. We'll see how that goes...


Loving :

I'm enjoying that the weather has gotten a little cooler around here. We've been sitting in the mid to upper 80's for the last week or so and it's heaven, especially since our air conditioning is kaput. It's quite lovely to not be sitting in my house sweating all evening. I'm hoping that the 100 degree heat of the earlier summer months is now completely behind us. Come on fall!


Planning :

We've been talking about a few trips lately. I desperately need to get out of town. We never went on a summer vacation trip, so we've been working on getting a plan for our fall vacation (the week of Thanksgiving). We have a general plan, but I'm not jinxing it before we get things lined up and get a little closer.

I think Collin & I may go out of town for a few days in September for my birthday and our anniversary. We have to line up his mom to come stay with Darian since school will be in full swing, but we've been talking about heading up to Whidbey Island in Puget Sound. It's loosely on our five-year plan to move up there after Darian graduates high school, so this is going to be a small test run to make sure we really do like the area (and the weather) as much as we think we do. (And yes...I am aware of the whole crazy earthquake/natural disaster prediction.)


I'll probably be a little quiet around here this week thanks to the pile of work I have to do to finish up my classes, but the good news is that next week is Bout of Books 14! Worry no more...you'll be seeing plenty of me shortly.

Have a great week!