AWOL...again.

Sorry about my extended absence.  I've had a bit of personal drama over the last several weeks and as a result let all of my blogs fall by the way-side.  I won't go over it here so don't ask.

One very exciting thing is that I now teach Gospel Doctrine to the adults in my ward (church).  We are studying the New Testament so I have found myself really studying the scriptures for the first time.  It has been an eye-opening and wonderful experience.  I've only taught once but it was wonderful.  School starts May 9th so I've been trying to get my class all figured out and ready for my students.  I've also started editing the novel I've written and am hoping to get that taken care of fairly quickly so that at least it's coherent and makes sense from start to finish.  I do not want there to be any loose ends and after the first draft there were several.  This week I get to go to Women's Conference in Provo and am looking forward to the classes and spending time with family.  Overall things are pretty good and I hope that I will be better about two out of three of my blogs and the updates.  I'm sure you were all waiting on pins and needles waiting for my next update (LOL) so there it is.  :)

End of Semester Chaos

The end of the semester has finally arrived, I have my last official class period tomorrow and then finals next week. Right now I'm buried in 11 credits (3 classes) worth of homework and papers to grade. It's been an interesting 15ish weeks and I'm very glad it will all be over in another week and a half. I'll miss my students but I'm really looking forward to Christmas break and my New Year's resolution...ORGANIZATION. This semester has left one impression upon me - chaos. I have felt more scattered and disorganized in the past 15 weeks than ever before, unfortunately my students probably felt the brunt of that.

With my new eyes and a new semester and year upon me I'm hoping to open a brand new chapter in my life. I'm 32 and I want to make some positive changes in my day-to-day routine. I want to make sure that I have time to be active and participate in the Turkey Tri next November. I want to make sure that my home reflects peace, love and harmony at all (or most) times. I want to have my classes organized and set up completely before the semester begins. Or at least mostly so that I have a small amount of prep work instead hours worth. Finally I just want things to be more smooth than they have been. I'm hoping that with Clint's help and the support of my family and friends these goals and ideas will be a reality.

Revise, Revise, Revise

Most people hate that word...revise. When teaching I know my students get irritated when I talk to them about revising their papers. That the first draft is NEVER the final draft. Well, I'm finally understanding that. I'm working on a book and I thought it was done, but after soem time with some friends last week I/we came up with a new audience so now I need to revise. So did I dive right in? NO. I've procrastinated. It's daunting looking at something you've written one way and realizing you have to reformat the whole thing for a completely different type of reader. I know that by doing this it will help more people but it's still frustrating. There are simply other things I want to be writing about but I know this is an important project that I need to focus on.

If I compare this to a student writing a paper...okay so my paper is going to be about 100 pages. Well, I've completed the first draft and had some peer feedback. Now that I've done that I realize that I wasn't as clear about my intention in writing the "paper" so now I have to revise. How bad do I hate my teacher right now? Kind of a lot. :) Fortunately I'm not writing this for one person, hopefully I'll be able to help a lot of people with their pets...that's the only thing that gets me through it. Now if I can just find the motivation to start again...