My Decision

So I've decided not to teach next semester, which was a hard decision to make. I mentioned this before,  but I've only just started really thinking about this decision and what it means.

Part of me can't believe that after all of the work I put into the class this semester, I'm not going to teach again. Part of me wonders if I can hack it as a professor if I can't teach one class, work on my dissertation, work on other research, and do minimal tasks for my other assistantship. But I know that I could do it if I wanted. I know I will miss teaching but I finally made the decision to put me first. Is this selfish? Perhaps. But right now I am okay with this choice. I think a lot of it has to do with this life decision and how it impacts the rest of my life. I am choosing less money to spend more time with Little T and Mr. T. Sometimes I feel there is a lot of tension in my marriage because I am only spending spare moments with Mr. T and Little T and because so much is falling on Mr. T's shoulders right now. Have I mentioned how amazing he is? Perhaps it is in my head, but I wonder if he feels overburdened. I ask him and he says that he understands that right now this is how it will be. But will things change once I go into academia as a career? So I am choosing him - I am choosing Little T - I am choosing Me over it all. I am choosing not to teach to spend more time with my data and dissertation research. I have realized that this decision has to do with my quality of life. I know I will be swamped next semester. I know Little T will still be in school most every day. I know that I will miss teaching. I know that I will get to spend time working on my dissertation, which makes me happy. I plan to start back my exercise program so that I am doing more cardio and perhaps yoga or pilates along with my back exercises. So for now, I'm just going to focus on that and the rest will fall into place.

I apologize for this medicine-laced, rambling post and hope it makes sense to someone else besides me.

Great holiday break!

We had a great holiday break although Mr. T and I both have horrible head colds. I am homesick as usual. Praying the Little T doesn't get it! Had a great Black Friday shopping experience and am almost finished with all holiday shopping. The couple of things left will be ordered on Amazon. This week and next just running through end of the semester stuff and conducting dissertation interviews. This weekend spending some one-on-one time with Little T. Have a couple of babysitting play dates arranged so I can work and the rest of the time is hang-out fun time! I pray this cold is gone by then. I am loaded up on mucinex and emergen-c and am eating lots of pomegranate seeds and drinking lemon-ginger tea. Plus, the neti pot has been wonderful! Was proud of myself for going back to bed yesterday morning and going to bed early last night since I knew today would be a long day on campus. Hitting the sack early tonight as well, although I can't sleep in tomorrow...so good night all.

Addressing Blended Families on Holiday Cards: Quick Question

So I am trying to get holiday cards in order early so Mr. T can help stuff and label, and I don't know how to address one of the cards. My ex-SIL is remarried, but we were friends prior to the first marriage and divorce and before we saw the "other" side of her. Although we aren't great friends or anything, we like to remain civil and send Happy Birthday texts and whatnot because of our niece. We would like to send a Christmas card to her and our niece but aren't sure how to address it since she also has a new husband and step-children.

I was thinking:
Ex-SIL First Name Last Name, Niece First Name Last Name, & Family
SO
Jane Smith, Sally Jones, & Family

Is this appropriate? I wanted to just do Jane Smith and Sally Jones but it felt odd leaving off her family. Thoughts?

Busy Busy...

I've been traveling and playing catch-up with grading and what not, which is why I've been MIA for the last few weeks. Things just get so crazy and blogging gets bumped to the bottom of the list. Good news is that I caught up with grading (for the time being at least) and have taken time to work on my consulting gig. Other really awesome and great things have happened related to these trips, but I can't talk about them. I've gotten a large chunk of my Christmas shopping completed over the last few months so we've only got a few more things to pick up and my ortho doctor and physical therapist have both said that my back is doing much better and that I need to keep up with my exercises and don't need to see them right now since I am much stronger. We are traveling to visit family over Thanksgiving, which is exciting! I've also been enjoying smutty vampire novels and the break I get from reading them. But I've put myself on restriction from all leisurely reading until the end of the semester. I am going to finish collecting data this semester, but I have a lot more data than I really think I realized.But I am tired... sleep isn't happening as often as I would like. Wow, what a really random post...

Requesting Letters of Recommendation - what do you think?

When job hunting, I know I will be requesting several letters of recommendation from the same faculty members. How do I go about this without overburdening them and without being rude? Do I use the same letter for all faculty positions? This seems so impersonal for faculty jobs. Do I ask them what they want me to do and if they prefer to write the letter each time or if they prefer that I update the letter? What is normally done in your field?

I've already requested three letters for various things, and I already feel bad for asking a couple of the same people, but these people know me best. Any advice?

Slurp Slurp:

the sounds coming from the next cubicle as I try to work. Soup for lunch, I'm guessing.

Getting paid on sabbatical?

I know a few of you are currently on sabbatical and I was curious, how does getting paid on sabbatical work? Does it depend on how long you take sabbatical? It's for tenured professors, I'm assuming. Is this something you talk about early or is it a given that everyone will take one at some point?