We have gotten a lot of snow the last two days. We went out yesterday and played in it. It was Zoë’s first time in the snow. On top of the beauty of the snow, I just have to cheer because I have a snow day–which means no class tonight. I am so excited. Yay!
I have been working out/exercising every day now for 26 days. I haven’t lost any weight and I finally have figured out why. I haven’t been eating enough. I know that sounds crazy doesn’t it. But when you exercise everyday and you don’t give your body enough of the right stuff, it holds on to everything you do give it. I was really frustrated the other day and forced myself to sit and think about what was going on and what the problem was or could be. I haven’t been counting my points or keeping track of my food. I also know that I haven’t been eating bad.
I now have the exercising down. It’s like a drug for me and I am addicted to it and the way I feel. I have so much more energy and just feel better overall. I have started to branch out and vary my exercising. I have to put in a plug for my Wii Fit. I know there are lots of you out there who love the Wii Fit and I am a believer. I love the work out I can get a pretty good one–I try to get to the gym 5 days a week and then use the Wii Fit on the weekends.
Now that I have the exercising down and know that I will be able to do it everyday for the next 11 months, I have to focus on my food. So I will get back to tracking my food and making sure that I am eating what I should and how much of it as I should. Exercise really isn’t enough–it is only part of the issue.
Now I will tackle food. Have I ever told you all how much I love food? But it is a love/hate relationship. I love food, but because I have the tendancy to over eat I try to stay away from it and keep it simple. But simple has lead me to eat too little and forget some of the basic tenants of being healthy.
Oh the road that never ends.
School is back in swing. This semester I am not just a student. I am also an instructor. I took last semester off to spend more time with the kids–well mostly with Zoë. I missed teaching but was happy to just have family and my own studies to focus on. Now I am back multi-tasking when it comes to school. Hubby and I have been together over 12 years and I have been a student the entire time–aside from one year that I took off after I got my first full-time teaching job. He has been patient and I am so lucky to have such a supportive husband because it is hard. School takes up a lot of time and requires me to be gone quite a few hours each week. I love you hubby.
I am teaching a course that I haven’t taught before. I am excited about teaching it because it’s an advanced composition course, but I have the added issue that the class only meets one time a week for 2 1/2 hours. This is nice becasue I only have to be gone one day a week and I have an awesome aunt who was laid off and has offered to babysit on Fridays until she gets another job. I have been working hard on creating a syllabus and brushing up on teaching argument and critical analysis. I am use to teaching the developmental course and this class is an entirely different beast. It will require much longer hours in terms of preparation and grading.
I had my first class last night as a student. I am excited about the class as it an advanced educational research design. This course is where I first start to think about my dissertation research and create a proposal. I have a great deal of literature to review and synthesize. It makes me realize how close I actually am to finishing my course work and sitting for comps is just around the corner. Holy Shit.
There is so much to say about today–inauguration day. I have spent a great deal of time since before the election and then after thinking about how amazing this moment is for America and for my African American children. What I have neglected to recognize for give much thought to are those of the last two generations whose sacrifices, suffering, and struggles have made it possible for Barak Obama to become the 44rd president of these united states. It sees fitting that he is being sworn in on the bible of the man who is responsible for keeping us united. I am not an Abe Lincoln fan–he was not the enlightened man history has made him out to be but a pragmatic man who saw he needed freed slaves to defeat the south. Okay, that is a entire different subject.
I was watching GMA this morning and a few of the remaining Tuskegee Airmen were on. These men broke down barriers that had long kept our society’s perception of African Americans low and somewhat degrading. It wasn’t that long ago that blacks were not allowed to fight alongside whites, to be educated in the same school as whites, to eat at the same counter, to sit in the same section of the bus, etc. Those who struggled through these times and fought to prove their humanity, intellect, and value have helped shape a world where we can sit here in our homes and watch a black man take the oath of the highest office in the land. It moves me and hopes that this small step–because in the grand scheme of color equality it is small–helps to wash away some of the pain endured by those who made this path possible.
I hope that we all celebrate this moment today and relish the emotion it will bring. I want to soak up the momentous occasion and savor the history of it.
I want us to remember that this historic moment is just that a moment and does not mark the end of racism and hate. It is a signal that we are making progress but we just have to look at our Congress, Governor’s mansions, boardrooms, jails, colleges, and professional coaches–to name just a few instances–and see that there has been progress but it is not nearly enough. We have to work harder as a country and do better. We owe it to those who sacrifices, suffered and struggled for this moment and all of those that have yet to come.
I am neck deep in planning for the new course I am teaching this semester but I wanted to post–so here are pics of my fabulous kids.
Embracing Imperfection 