As we enter week 7, I am still struggling a bit to stay on top of things. There seems to be no end to the distractions and there is no shortage of class work to be done. Somewhere between selling Girl Scout cookies with my Brownie, schlepping to multiple medical appointments with the kids, and enduring (yes, at this point that's the right word) a couple more school delays/ closings, I have managed to complete the minimum amount of class work. But I have been squeezing it in, here and there. My sister came into town for a weekend visit and it was great to see her -- but I did no work while she was here. This coming week, my husband is going on travel for work and my parents are coming to stay for the week. My girls are excited. They haven't seen my dad since August; my mom came for a short visit by herself in December. I am looking forward to seeing them too, but I also have a feeling that this is not going to be a banner week for getting school work done. I have a paper due Monday, a bill analysis/paper due Thursday and a take-home mid-term which becomes available on Wednesday (we have 9 days to complete it). Mmmmm....

The good news is that when I actually DO sit down to study, I'm really enjoying both of the policy courses, especially (ie. Substance Abuse and Social Policy and Legislative Process in Social Welfare). Policy is not a prior area of interest for me. I stayed away from all those political science courses in college. They were not at all appealing at the time. But I'm really starting to think seriously about public interest advocacy/policy as a viable option. Next year, when I have my field placement, I will get to try out the clinical piece of social work. I'm currently planning a track of Clinical - Mental Health to maximize the skills gain from this back-to-school-at-midlife-experience. But, in the event the clinical piece doesn't prove to be right for me, it feels good to see the advocacy/policy piece as a possibility too. There do seem to be lots of ways to use my law degree and social work together. Maybe I should have named this blog "Options, options, options, options....".