Whew. Running, and running and running and running.... As my courses heat up for the big end-of-the-semester flourish, the kid stuff is mounting. My head is swirling with little details; in the process I am barely keeping up with larger, more obvious stuff. Yesterday my older daughter turned 10 and we had the day-long gig. A few small gifts in the morning, such as an umbrella - because "Mom, (tearfully and angrily) "I'm NOT carrying a"baby" aka Little Pony umbrella any more!" Things seemed to be going well. For the party we invited some friends to have pizza with her at a restaurant. We had the kids sit by themselves and order on their own, while we kept general tabs from several tables away. But I nearly forgot to get the cake! I mean really! I got the invitations out, fielded the calls, put the little "goody bag" together, etc. The cake was kinda obvious, don't you think? Then we realize this morning (because kid birthdays in this day and age are so overdone) that I do not have the requisite cupcakes for her to bring to school today. Needless to say we made a stop on the way to school for cupcakes.

I find myself wondering what other large details I am similarly in danger of forgetting. Let's see. A doctor's appointment at 2 today for one kid to complete a summer camp physical form due by the end of the month, necessitating notes to the teachers - one kid to be picked up early, the other to go to aftercare for a late pick-up after the appointment. (Check.) An international "fest" at the Girl Scout meeting on Thursday that requires a "novel" food from the chosen Country (at least we did fairly well here - my daughter chose Italy). (Check.) Oh, and drinks because we are assigned to bring snack for the next meeting. (Mission not accomplished. Daughter said we would bring "pink lemonade," which we have yet to find in juice box form.) A memorial service at 1pm on Friday- right in between my two classes - for the husband of one of my younger daughter's teachers - dead at 51 from cancer. (Schedule will need to be juggled. I'll have to leave one class early and probably will be late for the other. Do I have something to wear?) Supplies apparently needed for a "campout/overnight" on Sunday into Monday (my 2nd grader will come home after the bedtime s'mores - she's never had a sleep-over before - the woods is not the place to start!) but there's a substantial list and I need to figure out what applies/what she needs. (Not Checked.) Health form for me that needs to be obtained when picking up at the Brownie meeting on Tuesday, since apparently I am now going to be spending the Sunday in the woods with the girls. (Not Checked.) An orientation for the summer camp on Saturday, which seems way too far away to even contemplate, but in reality is only 6 weeks away.....Oh, and then there's the paper due in Practice on Wednesday. The 6th, and thankfully final, paper due next week in Practice. The paper for Psychopathology. And First Communion. Oh. and the exam in Paradigms next week....And...

Posted by Kathi at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, here we are with six weeks to go in the semester. Just three more weeks of field. Down to the nitty gritty. It really is hard to believe.

The dust is beginning to settle a bit. I have been fortunate to get my advanced placement lined up. It feels good to have this large piece of next year's schedule in place. I'm going to be working at an outpatient mental health clinic for adults Tu, Wed, Thurs. The population served is diverse and low income. I think it will be quite challenging but should expand upon some of the issues I have encountered at the correctional facility in my foundation placement. Most notably, I suspect I will have some female clients! I have to work one evening, something I had definitely hoped to avoid. But one night is better than two. My family managed when I was gone two evenings a week this year, so I'm thinking we will find a way to make one night work next year. At least, that's what I certainly hope.

My class schedule seems to be in order as well, which is weird to say. This is the first time in the program that I have been in a place where I knew what I was doing this early on. In the past I have had some difficulty obtaining the classes I needed and was eligible to take, at times that worked for my family. I'm sure many of you got up early last Wednesday to register just like I did. Gotta love those last few minutes watching the computer clock, waiting for the 6:00 whistle. It certainly was a little unnerving to find no way to register initially for Summer classes, particularly since the Dean had indicated that the system is designed so that you cannot register for any Summer classes if you have already registered for Fall classes. I hesitated, but then decided I could not potentially mess up all of next Fall by waiting. I resigned myself to the concept of two classes next Fall in Baltimore. Frankly, it made me feel vaguely ill, even though the classes themselves were appealing. It seemed like a lot given the distance, my family responsibilities, and the 3-day placement. My head swirled with options and schedules as I got one kid ready and off to school and checked on the other who was home sick with the stomach bug, again (day 2). This is not the first time I have felt this way, I told myself. Somehow it will be ok. One thing I have definitely learned, through past registration experiences in this program, is that, with persistence, things can change and sometimes those changes can make a significant difference in your sanity.

How amazing it was to discover a couple of hours later that Summer was available, that classes still had openings, AND, even though I had already registered for Fall, the system would allow me to register for Summer after all! I don't think I touched the ground again until sometime in the early afternoon. I have one intensive Summer course and then one methods course in the Fall on Friday mornings. I feel like a millionaire.

But I digress. Back to the reality of THIS semester.

My Friday classes - Paradigms and Psychopathology - are quite a pair. Paradigms is really deep. Yes, deep. Maybe I'm just a bit tired by week's end, particularly after working until 8 or 9 the night before, running home to do family stuff, getting to bed late, and then up again early to get the kids off to school. I feel a little bit slow (as it stupid) in this class. More than once I have left class slightly on the verge of tears, very much needing the lunch hour to get it together. But when I think about the material I realize I am learning alot. There's a significant paper due in this class on Friday. I'm feeling a bit intimidated by it and have been chipping away at the research and writing. I hope to feel good about what I hand in.

Psychopathology is wonderfully connecting. Yes, connecting. It just seems to be putting things from my placement, Paradigms, maybe Practice a bit, prior classes, things I have read on my own, and things from my own life experience together. It's shifting the pieces around a bit in my head, so I see some of those pieces a little differently now. And I think that's a good thing. It's giving me different perspectives.

Practice is sort of killing me, to be honest. We are in the last ten weeks and my section has Communities and Organizations. We did the Agency Analysis first, in two paper chunks. We are now doing the Communities portion. I first heard about this part of the course back in the Fall a year ago and have been steeling myself for a group project that needed to be done on a dime. It was quite a relief to learn, last Wednesday, that the four, 4-5 page Communities papers, due one-by-one each of the remaining weeks in April, are to be done individually. I'm SOOO very thankful for this. And while I don't think I would go out of my way to read many of the assigned articles on my own (And how about that "system" for obtaining the articles - one word - "absurd"), I have to say some of them have been surprisingly interesting. Still what is really pushing me over the edge in this class is the living week-to-week part. Working ahead has been my mainstay of survival in this program. But there is no way to do this in these 10 weeks of the course. This instructor is really teaching me a lesson in "taking it as it comes." She lectures in class, and then we have to use the assigned readings and lecture to write the paper due the next week. I have two kids and things change with them minute to minute - my day is not always what I plan or would like it to be. It is hard, for me, to stay on the instructor's week-to-week program.

So I think that may be enough for now. Time to get back to those papers. I hope everyone else is doing well as we slide towards the last month.

Kathi

Posted by Kathi at 4:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)