...and that's Ch5!

You know, about 30 minutes after I finished Ch4 yesterday, I thought, "I'm on a roll, let's just power through and finish this thing."

I can't officially say that Truman has been born because these are just drafts, but I'm pretty sure that aside from a few revision, this might be it. Regardless, I won't post his officially birth stats until I'm ready for final submission and he's been given the green light by my thesis advisor.

As far as the actual work though, I think this sums it up:

Finishing Ch4!

No, it's not done yet, but boy oh boy, I can't tell you how happy I am say that I have officially finished a comprehensive draft of Ch4 (Findings) of my thesis. I will admit that as I outlined this bad boy, I could already tell I was dragging my feet a bit.


Strange I know, but at the same time, totally understandable if you think about it. Once these last two chapters are complete, that's it for Truman. It means that school is ending, the cohort will dissolve, and all of our experiences will be nothing more than memories posted on the blog and printed words fading away on a piece of paper.

Regardless, Ch4 is drafted and currently under review with my thesis advisor. I'm hoping for minimal revisions, mostly because if I have to do anything borderline extensive then my paper might start to sound redundant.

I'm starting to feel slightly bittersweet about the next nine weeks; it will be the end of a fantastic chapter in my life, and I'm not entirely sure I'm ready for whatever is coming up next.

Still though, I'm trying to enjoy my academic journey even if it is coming to an end.

Bucket List- Learn to Make Sushi

Okay, so this year Sam and I are having a joint FHE with Mere and Aaron once a month. Last month was our turn so we played the newlywed game and ate spice cupcakes. This month was their turn, and they decided that we were going to make sushi!

Mere had salmon, avocado, cucumber, mango, cream cheese, rice, and the dried sushi paper waiting for us when we got there.

My sushi roll consisted of salmon, cream cheese, and avocado (aka a Philly Roll). 

Retrospectively, I could've made the roll slices thinner.

We had a lot of fun trying something new with our friends, and I was especially happy to cross something off of my bucket list, which has remained unprogressable since I started graduate school. Perhaps we will use these joint-FHEs to tackle some of the list items...

Revising Truman: Chapter 1-3

I made MAJOR progress this week as Truman continued to develop on paper.

I started outlining Ch4 (Findings) and Ch5 (Discussion), and did my revisions on Ch1 (Topic and Purpose), Ch2 (Summary of Literature), and Ch3 (Methodology).

I'm so excited about how this is all shaping up, it really is a wonderful experience (sans the intense anxiety and the constant need of depending on others to stick with the fieldwork schedule). I'm in a really good place right now with this project, and I'm looking forward to start wrapping things in another few weeks.

Only 69 more days to go!

Update on the brain child (who now has a name!)

My lovely little brain-child is beginning to grow!

Firstly, Sam decided that the brain-child was in fact a boy (not sure how, but I'm not arguing). We decided to name him Truman, after my massive rhetorical analysis on 'The Truman Show' from last semester. So he will henceforth be referred to as Truman.

Anyway, I was working on Truman's last two chapter outlines this weekend when his title suddenly came into my mind. I was so excited that I had to resist the urge to wake Sam up so I could tell him (keep in mind that it was Saturday morning, I'd been up since before 6am, already exercised, and was in the creative zone). Being the nice wife that I am, I waited until it was after 7:30am before I barged into our bedroom and jumped on the bed to wake him.

Truman needs some revisions on Ch 1-3, so I'm meeting with my thesis advisor tomorrow to go over her proposed edits and show he my new chapter outlines. The plan is to finish revising by the end of the day on Friday, and spend Saturday working on Ch 4.

Personal Goal: Finish drafts of Ch 4-5 by March 1.


On another note, my budgeting class is almost half over! I got some advice from my friend Beth about the best way to prepare for the class exams and do well on my final project. Basically, she said to study. Study. STUDY for the exams, and to also start the individual project ASAP.

So, I spent most of my downtime today combing through my class syllabus and writing up part of my final project. It needs to be a 3-pg Executive summary on a mid to large sized nonprofit. Only because I wanted to relieve myself of the stress I knew would percolate if I didn't take Beth's advice, I outline the summary, and began doing some research. With the exception of going through the 990 tax forms and performing calculations, I made really good progress. It's safe to say that the project is 30% finished.

To be fair, the calculations I need to make won't even be discussed in class for another three weeks, and I'm just not sure if doing the calculations now would even be worth it if it means I need to redo them in a month.

Regardless, these projects are coming together beautifully. I can't wait to screen shot my title page for my lovely audience when my final version is ready to be submitted.

Also, one student from my cohort gets to speak at the hooding ceremony. I've got my fingers crossed that it will be me!

I can't believe how fast this semester is going by, which is strange because last week it felt like the semester was just dragging on. As of this week, there are 10 and a half weeks until graduation.

finishing my fieldwork

Yesterday, I visited with my very last group of 7th graders for my fieldwork, meaning that as of no, my fieldwork has concluded.

I had mini-meltdowns during the majority of winter break because I wasn't get any responses from my recruiting tactics (i.e. going through my project supervisor), and spent many days obsessing over how my life was on the verge of being over because I hadn't made any progress.

Finally, I struck gold and everything started falling into place. My anxiety levels returned mostly to normal, and the need to take deep cleansing breaths wasn't as frequent.

Scheduling stuff was fine, but preparing for the events took time. There were consent forms to write and deliver, note cards to write questions on, and then of course, actually conducting interviews with adults and brainstorming session with the kids was another story entirely.

I had fun, really, I did, I interviewed three adults (two teachers, one district person), and brainstormed with a class of 7th graders at three different school (two in a district, one not). I learned so much, and now I have the glorious task of sorting through the data and attempt to make sense of it.

Working with kids has been interesting, and I'm so lucky that they've been willing to talk to me and tell me what they think about my topic.

I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off of my chest now that this part of my research is done, but now I worry about whether or not it will be enough for my thesis advisers.

Writing should be a breeze now, but first the coding. So much coding! When this is all over, I never want to see multi-colored highlighters ever again.

thesis memes that sum up my life

The post I wanted to publish today just isn't ready, so I decided to literally paint my lovely audience a picture of what life gestating a thesis looks/feels like. Since we are a culture of memes, I thought, "Hey, I'll relate to the people in a way that they can understand." Seriously though, grad school has taught me how to speak a new language of necessarily complicated words, so I'm dumb-ing it down for myself. There will be personal stories to support each meme, and each meme was found by simply typing in "thesis memes" into google.

Every day I'm thesis-ing, totally true. I have eaten, slept, breathed, and cried my thesis every day since August 2015. We're going on six months now!

People are always asking me about my topic, and I feel like my answer just isn't up to par. Honestly, it's a mouthful to talk about the relevancy of cooking classes being taught in the district at the 7th grade level and the experiences had by the students and teachers.

This is my relationship with my thesis advisor; we met at the start of last semester. I can't really imagine anyone really wanting to read my thesis other than my trio of advisors, but I certainly wouldn't mind giving people the opportunity.

I'd actually love to be writing right now. I'm in the middle of my fieldwork, gathering the data I will be writing about for this last half of the thesis. Last semester though, this meme summed up a good solid month of my life.

This is a daily struggle. Some days I love my project, and some days it is the bane of my existence. I often question if this stack of documents has developed a mind of it's own, turned into a teenager, and decided to hate its originator. Although at this point, I might just be hallucinating.

This semester is all about the deadlines. I had to make a schedule so detailed that it puts my life plan lists to shame (those of you who know me will wonder how that's even possible!). 

I have a deadline for everything! 

I believe the term we use in my class is called "unpacking;" we have to set the stage, and then we have to address the "so what?" It makes perfect sense in my head when I write it, but I forget that not everyone is an 'expert' on this subject like I have tried to become.

I'm totally guilty of this. 

And I'm very much aware of my writing limitations. 

Now.

;)

Loving my body

I wrote a post awhile back about loving yourself. Basically, I tore into how other were making me feel bad about myself on social media because the idea of "loving yourself" made it look like that if you were heavier, you must not love yourself enough to change.

I was wrong.

I finally started listening to my body after the hardest semester of school almost broke me. I was plagued by stress-induced insomnia, menstrual migraines, and an over disgust for my appearance. Looking in the mirror only made me depressed. I could only see what was wrong with me, and none of the positive qualities that my friends and family love about me. My body may have been on the healthy side, but my body image was not.

I started doing the 21-Day fix back in December, mostly because the workouts could be done at home and were only 30 minutes long. I enjoyed the daily structure, and my body began to feel good. I felt stronger, stood up a little bit taller, and just didn't hurt as easily as I had in the past.

I only did the workouts for the first two weeks, but when December started, I adapted to the meal plan. Right now, the hardest part is not having carbs at dinner. I switched some foods for new ones, and now I get my vegetables and fruits daily, and have grown quite fond of cooking absolutely everything we eat. Food prep is a bit time consuming, but by doing it on Sunday, it gets done and we keep Sunday a day of rest (which has always been a challenge for me).

I've still got a long way to go, but I'm determined so look for more than thinness when I see my reflection. It's all a process, but I don't think it's impossible.

With all the stressors associated with grad school and working full-time, I was encouraged to reward myself at the close of each phase of my research. For Phase One (finished in January) I ordered a an adult coloring book. For Phase Two, set to wrap up by Valentine's Day, I ordered the PiYo fitness program and and a bag of Chocolate Shakeology to help me shed the last little bit of weight that is bugging me. Phase Three might warrant a nice massage, while Phase Four should be a dinner at Sugarhouse BBQ.

The hardest part is not turning to carb-y comfort foods, but I keep trying to tell myself that I can include moderate carbs in all three of my meals instead of just two.

If I can get down to a healthy weight, it will make my future pregnancy a lot better, I'm sure of it. Plus, I know our family is eating so much better because of these few changes.

I love my body.

I can do hard things.