What On Earth Will Occur in 6 Months' Time

I wish I could say our bathroom was looking more, well, finished. We've just had a three day weekend, surely we could have gotten something done in there, right? But no. We had a birthday party to throw on Saturday, then to clean up after, and Sunday was our day of rest (as it ought to have been). Today we finally got the Christmas lights and wreaths down from the house. (And may I just say that having a bunch of parents and kids under the age of 7 over for a birthday party with Christmas lights & wreath still prominently displayed on the 17th of January was just a WEE bit embarrassing? Ahem.)

We also let the kids have a good roll around on their new bike or in their new toy car, as the case may be. It was a nice day today--not too cold this afternoon, sunny. All in all a treat for a January day in the Pacific NW, so we wanted to enjoy it. Nonetheless, I had some faint idea of getting the rest of the backerboard up in the tub, at least so I could say to myself that it was buttoned up. Nope.

I am feeling horrid because we still have a friend's tile saw sitting out on our back deck, and it's been nearly 2 months since it's been used. I know he wasn't using it for anything, but I hate having someone's borrowed expensive tool sitting gathering dust when we should be pushing forward with this. I also hate the fact that our kids have practically forgotten what it's like to have a fun bath with each other and all their bath toys. Our son hates showers and tolerates them, but I feel like he gets tortured every time we wash his hair. I don't like that.

Of course I am pregnant and hormonal and moody, so that is probably influencing me. I am also waiting for my first paycheck of the quarter, and that is always not fun, because I've postponed some necessary purchases until then. And I don't like waiting to buy things we need (who does?). This is the yucky and necessary part of a budget and being responsible (or doing my best imitation thereof).

But I am wondering exactly what the heck we are going to do in six months' time when we have my in-laws coming to stay for six weeks or thereabouts, and we have no guest room to put them in? The former guest room is now our son's room, and the only place for guests to bunk down presently is on our uncomfortable sleeper sofa (and how well my parents liked it at Christmas...not). And to have 2 adults bunking on a temporary bed in the middle of an open den for six weeks?? Erm, not what I would call a recipe for success! They need a place to call their own, where they can go off and trust that little hands will not paw through their things or disturb them when they need a nap.

Which leaves us with two options, really. Option one is to dislodge DS from his bedroom for six weeks and set him up in his sister's room with his bed. I am not too fond of this option, because I don't know how well it will fly, and we can't exactly test run it for six weeks, can we? It is either a disaster or not, and leaves us with no plan B, except aforementioned sleeper sofa. We can't bring him into our room, because we will have the new baby in there, and there just isn't going to be room. And we could move DD out of her room and into DS' room, but she has more permanent pieces of furniture that would be hard to move, and thus harder to accommodate some adult-sized beds.

Option two is to get our cottage (the detached garage) cleared out of all the crap we have stored in it, or at least put it in some semblance of order, and get our butts (& budget) geared up to put in a toilet and sink with cold running water, at a minimum. I could set aside some funds from my pay toward said bathroom improvement, but we have no idea whether the county would give us a hard time about putting it in, or if we would have to add a new standalone septic tank, etc. And we don't know how we would go about adding it in to the existing septic. Um, fun! But really, we could not ask two people in their sixties to bunk down in a cottage with no bathroom facilities, as making a pilgrimage to the main house in the middle of the night for a toilet is hardly workable.

*sigh* I don't know what we are going to do. I really don't. Neither option is really nice, and we have to figure something out, and SOON if we are going to get a workable plan in place. I really don't know what to pursue. Ay-yi-yi, this is what happens when you move to a house with one fewer bedrooms!

Yowzers, This is Some Ride

Well, as part of our increased attack on our debt snowball, I am working full-time this quarter. It sounds impressive, but really working full-time as an adjunct faculty member just means I am teaching three classes. And they are all the same class, so really I am prepping for one lecture/lab combination, and teaching it twice (one lecture and 2 lab sections, then one lecture/lab combo--yes it's confusing).

I wasn't slated to teach 3 classes this quarter, but I got a call from the dean on the Friday before the quarter started (on Monday). They had a long waitlist for another section of this class, and wanted to know if I would be interested in teaching another section...which oh by the way would bump me up to full-time pay from the adjunct payscale, including benefits. Um, heck ya! For reference, it's more than DOUBLE the pay of the adjunct gig, to add that one class...sure makes sense from a math perspective. So DH & I figured out if the schedule would work for us, and once we determined that we decided to go for it.

The downside is that I have put the kiddos in daycare for a few hours every day. The normal section of this class is offered daily, so I have to be on campus for about two hours every day. They are old enough to enjoy playing with other kids, but it's still not optimal. DS is adjusting slowly, but the teachers are amazed at how well he does since he's never been in daycare before. Today when I picked him up he was singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and doing the hand movements with his teacher--so cute! DD is just fine with it--she views it as her second school (after preschool) and she is quite happy to be there. Still, knowing they are only little once, I am sorry to miss out on any time with them. I am selfish that way, I suppose.

My students are great so far, which is helpful. It's far harder to motivate oneself to do a super job of explaining things if you feel like the students are totally non-engaged. I believe I have just described the reason that I am not a public school teacher! However, most of my students are older, coming back to school to retrain for a new career. They are motivated and they are paying their own way, which makes a huge difference in how they handle the coursework.

I am in the second week now, so I've got eight more to go. It's going to be a tough slog, especially the beginning of the week. I have lectures and labs each day, and it's tiring. Of course it doesn't help that we are expecting our third child, so I've been battling pregnancy insomnia and fatigue. Fortunately I am into the second trimester now, so I can hope I will get my energy back like I did with the other two pregnancies. And I am just starting the grading grind...lab data and quizzes, plus homework! Plus writing my first exam in a few weeks. Phew! It's going to be a busy eight weeks.