Big/Little Things

I have more on my plate than usual right now. The fact that I blogged about the library yesterday may be proof that the multitude of little things are distracting me from the big things temporarily until I consciously take a step back to note that things are indeed very good. I am very blessed. Little can be attributed to my own abilities.

I only get so much time to work on my graduate studies at home. Most of the time I have been able to work on them before school or during other periods like lunch to get it all done, but now I am taking comps and feel like I have to do more than usual so as not to have to retake them. There have been a few assignments that I have had to redo, but I was allowed to redo them without any penalties. Once you submit comps, you either pass wih 80% or better or fail and have to retake them (paying another $2000 and waiting another 3 months). This pressure may be letting little things like the library bother me more than they normally would.

However, if I take time to reflect, I am still putting God and family before all these other things and those relationships remain strong. Friday night, I went out with my family to McDonald's. Then I drove the two older girls to gymnastics. Then I took them to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. On Saturday, I got up early with the baby. Then I took the two older girls to Saturday daily mass. Then I mowed the lawn. Then I took a nap. Then the family went to Saturday evening mass and my in-laws for dinner. I could have gotten a lot of reading done during that time.

When I have the time, graduate school is the next biggest thing on my plate, but it is so difficult to get a handle on that sometimes that my mind wanders to something else and I fall behind the schedule I set for myself. The reason may be it's nice to be able to check something little off a list rather than work on a 10-15 page paper that may take 2-3 weeks to complete. Whatever the reason, identifying the problem and asking God's help and your prayers may be what I need since I struggle when I try to do it all on my own.