Whew! Sorry for the nearly whole month of non-posting! I've had good reason to be busy. The annual research papers were due on Feb. 20. I postponed grading them during that week because I had other things to do (namely, prepare for and attend the state swimming championships that next weekend). Then, I discovered that the research papers had a problem--they were terrible. In previous years the papers took me approximately 20-30 minutes each to grade; this year each paper took me about an hour apiece. Ouch. Last year's were about the same. Many of last years papers were poor because the kids had difficulty following directions; this year the papers were poor because the kids were too lazy to follow directions. I don't know where the change has come the past couple of years; the first three years I taught at the school the papers were on the whole pretty good, with the average amount of not-so-good and fabulous. Last year and this year: few fabulous and a hella lot of not-so-good, with a horrendous amount of really, really bad. Anyway, I frantically graded, returned the papers, and kindly gave the students the option of correcting the mistakes and resubmitting the papers. They did, which meant I had to regrade them before the end of the quarter (which was last Friday). Between the grading, regrading, and frantic housecleaning (my parents visited for the week), I haven't had nearly the time to do any blogging.
I have not done a good job keeping up with my New Year's resolutions. I did not make it down to 170 lbs before Spring Break started (I did have a doctor's appointment last Friday, and fully dressed but without shoes I weighed in at 174, but that isn't close enough). I could still make it to 160 by the end of the school year, but it will mean I really need to get back into working out regularly and eating less than I did this week (taking my parents out to eat a few times really didn't help matters I'm sure). I'll weight myself tonight to get a new starting number for this part of the experiement.
I also haven't done a great job with my grading. I postponed grading a number of assignments because I was working on the research papers. I was pretty stressed last Friday trying to get it all done. I need to do much better this last quarter. I will try to grade all assignments on the day they are submitted and enter them into the computer within a day.
On the plus side, my house is in pretty good shape. My husband and I frantically cleaned and primped all last week. We put up some artwork and picture frames we'd been given for Christmas but hadn't done anything with, we got some new rugs and curtains, and we cleaned up the guest room, kitchen, and bathroom more than we probably have in six months. Sad, but true. Anyway, it should make the house a little easier to keep clean, since we've got it in pretty good condition right now.
Anyway, I'll try to be better about blogging, weight loss, grading, and general life. Hopefully I can survive until summer vacation. It looks so far away...
2 comments:
Yeah, I hear you on the weight thing. It's just so easy to NOT work at losing weight. Mom and Dad did say that my evil schmuck of a brother in law (*grins*) has lost the proverbial ass-load of weight. And they said that he did it all by...get this...they actually bought his story that it was will power and portion control!! How hysterical is that? Will power. That's something that Wil Wheaton had when Wesley Crusher would get called to the bridge of the Enterpoop, right? Well, if nothing else I'm going to take a week and see if I can cut out my at work snacks. Drop my daily food intake (excluding dinner, which varies depending on whether DAPGF and I go out or I slum it at home with Lean Cuisine) from 1300 or so cal during the day down to 800 or so. I'm sensing a lot of water and exercise walking to and from the bathroom. We shall see. Good luck with your challenges, tell yer hubby that he's a schmuck (but in a good way) and that I'm glad he survived the time change!
Actually, neither one of us has really lost any weight since you saw us at Christmas. But my significant other is good at shifting his weight to things like muscle, while mine just sits there around my waist, glaring at me and daring me to do anything about it. Today was my first 4 a.m. day since the time change (sucked bad) but I did make it to the gym. I gerbiled for 30 minutes and spent 30 minutes whacking the racquetball around in the court (pretty good workout when you play against yourself and both you and yourself stink at racquetball--makes for a lot of running around).
Both of us have decided to rededicate (again) to the weight loss thing. It means making sure we make it to the gym no matter what, and we really need to watch what we eat. I know it can be done, because that's how we lost the weight last year. My goal is to hit 160 by the end of May. That's about 11 weeks to lose about 20 lbs. We'll see how close I can come.
If you were to hit the gym every night (regardless of DAPGF's teaching schedule) how much would that cut into your regular activities? I would think DAPGF would be willing to cut some slack in the evenings to allow you to make it to the gym more than twice a week, since I'm assuming she supports your weight loss goals. That's one nice thing about having the hubby in the same boat I'm in; we can work out together because we both need to.
Post a Comment