May 5th.
That is when Josh will be done with his pre-lims. Prelims? The thing that comes after his Qualifying Exam and before his Defense. I totally didn’t do grad school. Happy with my Bachelors, thankyouverymuch.
At first I thought the craziness* would be over by the end of February. Then March. And here we are in mid-April and I know it won’t be over til it’s over.
Which means May 5th won’t really be the end. We’ll take a 12 week break, come back and it’ll be nine more months.
*Craziness is defined as: 12-18 hour days, Monday through Friday, 10-12 hour days on Saturday and 8 hours on Sunday.
If you would have told me in January that this was coming, I would have hyperventilated. I would have assured you I couldn’t do it. Not possible. I need my break at the end of the day, after supper. That’s when my job is done. I sit and blog, go through pictures, read posts and, in general, put my feet up.
I can’t give them baths. I can’t put them to bed. I can’t play with them.
But that’s not fair. Not fair to decide ahead of time what I am and am not capable of. Not fair to limit God’s power and His willingness to work through me. Not fair to my kids that I chose an attitude of defeat.
I mean, come on, I ran a marathon for crying out loud. I qualified for Boston!
And, um, God? He raises the dead.
I can work past 7pm. Give them baths, play with them, read them books, put them to bed.
And above that? I can even clean the garage and mow the lawn. Watch out, power tools, you’re next on my list of Things Previously Impossible.
So I can do this. Am I counting the days in which I’ll have to? No. One day at a time. The best way to improve your attitude is to focus on the doable.
And I can totally do the next 24 hours.
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You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you!
Big hugs, Beth. Big, big big hugs. Can you get a mother’s helper? Maybe a lady from church has a daughter who can help somewhat.
Your attitude is awesome Beth. Hold onto that feeling. Hold onto the greatness of God!!!! You CAN DO THIS!! We’ll be with you every step of the way, “holding your arms up in battle, through prayer”.
Good luck to both of you!
I spell prelims without the hyphen. And in my department, they tend to go much better than quals. I hope that’s true for Josh!
You can do it! Once you know what to expect and what the Lord needs from you, you can say a prayer and handle it. You may cry, and fall on the bed in exhaustion when there are dishes to be done and laundry to be folded, but you will manage.
My hubs is finishing year 1 of his PhD and has a nerve condition similar to MS. So our schedule looks VERY different from most families. But there is strength behind me, beyond my own, pushing me to do better in my stewardships.