Seven Quick Takes of Classes (Vol. 10)

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Well, the first week of classes is finished.  Last week, I wondered how on earth I was going to survive this semester without a mental breakdown or an F on my transcript.  This week, I am actually feeling on top of things; I have all of my reading done and my critiques ready for Monday.  I’ve felt a bit scattered coming back after Christmas holidays, but our weeks are starting to fall into a routine.  Hopefully I can continue to stay on top of my homework and find time to revise my short stories before April.

My husband is back at law school this semester and we’ve managed (somewhat miraculously, I think) to get our schedules to work out so that we don’t need any childcare.  It does mean some creative legwork; for example, on Tuesday my husband drops Sunshine off at preschool and me off at my class and then takes Lily home for about an hour before walking over to his class, where I meet him after my class to take Lily home for about an hour before we go pick up Sunshine from preschool.  Wednesday works the same without the preschool complication.  Fridays are easy, as I have two classes but my husband has none.

This semester I’m back to a “full” course load of 3 courses; two writing classes and a course on Greek mythology.  I liked just having two classes, but that created issues with the student loan people so I had to find a third class that interested me and worked with my husband’s schedule and Sunshine’s preschool.  I always intended to take a Greek course during my first degree, as much of English literature references Greek myths, but it never fit into my schedule back then.  Since we finally watched Troy a few weeks ago, I’m finding the course very interesting.

The other task I had last week, before classes got too busy, was to put together the February issue of FellowScript.  I’m so thankful Joanna Dawyd is now helping with the editing and layout; she did most of the feature articles and several of the columns while I did the rest.  We both have an article coming out in this issue as well.  While I get stressed out sometimes over getting the issue ready on time, I enjoy reading all the articles and seeing the magazine come together.  Last week, I sent it off to my proofreader and now I can focus on schoolwork until April, when I’ll need to get started on the May issue (but that’s after classes end).

Speaking of editing and classes… over Christmas break, I and my fellow editors read all of the submissions for This Side of West, the undergraduate literary magazine here at UVic.  We had about 90 submissions overall.  It was interesting to see what others are writing in creative nonfiction.  I wondered what it would be like to work with two other editors to choose what gets published (I’m the sole acquisitions editor for FellowScript), but in the end our choices were pretty much unanimous.  We’ll be planning more readings this semester and then launching the magazine in March.

This year, I’m trying to make sure I make time to focus on my relationship with God.  I’m still reading The Resolution for Women by Priscilla Shirer and keep the Common English Bible by my bed (reading a chapter or two in the evening helps me relax before falling asleep—too often, my brain is still whirring when my body says I need some rest).  Last night as I was reading Judith, this verse jumped out at me:

“You intended the current situation and the things yet to come. What You planned has occurred. The things You considered stood ready and said, ‘Here we are!’ Indeed, all Your ways are prepared in advance, and Your judgment is known ahead of time” (Judith 9:5-6 CEB).

To me, it’s encouraging to know that God knows what’s happening, so I don’t need to stress out over things in my life that I can’t control.  I just need to trust in Him and do what He’s given me to do.

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Sunshine doubled her colouring book collection over Christmas and got new crayons and markers as well, so we’ve been doing a lot of colouring lately.  I bought her a set of Dora pictures that are supposed to be colour-by-number, and its cute to see her asking for the markers by number rather than colour and carefully trying to fill in the space with the right colour.  She also enjoys colouring a Disney Princess book, though we haven’t watched any of the movies so she keeps asking me, “Who is this princess?”  Sometimes I can read while they’re colouring; other times, it’s just good time to spend with them, talking about the pictures we’re colouring.