Somewhere along the line, this became a blog exclusively about my child - which I didn't intend to be the case. Yes, it was to be mostly about her, but it was truly designed to be some sort of family record. And parents are included in our family.
My husband is keeping more than busy teaching two sections of mathematics, researching for his dissertation (and the accompanying project and presentations), and starting to look for jobs (no, we are not finishing until next summer, but one applies for academic jobs early). He is recently published. I would tell you where, but you wouldn't understand it anyway, so let it rest that it is in a sufficiently academic publication. I am very proud of his hard work.
I have just finished entering my dissertation data, and will actually look at it tomorrow, starting to look for trends and patterns, and the stuff I look for. This is a monumental day for me. Every day I pray to be able to work well, and finish this thing. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, albeit a very faint one, that I sometimes wonder if it's just a figment of my imagination.
Our town recently declared that three friends are as good as five. The city council had hearings on chickens in town, and decided that you can have no more than four. One man recommended that, given the social nature of chickens, they would prefer to roost in sixes. But, we don't want to go overboard with this legislation, so we'll keep it at four. (The councilwoman who supported the no more than four position was careful to point out she was not anti-chicken. As this was a burning concern of mine, I'm glad she addressed it.) I sometimes pretend I live in a city, but then something like this happens, and I'm reminded that I live in the middle of nowhere.
We're happy here, and grateful to have such a beautiful place to start our family. Now back to the child.
