Catching up

We have a backlog of Sam posts. He is now sitting quite well. At Halloween (just above) he was still pretty wobbly, but most recently he sits very well. He's a pretty smiley guy and loves to giggle. He makes a clicking noise, like he wants to be learning Khoi. He loves his jumper, and while he can't exactly crawl, he can now reach pretty much anything he really wants within a five foot radius (although he does get distracted easily).

Emily and I are doing well, although this has been a bit of a rough week. I've had advising, several sets of midterms, and some other projects. I will have my department chair come observe me soon. I'm planning a trip to the UN for my first year class. It's just a lot to do logistically. I am finding that I can handle the logistics, but they are not really fun for me. I do feel that I am doing an excellent job at most of these things, but it's still just a lot to figure out. My biggest challenge is prepping for class. I can do a mediocre job with a few hours prep, or an excellent job with a lot more work. This week I'm doing the Reformation (comfortable) and the interwar period (think Virginia Woolf and Sartre and existentialism--less comfortabl) and next week it's state formation and World War II (down right uncomfortable). On some areas I'm pretty behind. I need to put together syllabi for next semester and do book orders. I'm also behind on my own writing work. All of this is the long way of saying that it's mid-November. There's only a month less, and actually I could be in much, much worse shape.