Christmas Cards

It's that time of the year, and I'm about to start writing cards. Late, I know ...
if you'd like a card, please comment - comments are screened. It looks like I need current addresses for sarka, stereo_m, sannalim, themorningstarr, hildigunnur and maybe also h311ybean and ashavah.
I hope to get them oot by the end of this week :)

The Year in Science

I am enjoying some time off my work email. As much as I love my job, it’s pretty stressful some times. Since I don’t have family living nearby, my husband and I are on our own with kids that are rarely asleep before nine pm (I know … we’re working on it.) I don’t have a cleaner, and we don’t outsource any of the housework except for window cleaning. We have to do this since our windows only open towards the outside, and we’re on the first floor.

Starting on Day 10 of Sparrow’s life, barely a week went by without me either doing a little bit of work or dealing with stuff via email or participating in a meeting. I realise that this is just the nature of the game – academic work is ongoing. Should I fall pregnant again (which is highly unlikely – we definitely want to stop after this one), I would take at least one month post-partum off work entirely, including email, and start back at work once the child is 3-4 months old, returning for two mornings a week. This is much, much better and more sanity preserving than trying to juggle a beautiful baby boy, a lovely daughter, a husband, housework, and work work while pretending to be on “maternity leave”. Hah.

A short list of what I’ve done between 31/3/2008 and now:

( Read more... )

When? Meetings, one-handed emails during naps, DH looking after the kids at weekends for 2-4 hours at a time, Scottish Parliament crèche for 2 hours at a time. One EXHAUSTED perceval. Also, nominally, I’ve been back at work since October 1, but work have been letting me work from home, so to speak, as a recognition of the fact that I was doing stuff that either had to be done or was highly desirable to get done.

Lesson to be learned for the next year, when I will be writing grants and papers, co-supervising students and doing project work for the grand total of TWO DAYS a week: How to say no. Nicely. I wanted to prove I could still hack it as a mother-of-two, and all it got me was back to the counsellor’s comfy chair. Wish me luck!