Tomorrow is Chinese New Year. We’re heading over to my parents’ house for a feast. I can’t wait. I baked some almond biscotti tonight to take over tomorrow. It’s a family favorite, but it takes me about 3 hours to make from start to finish, plus the cleanup is heinous, so I don’t make it nearly as often as they’d like.

I count Chinese New Year among one of the coolest benefits of being Chinese American; I get to celebrate the new year TWICE. This year all I’m hoping for is something a little better than what I’ve been feeling: overworked, underpaid, and perpetually sick. I’d also like to have a few moments of clarity, pretty please.

My first semester back in school has made me question my sanity. Why am I taking on this intense obligation, both in terms of time and money, when all three of my kids are young and we’re constantly counting our pennies? About half of my classmates have grown children, and many others have no kids. These people think I’m insane. Frankly, I think I am too.

Despite all this, I still have hope. I have a conference presentation I’ve been stressing over, but as of next week it’ll be done. I’m going to see a new doctor in a couple of weeks, so maybe my health will improve sooner rather than later. I’m working on incorporating a bit of meditation into my day, which should help in many ways. I just discussed our budget with Kevin, and we think we should be able to survive until our furloughs end, whether it’s one or two years from now.

On that note, I wish you all a happy Year of the Tiger. May you eat lots of good food and prosper in the new year!

Categories: budget, chinese, school, work-life balance
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Pursuing a doctorate while my husband is also in school and with both of us working full-time jobs and taking care of three kids is as exhausting as it sounds. Something has to give, and that something is housework. Tonight I’m doing my first load of laundry in weeks. I’m amazed the kids haven’t run out of clean clothes already. The living room is a sty. Every once in a while I pick up a handful of art supplies, books, and socks (yes, socks) and put them in their proper places, but I haven’t had the energy to do a more thorough cleaning, and my allergies are acting up because of all the dust. Aside from emergency milk runs, we haven’t done a proper grocery shopping trip in weeks, so we’ve been subsisting on ready-to-eat meals.

I think that’s why Alex found the movie Julie & Julia so scintillating tonight. Of course any kid would love the over-the-top lobster scene, but when it was time for him to go to bed and the movie hadn’t ended yet, I was totally taken aback when he said, “Aww, this is the best movie.” Of course I had to let him stay up and watch it. Near the end, during the pivotal duck deboning scene, he wanted to know exactly what was happening.

I think I need to get a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

I’d like to write about the girls as well, but I’m fading fast, so just a quick update for now. Our kindergartener Ana is reading at an end-of-first-grade-start-of-second-grade level, and her teacher is encouraging her to write more. She likes to write stories about Farmville (yes, the Facebook game). Our 1 1/2 year old Angie has learned how to say “Alex,” which her big brother finds thrilling. (She started saying “Ana” ages ago.) She also laughs a lot, cackles even, which makes the rest of us laugh with her.

Off to bed.

Categories: kids and parenting, school, work-life balance
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I’m back in school.

When I think about what this means, I find it more than a little scary because it means I am now dealing with not just work-life balance, but instead work-school-life balance. In fact, I find it so scary that everytime somebody says, “Wow, Julie! How do you do it? You’ve got your job, and your family to take care of, and now a doctoral program!” I plug up my ears and say la-la-la-la-la.

Yeah, real mature, I know.

Here are a few reasons I went back to school:

• I miss student loans! Being in debt makes life so exciting!
• Procrastination is fun!
• Having no time to sleep is even funner!

Oh yeah, did I mention that Kevin’s back in school too?

Categories: school, work-life balance
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Mom: (on my voicemail, in Chinese) Hi Julie! How are you? Tomorrow is Moon Festival. What are you guys doing?

I delete the message and call my mom.

Mom: Hello?

Me: Hi Mom! I got your message.

Mom: Oh hi! How are you?

Me: Oh, you know. Kevin just took the kids to his mom’s house so I can get some work done. I have a research seminar on Wednesday that I haven’t started preparing for yet, my annual report is due on Thursday and I haven’t even started writing yet, plus I have three workshops to teach on Monday and two workshops to teach on Tuesday.

Mom: (chuckles) I better let you go then.

I don’t like being this busy.

Categories: work-life balance
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