All the books + my NEW planner + overwhelmed

I wasn’t hungry when I woke up yesterday, so I got to work right away on edits for my dissertation. This week has been hard. I feel like I have so much left to do and that I spend all my time working on this, but I don’t feel like I’m making any progress. I just want to be finished with it! I worked for about an hour and managed to get a pretty decent chunk finished.

Then it was this for breakfast again. Blackberry jam is my jam right now. ; )

After lunch, I started working on the article I’m presenting in Florida later this month with a research professor from Mizzou. Dr. Baker is awesome. She was my instructor for a couple of courses in my PhD program, my academic advisor, and now she is the chair of my dissertation committee. I’d be lost without her! Anyway, I got onto our GoogleDoc to look some things over and she was editing it, too. I laughed when she sent me this message.

Spaghetti squash casserole for lunch!

I had to order my new planner yesterday…I was pretty excited about it! <3 I think Jake LOVES when I send him multiple texts at once. ; ) This is an Erin Condren planner. I’ve been using them for years!

Finished up my phone call with Dr. Baker, then got started on some stuff for our article. I had a mini meltdown when Jake got home – poor guy. I just started feeling overwhelmed thinking about finishing this article and our presentation slides – the conference we are presenting at is a huge literacy conference. I am also worried about my own dissertation edits, getting started on my study (finding professors to work with, finding enough participants who are willing to be interviewed, finishing everything so I can graduate in 2018, etc.), finishing up the semester (I’m teaching two online courses), and getting my training back on track. I am teaching two courses this semester, but have been asked to teach three in the spring. I starting thinking about how much time everything takes, and I’ll be right in the middle of analyzing data at that point, so I got overwhelmed by it all. I need to just take a deep breath and go at it one day at a time. Easier said than done! But that’s my goal right now…

I’ve mentioned Skratch before, but how amazing is this?! 4 minutes, people. They just came out with some new bars, so Jake and I ordered some. They sound delicious! We use Skratch during and after all of our runs. They make all-natural hydration, recovery, and fueling products. They’re incredible.

Then it was time for PIZZA!

A couple people asked about the crust we use – this is it! It comes in twos. We get it at Mama Jeans. It’s SO good.

You throw it in the oven or on the grill frozen.

Ready to bake! We topped the crust with a basil pesto sauce, garlic, balsamic vinegar, onion, chicken sausage, uncured pepperoni, mushrooms, and goat cheese.

It was so nice outside, so we ate on our patio. It was perfect! You have to have beer with pizza.

Up close and personal. Big news – we didn’t put Sriracha on this! I couldn’t believe it. The flavor was just so good. I was a little ashamed…

After dinner, we met James and the Ultramax crew for a beer. They are in town getting ready for the Bass Pro half and full marathons this weekend. I am SUPER bummed I’m not running, but we have our trail races next weekend, so we are tapering. Tapering weeks are hard for me. I miss my workouts and I feel lazy. I need to work on finding a balance. If you’re running this weekend, GOOD LUCK!!! Huge shout-out to one of my running buddies, Jyssica! Kick butt this weekend, lady!

Then we came home and Aspen needed some cuddles. Or she’s pushing Jake. One or the other!

We are running when Jake gets home from work, then picking up our packets for Dogwood – the trail race we are doing next weekend. It’s all part of the Bass Pro Race Series, so they let us pick up our packets early here in town, since our race is out of town. We might grab dinner and see a movie after that! We have our last long-ish run on Saturday, then we might go to an event here in town. Saturday night we have dinner plans with some friends! On Sunday, a mountain bike club that Jake is on the board for is having a fundraiser at a trail here in town. I made a post yesterday about beating Jake in it – totally joking! –  and now people have pledged money to me for laps. Soooo, it looks like I’m going to be riding in it. I’m not super great on a bike, so we will see how this goes! Stay tuned. ; )

Happy weekend!!