August Post

Where did August go? August is the time that the garden harvest comes in and all Summer activities cease. August is time to ready for hunting season, make room for visitors, and get the kids off to school.

My plans didn't go as expected at all. First of all, only one summer class finished on time. Finishing THAT class took away an entire week of my life in the hottest nicest weather we have had all year. Add to it over 20 squash and zuchini's ripening everyday from my garden. I am like my grandmother, I can't let anything go to waste.

After the class was over and I put off my English class for a few weeks I began to give away squash and find canning recipes. Then I got called in to work for a week and go to court for a son that ended up in jail. I have a crazy life. Wearing my pedometer, I learned that every day that I went to work I walked over 16 miles with over half of that pushing heavy equipment.

Another week goes by and I can't remember if I still have kids and who is diapering them while I can/pickle/preserve 54 jars of three types of zuchini/squash relish and ferment 3 gallons of vegetable sauerkraut. The freezer fills as the days roll by and my special hunt for cow moose begins.

My husband feels that it is his honorable duty to scout and guide me to the perfect cow moose everyday after work for hours and hours AND on the weekends til I just want to cry. I day or two here and there is fine, but EVERY DAY!! I yearn to pick all the lowbush berries that we pass on our tromps through the woods while I look alert and aware of any movements with floppy ears. I point out signs in the wet tundra of split hoof prints. I also fill my water bottle with the ripened cranberries to take home for a chocolate zuchini cranberry loaf.

Company comes just as the frost arrives. Thanks goodness my squash were nipped first because I can't eat any more yellow squash and eggs on tortillas for breakfast! My garden is nearly finished except for the potatoes and cauliflower. I still have pumpkins that I baby every single day, I cover them up at night and uncover and water them in the day. I go outside before bedtime and just look at them, willing them to live and grow for a few more days while my cucumbers and tomatos grow in the warmth of the greenhouse.

Two nights ago I completed my first kill; moose season is over for me, harvest is near complete, one class is over, my pay check is in the mail,the kids have transitioned into school, the hunters are fed, the freezer and pantry is full...where did August go?

If I could just finish English by the time this extension is up I would be able to relax for a second....and then start all over again!

Why AM I Feeling Threatened By This Research Paper?

Actually I am not feeling threatened. I don't have time to be threatened. Every two or so days something major happens to me to pause my studies, so that I don't even think about it. Like losing the diaper bag on a trip and losing all the 2 years old clothes, or having my daughter get proposed to and now I am in the middle of planning the entire wedding because she is off at school, or how about 2 nights ago when my son was cutting metal BAREFOOT with a power tool with a spinning disc called a grinder? Instead of studying planned a 5 hour block in order to do so, I took my son to the ER to sew up the 3 lacerations on the top of his foot. I guess I just wish I had the time to get threatened.

I like the fact that the instructor has drawn this out over seven lessons. That is amazing. Usually you just get, "due by such and such date" and I start really freaking out 1.5 weeks before by not sleeping, drinking too much coffee, screaming at my kids, like they even know what a research paper is. However, they will probably be so shell shocked by my previous attempts at research papers that when they hear the term "Research Paper" in one of their own college classes, they will probably run off to Indonesia as a missionary and never return to the western world. I would like to see my grandkids someday so therefore I refuse to feel threatened, it is not allowed. Only one part is due at a time, I am so very pleased with that; I'm good. I hope this was a good enough explanation because I am late for church!

What Do I Need Outside Help With?

I am sure that I would need help with everything because writing is so difficult for me. I am terribly slow at research. I cannot seem to find much of exactly what I am looking for. I seem to hit road blocks along the way that stops me from accessing the information that I find. I try to search the right databases but once I get there I certainly don't find much. I think the content of what my paper is about is difficult to research because alternative methods are not really scientifically studied unless the therapy is in a supplement form which the FDA has an interest to find out if the product is safe. Other treatments may work miracles for many people, however, they do so well with a majority of the people that utilize them yet are not regulated by the government. Therefore, most of the time they go over looked. It may just be that science is uninterested in studying the effects of time tested therapies. Research is harder to find on alternate therapies. Mostly what a person finds is millions of testimonials, which can be biased. When dealing with health and nutrition research studies in my personal opinion are more difficult to come by instead of drugs that have numerous studies before they are released to the public.

What Else Do I Still Need To Do?

So much really needs to be done on this research paper. I have barely scratched the surface actually. I have my draft to begin, more research to do to fill in the blanks, draft more, and then revise for the final paper. I can see how creating a working bibliography with annotations is very helpful. The last research paper I did for Psychology had me in tears because I had absolutely no method, no rhyme or reason to my end product. Each step I am doing is still painful yet ordered and organized. With notes summarizing each work, I will quickly be able to find information instead of running around in circles, wasting time looking from the same source again.