Two, and three.

Hi. This has mostly become Wulfa's place as I've dropped off the face of the earth. I'm struggling. I have focused my efforts on improving myself and stretching myself past the boundaries of my previous efforts.  My goal is to be an excellent engineer and army officer while maintaining time for my family. This isn't as easy as it sounds I guess.  Most of my problems are time management.  When I'm honest with myself I realize that I spend way too much time standing around talking or trying to multi-task and wasting my time... no substance, full of sound and fury but no teeth. Every time I feel like I have advanced closer to my goal I immediately find myself in the same old failing place. When I left my job to start this second college career I was in a bad, but blissfully unfeeling place.  I played video games a great deal more than I do now, and wasn't even really aware of how bad my health was.  I was in many ways a happy fat little goat chewin...

... has failed in an epic way. You might remember that I was going to give up caffeine ? I didn't even last one day, since my first day was a Friday and that's the day I allow myself to have one diet soda. We like Coke Zero, which has caffeine. The next day we went to the Farmer's Market and it just isn't right to perambulate around the festive stalls without a coffee in hand. Besides, my dad offered after I begged him to pay. Then on Sunday Damm and I went on a date and we went to the local used bookstore and how can one go to a bookstore without getting coffee? It just isn't right. Seeing as how everything I like to do has some sort of coffee ritual tied into it I threw in the towel. All is not lost, however. I noticed that I don't feel well after two cups. It was an enlightening moment, and I decided to follow the guideline set by my body and limit myself to two cups, or at least not to continue drinking coffee when I start feeling slightly sick (because I...

I used part of my vacation time to re-read some of Laura's books. I started with The Long Winter  and found myself wanting to be back in that time period. They grew everything themselves, worked hard, played hard and knew the value of family (at least according to Laura). I read These Happy Golden Years  and found myself really wanting to be a pioneer girl. Then. I read what happened to Laura's family after The First Four Years , and it isn't pretty. Mary never married and lived with her parents until their death and then lived with her sisters until her death. After a short stint in De Smet (after the events in The First Four Years  and a disastrous stay in Florida) Laura and Almanzo moved to Missouri and it seems like they didn't have the chance to see her family again (at least according to Google, that's as deep as my research went). They had only the one child and she never had living children; she did have a son but he died soon after birth and it devastat...