The End is Near

I have been in school for 17 years of my life, college for 5, and I am about to be done forever. I will graduate with my bachelor’s degree in June and it is hard to wrap my head around. After being in school for so long, and thinking about that end date, it’s hard to believe it’ll be complete in less than 4 months, just in time to enjoy my first summer off school in years. I don’t even know what I’m going to do with myself; laugh, cry, jump, scream, sleep, or just enjoy my free time! Whatever I do, it won’t be school work! 

Check out this link to read graduation statistics from the Census. I am so happy to join the 33% of the population holding a Bachelor's degree! http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/p20-578.pdf  

Balancing school, work, and life was going pretty well for the most part, then my beautiful baby girl came along and made it so much more difficult to focus and work. Previously, I set time aside to study and I was able focus on my schoolwork and accomplish what needed to be done. But being a wife and a mother caused me to make some big changes in order to be successful in school. Here are a few of the things I have done to help encourage success in my time management:

-          Set a designated time to do schoolwork every day. For me, this is any time Brooklyn is asleep. Nap time = school time. 

-         Organize your week ahead of time and do your best to stick to that schedule. Mapping out the week before it starts helps get a visual of what your week will be like plus it makes you accountable to stay on track.

-          Keep your end goals in mind. When I’m feeling especially drained or discouraged, I just  think about graduation and the happiness that comes with achieving that goal. It’s a great motivator.

-          Give yourself breaks. If your schedule allows, give yourself at least one night a week to yourself; no schoolwork or readings, just relaxation. This is the best day of the week 😊

If you have any other tips or tricks to share, please share them in the comments! 

💗

Ashley

Wifey

In honor of Valentine’s Day next week, let’s talk about love.💗 I met Zack my junior year of high school. We were classmates in the most romantic class (just kidding); advanced algebra and trigonometry. I would go home and talk about him with my friends, even referring to him as my “husband”. Then one day we started talking through a mutual friend and years later, that mutual friend became a pastor and ended up marrying us. It was awesome.

Even though we’ve been married for years, it still seems a bit strange to hear Zack refer to me as his wife. After talking about it for so long, it still seems surreal that we’re actually at this point in our lives. We used to talk about where we would want to buy a house, how many kids we wanted, if we wanted any pets, and now we’re living it. It’s been great to see our dreams and goals come to fruition.

When we were dating, we used to go out on dates a few times a week. We’d go out to dinner, see movies, or just enjoy each other’s company. Now that we’re married with a house of our own and a toddler, we go on about one date a year. Not that going on official “dates” is that important, but it signifies time together that we don’t usually get. Living a busy life certainly makes the seemingly simple things more difficult!

This video by Talya Rose has some great tips about keeping a happy marriage during child rearing years!

Not that I’m trying to make excuses, but when you work full time, go to school, and take care of a toddler, it’s pretty easy to let spousal relationships fall to the back burner. We make sure to spend time together every day and do our best to make the other feel important and remembered. Even though those are just little things, they are important. I’ll have significantly more free time after I graduate in June, and that means I am going to spend some quality time with Zack. Even if it’s just quiet time together on the deck or watching a movie on the couch, anything as long as it is quality time spent together!

Ashley