language studies, revised plan

Trying to get back into a daily routine again that I actually feel interested in... Petra is definitely steamrolling right into the toddler phase, reminding me again of how irrational and tyrannical toddlers can be. (And how Rousseau clearly never even visited any of his many children with various lovers, at least not when they were toddlers.)

Besides running ~30 minutes whenever Daniel can watch the kids, I have declared in my last post about setting out to study Japanese, Hebrew, Arabic, and Spanish. So I eventually went one step further in trying to use the language apps for said languages daily....and discovered that I'm actually not that motivated to learn Japanese or Spanish right now. They're both pretty useful languages to learn if I were to live in Taiwan and the US, respectively, and yet my heart's not in it. Very odd. Instead, I've returned to a site I used to use quite a lot: Duolingo and resumed practicing French. Daniel gets one sabbatical year every three years at his current university, and we've discussed living abroad either in Israel or Belgium during that year. I would have to homeschool Declan, which should be fine for first grade, and that would also mean that knowing French could be useful since Jews from France are emigrating to Israel at a large rate / the part of Belgium in question is French-speaking.

I've also tested some Hebrew resources online. Between the more seriously-looking Ulpanet and the more commercial-seeming Hebrewpod101, I've decided to use the latter as the former can get kind of laborious in manual input for doing exercises online. The most important thing right now for me is what is going to keep me consistently clocking in for daily lessons/practices. Just like running.

So language studies plan, revised: 30 minutes each day of French and Hebrew via Duolingo and Hebrewpod101, respectively. Still on the lookout for Arabic learning resource that doesn't push an Islamist agenda and is of the Levant dialect.

uninspired

Ever since Daniel came back from Naples, I've been feeling by turns angry, disappointed, depressed...with Daniel, my life, our relationship... It kind of reminds me of my body's tendency to get sick/break down after--and only after--finals season. Both when I was a student and when I was a teacher. It's like my body waits and waits and waits during times of real stress and need to push through, but it doesn't forget--my vindictive pack of DNA--and must inflict a price upon me for not sleeping as much, eating as well, or generally fudging on my physical welfare. Perhaps now is that trend also, on an emotional front.

I just feel so bored being a stay-at-home mom. And I feel horrible saying that because there's definitely enough chores to do every single day (oftentimes one must do the same chores at least *three* times a day--yeehaw!) to keep me very, very busy. There are in the end several kinds of busy-ness: tedious, mind-numbing, spirit-exhausting, or invigorating, worthwhile, exciting.

Perhaps I'm feeling ungrateful.

Anyhow, I've decided to try to really focus on learning some new languages again. At first it was a whole slew of possibilities, given a tremendous amount of free language learning apps nowadays. After dabbling in a few options most of this morning, I'm choosing to focus on Japanese and Hebrew for now. Arabic and Spanish will have to wait until I can start to make out my Israeli friends' social media posts without needing Bing or Google translators.

All righty then. That gives me a little something to look forward to besides cheering Petra on and then cleaning out her potty, which is, okay, actually kind of exciting that she's enjoying the beginning of toilet training.

How I feel about my days most of the time