Unit 10

Wow, it's hard to believe we're in unit 10 already. I'll admit, I was seriously dreading taking this class. The last time I took a writing class was more than ten years ago and I didn't do nearly as well. Although I won't be writing a book anytime soon, I'm now less resistant to the idea of writing. It's not something that I want to do every day, but I'm more confident in my ability to write a decent paper now. Thank you, Dr. Manning for teaching a wonderful class and giving us all such helpful feedback. You truly did make this an enjoyable class :)

Where does the time go?

Wow, I can't believe we're already in Unit 9. It seems like every term goes by faster and faster. This week has been especially hectic for me.  Not only did I have two big papers to finish, my daughters are going to their first Homecoming dance tonight. The last couple of days have been absolutely crazy. The mother of one of their friends offered to make the dresses for me, I would just have to pay for the fabric. She didn't finish them until this morning and they didn't fit :( Amber borrowed a dress from one of her friends, but Alicia couldn't find one that fit so three hours before the dance started we were at the mall. Ugh.  The good news...we found a dress, it's cute and it fits. The best news...it was 40% off! huzzah!!  Really not sure what's going on with the tights here, but my girls are a little bit funky and they had to let that come through some.

To blog or not to blog…

There are times that no matter how much I think I would like to blog, I really don't have anything to say. This week has been one of those weeks. I'm thrilled that the kids are back in school and although I still have one at home, it seems like I'm getting such a big break during the day from the constant noise and chaos!

Soooo, now that that's been said. I really don't have much else to say so I'll respond to one of this week's topics :) Change that. I'll respond to all three!

•         Discuss any issues you have had throughout the process.

•         How do you feel about the comments, or lack of comments, that have been made to your blog posts?

•         Do you plan to continue your blog even after the course?

 
1. The only issue I find I'm having with the blogging process is taking the time to actually sit and do it. I don't always feel I have something worth sharing to say and when I'm in that mood it's really hard to write. (My mom tells me I'm "shooting myself in the foot" when I talk about not thinking anyone wants to hear my thoughts or I don't think what I write is very good. Maybe someday she'll convince me.)

2. I haven't had very many comments to my blog posts. The few I've had have been nice and I think I would like to have more. It's nice to get feedback on what one has to say.

3. As long as I think of things I want to share I'll continue to blog. The last blog I had lasted for a couple of years before I stopped posting to it. Who knows how long this one will last, only time will tell. :)

Uninspired

After 33 days of rain, the sun has finally decided to bless us with it's warm, golden presence. Because it's been so beautiful outside, I have been completely uninspired to remain inside and do my school work :( Two of the kids started school this week, one starts next week, and the little one will stay home with me.  Now that I'm finally getting fewer people in the house during the day I just don't want to stay in!  Maybe this is me trying to get as much outside time in as possible before the snows come, who knows. For now, I'll just struggle through to get my schoolwork done so I can enjoy the weather while it lasts!

 First sunset I've seen in over a month, my son said it looks like heaven!

Trying something new

This is me procrastinating when I should be hard at work doing school work. It's amazing the neat little tools one can find in Word when one should be writing. I decided to open a new document and the box that pops up gives so many templates to choose from. I had no clue I could blog from Word, so here I am giving it a try! No, this is not my Unit 6 post. That one is already done. This is just me staying up late and really not getting anything important done. Two of the kids are at a sleep over, the other two are sleeping and the husband is too. The house is quiet; no radios, television, kids yelling, dishwasher or washing machine running, just the sound of the computer whirring and me typing. I really should get busy doing something productive, but I wanted to give this a try ;)

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

While doing the research for this paper I've learned a few things. First, I'm pretty sure my dad had PTSD when I was a kid (he's a Vietnam Vet). Second, I'm almost positive my husband has it even though he's sure he doesn't (he was in Bosnia and Kosovo in the late 90s and Iraq shortly after 9/11). And third, I may have a touch of it myself. :(

According to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. (2000) PTSD is described as the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to an extreme traumatic event which involves actual or threatened death or serious injury to oneself or others. The person then reacts with intense fear, horror, or helplessness.  After reading that I've come to recognize that seeing the immediate aftermath of the C-17 cargo jet crash a couple of weeks ago has caused me to exhibit some of the classic symptoms. Not only did it involve the death of four soldiers, I recall feeling absolutely horrified at the vision. I live on a army base that is closely attached to an air force base. From my back windows I have a clear view of the flight line and often watch the big jets take off or bank in to land.  Lately I've noticed that I'm watching to see if another one is going to crash. It's very unnerving. I look forward to not feeling this way any more.

Reference:
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. (2000).  Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

My personal writing style?

I can sum that up with one word - avoidance. Since elementary school I can think of only one other academic endeavor that caused me as much grief as writing and that was public speaking. Writing gives me a serious case of the willies. For most of my adult life I have avoided writing letters, filling out essay type questionnaires, even avoiding the "about me" parts of website or social network profiles. I have a hard enough time getting my thoughts across verbally without mushing the words up in my mouth, getting them onto paper (or into text) seems like such an agonizing process for me.

I'm sitting here this morning trying to get my discussion board assignment done and as I start putting my ideas on paper my mind goes crazy and I start getting all these ideas that are totally unrelated. Maybe there's just so much junk in there that I need to let it all out so I can start to make sense of it, but the process is frustrating.

I know I want to write my paper on PTSD and how the family members of the person who suffers from it suffer along with them, but then I go off on a tangent that doesn't make sense. I understand about letting the "artist" do her job while holding the "judge" back until later, but that is much easier said than done.  I think I might have to let go and give freewriting a try to get some of this garbled information out of my head and onto the paper.  It's a start. Right?