Books and Brownies

Yes, that’s 99 balls, which is what it feels like I’m juggling.  As we move through our extremely busy days, my husband and I are currently rethinking everything in our lives. Things that I thought were a given for next year suddenly aren’t. Everything is up for debate, except, of course, our marriage!

Emerging from the confusion is the consensus opinion that I reached two years ago – that I really need to go back to graduate school.  At the time, I thought it might be possible to go to grad school and keep homeschooling, until a friend gave me a reality check. Not ready to give up homeschooling, and realizing that having 4 children age 6 and under was not the best time to go back for a PhD, we tabled the idea.

Now, however, my boys are older. I actually can leave the room and leave them unsupervised (briefly!). My youngest will turn 4 this year; he’ll be school age next year. I’ve accepted that there might be decent alternatives to homeschooling, and we realize that changes need to occur if we’re going to put these children through college someday or ever travel or even retire.

And after five years to think it over, we have a winner: German. A love for Latin music will not carry one through a Spanish PhD or make one happy solely teaching Spanish. I’m realizing now what I never wanted to see before – I want to get a PhD in German. I’ve got a lot of thoughts about restructuring German studies for the new millenium; I’ve got a lot of research I want to do. I’ve mentioned before getting a PhD in Second Language Acquisition, and I’m definitely looking for a program that is strong in this area, but I think SLA is too limiting.

So add to my list of responsibilities researching German PhD programs and studying for the GRE!