Francophone-itude: Taking Stock of the Summer

For a variety of professional reasons, this summer seemed like a rip off. I felt bogged down by unnecessarily dramatic work tasks and didn't have enough time to focus on accomplishing things and savoring the unstructured time of the summer.

I had hoped to accomplish the following:

tackle the piles of filing in my home office and campus office
catch up on reading various pleasure books I've amassed
cook: salade niçoise, strawberry shortcake, homemade ice cream, tomato/mozzarella salad, and test some new recipes
work out 4-5 times per week
get a thorough understanding of best practices for using authentic resources in my classes
revise and resubmit and article I've been working on for...face palm...10 bloody years

Rather than lament what I didn't accomplish, I've tried to be mindful of what I DID which includes:

catching up on almost all the magazines and journals I've collected over 2 years
reading 5 books for pleasure including 1 in French and 1 related to parenting
I made ratatouille, shortcake and ice cream one time each
I made a lovely rhubarb/almond cake with rhubarb from a stranger at the farmer's market who invited me to her home to have some of hers when there was none to be had at the market

worked out 2-3 times per week
learned a ton about comprehensible input
have a good plan for a repository for a joint project
had a mini family vacation in Des Moines, trying to make the best of a road trip to western Iowa for a funeral