Blog — Toddler on the Tenure Track

February 2019 Budget

What I’m most excited about in this month’s budget is the fact that our grocery bill is the lowest it’s been since we started tracking our spending in 2016. We budget 20.48% of our monthly income to groceries (which amounts to $935). This is still more than we’d like to spend a month on groceries (for 2 adults and 1 toddler), but we are also realistic about our spending. I don’t want to set the budget at a number that we’re going to consistently go over each month and have to figure out where to pull the extra money from. I’d rather set it at a number we can consistently achieve (based on our average from the past year of ~$900) and then slowly get it down.

FinancesJillMarch 5, 2019student loan debt, budget, february, february 2019, groceries, grocery billComment

Weekly Update: 2/25 - 3/3

This was a week where pretty much everything went the way I hoped… no major curve balls thrown my way, which felt really nice. After feeling like I couldn’t “catch up” from our January trip, it was nice to finally get to a place where the pace of work feels more manageable. So… the 5 day/4 night conference trip that we all took in January had about a month long impact on work/home life. Is that worth it? I’m not so sure. Granted, it would have looked a lot different had I not been teaching or teaching fewer classes or if both classes were 100% ready to go before the term started. Certainly helpful to think about for future conference travel and the ripple effect it has on stress levels returning home.

4 Productivity Tips That Help Manage The Overwhelm

A few weeks ago I opened up a work email from the Textbook and Academic Authoring Association (TAA) prompting me to sign up for a webinar titled “Creative Scheduling For Those Who Have ‘All of the Time in the World’ and ‘No Time At All.’” I was intrigued by the title and even more surprised when I opened up the email and saw that the presenter was Dr. Katy Peplin of ThrivePhD, who I follow on instagram! Since I’m still quite new to the academic blogging scene, I haven’t had many instances of overlap between my blogging life and my professional life (granted, my blog is all about my professional life, so they are bound to collide at some point!).

Planning and ProductivityJillMarch 1, 2019scheduling, planningComment

Weekly Update: 2/18 - 2/24

Had my last 9-5 teaching day this past Friday (until next term) and it feels nice to know that I get a few weeks off from being on for 8 hours straight. Slowly but surely I’m infusing more research time back into my schedule as prep for my online course winds down. I’m curious to see how prep for next term’s online class goes since I’ve taught it once before. Fingers crossed that it’s not as intensive as this term. I’m continuing to do a decent job at putting boundaries around work time, not letting it slip into personal/family time. On a lot of days this means that all the things I wanted to get done don’t actually get finished… which is okay because they’ll be there tomorrow and the next day and the next day.

Tenure and Life UpdatesJillFebruary 24, 2019weekly update, course prep, working out, meditation, goals, reflection, february, paper writing, writingComment

Academic Conference-ing with a Toddler

This will be my last post about our recent San Francisco trip/conference, I promise! In general, I’m not a huge fan of large conferences. All of the socializing is exhausting and a lot of the networking that happens feels fake (unless you’re getting connecting through people you already know). I think the most valuable thing I got from this most recent conference was having the chance to catch up with friends and mentors from my grad school days. I hadn’t seen most of these people since I graduated and it felt like one big reunion. It seemed like every corner I turned I saw someone that I hadn’t seen in years. After 2.5 years of living across the country from everyone we know, it was nice to run into so many familiar faces.

Academic LifeJillFebruary 23, 2019conference travel, traveling with a toddler, travelComment

10 Tips for Starting a New Job with a New Baby (in a New City)

I had the chance to write a guest post for Portland Moms Blog on a few tips that helped me get through the early days of being in a new position with a new baby in a new city.

Academic LifeJillFebruary 18, 2019guest post, back to work, first year on the tenure track, tips, a day in the lifeComment

Weekly Update: 2/11 - 2/17

Progress this week. I’m feeling more and more like a whole person again. A person who is more than just a professor. In addition to grading and course prep and office hours and writing papers and meetings (and all the other things that go along with academic life), I did puzzles with Ellie, I had pizza with friends, I worked out, I vegged in front of the TV with Mike, I wrote for the blog, I read a book for fun… and so many other things that often get pushed to the side when work gets hectic, but are all very necessary for my version of a sustainable life.

Tenure and Life UpdatesJillFebruary 17, 2019weekly update, course prep, working out, meditation, goals, reflection, service, february, paper writing, writingComment

Toddler Approved San Francisco Spots

Before taking a trip with Ellie, Mike and I scour the internet for free/cheap kid friendly spots in our destination. I appreciate seeing what’s worked for other families, so... in this post I’m sharing Ellie’s top 10 San Francisco spots. I’ve been to SF twice before, but never with a kid and I will say that it is definitely a fun city to explore with a toddler. If I can manage any other work funded trips, we will definitely be back again!

Just for FunJillFebruary 16, 2019traveling with a toddler, travel, conference travel, san franciscoComment

Traveling to San Francisco with a Toddler

In January we headed to San Francisco for 5 days/4 nights for a conference (for my work). We were able to find quick/reasonably priced flights for a little under 100/pp round-trip, so Mike and Ellie joined me. We bought the tickets awhile ago, before we had our serious finance conversation. I’m not sure we’d spend ~200 on flights at the present moment (my flight was covered with startup funds). It was our first plane trip that didn’t end with a visit to see family on the east coast (and with people who could provide us with a free car seat and a ride after getting off the plane!).

Academic LifeJillFebruary 16, 2019traveling with a toddler, conference travel, travel, san franciscoComment

The Master Plan vs. Reality

I posted two screenshots on instagram today. One of my grading plan for Tuesday and another of what actually happened. A fellow academic mama commented and asked if I edit my calendar as the day goes by to reflect what actually happens, noting that this would be a super helpful strategy for visualizing how much time things actually take vs. a potentially overly optimistic estimation of how long they will take! It’s funny, because I don’t know that I was even thinking of this as a strategy I use to help me plan, but it definitely is (and I did it without realizing it). So, thank you dontworryteach for making this explicit!

Planning and ProductivityJillFebruary 13, 2019tips, time tracking, planning, scheduling, grading, calendar, google calendarComment