I know that’s a bit of a contradictory title, but that’s how I feel this week is going. Each day by itself is super crazy and busy, but as a whole, the week seems to be moving rather slowly. The first week of school (at university level, anyway) has always been one of my favorites. The weather is still nice and warm, everyone is still in a good mood from vacation, you can almost always hear the marching band practicing in the distance, and classes are a breeze because professors simply go over the syllabus and let us out early.

Not so for this year! Well, the weather, good moods, and marching band are all the same, but my classes are already crazy and I am loaded down with homework. I have accomplished more already this week than I normally do the first month or two of school! I dove headfirst into this week on Sunday, when I worked at the Study Abroad booth at our Welcome Week. It was a lot of fun – I’m an Ambassador now, and I just love sharing my experiences and seeing people excited to study abroad. When that was over, I came back to my apartment room and cleaned the living daylights out of it.

It was absolutely dreadful when I first stepped in: the carpet was filled with dust, the corners, windows, and door frames covered in cobwebs and bugs (alive and dead, might I add), and the bathroom was horrendous. After about three hours of elbow grease, repeat vacuum-ings, and scooting around the bathroom floor with Clorox wipes under my feet (you bet I did that!), it was finally clean. When I have all my posters up and everything where I want it, I’ll post a picture of the new and improved room. I’m excited to share it!

Each day this week I have woken up at 6:00 or before (because I’m a crazy person and can’t do my workouts at night), headed to campus, and worked on homework or at the writing center during any time I am not in class. Speaking of which, did I mention that I got hired as a consultant at my school’s writing center? I’m very excited about it. It has been a lot of work so far, but everyone who already works there is very nice and keeps telling me that it is the best job they’ve ever had. 🙂

Anyway, after woefully rolling out of bed this morning, I found myself wondering: Is it Friday yet??? It was then that I realized that it is Wednesday, which meannnnnns…..

WIAW!

Because of my 15+ hour days of nonstop going, I’ve kind of been not-so-great with the food this week. Or the summer staples, which is why I went back to the original WIAW logo. I am still trying to be relatively healthy, but I will admit that I have turned to the microwave more often than I usually do. My goal is to actually start planning out my meals the week before – that way, if I need to cook/bake ahead, I can, and will just be able to pop the (healthy!) leftovers in the microwave or oven whenever I need a fast meal.

Breakfast (E, N)

Special K Red Berry with skim milk.

Lunch (E, N, D?)

A can of vegetable soup into which I threw some cubed tofu. The tofu was leftover from last week – I have a good Meat Free Monday dish to share with you soon! On the side, I had two slices of Ezekiel 4:9 bread. Despite the fact that half of it came from a can, this meal was actually really delicious!

Snacks (throughout the day)

I didn’t take pictures, but I had a handful of pretzels and a serving of dark chocolate M&Ms.

One really great thing about being this busy is that I haven’t had too much time to snack! I unfortunately am a “bored eater” (some people are stress eaters, others eat when they’re tired; I eat when I’m bored), so cramming this much into my days has prevented me from overeating, which is definitely a plus!

Dinner (E, N)

Dinner was a Cedarlane Low-Fat burrito. I know, I know, if you’re anything like me, when you hear the word “burrito” you automatically think greasy, bad for you, filled with fat blob of nasty. Well, actually, these things are seriously good! The kind I get have beans, rice, and cheese in the middle, which provides a good deal of protein without the meat. (And, honestly, I find the meat in pre-cooked foods to be a bit scary.) They’re also very filling – they hold me over for the rest of the night!

So, really, for microwave food, I’m not doing so bad, right? 😉

Workouts August 26-September 1
Sunday: off
Monday: 30 Day Shred
Tuesday: POP pilates (I did about 3 1/2 videos – I love them!)
Wednesday: A really good circuit training exercise – 35 minutes
Thursday: off
Friday: 20 minutes running + 40 minutes walking on treadmill
Saturday: yoga??

In other news, remember last week when I mentioned I was going to try and make giant bubbles as a final activity with the kids? And how I would post the “recipe” if it worked out? Well, they didn’t work so well. The bubbles were relatively small and quite disappointing: the ones that did grow giant popped within a matter of seconds. I think the kids still had fun, though, and that’s what’s important. 🙂

As predicted, my last day with the kids was pretty bittersweet. Of course, we all live about 2 minutes (walking) away from each other, but I had such a fun summer with them and was sad that it had to end! The families gave me beautiful thank you gifts which are already helping decorate my room – I’ll try and remember to point them out when I post a picture of the finished bedroom!

Finally, check out what I got at Target for $1:

A journal! I needed this one. Especially since I have a zillion in my closet at home.

That place is seriously a money pit. I always walk out of there with 10 things I didn’t come in to buy/don’t need. 😀

Well, that’s all for now, folks! I can’t believe this is Labor Day weekend already. I have a very fun, family-filled holiday weekend coming up – I hope yours is just as grand!

P.S. The worst part about going off to college? I don’t get to see this face every day:

 Why are dogs so difficult to leave?? 🙂