The Founding Fathers

This semester I have been attending one class about the founding of America. It focuses on the historical events, the market economy, and the political structure that the United States was based on. It has been so much fun to attend! I feel like I have learned so much. (Poor Lori has to listen to me spout off the economic principles I've been learning about when we go to the store and all of the Valentine's stuff is half off while all of the Easter stuff is 3 times the normal price. Really, it's about supply, demand, and the equilibrium price...or something like that. I remind her of the importance of the market economy. Haha!)

As today is President's Day, I have been reflecting on the things I have learned maybe more than I normally do. I'm so grateful for the Founding Fathers who were willing to rebel against the Crown and to then fight for a new way of life. I have been so impressed with the early founders and their ideas about how the government should be set up and for their diligence in studying and learning from history in order to design a government that provides us with so many blessed freedoms. I am grateful to have been born in this land that has so much to offer to all who set foot on her shores.

One day in class, the professor said that some people debate about who the "best" president of the United States has been. Many say Lincoln while other say Washington. His take on it was that if it hadn't been for Washington, there wouldn't have been a Lincoln. I, too, am grateful for the humility of Washington and his virtue. This really is a blessed land.

As for the rest of my life...This semester, I have only been working and writing. Every day I go to work and I get to do fun things - Mostly what I do is talk to professors and students about the different products we have developed and I get their feedback on them in order to improve them. Sometimes I do focus groups (which are a group interview) and talk to different people about the things they are doing in their classes to improve teaching and learning. I really really enjoy my job.

After work, I go over to the graduate lab for my department and I spend some time writing and researching. Really there are two main things I have to do before I graduate. I need to finish a development project. Right now, I have almost finished the proposal for it and I have about half of the written project completed. I have also submitted an application for a fellowship that could finance the research for my dissertation. I am working some on my dissertation as well. Each week I work with a small research group so we can make it happen. I really am excited and I feel like I am seeing progress, which really makes me happy. Then when I finish working on it, I come home and then we all play. Usually there isn't much we do, but it is nice to be able to relax some in the evenings.

One thing I have been doing is attending a gardening class that my stake is sponsoring. I'm really excited for spring to come so I can garden! In the next few days I will post a summary of the things I've been learning.