Mama PhD

I am taking five classes this semester, in musical theater, improvisation and musical improvisation. I am learning important skills and concepts in all of them. However, I am also working and participating in a musical improv group that practices for two hours a week, and I was recently cast in a staged reading of a new play, with a tight rehearsal schedule. I am exhausted.

When I think of the “equals” sign in algebra, I think of it as a statement that something is true. For example, if an equation says that something is equal to a number, adding or subtracting a value to or from both sides leads to a statement that is equally true. This concept of “truth” has been on my mind recently as we approach Christmas, and I find myself in discussions with fellow mothers about the idea of “Santa Claus”.

As of today we’ve lived in our new home, in our new city, for 85 days. (You can follow our move in my earlier blogs.) Our first month here flew by - everything was new, we tried different things. The second month also went fairly smoothly, as we started to live the new life with a bit more routine. But the third month has been a month of struggles.

I spent Thanksgiving weekend mostly off the internet and in the company of people and books I love, catching up with both. I was rereading a Dickens novel and spending time with family and friends, luxuriating in the long weekend that made both possible. As my daughter was packing up to return to college for the end of the semester, she asked if I'd be writing about her today. "Maybe," I said. But rather than write directly about her I want to write about three things that I’ve been thinking about both over the weekend and this morning.

I am writing from Raleigh, NC, where we are visiting my brother, sister-in-law, and two of my three nephews (the third is stationed overseas). My oldest nephew's fiancée is here, too. We have been talking, laughing, and eating nonstop. I am having a thoroughly enjoyable time. I am crazy about everyone in this family.

“Meet me at the site.” “Ok I’ll log on.” “Oops, gotta go. My mom’s home and she’ll kill me if she finds me online.”

Nadia Taha has two interesting articles on the economic price of parenting in The New York Times this week. Her thoughts have evoked emotional responses, both in the comments to the second article and in blog comments.

The last time I taught a class called “History of Math”, a class I rarely teach at Ursuline College, my...