We Made It!

After a lot of hard work, and an especially rough few weeks, Nathan has completed his Master of Business Administration degree! 

  

The graduation ceremony also happened to be on our one year anniversary, so it was a very special occasion.

We celebrated with a cookies and cream ice cream cake at our apartment after the ceremony and managed to fit seven guests in our living area.

It's been a fun year. Although I can't say we've loved every minute of it, married life has been a wonderful experience thus far.  Now that we should be able to have a little more quality time together, I almost feel like we're newlyweds all over again!

The End is Near

 

In less than three weeks, on June 26, Nathan and I will celebrate our first year of marriage. As exciting as that milestone is, I'm mainly looking forward to June 26 for an entirely different reason: the conferral of Nathan's MBA. We knew Nathan's grad classes would make the first year a little rough, but things have gotten really rough now that he is in his capstone course, which is writing a 60-80 page business plan. It's a group project with 5 other people, and Nathan is in charge of the finance portion as well as editing the entire paper.

I haven't exactly felt like Nathan's top priority lately. One of his team members was telling him how great he is and that his wife is lucky to have him. I know I'm lucky, but it's kind of ironic hearing that from someone who has spent as much time talking to him this past week as I have. The frustrating part is that I know this project has to take top priority for him to do well in the class. If I want him to do well, do I really even want him to spend much time with me? I'm trying to keep busy doing things by myself, like taking advantage of this great opportunity to get lots of reading done.

Although I do my best to be the supportive wife, sometimes I get tired of being the cheerleader all the time. Nathan's stress is enough to push me to the breaking point, so much that I once sarcastically told him, "Yes, dear, you are going to fail!" No, he's not; I just fail at being a wife sometimes. If nothing else, this has been a good learning experience.


Soon...soon it will be over...just not soon enough!

The Chore Schedule of a Working Wife

Okay, I promise cleaning the stove is not one of Nenya's regular chores. However, this photo is a pretty good illustration of what kind of a homemaker I am. I don't always clean the stove after I cook. In fact, sometimes the stove gets so bad that I jokingly tell Nathan we should just put Nenya on the counter and have her lick it off. And one time he actually did (but not for long, and he was right next to the counter the whole time).

Occasionally I'll come across another woman's chore schedule, and invariably it involves much more cleaning than mine. Cleaning the bathroom sink every day? I could never do that. And vacuuming every day too? I don't even vacuum; Nathan does. Everyone's situation is different, and there's no need to compare. But if you would like to see an example of a chore schedule of a newly married wife who is gone at least 10 hours out of every weekday, here is my list. I've changed things around since I first developed it.

Sunday
 • Laundry

Monday
 • Clean inside of microwave
 • Clear off desk
 • Water plants

Tuesday
 • Clean bathroom sink
 • Hand wash delicates
 • Clean bathroom mirror

Wednesday
 • Clean bathtub
 • Dust bedrooms

Thursday
 • Clean toilet
 • Sweep and mop (entry way, bathroom, kitchen)

Friday
 • Plan menu
 • Dust living area

Saturday
 • Grocery shopping
 • Food prep
 • Brush Nenya

Nathan's (Usually) Weekly Chores
• Vacuum
• Take out trash
• Clear off desk

This is what works for us right now. I don't always keep with it perfectly, but I usually manage to get almost everything done on a weekly basis at least. My most often neglected chore is sweeping and mopping the floors, even though I have just 3 tiny sections of floor that need swept. There aren't any chores that get done on a daily basis. As I've written about before, although I take care of most of the chores right now since Nathan is busy finishing up his MBA as well as working on computer certifications, I'm blessed with a husband who does not consider any chore "woman's work" and who would be willing to take on more chores if he ever becomes the one with more free time. Sometimes he helps me haul the laundry and get it started, which rocks my socks off.

Do you use a chore schedule? What is your least favorite chore?

Married to an MBA Student

Around the time we celebrate our one year anniversary, we will also (Lord willing) be celebrating Nathan’s graduation from his MBA program. It’s been interesting being married to a student. Recently, upon hearing that Nathan and I work the same hours, someone exclaimed, “Oh, so you have the whole evening together!” Well, yes and no. Since Nathan's classes are online, we’re both in the apartment most evenings, but we can’t exactly spend every minute together. This doesn’t bother me for the most part since I’m an introvert and don’t mind having time to myself, but sometimes I’ll want to tell Nathan something while he’s reading and have to try to keep it to myself.

Of course, I also keep busy doing most of the cooking, cleaning, and grocery shopping. Nathan says he never expected his wife to do be the one to do all of that, but it wouldn’t really be fair for him to do a lot of chores on top of his school work when I don’t really have anything else to do. He does all the vacuuming though since he actually enjoys it and I dread it and also takes out the trash. He will help out with various other chores when he isn’t super busy.

Nathan getting ready to cook ostrich. He's a great cook, but he only cooks once a week at most these days.

The fun part of Nathan being a student is being able to learn along with him. A lot of his classes are IT-related and way over my head, but I’ve at least been able to pick up a few terms and concepts to make me feel somewhat more informed about technology than the average person. The classes that I find most interesting—the ones involving mainly theory and psychology—are the ones he can’t stand.

It only becomes really difficult to be married to a student when Nathan has to write a paper. While I freely admit that I almost always finished writing papers at the last minute, Nathan doesn’t even start papers until about the last minute. This is not good for my mental health. The craziest part? He still manages to write really good papers! A couple weeks ago, he started a paper the day before it was due, and managed to be one point away from a perfect score. I don’t know how he does it, and I don’t think he does either. Knowing he works well under pressure still doesn’t make it fun for either of us when he is under pressure.

I’m really looking forward to the day when he’s finally done with his classes, but I’m trying to be as supportive and understanding as possible in the meantime. After all, his extra credentials should eventually lead to extra income, so I can’t complain too much about that.

Were you or your spouse a student when you got married?