Making Soup!

Andy has been home with us since yesterday afternoon, so it almost seems like life isn't quite as hectic as it usually is! We actually made it to church this morning and discovered that sometime since July 1st we got a new priest! While we miss Father Courtwright, the new guy seems like he is going to be quite entertaining, if a bit long winded!
In honor of the fall season, Andy offered to take the kids for the whole day - although much of it will be spent at his mom's - so that I could get my yearly fix of cooking done. So far my oven has seen banana bread, my stove is cooking home made cream of tomato-basil soup, and I have a butternut squash soup on deck, ready to be put together once the tomato is done. Now, having left most of the actual cooking to Andy for the past 11 years, this may prove to be a very interesting experiment! I will be sure to let you know if anyone ends up in the emergency room with a bout of food poisoning after this one !
While the soup is cooking, I have also managed to get a considerable amount of laundry done, the dishes cleaned up, and have a nice chat with my neighbor. What is not getting done is any type of research on my thesis. Every time I pick up an article or book that I need to read I get a feeling akin to a mild panic attack, usually reserved for when I lose my kids at the park or the grocery store! The teacher in me says that this is simply because the entire project seems overwhelming and breaking it down into small pieces will eliminate the anxiety. The student in my is screaming that this is an insane thing to be attempting and I should throw in the towel and switch to an education masters, thereby allowing me to design curriculum as opposed to actually doing relevant, original research on a historical topic.
Part of the issue involved is my topic. I decided early in this venture that everything I did would be geared towards classroom use in the future. I have chosen topics to write about that were likely to elicit student response. I wrote about pirates, studied bizarre religious practices, and devoted several credit hours to developing a working knowledge of archaeological practice and methods. For my thesis topic I settled on the opium trade (knowing the interest high school students always have for illicit drugs) and that led me to China and the missionaries that opposed the trade. While it may seem like an easy thing to study, there is a distinct lack of English-language primary sources regarding the effects of the trade, and so I have been forced to settle for the missionary's take on the drug. Ideally, this research would be better served by viewing it through the eyes of the Indian ryots that grew the poppy and the Chinese traders and consumers who made it lucrative. My lack of language skills has severly limited my scope. Unlike my friend Anna, who was able to conduct most of her research regarding Norwegian women's suffrage in the original Norwegian, I must depend on translations and interpretations that will inevitably color the documents.
Now I'd like you to consider how that last section of this post bored you to tears and made you question why you were reading this particular entry. Perhaps now you will understand my reluctance to begin my research!