Long Day

Trying to finish up my lab reports for the past two weeks. I felt like I hadn't accomplished much, but as I put things together and started writing the piles of films and DNA gels and protocol after protocol really started to add up.
I have one last write-up to do, then throw my stuff into my notebook and get my cultures from the incubator, and I can go home. For once I am getting a weekend lab-free.
I am a research assistant in a university lab, and I really enjoy it. I have a degree in Genetics that I rarely use, doing mostly molecular biology now. It is fun, but frustrating. Working with living things, even simple cells and bacteria, means that nothing is static, and sometimes I feel like I am getting nowhere. A lot of my colleagues have experiments with tangible positives or negatives, but my projects generally consist of generating materials for other people to work with. In that regard, there is very little sense of accomplishment, because once I get something "completed" it really doesn't tell us much about our hypothesis - that aspect is up to someone else.
Oh well, I shouldn't complain. I have a job(+), in my field(++), that allows me to work an adjusted and flexible schedule so that Ehemann and I can split the workday and keep the kiddos at home with us(++++).*
*not in any way a "Dis" to daycare - Big Whompers was in daycare for her first 18 months, and I credit a lot of her easygoing, confident, and social personality to her great daycare experiences. But oh how I love having them at home with me now!!