...or you'll get hopelessly behind!
Last week is a case in point. I think I only had one day with nothing on the calendar! I spent half the day Wednesday at Children's and at a meeting at Elli's school, took all 4 kids to the dentist Thursday (only 2 of them had appointments, but everyone has to go!) followed by 6 hours working at Children's that afternoon (not counting the 1 1/2 hours commuting), and then headed to Children's a third straight day for Luke's heart catheterization. We had to arrive at 6am, and didn't leave until 6:30pm.
This weekend we got an unexpected chance to catch our breaths and survey the damage. A winter storm blew in and canceled our Saturday plans. I wanted to cheer, but I was too exhausted to rejoice any other way than by crashing immediately following lunch!
After three days pretty much absent from the home, I have at least 10 loads of laundry to wash.
The carpets haven't been vacuumed in over a week, except the dining room which got a once-over Wednesday before company came over for dinner.
No Christmas presents had been wrapped except those for a family we adopted at work that had to be delivered Wednesday. In fact, the Christmas shopping was only about half done.
I'd tried to grocery-shop at Walmart on Tuesday, but I forgot my grocery list and thus forgot half the things I needed. So the food supplies in the house were rather sketchy (for example, I had everything for spaghetti except the pasta, hot dogs but no buns, etc.).
The kids hadn't been made to properly clean up their rooms, so toys were strewn from one end of the house to the other, plus down the stairs into the basement.
Many of my things had been relocated as well: I found pieces of my Nativity Scene crammed into a Diego "Rescue Pack."
The EOBs (explanation of benefits -- document showing how much medical insurance was billed, will pay, and leaves for us to pay) and hospital statements were out of control again. (Have I mentioned how much I hate paper? It is my nemesis. I never know what to keep, what to shred, and what to recycle and Get Out Of My House!)
I still needed to work 1 1/2 hours to get my 10 per week in... but I ran out of time and energy and didn't make it.
I also needed to get a bunch of things ready for our Christmas program tonight at church (one donkey costume, 4 angel costumes, and a Mary costume), Elli's holiday party at school on Friday (craft supplies for 25 kids plus an unknown number of siblings), and finish the Christmas cards. I'm about ready to bail on the annual Christmas letter for the first time in 9 years. I lost my address list from last year, so I've got a significant stack of recipients for whom I lack a complete address.
I'm trying really hard not to be paralyzed by my fatigue and the overwhelmingness of it all. That's what usually happens. The job looks too big (especially those piles of paper), so I just leave it and go do something more accomplishable. Or more pleasant. I have to find the right balance between getting sleep (which means accomplishing Absolutely Nothing on the list but hopefully improving my attitude, mood, and efficiency later) and working on stuff (which means choosing one thing and therefor also choosing to not do everything else) til I'm staggering around and biting everyone's heads off I'm so tired.
This morning I was able to make a dent in it. I know it's Sunday, but I had to stay home with a sick child and decided that I needed to bless my family with clean clothes. So I sorted my ten loads of laundry, started into them (I only have 2 loads done, but it's better than nothing), and worked on the costumes for tonight. I am pretty sure I will be home more this week, so I'm praying for good health and energy to get it all done.
P.S. The news from Luke's heart cath was good. Very good, in fact. His heart surgery 6 weeks ago did what they hoped, and they finally got all the pictures they needed. His situation is much more simple than they feared, so he should only need one more surgery... and it will be fairly soon. I'm so thankful that he will not remember any of this. And I'm very thankful that God chose to bless him with a much easier problem to solve than his older sister's.
