It's All Relative, Right?

February's blogging theme for those committed to daily blogging is "Relative."

I've been having a taste of that this week. To other people looking in, I'm always "busy." Mostly, though, my usual overbooked, overwhelmed self is just my normal. The past week, though? This is busy even for me and it's a really wild ride.

My boss is one of the hardest working, tireless, hard charging women I know. And, people come to expect that kind of delivery from her. She's been overseas, though, and I've been filling in certain duties for her. She worked to line up some others to take some discrete tasks off my list and only a few of those things have actually come to fruition. This is one time I'd gladly delegate, but there is no one responding to the delegation assignments.

I will be so glad when she's back in the country on Wednesday night! And yet, I'm really glad she could go and that she trusts that the place will still be standing when she returns. I have enjoyed everything I've done in her absence, but many days the back-to-back classes, meetings, copying, organizing, planning, etc. is too much of a good thing. And next week, those we work with who are taking the February bar exam head off to do just that. It's a scary time for some very worn out people. I'm becoming quite adept at exuding positivity and calm even when I just want to crawl under the desk and hide.

There are several things waiting on my to-do list that aren't work related. Pretty much everything outside the office is waiting for my attention. It will be interesting to see what I do with all my "free" time once my boss returns.

I'm seriously keeping a list and it goes something like this:

1) Plan the presentation that I will deliver four times on Friday--once to each 3rd grade class at my daughters' school. It's Masterworks Day and I'm the presenter for the 3rd grade. My artist is Renoir. I saw his exhibit when I visited D.C. a couple years ago, so it's nice to be able to say I've seen the paintings in person--not that 3rd graders care. I need to come up with a project for them to do in the spirit of Renoir's work and I need to do it in time to have enough materials for 100 kids to do it. It's my understanding that the provided materials at the school are a little sketchy, so I will likely just shell out the money to have some decent materials to use in each class.

2) Plan for my Scentsy Open House for Saturday. My business has really been suffering so far this year. Way too busy to be concentrating on customer service and that's bad. But, our new catalog featuring some new lines will debut March 1st and I want to try and close out February in a strong way by inviting people over to sniff the new scents and take advantage of our current 10% off sale. This means I need to do some maintenance around here, purchase food, organize my business materials and then determine how I will do this solo as my business partner (the Hubs) and my assistants (the Ms) will be running between two volleyball games and one basketball game during my Open House time.Somehow,I don't think Annie, Henry & Gib are going to be much help.

3) Start writing for real. I have this overwhelming itch to write. But, I've had entirely too much going on in my head to allow my ideas to bubble to the surface. And, even if they had, it would have been tough for me to jot any of them down. I've been finding some time to read (I devoured a nearly 400 page John Patterson book in 2 days), but I'd really rather be writing. It's exciting to me to know that there is something in there that might turn into something terrific--it's like a scavenger hunt of sorts.

4) Start training for the half marathon I registered for--don't start with me, I know! I am only trying to finish. And, I plan to do a walk-run program to do it. The awesome part is that my sister wants to do this with me. I was so thrilled when she texted me to see if she could do it too and kicked myself for not taking the initiative to ask her like I'd wanted to when I registered. It's difficult to think of finding time to do any kind of activity when you leave the house before nine and return up to 12 hours later. I realize that's an excuse, but it's all I have right now. I need to map out my strategy and then force myself to start before it's too late.

5) Try out my new programmable slow cooker. Knowing my luck, the dang thing is defective, but I won't find out in time to exchange it. I need to give it a whirl--maybe I can put something amazing in it for this weekend's Open House. That would take care of TWO of my list items with one effort--work smarter, not harder, ya'll.

6) Last, but certainly not least, make my annual appointment with my OB/GYN. I'm on my last pack of birth control pills and I need that prescription slip so that we can continue with the pill-a-day-keeps-the-babies-away motto of this household. Because, friends, I sincerely have too much on my list that a little baby (like the one I dreamed about the other night) would seriously cramp my mom-of-older-kids lifestyle. I had a dream where I was wandering around asking my friends why I would be pregnant; what was I thinking; where I would find clothes if it were a boy; we had no diapers; etc. It was horrifying. Sometimes, those dreams would be scary but would involve an underpinning of pining. Not anymore, it seems. I was 100% freaked out by the entire idea.

Tomorrow, I have no white space on my Google calendar. My day will begin well before I launch the first day simulation for my bar exam takers at 9 a.m. I can only imagine how dog tired I will be at the end of the day, but I am DETERMINED to come home after picking the girls up after school and not returning to my office. We'll see if I can do it...maybe if I write it on my list it will happen?

Comments

[Amy]

If it's any help I had that slow cooker (until someone ... ahem ... dropped it) and LOVED IT. I bought the same model for my mom for Christmas after buying myself a different one as a replacement and very much regretting it. Happy-cooking-stuff-slowly!

[Guard Wife]

Amy, I'm glad to read that. I've heard positive feedback from a few friends who have & love it as well.

If I can make it to Thursday when my boss returns and live through the weekend, I *might* just have time to not only make dinner, but also get going on all the other things I'd rather be doing.