Severly Over Extended

(Obviously) I have not been posting personal posts this month(or last month) . . . I am swamped at home. Buried alive is more like it. I have been in this big pile of commitments since November and I thought once the new year came that my schedule would ease up. Unfortunately, that did not happen. In fact, my pile accumulated some additional commitments and I am over-extended. Severely over extended.

So over extended that something on my list had to go. That being personal blogging. Writing and reading of blogs. I am so far behind in my reader I am afraid to even open a window to see how many unread posts I have. (I know it will be scary)

I am usually a fly-by blogger and tweeter any way. More so with tweeting than blogging though. I want to blog. I like to blog. Blogging makes me happy. But in and out I was. I had a set time that I could blog and that was it.

My children's schedules have pretty much always been 100% my responsibility (I don't mind at all about this either) and they still are. But as they are getting older, their schedules are busier. Please tell me how this happens? Frankly, I don't think I have my children involved in that many extracurricular activities either.

Anyway, normally my husband would come home at a 'normal' time and relieve me so I could get some other things done (as I am sure it is in other households). However, since about October, my husband's work load/schedule has changed completely. (and it is seriously messing with mine) Most evenings we don't see him. I insist that my husband stay home in the mornings so the children can see him before they leave for school or an entire week would pass before they would see him again. Weekends have always been strictly family focused. We live near a fantastic city and we take full advantage of all that it has to offer. Until lately. My husband is always working. ALWAYS. Morning, night, late at night, Saturdays he goes into the office. Even Sundays, he will go to church with us, driving separately so he can go to work afterwards. If he is at home, his face is in his laptop or his Droid.

So where I used to get a break to do things like, well . . . wash my hair . . . fold some clothes . . . tickle the baby . . . read with my son or write some blog posts . . . that time has disappeared. On top of all of this non-extra time that I no longer have. I made many commitments to the children's school. I am the room parent for my daughter's class. I took over the Fund-raising Committee completely and had four volunteers join and then not do anything and then bow out after we had all committed to the school to 'Do More'. All the new fund-raising commitments landed in my lap. This aspect is actually manageable for me and is not an issue yet. I also joined the PTL this year and have been helping out with all of those activities. If you have ever been involved in your school's PTL, there is at least once or two functions per month. In April, the school will have an auction to raise money (my children attend a private Christian school and they do not receive any state money). I have been one of the three parents who have been out soliciting local businesses for donations. This "task" has been taking up a large portion of my time . . . well, really my life right now. We have two more months of vigorous soliciting and then I will be in full on prep-stage for the auction in April.

On top of all of this, I had this stupid brilliant idea that I would participate in a local craft fair and sell my pre-made handmade scrapbooks. Silly me forgot that I didn't have that much stock left after the holidays. So, every spare breathe I have in me has been used to create some wonderful and beautiful, new scrapbooks to sell. I have to say, I have busted it out. I have been working (in my spare time) for the past month and created 25 new scrapbooks. And, yes there is more, I had the most fantastic idea that I would try my hand at hand(no pun intended) made tassels. I have made 30 tassels to sell as well.

And finally, I have seriously lost my mind somewhere in the process.
My fridge is bare.
My cupboards are bare bones.
I started Jazzercise last month and am actually enjoying it!
My nails are done (I have worn acrylic nails since I was 18 and don't even know what my real nails look like)
My hair is dyed (I even had my eyebrows done this past week - so happy to have red eyebrows again!)
My children are happy.
Their report cards had all A's (again) and this makes me VERY happy!
My son was accepted to the NW Gifted program and he loves it!
And I lost 5 pounds while still eating all the chocolate peanut butter cups I want!

While I am not working a full time job right now, I am as busy as I used to be in my old career (I was a Sr Financial Analyst). I find that the busier I am, the better I am or the better I perform (if that makes any sense at all). While I am not blogging right now personally due to all my other commitments I find that I like being really busy. I watch less tv, I am actually exercising regularly again, I am a bit more structured with my children and more regimented with my own schedule. And I am doing this all by myself because my husband has basically been working nonstop for the past 5 months. I miss blogging, I miss reading all my favorites, I miss all the updates about families but I am really good and balanced at home.

Busy, but balanced.