Coming up for a breath

Whew! I just turned in the last project of this week, well not this minute, but about two hours ago. Caleb has been clamoring for my attention all morning while I was trying to meet this deadline, so I had to run and spend some time with him first. We painted and drew, learned to spell C-A-L-E-B and sang songs in the sprinkling rain, danced with our "bug hands" on the bed to Alphabet Town, and washed the dishes together. Then, we had a big fancy salad for lunch. The baby was sleeping and it was a really good time with my boy. Now the baby's hungry and we are all having "quiet time."

The fact that I finished the last project of the week doesn't mean that much, for I have about 28 pages of work due Monday morning. But! Nothing for tomorrow! Which means I can breathe for a minute.

This has been another crazy week in our household. I did the count and the grand total of translated (and typed) words for this week comes to 27,917. Yes, that's Twenty Seven THOUSAND...

Several people have asked me this week how I do it. How do I find the time to accomplish everything? Well, simply - I don't. I don't accomplish everything these days.

My work and the children are obviously a priority. I know that my husband misses me. All my evenings are spent working.

My babysitter can tell you that my house is a mess more times than not. I cook dinners very rarely. I fix lunch, but mostly Ron is the one who cooks dinner or we order take-out, because I just do not have the time in my evening for cooking. Evening and night are the best time for concentrated translation work, as it is quiet and there are no interruptions.

I fantasize about a grocery home delivery service. That way noone would ever have to go to the store.

The dishes have been known to sit in the sink for days until a deadline passes and I can get to them. These days the only way I can do dishes is with Caleb joining me, anyway. Usually when the baby sleeps. He did that today, and while I finished the dishes he "made me" coffee, bundáskenyér, and eggs in the sink. He also learned the word "pretend" as last time he stuck a wet, dirty spoon right into the sugar container in order to sweeten my "coffee." I told him we don't take sugar from there, we take pretend sugar from the pretend sugar bowl. Today, he was all "pretend Mommy, pretend!"

I rarely leave the house anymore. Exception is Caleb's weekly Romp n' Roll class, church, and maybe one event per week, like last Saturday when we went to the farm/pumpkin patch and yesterday when we went on a Fire Station Tour. Pictures of both are coming up. (Sorry you had to wait so long.)

I never watch TV and the only hobby I have anymore is this blog. There are books sitting there, some bought just recently, tempting me to read them. I can tell you, if I had time to read books, my sink would not be full of dirty dishes.

It is autumn and I love autumn... It is the season for hiking in the mountains, for picnics, and for gazing at the colorful falling leaves... but this season is passing us by with warp speed. I have no way to slow it down. We have not hiked in the mountains yet, but we have gathered colorful fallen leaves and have made drawings of them. Caleb spots the red ones every time we go outside. Our house is littered with red leaves at all stages of decay... I try to get rid of them when they start crumbling apart.

Maybe this gives you a glimpse of why I haven't had the time to upload those pictures from last Saturday yet... we are kind of busy around here.

I am looking out my window today and noticing just how yellow, orange, and red everything is. It's quite beautiful. I am soaking it in, for the next time I look out, they might not be there.