A recap of the week

I have some time to write tonight... so I thought I'd recap some of this week and post a few pictures. This was a big week for us - the week began with Ron putting in his two weeks notice at his job, so he has one more week left and he is done with "applework" (as Caleb calls it, haha). What's monumental about it is that he is most likely done with this traditional, working for somebody else type of job for good... We shall see, but it sure looks that way, with the success of my business and Ron's growing ideas of how he can branch out on his own. This has been quite some time coming, and we've been looking for the right timing, but all things seem to point to the conclusion that this is it. We are very excited about having Daddy home all the time and look forward to the next chapter in our lives with anticipation. Thank you, God!

What can I say about my work? It's constant, unrelenting, dependable (as much as freelance work can be), fulfilling, challenging, maddening, amazing all at the same time. I wouldn't change it for the world. This is exactly what I have always wanted to do, and this is how I wanted to do it - (mostly in my pajamas) with my children around me all day. Whether I'm at home, at Disney, at the beach, or in Hungary - I can do my job. I just need a computer and Internet access and I'm in business. This allows me to travel and vacation without leaving my business behind. Which is what I'll be doing this summer when I travel to Hungary for a month... looking forward to that very much. Looking forward to the whole summer, really.

The kids are wonderful. Ariana is a sweetie, she is waving all the time now, crawling with an army crawl and pulling to standing every chance she gets. And Caleb is a little comedian. Let me recount just one story from this week. We have a small invasion of ants in the house right now and we're working to get rid of them. Caleb wakes up in the middle of the night one night and asks for a glass of Perrier (yes, that's my influence). Anyway, there he is standing in the kitchen with sleepy eyes, and he goes: "Mommy, why do we have ants?" "Well, because they are hungry and they are coming to look for food, because we have some." "But Mommy, we have to SHARE, remember?!" he says, with a glint in his eye, ready for a good laugh. This is the joke he tells when he is half asleep. Do I have to tell you, this kid is amazing?

So, a little about these pictures... On Friday, right after my last deadline rolled by, we went outside to sit on the front stairs (this has become sort of a Friday evening tradition) and what did we notice? A little worm of some type crawling by. I had to get my camera, Caleb insisted on it too... and had to take many pictures of the little creature, some with Caleb posing with it. Funny, how such a tiny little thing can become such a source of joy. We have yet to draw it in our nature notebook, but we will one of these days...

Yes, his hair is LONG. We kinda like it that way.

And guess what? Facebook agrees. Or at least, my friends on Facebook do. :)

Do you see it? The little wormy?

(If you don't, click on the picture to bring it up larger.)

Ah, it was so cute the way it moved, scrunching up its body as it propelled itself ahead...

and sticking out its nose (nose?) to sniff out (sniff?)

navigate which way is best to take... we could hardly get enough of it.

In other news, this little girl absolutely adores table food:

mashed potatoes, potato soup, squash, sweet potatoes, pears, apples, cantaloupe, bananas, avocado, chocolate cake...uhm, Perrier (seriously, can't keep it away from her)

And, as I've said, she waves a hundred times a day.

Caleb never really got into waving when he was little, so I'm really enjoying it...

She waves to me when she gets something to eat that she especially likes,

she waves to me when she's nursing,

she'll wave anytime really

to Caleb and Daddy as well,

and to cars parking at the store

and to strangers...

CUTE!

We are blessed!

Late night work

I'm just popping in for a second to show you this beautiful moment from last night...

This was about 2 a.m. Since Ariana is getting her second tooth out (and let's hope it comes, soon), she wakes up a lot more in the middle of the night from the pain, and only nursing soothes her back to sleep.

So here I was working on some major deadlines in the middle of the night, and nursing my hurting baby back to sleep. At this point, she was already sleeping and I was contemplating taking her back to bed. All of the sudden, she reached her arm back, instinctively found my hand, grabbed it with her little fingers and held on - all the while sleeping. I was dumbstruck for a moment at the beautiful picture before me (remember, both of my hands were on the keyboard at the moment, typing away) and since my camera lay only a few feet away, I wrestled my way to it, quickly grabbed it with one hand and snapped the picture.

Now you know what our nights look like.

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.

Happy International Translation Day!

Happy Translation Day to me,

Happy Translation Day to me,

Happy Translation Day, dear me,

Happy Translation Day to me!

And many more!!!

Why I love my job

1. I can work while nursing a baby (which I'm doing a lot of these days).
2. My work can be finished any time I find convenient in a 24-hour day - even at 2 a.m. with a wide-awake baby.
3. I can drink a Pomegranate Margarita on the job.
4. I can take a break (to eat, play with my son, or run to the park) any time I feel like it.
5. I can wear whatever I want - even if it's pajamas all day.

Humor on St. Patrick's Day

The below email correspondence with a client (project manager) took place on St. Patrick's Day. The rare show of cluelessness gave me and my husband more than a few chuckles.

Client: Hi, I have a new job here for translation. I have attached the ITD to work into, as well as the source...

[I look at the source file. I realize that it is identical to a document I proofread and sent to him this morning. So, the job has been translated and proofread already.]

Me: Hi, Didn't I just do the proofing on this job this morning?

[Surely, he will quickly note his error.]

Client: You did it for Finnish - can you not work into Hungarian as well

[Really??! Thanks for informing me what language I translate. Cause apparently, I must have forgotten. And honestly, this sounds like: What good are you? Can you only speak one obscure language?]

Me: Finnish? I don't speak Finnish. I did it for the Hungarian language.

[What I really want to say: Are you drinking, man? I know it's St. Patrick's Day and all, but come on! Seriously, are you in a bar, typing this out on your Blackberry with one finger?]

Creative Weekend

This weekend was a huge work weekend for me. I had 7 projects due on Monday, and that was after I had to turn down no less than 4 others, due to my regrettably limited abilities as a human.

Weekend means nothing when you're a freelancer, as a matter of fact, the impending weekend often signals the beginning of more concentrated work without the constant interruption of e-mail messages and phone calls from desperate clients who need your professional assistance this very minute. During the weekend, the freelancer knows that (most of) these clients are happily out of their offices, enjoying time with their loved ones, or they are having what's otherwise called... a life.

Not so the freelancer, at least not this weekend, but at least she did have some interesting projects to speak of. Amongst all the medical reports, scientific articles, and SSA documents, there was a little gem. A copywriting assignment. A creative project. Where I actually get to think and write creatively, instead of just regurgitating the words of others.

These projects only come along a few times a year, and they are more challenging than the straight translation, yet they come as a refreshing break, even in the midst of a really crazy work weekend. (Which, you know, isn't really a week-end at all.)

Inspiration from a bulletin board