Chaos, chaos everywhere
Profuse apologies for my absence. It has been sooooooo busy around here lately. (All together now: "How busy was it??") Well, I'll tell ya. Whatcha got here is your basic multi-layer chaos.

At the first layer is the normal, run-of-the-mill, everyday chaos. The stuff that I take for granted will always be here - and, in fact, I hope it will! I forget how to breathe if I'm not running on a certain baseline of stress. So there's the normal household stuff, dishes and laundry and nutrition and personal hygiene. Okay, to be more accurate, it's buying and throwing out paper plates, allowing my 4-year-old to stay in her jammies all day (less laundry AND I look like a Fun Mommy, hooray for appearances!), choosing between mac-and-cheese and pb&fluff, and thinking I should shower more often. Occasionally my husband and I are in the same room at the same time, and sometimes we're even both awake when that happens. Schoolwork is still demanding, although let me tell you, after 11 straight years in college, I have the wickedest case of senioritis EVER.

At the next level is the chaos that is unique to this particular semester. I'm working three part-time jobs. Teaching/TA'ing two classes, supervising an assessment program, and generally feeling way overextended. My husband is teaching 6 classes - 4 at the high school and 2 at the college. Tuesdays and Thursdays he's out of the house from 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. So I'm doing a lot more by myself than I'm used to - the kids have been great, but it takes some getting used to. We've had to create a new rule in our house: Only One Person Can Whine At A Time. That includes me and Willem. He's having a hard time adhering to it, but so far the kids are doing great with it. ;)

Then there's the stuff that (KNOCK ON WOOD UNTIL MY KNUCKLES BLEED) will only happen once every few years, or only maybe once at all. Like, yesterday we listed our house for sale, and I've spent every "spare" moment in the past few weeks working various body parts right off trying to get it clean enough to show to strangers without mortal embarrassment. We'll start house-shopping next weekend. I'm still swimming through a really unpleasant case of PPD (are there pleasant cases?). I’m constantly struggling with whether to get on meds (and stop breastfeeding) or stick out the year I had wanted to breastfeed because I think that this is heavily hormonal and once I stop nursing I'll start to feel better - and I also think it's stress and once I get to the summer a lot of my other stuff will be done and I'll feel better - and I also think it's loneliness and this summer my husband will be around a LOT more and I'll feel better... is it obvious what my choice is for now? And my parents are divorcing - acrimoniously - after 29 years of marriage. And we'll be losing health insurance in 5 months. And so on...

So, mostly, I'm okay. But very frazzled and very busy. I wish I could stop in and at least lurk if not participate more, but I haven't even logged onto the board in a few days. I'm hoping things ease up a bit this month... where I take classes and where I teach both have spring break this month, that should help.