It seems like just last week that I was complaining about not paying my husband and home enough attention, so wrapped up as I’ve been in work, lately. Oh, wait—that’s because it was just last week. Huh.

Sure, I was complaining mostly about not having enough time for my husband, but really, deep down I was feeling like work was taking center stage in my attention more and more. And I was determined to restore balance. It started with the previously-discussed date night; fortunately, the sitter we hired was awesome (and I can’t wait to have her back again) and our night out was a lot of fun. I will definitely be trying to make that more a part of our routine.

But then—as so often happens—I swung right past “balanced” into nearly tipping off the other end of the scale. Moderation: I find it elusive.

I didn’t do it on purpose, either. It just seems like life always weighs down one end or the other, with precious little time to enjoy the middle.

Since writing that last post…

… my daughter has had several extra activities, including getting ready to go on her class trip, which requires a preparation process unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before in my life. I feel like I should call up my mother and thank her for sewing labels on my clothes before I went to summer camp; I had no idea how tedious and time-consuming these little mundane things can be.

… my son has been ill, and what started as allergies has morphed into a relentless sinus infection. While I’m delighted to have the freedom to skip out of the office as needed to run the Child Illness Gauntlet (doctor’s office, donut shop [hey, when you get a giant Q-Tip shoved up your nose for a mucus culture, you get a donut], pharmacy, school, home), it means my day is, in a word, kerflurgled. Okay, maybe that’s not what you would call it, but it’s a family word that we use in place of another word which my children are not allowed to say. You get the idea. Now I still have tons of work to do, which gets pushed into the evening, which cuts into family time.

… my beautiful vegetable garden—which has been a great family project, so far—has been thriving and bringing us all a lot of outdoor fun. Except that for some reason, Georgia is having a freak cold snap and we’ve spent an inordinate amount of time covering up the beds and hoping that all our new, beautiful sprouts don’t die.

… the side of beef I went in on with a friend with an indeterminate delivery date is now being delivered this week, which meant that suddenly I realized that our deep freezer needed to be cleaned out and defrosted before the meat arrives. Not a big deal, really. Unless I had five hundred other things I needed to be doing.

My husband is happy, my kids are happy (well, my son maybe not so much, given the whole sinus swab thing… but I’m pretty sure the donut helped him over it), the garden is happy, the laundry is happy… and I am so far behind on work that I worked all day Sunday and I’m still behind.

Argh.

Moderation: I miss you. Call me!