Blisteringly Swift Update

Well.  Things have gone from a relatively slow, plodding (and somewhat boring) relaxation period to crazed high speed chasing down the day.  I was correct to be nervous about diving back in – it’s been mind-bending to be so busy so all-of-a-sudden.

A quick run-down:

• 3 Sundays ago, on Palm Sunday, we go to Pensacola beach to see some New Orleans friends.  They have rented a house for a few days.  The sliver of private beach on which they are positioned is wee, the water shallow, no waves.  Perfect for kids – and yet still Jack manages to almost drown himself by getting his foot caught up in a rope that is looped alongside his raft.  Luckily Mama is watching and manages to reach him and un-loop his foot before he drowns.  He goes right back in the water, but checks in with me often, asks me what would have happened if I hadn’t seen?  Would he sink to the bottom?  I say – I always see, darling.  That is my job.
• 3 Mondays ago, we drive to the Professor’s hometown to do some Palm Sunday visiting.  We had been scheduled to drive up for actual Palm Sunday, but illness in the extended fam made us delay our visit by a few days.  We spend time at a Children’s Museum, get pictures with the mall Easter Bunny, eat a fabulous Easter meal (on Monday night), and enjoy catching up with old friends.  We drive home Thursday.
• Friday, the Professor attends the New Orleans funeral of a colleague.  A sad, though not unexpected, loss for the community.
• Saturday, we go to Gulf Shores beach to spend time with a different set of friends.  Seafood – and a good time – is had by all.
• Easter Sunday, we have friends come over for brunch after church.  The kids decorate eggs and have an egg hunt in our backyard.  I collapse at the end of the day, happy to have socialized, but a little worried about how exhausted the prior week has made me, in advance of my return to work.
• The following Monday, I return to work.  I am overloaded with cases.  I am immediately drowning.  The transition is head-spinning, and by the end of the day I feel very fuzzy-headed and weird.  Evening snuggles with the baby are restorative.
• I have a long drive for a hearing in Florida one day, a filing due the next.  I work late pretty much every night, trying to get oriented to all of the new items I have been given.  Everyone laments the fact that I cannot ease in, but they all have been doing nights and weekends for so long that they are gasping to spread the load a little.  I pump at work but have trouble with supply at first – the shock of the change, I’d imagine.  (The troubles have cleared up, and we are full speed ahead now.)
• Friday, Jack’s birthday, I escape midday to go and purchase cupcakes for his class and then eat (a very early) lunch with him at school.  He wears a birthday crown all day, and gets to be line leader.  What more could a six year old require in celebration?
• My parents arrive for the birthday weekend on Friday night, and my mother surveys our towering pile of laundry and gets to work earning her title of Best Mom Ever.  After two solid days of laboring with it, she manages to wash and fold and put away every bit.  In the meantime, Friday night we go to Moe’s for the birthday boy’s requested special dinner.  He wants a quesadilla.  We are happy to oblige.
• Saturday I have a work “retreat.”  It’s pleasant enough – a little associate gathering at a beach house – but it takes most of the day.  My mother does laundry, my father watches baseball, my husband grills burgers and mows the lawn, and I sit in a little house an hour away and talk about work life balance.  Which is, you know, ironic and stuff.
• Sunday we go to church, then prepare for Jack’s birthday party.  It is awesome – we charter a delta boat excursion and invite Jack’s whole class to attend.  In ushering 22 children under the age of seven onto a boat on water, I invite many heart attacks.  But all attendees survive, and I throw a party for which do not have to clean my house.  And most importantly, Jack has the best time ever.  We do, too, so we call it a success – even including the heart-stopping moment when Liam very nearly made off in a golf cart.

And now we are back to Monday again.  We have blocked off this coming weekend for Absolutely Nothing – with the possible exception of a date night.  We plan to shore some things up – deal with the constantly regenerating laundry pile, do some work on the lawn, clean up Jack’s new collection of birthday toys, and also grocery shop and make-and-freeze some meals, as we are sick of convenience foods that have inevitably accompanied these hectic nights.  I want to maybe take a long family walk, do some stretching and moving and relaxing.  It’s the oasis, and thoughts of it buoy me through the assaultive week.

45 new cases just came in, to be divided among 6 of us.  Calgon, take me away.

In better news, the baby’s sleeping.

Through the night.

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH don’t say it out loud or he might hear and stop doing it.

So I’m sort of exaggerating, in that he actually gets up once.  In a 10 hour period of time.  Between 9pm and 7am, he gets up at 4:15 – eats very quickly and goes right back to sleep.  In his crib.  This is madness.   To me, this is sleeping through the night and I will TAKE IT SIR.  Thank goodness for small favors.