overload paralysis

It's just one of those weeks when the normally busy schedule gets pushed to its limits with "extras"...

*Annie has to take the SATs Monday through Thursday morning this week. (Not the college-bound SATs, but the Standard Achievement Test.) Part of New York's way of proving (along with our quarterly reports) that she's actually learning something while being schooled at home, I guess. Anyway, the timing of this testing pretty much has deemed my mornings useless. It's running her to the test, coming home for approximately 30 minutes before running Max to preschool, coming home for approximately 30 minutes before running back to get Annie, coming home for approximately 30 minutes before running back to pick up the Maxidoodle. I guess all those 30 minutes do add up to a fair amount of time...maybe I should make a game of it to see how much I can get done.

*Trying desperately to finish up our school year. Now less than 3 weeks to go. Which is actually more like 2 weeks, because our last quarterly report is due in 3 weeks...so we need to finish up everything so I can include it.

*Having guests coming. Which I am honestly very happy about! Our friends, Bill and Deborah, are coming up from TN. We haven't seen them since we left Cleveland, TN almost 4 years ago. Deborah is one of the nicest people ever. Actually they both are. And Bill. Well, he just absolutely cracks me up! Anyway, as excited as I am about their visit, it does mean I've got to get this house thrown back into shape again. And cook/bake about 7 different things Thursday night/Friday morning for their visit.

*Rich and I both have dental check-ups scheduled for Friday. Which turns out to be great timing...I had a filling fall out yesterday.

Anyway, the point of this post really wasn't to complain about how busy I am. I know we all go through patches like this. But it was really to comment on this phenomenon I've noticed with myself. I'm really curious to know if it happens to anyone else. It seems like every time one of these periods of pure overload comes around, I find myself totally paralyzed. Instead of just getting busy, I waste time! Way more time than I waste during "normal busy". I even realize that I'm doing it, and yet I seem powerless to stop it. I don't know...it's just weird. And I eventually do snap out of it, and manage to get it all done...usually by forgoing sleep and turning into an incredibly cranky mommy/wife for a couple days.

Well, it is time to roust the monkeys. I'm going to try to make an effort to be extra productive today...but I'm willing to bet that instead you'll find me back here time and time again. Oh well...