Swamped

Since my last post, that's pretty much what I've been. Here's what's been keeping me so busy:

• The Nutcracker rehearsals and performances. They were tons of fun but extremely time-consuming!
• Christmas and all its attendant duties...shopping, cards, travel, etc. I was supposed to go to NM for my grandpa's 90th birthday but couldn't make it because fog forced a flight cancellation and all other options were booked (being the weekend before Christmas, not surprising). We had a great visit with D's family but we kept very busy between family celebrations and seeing many friends who live in the area. Not a lot of true down time.
• Researching and choosing a candidate for the caucus...it's fun to be first! It's also exciting to be part of an election that saw 3 times as large a turnout for our precinct and had at least 50-60% first time caucus-goers.
• Putting together my biotechnology module for the Science Girls (which we are now including boys for this one, long story, let's just say I learned a lot about how NOT to promote an after school science class).
• Trying to track down additional kids for Science Olympiad since our show choir has a competition that same day, thus we lost several kids.
• Midterm grades were due today and conferences are next Mon/Tues, so...grading caught up with me.
• Still working with a new curriculum here...still loving it, but it does require a lot of prep work.
• Ballroom dancing class. Pure fun, but it is another time commitment. I haven't been back to ballet since I hurt my hamstring in October, but I plan to go back as soon as I can--I'm taking generic Aleve every 12 hours for several days to try to take down the inflammation long enough to let it heal.

Phew! It's a lot to juggle, but I don't want to give anything up--it's all important to me. I looked at D the other night and asked, "How can people possibly do all this...and have kids??" Hobbies and other things have been completely placed on hold, I haven't scrapbooked at all since before Thanksgiving and my house is still a mess. I have a couple more weeks until Biotech is finished and then maybe this will let up a bit? (Of course, then SO will pick up, then Science Bowl, then the Spelling Bee, which I'm not sure I can get up the energy to do this year...) I'm getting the feeling that I won't really get a break until summer. At least this summer is not shaping up to be half as crazy as last summer. (Just typing that probably cursed me.) So to sum up: I'm happy, but very very busy. Hope your lives out there are feeling a bit more manageable!