busy, tired, sleep deprived

Well, this semester is going just as I imagined it. Every time I get home I just get ready to pick up and leave again. Get home from school, get ready to go to work. Get up after work, get ready to go to school. Or a family activity or a mandatory work training. And soon, to the testing center. Or to church. And in a few weeks we'll even have a Saturday practice for the primary program (yes, we have primary callings!). I finally caved and set up as many of my bills online with autopay as I could. I used to spend so much time paying bills and going through papers. I guess Christmas Break will be paper-sorting time. I still need to set up our mortgage, and I'll always have to pay our HOA and regular credit card by hand (don't worry, we spend the money then pay the whole thing off each month MOM). Our bishop actually asked me how we were doing in general, then asked how we were doing financially. I told him we were fine, and even though we might have to dip into our savings after our low-income summer he said in shock "you have savings?!" I guess we are a rare finding in our ward. Maybe time to increase our fast offerings.

But all that is besides the point! I don't get enough sleep and when Todd and I sit down to make our weekly schedules we often can't find time to do the grocery shopping. We like to do it together, but we may have to bite the bullet here soon and whoever can fit it in will have to do it themselves. But we have been successful in working out for an hour 6 days a week! Going back to our weekly planning- that is the only way we've been able to do that. We decided its important for us and so we are going to stick to it! At night instead of winding down and watching TV with Todd I usually spend 3 hours studying after Lila goes to bed, then crash myself. I used to take naps with Lila when I got tired, but now its basically the only time I can study!

There are only 2 reasons I feel that I might still be sane at this point. The first is that I knew all this was coming and decided ahead of time that I would not freak out. In the past if I didn't get my sleep I knew I would be tired and have a hard time functioning, so I would freak out. My sleep was a high priority. But I have put mind over matter and allowed sleep to drop a bit on the priority list. I sneak in extra when I can, but I know it won't always work out the way I want it. It's all about attitude!

The second, and much more important thing is that Todd has become househusband! He has taken on almost all the housework, and gets mad at me when I do some things for him. He may not know it, but it has made my sanity possible. Before if there were dishes in the sink my brain would be racing about how I would have time to do them while Lila pulled them out of the dishwasher as soon as I put them in and I also have to get ready for school and finish this assignment and get the mail and oh yeah there are toys out downstairs and I really should sweep the floor and man that shelf needs organizing and I need to pick up my clothes off the bedroom floor and soon I was overwhelmed with the magnitude of everything because I really felt I was responsible for everything. Now I can just pick up after myself and know that the rest of the mess (Todd's mess, some of Lila's messes and the family mess) will be taken care of at some point. He doesn't do things the same way I would do them, or in the same order, but the fact he has taken on this responsibility is probably the only reason reason #1 is working.

Thanks Todd.