This has been a crazy month, absolutely crazy. Way too much going on. And over a hundred unread posts piled up in my bloglines… I would like to be able to say I’m going to catch up with everything this week but I already know that’s not going to happen. In fact I doubt whether I’ll be doing much blogging at all this fall.

My dear husband Steve, who teaches high school social studies, has three preps this semester instead of the usual two, including one class he’s never taught before, called Current History — how’s that for an oxymoron? And he has to teach first hour, which means he has to be out the door by 7 a.m. Plus, he is taking two graduate-level history courses. I know it will be very nice when he finally gets that Masters and we move over to the next column on the pay scale, but right now it’s a pain in the ass, let me tell you. Because twice a week he is not only out the door by 7 a.m. but he doesn’t get home until well after the kids are in bed.

And then there’s the kids. I’ve always tried to keep extracurricular activities to a minimum. I just read an article suggesting that parents “limit” their kids to three each. Yeah, right. I can barely keep up with Joey’s two (martial arts & drum) and Lena’s one (violin). The drumming has been really interesting, by the way. The nice thing about drums is — no wrong notes! But the flip side of that is, it’s hard to tell if you’re making a mistake. It’s not like, say, the violin, where you can hear right away if you’ve played a wrong note or if your intonation is off. Joey needs someone (i.e., me) to read along while he plays to make sure he’s got the right rhythm, and it takes some concentration to do that. While I’m on the subject, though, I’d like to give a little plug to Ann Arbor’s very own Rock Band School, where Joey’s taking lessons. How cool is that?

Anyway, I am trying to keep up with carpooling to martial arts twice a week, music lessons once a week — and don’t let that fool you because even though the lesson is once a week the practice is daily and as I just explained, I have to practice with Joey and of course I have to practice with Lena too because she is only 8. And there is a weekly trip out to our CSA to pick up our share of the produce — total time for that, at least an hour. And the kids have homework now, too…

Oh yeah, I also have a freelance design business. How could I forget? I have a huge deadline looming next week…

What a whiner, huh? I know that I’m a very lucky lady, actually. I have many blessings and I try not to take them for granted. I don’t mean to whine. I just wanted to explain why I haven’t been blogging much lately. And boy it feels good to vent. :)