Oh, I've had a day or two, here or there, that were calm. But mostly, and mostly since I became pregnant with Kavya, I've been behind on everything, stressfully behind. Things were starting to get better when she turned, oh, 18 months or so, but not long after, I became pregnant with child #2. And then instead of a nice, simple house move when that pregnancy was seven months along, we ended up with our own personal housing crisis, living in a friend's attic for months while majorly pregnant, four moves in two years, and in the end, taking on a major renovation project that ate, oh, five times as much time as I had thought it would.
Much of this was self-inflicted, and for the most part, we took it on knowing it would be extra work for a worthwhile reward. But it really tested our capabilities, more so than expected!
For a long, long time, my darlings, there have not been nearly enough hours in the day. And my health has suffered (so much sickness, the past four years), my work has suffered (do you see me publishing any books in that time? why, no, although I'd published a book a year for the decade before that), the children have probably suffered (they're doing fine, though, thankfully), and let us not ask Kevin how much he has suffered, because we wouldn't like the answer, we're pretty sure.
But now, the house projects are finally winding to a close. The unpacking has moved to the leisurely point (we have two (2!) boxes left in the main house -- all the rest are in the basement, and can be unpacked at our leisure). The children are FINALLY sleeping through the night. Yesterday, I caught up on 150 e-mails, and I can actually imagine a day, not too far distant, when my Inbox is empty. Empty! My administrative work is...pretty much caught up? Amazing. I'm in good shape for my teaching this semester, well-prepared and excited about my courses. I have PLANS for the SLF and DesiLit, and will hopefully start implementing them in September. I have multiple book projects in the works, and am going to carefully allocate time for actually writing them. I even have time in the schedule for exercise (once my doctor clears me for such). And my good friend Roshani has moved back to the area, and stopped by yesterday for an hour for tea and scones. It is so very nice to have her here, and have enough leisure in the day to enjoy her.
The sun is risen, the air is clean and cool and fresh with that beautiful autumn-ness. Time to breathe.
I thinks we are all breathing a sigh of relief that you are experiencing a sense of normalcy. Those were indeed the times that tried men’s/women’s lives.
Psst. Now try and keep it this way.
Oh, good, because I’m going to have a book for you to read pretty soon.
(smile)