Managing

My brain cells are slowly beginning to re-establish control over snippets of time. I've taken three naps today, but also picked up Little Guy from co-op, done some grocery shopping, remembered that my parents arrive tomorrow for the weekend, put in a load of laundry, and sent in a piece for my other blog that, fortunately, was already written.

It looks nice and productive when written out like that, but really it wasn't. I staggered through it, not necessarily graciously, not without some inner grumbling. You know how it goes: my body and I would have preferred to spend the day in bed.

Fortunately there was nothing complex on today's schedule. And now that I've recovered enough to remember that I have to cook for an entire weekend's worth of busy-ness (Snuggler's show runs Friday night, 2x on Saturday, and once on Sunday), and recalled that there will be two extra people here, and checked to see which doctors' appointments are when (and mostly figured out the logistics of how to get everyone everywhere), I think we'll be okay.

I'm not really sure how air traffic controllers manage jets, but I sometimes imagine that there are certain similarities to managing a largish family. There's that inner circle on the screen, where the take-offs and landings are happening, and the bulk of my attention is focused there. But extending out there are concentric circles of incoming events, problems and deadlines. I keep an eye on those but mainly they're in my peripheral vision and require less-frequent and less-intense attention.

Of course, I don't always care to admit how small that inner circle of attention can be. It's rarely as large as a day, often as small as an hour or two. But hey -- it works. Sort of. Mostly. Sometimes.

And sometimes it doesn't. And ya know what? We live through it. Or at least we have, every time so far.