Crazy Life, Crazy Me

Do you ever have those weeks where life just seemed totally crazy - crazier than normal? This past week has been that way for me. This morning, I sat down to figure out what I've had going on that has made it seem so crazy. Here is what I came up with:

1. I am the mother of four children. Yes, this is normal for me. But sometimes normal life contributes to craziness. Steven read me a quote from a General Conference talk last night: "We might all ask ourselves: do our children receive our best spiritual, intellectual, and creative efforts, or do they receive our leftover time and talents, after we have given our all to our church calling or professional pursuits?" I've been making a greater effort lately to give my children more of my undivided attention, playing games with them, helping them with homework, overseeing bedtimes a little more closely for the youngest, giving my oldest opportunities to practice driving, and encouraging her viola playing by accompanying her on the piano when she wants me to. Yes, it is normal, but it contributes to craziness.
2. I'm in New Calling Limbo. A week ago Sunday, I visited with the bishop, and was extended a new calling. I was going to be released from two of my current callings, but I talked him into leaving me in one of them for a little while longer, just because this isn't really a good time for a change there. He was very easily persuaded. Anyway, I expected to be sustained last Sunday, but it didn't happen. So, I'm left thinking of ideas and plans for what I will be doing in my new calling, but unable to really do anything about them yet. In a way, that's kind of good, because I wouldn't have had the time to do anything about them anyway with everything else that has been going on, but it's just one more thing that has been on my mind.
3. As Webelos Den Leader, I was responsible for planning den meeting last Thursday - which wouldn't have phased me except that my assistant hadn't been available for any planning, and also wasn't there that night, so I had to plan, bring all the supplies, find someone who could come be another adult in the room with me, (thank you, Kathy!) and lead the den meeting pretty much single-handedly. 
4. John and Josh went on an overnight Klondike camp-out on Friday. That meant shopping to make sure they had adequate warm clothing - coats, boots, snowpants, wool socks, etc. as well as encouraging (read gentle reminders, followed by not so gentle reminders, followed by directly overseeing - Go get this. Put it in your pack. Now get this.) them to get their equipment packed and ready to go. They were ready to go on time. Hannah drove us all to the leader's house to drop them off, and they arrived home Saturday evening. They had fun, they hadn't been too cold, and it was a good experience.
5. I got to plan a hike for my Webelos for Saturday afternoon, finding a place to go that wasn't too muddy from recent snow, letting everyone know where and when to meet, and making sure that my assistant den leader would for sure be able to make it.
6. We had the sister missionaries over for dinner Saturday night. That meant cleaning the public areas of the house, as well as cooking dinner. Thankfully Steven helped a lot with dinner, including baking homemade rolls for the pulled pork. (Thank you, Steven!)
7. Monday morning, my visiting teacher visited me. Later that day my companion and I visited with two other sisters. My companion has a chaotic life and work schedule, so scheduling appointments is often a challenge and frequently gets pushed off to the end of the month. We had an appointment with another sister for last night, but she cancelled on us, and we won't be able to visit with her until next month. Visiting Teaching would be a ton easier if no one had anything else going on in their lives. (But the conversations would not be nearly as interesting.)
8. A few weeks ago, I was asked to teach the Adult Continuing Religious Education class (What I usually just refer to as institute). It was supposed to be last week, but the carpets ended up being cleaned that day so class was cancelled, and so I got to teach yesterday (Tuesday). Now, please understand that I enjoy teaching. I don't mind teaching Relief Society, or even subbing for primary at the last minute. But teaching a class of really intelligent and interested adults for an hour and a half about eight sections of the Doctrine and Covenants was intimidating. I've been working on preparing that lesson for three weeks, and still coming up with ideas of how to teach it in the shower yesterday morning. In spite of my worries, it ended up going really well. There was a lot of discussion, and I didn't get through everything I had prepared before time was up, but that's okay. 
9. Part of my life's craziness is totally self imposed. After indexing over 15000 names last year, I set a goal to index 25000 names this year. (52 weeks, 5 days a week, 100 names a day, with a few days off here and there for holidays.) I've mostly been indexing obituaries, which have at least 30 records per batch, and sometimes a lot more, so I can usually reach 100 names in half an hour or less, so it's not a huge commitment, but it does take some time, and it adds something to my to do list every day.
10. We are also planning a trip. Steven's Gram is celebrating her 90th birthday this weekend, and we are planning to drive to California to join the celebration. The kids and I haven't seen Gram since we were in northern California for my grandmother's funeral thirteen years ago, before Joshua and Peter were even born. That has required planning: arranging places to stay, shopping for food and snacks for the car, arranging for someone to care for the cats, making copies of our house key (the one we usually give to cat-sitters has disappeared), finding subs for church callings, and communicating with all the kids' teachers to get schoolwork in advance. (They will be taking four days off of school, and I don't want them to get too far behind.) We leave tomorrow morning so today will be spent washing laundry, packing and getting everything ready to go. I'm hoping to be able to clean up the house a bit so it looks decent for the cat sitter and so we can come home to a clean house, but I really don't know if that will happen.
11. Besides all that stuff that I have to do, I also get distracted sometimes and find my time getting sucked up in other directions - like blogging. I've spent an hour writing so far today... I've also got a book I'm trying to read (Halt's Peril, book 9 of the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan). Yesterday when I was indexing obituaries from South Carolina, I came across one where the man lived in McClellanville, SC. Since McClellan is my maiden name, I had to stop and look up McClellanville and it's history, and spent over an hour looking up the founder, Archibald James McClellan and his family tree, and comparing it to names on my family tree to see if there was a connection anywhere. I didn't find one, but since my ancestors did settle in South Carolina after coming over from Ireland, I imagine we are cousins; I just didn't find the link.

So yes, my life has been crazy. I've had a lot going on. Today I need to get busy. And then? For the next six days, we'll be spending an average of six hours in the car every day. I can sit and read my book without feeling guilty. I can visit with a couple of my sisters along the way. (Thank you Lindy and April!) I can hopefully relax a bit?