It's 9 pm, but to me, it feels much more like 1 am- tomorrow, that is. I am utterly exhausted from this day! Doesn't help that it didn't get off to the best start. My direct sales company (Celebrating Home) kicked off their Last Chance Sale today. It was slated to begin at 6 am, Central Time. I had planned to get up at 7 am, get right to the coffee pot, then online to see what was in the sale, and to place my order. Well, I was up around 6:30, nursing Balian and fell back asleep with him cuddled up right beside me. Next thing I knew, Balian was awake, talking (da-da-da-ing, to be exact) and it was 7:30! I rushed right to the computer, got to the site and placed my sale order. Have to get those orders in early, before everything you want is sold out within the first hour!

This morning was very rushed. Sacha mentioned that he wanted to leave for work a little earlier than usual, which meant that I had less time to try to get any work done and had to get my butt into the shower or else it wasn't happening before Sacha was out the door. As usual, things went awry. I forgot that I had a package and catalog to get out in the mail, so those had to be packed, addressed and sent off with Sacha. Balian was fussy right from the start this morning. He gave Sacha a hard time while he tried to feed him his breakfast of delicious cereal and peaches, so I knew I was in for it the remainder of the day. And boy, was I right! Poor Balian fussed all day long! Every time I put him down for two seconds, he started screaming. I had to go to a meeting yesterday afternoon, and his Auntie Rachel came to watch him for a couple of hours. Maybe he thought I was going to leave him again today or something. I wouldn't have gone out of the house today even if I wanted to! It was one o'clock this afternoon before I even got to put on any make up. I'm lucky that I got to brush my teeth before lunch time today! I guess it's my own fault, though. Between Balian, trying to run my own business, take care of church responsibilities and run my household, there just aren't enough hours in the day or days in the week to get everything done!

I've been so behind on laundry all week long that today had to become a laundry day, like it or not. Balian is usually awesomely behaved when I have to do laundry. He rolls around on the bed, and I fold everything there with him, we play games with the clothes and sing silly songs, etc... he just wasn't into any of that today. And to make matters worse... I had to go through B's dresser today and pull out any lingering 0-3 articles of clothing (don't know how I missed them the last time I went through those drawers), rearrange all of the 3-6 stuff, and had to get a bunch of 6 mo stuff washed and into the drawers so he'll have a chance to wear some of those things before he outgrows them in a few weeks. And then I get to do it all over again in a couple of weeks when he moves into the 6-9 clothes! My baby is getting too big, too fast!

Did I mention that I had about 6 dozen cookies to bake this afternoon (for a luncheon taking place at church this Sunday)? That means That I have cleaned the kitchen a total of three times today. The cookies did get baked- sort of in sifts though, because Balian had a major blow out while batch #3 was in the oven. Eight minutes left on the timer- plenty of time to get him to the changing pad, stripped, get his back washed off, bum cleaned, butt pasted, fresh diaper, outfit soaking in the poopy pail, get new clothes on and run a quick load of laundry. Actually, had three minutes to spare. After that, the cookies came out of the oven, Balian and I played in his room with Jungle Kitty and friends, and then I watched him play roly poly for fifteen minutes or so. Then it was time to nurse again, quick cat nap- not hard enough for me to put him down to sleep, though. Then it was time for me to fold more clothes, so he played in his bouncy activity center in our bedroom, we watched the news, and Sacha as home from work. Had a few minutes to help fold laundry and get showered. Sacha got Balian all situated and ready for supper. He's doing very well with his solids- enjoying the carrots after the third try! Yay! A vegetable winner! B hung out in his swing with us in the kitchen while we started dinner. Sacha heated up the grill and threw on a nice piece of London broil, while I started on the zucchini and shells and cheese! We had a very tiny window to get dinner ready and eat, because Sacha had to be at the Merony Theatre by 7:15. He's playing a few shows down there over the next two weeks... HAIRSPRAY! So, with him out the door, the kitchen a huge mess, and Balian getting very sleepy, I decided to leave the kitchen for later (gasp!) and get Balian into the bath tub. He had a marvelous time- splishing and splashing and I managed not to come out of the bathroom with a soaking wet shirt! Score one for mom! After he was all nice and dry and in his jammies, we had a story, nursed, cuddled, and he conked out around 8:15... was down in the crib around 8:30. I cleaned up the kitchen, put a few things away, answered many e-mails that have piled up all day long, watered the houseplants, and now here I am- ready to fall asleep at the computer at 9:40 pm. My contacts are fuzzy and my pj's are begging me to pull them out of the dresser. 

I don't know how some moms manage to work full time when they have little ones. I stay at home and can barely keep up! Sacha calls me super woman all the time, and some days I feel like it, while most days, I certainly don't. Like most new moms, I just have to take it easy- one day at a time, and let the dishes or the laundry go every once in a while. I'm not perfect, neither is my house... or my yard... or my punctuation at this point. Bottom line is that I'm a mommy, and that will always come first, because there is now a sweet little boy in my life who needs me... and a very handsome man who needs me, too... and I need them just as much. This is my life- hectic, unpredictable, and truly blessed. Can't wait to do it all again tomorrow.