I need to simplify

I thought last week was busy. This one was even worse. I made a list at the beginning of the week of all the things I needed to finish. I showed it to Steve and said, "There is not a way to complete everything on this list even if I ignore the kids all week. I don't know what to do." He kindly offered to do a couple of the things--laundry and grocery shopping--to ease my burden. But I still didn't get everything done. And I still ignored the kids for most of the week.

I did take the younger ones to a park one day. The trees are just beginning to change color here.

Part of the problem this week was that I had my writing retreat all day Friday and Saturday. So I had to get everything done that I normally do, with two fewer days to do it in. Plus I had to read all of the submissions this week, which ended up totally about 180 pages in Microsoft Word. That's a lot of reading. The view from the condo was gorgeous, though.

I also needed to process the pictures I took when we went to Boise a few weeks ago. My contract says I will get the pictures processed in approximately three weeks. And this weekend was the three week mark. I could have done them this week, but the couple was asking about them and I have a lot to do this next week, too, so I decided to be uber busy last week instead of this week.

Decorating for Halloween was also on my list, since I knew if I didn't do it this week, I wouldn't do it all because it's not worth changing all of my decorations for a couple weeks. Plus, the girls enjoy it so much, I like to be festive for them.

We also took the girls to Cocoa Bean one night this week and watched Empire Strikes Back for the first time with the older two. That needs to go down in the record books. :)

I was sad that I missed my Grandpa Frohlich's 90th birthday party. I couldn't swing two trips to ND in one year, but I'm sure they had a great celebration without me. Happy Birthday, Grandpa!