Time Is Running From Me!

Every time someone asks me how I am, lately I always have the same answer: "BUSY."  It's been raining for a week here in North Carolina.  No, really, a solid week straight. It's been raining so hard that they cancelled school today.  Rainy days are supposed to be enjoyed curled up with a good book.  But all week I've been working, mothering and cleaning my house.  Doing laundry. Running out into the rain for errands to the grocery store, post office and bank.  Doing laundry. Walking into my office dripping wet from the rain.  Doing laundry. Trying to balance my preschooler on my hip and my umbrella in my hand along with her backpack without getting either of us wet.  Doing laundry. Doing homework with my third grader -- multiplication, rounding and fractions OH MY!

Today, I spent a lovely day home with my children going to the library, having lunch with their friends and working on a puzzle in the afternoon.  After an evening of phone readings, I worked on my monthly newsletter and completed my daughter's invitations for her birthday party.  It's almost midnight, and I still have so much to do!  Pack lunches, respond to emails, work on my writing project.

I have a lovely basket of books I keep my bed.  These are all books I want to read, desire to curl up with, dream about enjoying, and yet the time to actually do the reading alludes me.  For a literature class I'm teaching, I have to read "Othello," "Antigone" and "Trifles."  This week.  And prepare lesson plans, a quiz and a paper assignment for those amazing works of drama.  The basket of books will have to wait.

Tomorrow I have a full day of readings interrupted only by a volunteer hour at my children's school followed by dinner with friends.  That basket of books will have to wait.

This weekend I'm watching my friend's children which will be truly delightful and fun, Sunday is church and our radio show.  Monday begins with readings and ends with teaching a four hour class.  That basket of books will have to wait.

But for how long?  If I don't get to your email this weekend, know it's because I've found a moment to hit pause on my life and reach into that happy basket of books because one thing I'm learning is that the world will never stop for us.  We have to stop for it, take a time out and demand a moment when we're not BUSY!  Right after we finish doing the laundry.