Monday Madness - an Excuse to Go Goofy

These blogging prompts are fun. On Mondays we are encouraged to discuss madness, whether that of ancestors or our own in crazy pursuit of them. I love how the blogging world lets you just take the prompt and run with it, so tonight I shall release a little pent up anxiety and frustration over the fact that I never seem to have enough "thoughtful time" to actually work on my genealogy. It makes me crazy! Not in the same way my Aunt Mary was crazy. I mean, I'm not collecting empty milk cartons and lining them up all around the edges of every room in my house. I didn't have a nervous breakdown because the local pharmacist promised to marry me but instead ran off with his own wife. Yeah. And I've never howled like a banshee on Christmas Eve. Poor Aunt Mary. I feel sad about her life, and they never even let me meet her.

But I'm not that kind of crazy – just the highly vexed kind of crazy. The kind where you are hyper aware of the irony in carefully researching and writing about your ancestors whilst hurriedly caring for your descendants. And lamenting the fact that you can't spend enough time on either because you have complete strangers to research for: ones that expect quick turnaround and don't want to hear that your eldest son just broke a knuckle trying to take out the next son in line, and you didn't expect to be at the doctor's three times in a week, once for surgery. Clients are not interested in the fact that living with four males with ADD (only one diagnosed, and that is only borderline, but trust me...) can make for scatterbrained living.

I try so hard. I'll be editing a footnote, for instance, realizing that I've erroneously placed the [penned] page number before the enumeration district, and I calmly highlight and cut the enumeration district, but before I have time to paste it in it's proper place, someone lets out a bloodcurdling scream, and with that shot of adrenaline, I'm out of my chair, ears pricked, waiting for the thud. Any thought of pasting the enumeration district totally obliterated. It's not like you can go back and see the error again, because half of it is gone. You have to hope you'll notice there is now no enumeration district, but because the adrenaline is still doing its thing, you may not.

For this reason I am glad that it is back-to-school time. I am in desperate need of long stretches of time in which to complete sensible editing. I love being a Mom. I adore my boys and love to be with them, but in summer it is really hard to find those large chunks of time. Whether it be for an orthodontist appointment, to cycle another load of laundry through, to drive them to the park to play flag football, or to a trombone lesson, or to cook for them and their overnight guests, or even the eternal grocery shopping, a LOT of my time is dedicated to them. And that's the way I want it. Hubby and I both consider it the ultimate luxury for a family to have a parent who can be at home with the kids. Mine are getting older now, but we all still see great value in this. Soooo, I work when I can. And in summer, that means less.

I have a couple of client reports that are well overdue and it is eating away at me. Starting tomorrow, I hope to start eating away at them instead! It's only a four-day week, but it seems like plenty of time to start getting caught up. Wish me luck!