Seven Quick Takes on Friday--volume 81

One.

This must qualify as one of the fastest weeks this year for me.  Where did it go?  I woke up this morning with the realization that I didn't get around to most of the things that were on Monday's "To Do" list.  I haven't spoken to my mother all week, either.  I can't even account for the week past.  It's as though I've awakened from a coma to find myself at the end of a week I thought I had just begun.  If only I could gather up all the minutes, hours and days that have slipped through my fingers, I could add many years to my life!

Two.

Okay, I surrender.  The ants win.  I really thought that Bret had gotten the message through that they are not wanted and henceforth banished from this house, but this morning they are back...they have found the dishwasher.  

No, Honey...there's no pepper in the egg salad...

Three.

I don't know about you, but I find this really, really creepy. The human race is in BIG trouble...

Four.

This is promising to be a really busy summer.  Already the next four weekends are pretty well filled with one thing or another, and there are things on my normally blank calender for the next three months.  I need to do some serious planning, or my week-long coma (see #1, above) will become a three-month coma.  I really like lots and lots of empty space on my calenders.

Five.

My friend Cindy's second-born is celebrating her 18th birthday and graduation from homeschooling tomorrow with a party.  Pray for good weather or it may be standing-room-only at their home!  Not to mention the fact that a bonfire is planned as part of the festivities...

Six.

One of the highlights of the week?  A phone call from one of my favorite Catholic homeschooling mama's, met through the blogosphere.  Marilyn and I have a lot of things in common (a first-born daughter and baby daughter with four boys sandwiched in between, and growing up in Europe among them) and we usually don't have the time for much more than brief emails back and forth.  But last week she vowed to call, and call she did.  It was a hectic call, with both of us trying to squeeze a million topics and comments into a limited time, with the constant threat of some catastrophe that would demand our immediate attention and put an end to the conversation quickly.  But it was a fine boost to morale, and I think I may survive this bout of "Homeschool-Burnout" after all.  I've been feeling like I can't do this thing which I must do (believe me--public school here is not an option!), which happens to me a couple of times a year.  Usually in February after the kids have been all cooped up all winter, then again around the end of the school year.

Seven.

Thanks to the internet--and I say that with a certain sardonic tone--I have my first book restoration job in several years, and I really didn't want one.  A client for whom I restored a book back in 1996 in Charlotte, NC, managed to find me and has asked me to do some work for him.  I mentioned that I have had six children since 1999, and that the last time I did any book work, it took me a year to finish, what with never having time to work without interruption, and some aspects of bookbinding do not permit you to drop everything on the spur of the moment.  Well, it sounds like a minor job, and he was quite insistent.  So, I guess I need to locate my equipment beneath the rubble of my workroom (formerly known as "the bindery") and brush the dust from my presses.  My work room is the "catch-all" room for the entire family.  Broken toys in need of repair, stuff going to Goodwill, things to go up into the attic space, half-finished crafts, sewing projects in progress, boxes to go to the burn-pile, bins of kids clothing--if we don't know what to do with it at the moment and need to get it out of our way, it goes in the work room.

Visit Jennifer's Conversion Diary for more Seven Quick Takes!  And have a wonderful weekend.