Focus

My mom and sisters-in-law Tami and Sherry are doing me an enormous service this week and have taken my children for THREE WHOLE DAYS while I get this house ready for Baby Annie to arrive in about two weeks. It's an unbelievable luxury - three days to clean the fridge, sort baby clothes, shampoo the rug - all without any interruption or having to think about what to make for everyone for dinner.

Day One has started without much oomph. So far I have slept until nearly 8 a.m.(!), showered, wandered around looking into rooms and thinking about what I should be doing, read a few articles in a New Yorker magazine swiped from my parents' house, ate a leisurely breakfast, checked my email and am now doing this blog post. Not exactly the crack of dawn closest cleaning frenzy I was gearing up for.

But I just got off the phone with my mother who was trying to distract two-year-old Betty who was crying that she missed her mommy while the rest of my kids and their cousins pounded on the piano downstairs, oblivious to my mom's shouted admonitions to not pound on the piano it is not a toy!!

So...I'm off to motivate so that their sacrifice isn't for naught.

Aaaaaand GO!