Still behind on everything.

I had hoped to have these four Nubian dresses done for last weekend, saying, “I still have to make a complete bra and belt set for which even a week seems woefully inadequate.”

Instead I’m just finishing the fourth one today. Though none of them have been hemmed yet.

I still have to make four veils to go with them. Then that complete bra and belt set.

I calculated that each dress is 18 meters of hemming. Though about half of that is sleeves, which is already done on all four dresses. So I really only have 36 meters of hemming left.

Then veils.

There is client work too that slipped because I spent every day last week sewing. I did work on client work, but not nearly as much as I should have.

One of my dance compatriots came over a bunch last week, bringing me coffees and lunches and then spent hours pinning things for me or watched the kids while I ran to the store for more fabric or thread. So that was great.

And Ian has spent some evenings doing some little things on my client work – like where I could say, “I got this feature done today, but it still needs to be styled to match the site,” then he would do the styling while I sewed. And he has also helped me sew, hem and pin.

Those are all good things.

I totally underestimated how much work these dresses were going to be and it was mostly because of the ruffles. The rest of it is really just a big nightgown.

Anyhow, yesterday then was kind of a hellish busy day, with hints that it was just a precursor to the whole hellish busy week. We began with me behind on client work, scrambling to get down to business for the day, but constantly interrupted with reminder emails and phone calls about various appointments and project due dates throughout the week.

Last week we did 20 hours of practice and that had left my irritable knee tendon in full agony. I did some research and bought a brace, wearing it for Sunday’s 9 hour practice which left me in faaaar less agony then I was in at the end of Friday’s shorter practice. But I had also left a message at my physiotherapist’s office to ask whether I might be able to get in for an appointment this week in order to check that I was actually bracing appropriately. So they called back Monday morning and said, “you can come in today at 4:30.” So I raced through my work, token-fed my kids the simplest spaghetti lunch, worked right up until 4:00 and then grabbed Hannah and ran off to the appointment. After that, I went and grabbed a bunch of fruit for a fruit-salad supper. Then, while Ian was making supper, he mentioned the outcome of treating one of the kids for lice over the weekend (while I was at dance practice) and I did a quick check and concluded that we had to treat ALL the kids for lice (including retreating the original child). So I ran to the store for lice shampoo (and also for some muscle rub for me) while Ian made supper. Came home, wolfed down our fruit salad and then I pulled all the bedding out of the kids’ rooms while Ian treated Hannah (80% of that still lying in a pile in the hallway. sigh.), then I combed out Hannah’s hair while he treated and combed Rachel, and so on. Then Ian put Hannah to bed, while Rachel went to have a bath and I was running around finding clean sheets and on one of my trips to the laundry, caught water coming through our kitchen ceiling again. So I hustled Rachel out of the bath, and I got out the screw-driver and flash-light and got into our wall to see if I could find anything. I did not.

Then it was 9:00 and we sent the kids to bed, checked our own heads (all clean, THANKGAWD) and then by the time the kids settled it was 10:00 and Ian got to work on my web stuff and I got down to sewing and we were up until 1:00 working on those things.

Today I finished off that styling that Ian was working on, and sent it off. Emailed around about postponing a couple of deadlines and meetings. Did some design work. Made up a pasta salad recipe that 1.5 out of 3 kids love (Hannah, does that thing where she takes a bite, LOVES it, then eats five more and says, “um, actually this isn’t really my favourite. Can I be done?”).

And now I’m going to get back to sewing. I’m feeling a tiny bit optimistic and capable of handling my own life again. There shouldn’t be anything going on today (barring infestations and plumbing calamities). We’ve got the fixings for some fast/easy smoothies for supper. Tomorrow might still be a big wreck, but I have the rest of today to see how far I can get.

Wish me luck.