Crazy days

It's five sleeps until we go to Korea and things are heating up. Why does it always seem that unrelated things pile up on top of one another in my schedule?

Where we're headed on Wednesday

Today
This morning and actually yesterday too, I've been head-down-tail-up trying to get on top of the current stage in editing magazine articles. I'm hoping to get the articles all finished by the end of the month, so that we can get the next magazine out in the first month of the season (as opposed to the last month, as it is this month)! Not all of that is my responsibility, but a lion's share is.

What adds an urgency is our five-day Korea trip. The day after we get back I've got a half-day meeting downtown, so in total, I'm feeling like I'll lose a week of working time.

Today I've been reaping the benefits/dealing with the challenges of working from home. It was a non-school day for the boys, though we all attended student-led conferences this afternoon (instead of a parent-teacher conference, students talk to their parents about what they've been doing and set goals). So that meant that I edited as fast as I could this morning, then made lunch, then rode out to get groceries, put the groceries away and rushed down to school for three hours of conferences with my boys. Then came home to put dinner on, answering email and writing this blog post in the midst of making dinner! A bit crazy, indeed I feel pretty crazy.

Tomorrow
Tomorrow is the high school wrestling finals for our region (three international schools and three US military schools). It will be another all-day affair, though probably only involving two bouts for our son who is seeded first in his weight-class. However we are not anticipating that the final will be an easy win. He'll most probably be up against the same guy he's wrestled for the last two years. Our son has only been beaten by him twice (and both were last season), but they've rarely had an easy match.

Sunday
Sunday is a usual day, with church and then, hopefully, a quiet afternoon. Although there are things that need to be taken care of in preparation for our overseas trip on Wednesday. Packing of bags is one of them.

Monday
I have prayer meetings at school in the morning and then will go to the Japan Evangelical Missionary Association office in town to pack the Winter issue of the magazine.

Tuesday
Tuesday will be the crunch day. Making sure everything is ready for our trip away, making sure our two younger boys are ready to stay at someone else's house for five days. And, trying to finish up as much editing as possible. I'm hoping to catch up with a friend over coffee on Tuesday as well. I really hope we can as we've had to schedule and reschedule over and over again.

Tuesday night those of us who are going to Korea will go to the dress rehearsal of the school play. This is a special allowance for us as the performances all happen during our trip.

Wednesday
David and the team will leave at around 6am on trains to go to the airport. I'll leave at around 8.30 with one of my three travel buddies. We'll get to our destination sometime in the evening. Totally travel time door-to-door is about five to six hours, plus time in and around both airports.

Our younger boys will stay with a friend/colleague/teacher. Yes, he's all of these things, he even teaches one of our boys. He is also a wrestling parent. His wife is one of my travelling companions and two of his boys are with the team going to Korea.

So yes, I'm feeling a little hyperactive in trying to make sure I don't drop a ball in the midst of all this, though I fear that it's likely to happen anyway.

I'm excited about the trip, but as usual the actual leaving is rather full of stress.