The word for last week was definitely overscheduled. A wonderful friend of mine from college arrived last Monday to spend the week with us. We haven't seen her since last fall, so it was wonderful to have her here, but it was also good that she's perfectly capable of entertaining herself most of the time, because other than our Wednesday all day trip with my five children to our alma mater two hours away from here, I wasn't a great hostess.

Every day seemed to have overlapping and conflicting requirements and schedules. For instance, on Thursday the oldest had Latin, two of the others had check-ups in another part of town. My husband was in court and I had to get a friend to bring the oldest home while I raced back from the pediatrician's office. On Friday, I'd agreed to watch a friend's five children while she took classes to get started on her doula certification. Since she helped me with my last labor and birth it was the least I could do. Except that I forgot I was supposed to take my six year old to the other side of town for a meeting with her Little Flowers group. My husband had to stay home for the morning so both could be accomplished.

Saturday found me up bright and early driving with the baby over to the fabulous Blissdom conference sponsored by Epson and filled with lots of wonderful and interesting bloggers. I got to meet some local bloggers like those behind Blonde Mom Blog, Front Porch Legacy, Mrs. 007, and Sarcastic Mom. I got to renew my acquaintance with Michelle, Karla, Alli, Elizabeth and a few others and of course met lovely bloggers who had come in from far away like Tsh. I'd show you pictures, but my camera decided to die.

Of course, going off to something like that couldn't be simple. I couldn't stay for the whole thing. My friend was still in town and I wanted to actually see her some before she left. Plus there was a lecture at 1 o'clock about my confirmation saint. So promptly at noon, I bowed out of Blissdom not having gotten to hang out nearly as much as I might have liked, raced for the car, wolfed down some lunch at home, picked up my friend and sped off to the Cathedral to hear about St. Gianna. I suppose I could have gone back to Blissdom, but I'd lost momentum and was exhausted. I just wanted to sit down and let some one else take care of the baby for a while since I'd been carrying her in the sling all day long.

Sunday was mostly a day of rest, but even with a nap, I was still tuckered out and having trouble getting out of bed this morning. My plan for this week is to keep it simple. Stay home, educate the children, do laundry and try to go to bed early. Let's see how it goes.