Balance?

Starting to feel a little stressed. I've already mentioned that I'm feeling a little bad about not being able to do for my dad what I was able to do for so long... (errands, housework, taking him to his dr. appointments, etc.), but today, a friend of mine called from Colorado. It was great to chat with her, but with three kids that are up past their bedtime, well it was hard to really connect again. Also, I caught my niece on MSN Messenger chat today, and barely had a chance to find out how anything was going before another Kid Emergency. Yeah, I LOVE my job description right now. Love it, love it, love it, but I feel like I'm also shut off from the rest of the people in my life. I don't want to be like one of those annoying women who gets a new boyfriend and then drops their friends like hot potatoes. Know what I mean? I'm just trying *really* hard to carve out some sort of routine and balance everything. Not working the greatest right now, but I'm really trying to figure it all out. While I was talking to my friend tonight, she said, "Shelly, you went from 0 kids to 3 kids plus you're homeschooling them plus you don't all speak the same language. Could you make it any more difficult for yourself right now?" I suppose it probably looks next-to-impossible for everyone on the outside looking in. But that's the least of my worries. The kid stuff isn't work to me. What's work is balancing all the other parts of my life so that nothing and nobody is being neglected. Very delicate balance. I know it is possible, but oy is it tough right now!

As far as kid news tonight:

I asked Adam what "J" words he could think of and his immediate response (complete with pantomime) was, "Jackie Chan!" (Apparently they let them watch some tv back at the orphanage!) Since the kids are speaking more and more English as the days go on, I've started to label things. There are signs on everything. Toilet, wall, sink, piano, etc. telling what everything is. Hopefully it will help. Not exactly sure what it will do, but I've been told it is good for them to see the words. *shrugs* It was a fun project anyway. The kids loved sticking signs on everything and telling me what things were. (They did AWESOME at that. There were very few things that they didn't know.)

Also, while I made supper tonight, the kids and John went outside to play. Aleksa was the last one out the door and while she was getting her shoes on, I came over and helped her and then gave her a big hug. (Just couldn't resist the opportunity, plus I had an overwhelming, "wow, I'm this little girl's MOM" moment. She said, "Mama ti placala?" (Mama, are you crying?) I told her "a little bit" and she asked me if she should stay inside with me so I wouldn't cry. I assured her that she should go play and that Mama was just being a silly mama. She stayed and helped me make supper. Such a sweetie.