Work Expands

Years ago, when I was teaching project management software classes, I used to talk about the principle that states that work expands to fit the time available. Which basically meant, that sometimes you could put a 1 day task into a 3 day time frame, and it would suddenly take 3 days to complete it. My life hasn't been like that lately, as I feel like I've been trying to fit 3 days of work into 1 day!

Last week, a project I was working on finished up with about 1/3 less work than I was expecting, and then a class I was expecting to teach this week was canceled. Suddenly, I had free time that I wasn't expecting!! And, then, my sister became horribly, violently ill and I had to move her next door (my parents own the house, but live there only part-time) so I could care for her. And a surgery appointment opened up for Monday for C. It's like God knew that all these things were headed my way, so he freed up some time! Too bad we didn't need that money so much! But, at least I'm able to be more present and available to care for my family.

The doctor thought my sister had appendicitis, but it turned out to be a horribly nasty kidney infection. The poor thing is struggling and feels absolutely awful still . . . after 3 days on antibiotics.

C is having surgery tomorrow to remove his branchial cleft cysts. These are something that DH & I have taken a "wait and see" attitude about since his birth, but for various reasons decided it was time to remove them. I wasn't expecting surgery until March, but there was an opening and I didn't want to turn it down. It's an outpatient procedure, but he will be under general anesthesia.

Home life has been hectic and harried and I'm not happy with my behavior in many ways. Financial stress has to be some of the most insidious stress there is, making people behave in ways that aren't fair or even nice to those around them. Speaking of which, I need to work on some assignments right now . . .