This one's for Cati

In case you didn't know, Lent is one of my favorite times of year.  It's a short amount of time to focus on becoming a better person, and I like knowing that for 40 days a lot of other people have the same goal. Since I have the attention span of a goldfish, 40 days is much more doable than 365.  This Lent however, I've been much less engaged because work and family are so demanding.  When work isn't demanding, the work/life balance is finely balanced.  But as soon as a crazy new project kicks up, things get very... complex.  Add to that the fact that I'm studying for the Fundamental of Engineering exam - which is just as hard as everyone warned me it would be (and I could whine about it for hours if you let me) - and I feel like I'm on the go from 6 am till 10 pm.  I mostly keep this frustration to myself, because I know lots of people are working and getting a degree and going through the same deal, there are those people who have to work 2 jobs just to get by, and there are those military friends of mine who are gone for weeks and months on end.  And I know that they don't have nearly the amount of awesome family/free time I have, nor the disposable income.  A pity party seems rather ridiculous, but MAN do I want to throw one.

Because of a crappy confluence of events, Matt and I are traveling on opposite schedules for nearly 8 weeks.  That means single parenting 5 days a week, and that the household stuff is just going to pile on.  And I don't actually enjoy traveling for work.  The days are usually 6am to 10pm of *just work*, it's exhausting, and the hotel lifestyle is just not my cup of tea.  And did I mention that I'm pregnant?  I like to pretend that I'm superwoman, but this baby creating job seriously saps my energy.  I'm afraid that 9 hours on my feet followed by a working dinner followed by catching up on emails (and somehow in there having enough brain power to study) will be beyond my endurance limits.  Needless to say, I don't feel that I'm in the optimal mental zone at the moment.  More so just the "one foot in front of the other" zone.

So Cati, I doubt those were the inspirational words you were looking for :)  But that is definitely a life update from Team Shea!  Next time I'll dig for a little wisdom.