Juggling

Sometimes I think I have got the whole juggling act down pat, but that's usually right before I hear one of the balls hit the ground reminding me that I am not quite as good as I had momentarily dared to believe. The past few days has seen a flurry of activity in between school work and homeschooling assignments. The kids have been making Ayyam-i-Ha gifts to give to their friends and have attended two parties, in addition to what we have been doing ourselves, but I will post more on that later. We have also been back and forth to the "Broken down, cracked up house" that is looking decidedly less broken down and cracked up, attempting to help Mehran finish off some minor jobs...the tenants are moving in as I write this. So last night, after taking the kids to the last Ayyam-Ha party, we picked up pizza and headed over to help out where we could. Our well intended help lasted about 10 minutes. I managed to dust the shelves in one bedroom closet before Bayan fell over, skinning his knee badly, on the back steps. Despite administering band-aids and pizza his howls of anguish only intensified and we decided to leave. Actually Mehran insisted. We returned this morning bringing lunch and snacks and stayed for to "help" while Mehran and an assistant raced about trying to finish repairing the walls, attach skirting boards, fix the water pressure and fit out the gas stove top- you know...the basics. The girls helped scrub cabinets and dust while Bayan vacuumed and I did odd jobs in between caring for Maryam. There were no more skinned knees, we met the neighbours and the house got cleaner. I won't call it clean, because I don't think you can get it properly clean while construction is still underway. I do, however, pronounce it tidier than when we arrived. And that, dear friends, is the main thing. That - and that this psychotic renovation is just about done.