<---------- there went my day

I am soooooo overwhelmed right now. I have totally been absent from blogging this week because I barely have time to brush my teeth, much less write, but today I just dropped my kids at the sitters and bought an iced coffee (yum) and decided I was going to take 30 minutes to myself before getting the day rolling. I am unfortunately at minute 21.....
I work from home (well most of the time- I do teach too, but only for about 10 hours per week). When I say this, moms always respond "Oh you are sooooo lucky! I wish I could work from home" to which I grit my teeth, smile and tell them how I am indeed blessed. And it is true- it IS a blessing- but to those of you who do this or who know me, it is NOT easy to balance. There is so much that goes into it because you don't have your work space to escape to if you need to actually get your work done. As a result, I feel in a constant state of treading water- there are always insurance calls to make that I didn't get to because the kids were hanging off me and yelling or the house to keep presentable for me patients, or all the teaching prep/grading that I have to do here because I don't have an office at school.
But yes, it is wonderful to be here with my kids much of the time and to not get out when the weather is yucky and I do take them to the sitters for a few hours each week to actually see patients here without the madness. I do have the best of both worlds (working and staying home) but I also have the worst of both worlds. When you look at it though, I am sure no mom ever feels like they are caught up- if you are a stay at home mom, you have stay at home kids which means there are a zillion more things to deal with than if you took them to a babysitter everyday. If you are a full-time working mom, then you have to crowd all your parenting and housekeeping into the fewer hours at home. It is always hard but always worth it. For me, my life is totally a double edged sword but it is our sword. Hopefully I wield it well enough.
And now I am at minute 32 so I guess I better get to work.
A friend once told me to set a timer for 15 minutes and for that time devote all your energy to the task at hand whether it be paperwork, playing with the babies, alone time or cleaning. It sounds like it would help on some of these days but I must admit I've never done it. Anyone else have some ideas??
Ahhhh mminute 33!!!