Pseudo-single-mom kinda life

Lovey-hubby is away for two weeks at a training for his new company. I had forgotten how difficult it was to manage a household by myself. I suppose I should interject here to fill in some blanks:

Together, he and I have 7 kiddos (teenager down to toddler)... 4 live with us, 3 come to stay with us about once a month (we wish they were able to be here more often) and we have a pug-pug who is certain she's a "people", a hahn's macaw who is 'hyper-verbal', a cockatoo who just screams when she feels she needs attention (or food), and a new covertly  mischievous (almost CIA-like) cat. We live in the country, a fair distance from civilization (i.e. 15 minutes to the nearest Wal-Mart). Our older 3 children go to a school that is roughly 45 minutes away, no bus... but that was our choice.

So before lovey-hubby left he, thankfully, made sure most hubby-like things were taken care of around the house. I managed last night to get everyone in bed only an hour or so late... but they got home late from their after school activities. This morning I set my alarm for early early, something I haven't done in a long time (I'm a night-shifter), got the kids up, got 'em ready for school, fed, chores started and out the door on time! After the trip to and from the school, me and the littlest settled back in for a 'relaxing' day home. I made a press-pot of coffee, sat it at my desk with my favorite mug, fixed a cup of juice (water with a hint of V8 Splash, because I'm a mean mom like that) and a yogurt for the littlest and got everything situated to finally write a term paper that is due tonight (see previous post, entitled... "procrastination", yup that one, sigh). I go to flip on the light switch to the bathroom, "pop".... grrr, the darned thing burned out. I'm (a generous) 5'2"... we do not have a ladder (not sure why) but we do have high ceilings, of course. I'm a resourceful kinda gal, so a flashlight in my opinion will work quite nicely until lovey-hubby returns :)

For the remainder of the day I just have some cleaning to do, lunch to fix for myself and the littlest, a drive to get the kids and bring them home, dinner to prepare, chores to oversee, bills to pay and what am I forgetting?... oh, yeah... a paper to write :/ yay.

Yes, I'm off to do that now.... L~