Life on Sabbatical

If I were teaching this semester this would be just about midterm.  So I thought I'd take a moment to take stock of things and see how my sabbatical is winding up (or down?).

• Despite the whole NOT SLEEPING thing (not to mention Tiny Boy's surgery that happened the first week of the term, and the aftermath that lasted another following week and then not starting regular full-time daycare until nearly a month in) I've actually managed to stay on top of my writing deadlines.  I am not all YAY, MY CHAPTER IS AWESOME or anything, but I've churned out enough (not crappy) pages to be happy.  I've also done a good chunk of work on a conference paper that is also a revise-a-bit-and-resubmit that sounds very promising (deadline around Thanksgiving) and started a few smaller things.
• I think I've struck a reasonable balance between showing up for campus events (like a friend/colleague giving a talk) and staying the fuck out of the department.  Perhaps doing a bit more than I should, but I've also been on various forms of leave for a year, so I'm not completely burned out.
• I'm also aware that I want to keep this not-burned-out state, as I was incredibly angry (all that tenure debacle bullshit) and very tired (10 years as an assistant professor, across my two jobs, and then that whole fertility treatment + high risk pregnancy + new babyness) going into sabbatical.  So:  I'm probably watching a bit more TV and reading less than I "should," but, you know, by the time 8:30 rolls around and I've been awake for a minimum of 14 hours, well, I'm not really capable of coherent thought.
• I am having a very good time in my painting class and I really hope to carve out time when I'm not on leave in which to paint (which probably means giving up TV, but that will be okay).
• There's a whole lot of domestic stuff that doesn't get done:  i.e. I have a list of various home repair projects (a new roof!  tree removal!) that require simple phone calls I put off day after day.  My lawn hasn't been mowed since, like, July (it grows freaky slow, but still).  Other than during pumping sessions--hooked up right now--I really am trying to WORK during the day.
• I also had these great ideas like I'd get all Tiny Boy's pictures in albums and I'd de-clutter the entire house and clean the garage and cook all kinds of new things and, you know, mostly that stuff isn't getting done.  But I hardly feel like I'm wasting my time.  There's just only so much I can do.  And, frankly, that sort of scares the crap out of me for what might happen when I go "back to work" in the spring.  I mean, if I can't manage to call a roofer, how the hell am I going to grade all my students' work?  And am I seriously going to talk to my department chair about becoming an administrator for my major program?  Am I that stupid?  Perhaps I am.

But you know, I'm tenured.  I'm not in the throes of fertility treatment or pregnant (and when you add it all up, well, that's about half of the past decade).  I'm something resembling happy.  And really it will all be okay.  So long as I have a prescription for Ambien.  Sigh.