My life during the past hour

Do you ever have days where you have a schedule that you're living by, and you've got just enough on your plate and starting to tackle it, when suddenly, somewhere in the cosmos a cord snaps and dumps a pile of extra stuff onto your shoulders that makes everything else seem that much harder?

Well. 

Speaking of today... I already have several extra events blinking on my radar this week. 

• My "boss"sent me an extra side project of 15articles for a client they are hoping to get a bigger contract with if I do a satisfactory job. 
• Our ward's Young Women in Excellence program is on Wednesday (tomorrow); and for those of you who have ever been in the Youth program in the church, you know it's a pretty big deal.  Being in the presidency I've had a lot of preparation to do and still have some things to pull together before tomorrow night. 
• Clint and I are also trying to schedule some time to go down to Orem to pick up my ring and its appraisal which are both STILL in the hands of our jeweler after 3 weeks (no, I'm not happy about it at ALL.)
• Clint and I have been invited to a party on Friday night in American Fork with some friends.
• Clint and I are hosting a party on Saturday for the Utah football game.
• And... I am singing a solo in church on Sunday.

That was the extra stuff I was already aware of before this week started.

Then in the past hour, I got 2 phone calls which have left me with the frayed ends of my carefully balanced plans in both hands.

One of my Beehive advisors who is a sweetheart and is a great leader for the girls just called me to tell me that she was having a busy week and couldn't teach the lesson on Sunday and asked me to do it.  Of course I told her I want to help her out.  She explained part of the reason she is having a busy week is because of the Halloween Witch Fest celebrations going on at Gardner village, where she works.  I've always wanted to go to this and she informed me that this weekend is my chance.

I hung up with her, then got a call from my Mom.  Her dad, my grandfather, has been unwell for years.  He's very senile, has needed a cane, has had a stroke, and has been increasingly tangled in the grips of dementia.  His physical and mental health has been slipping downhill at a steadily faster rate.  Last week, he fell in his kitchen and had to have hip surgery.  He is now recovering at home; however, his tired old body is not able to recover.  He can't get up, he can't sleep, his heart is only functioning at 30%, and he still has moments of dementia mingled with an understanding of his bleak situation.  Doctors and nurses are now advising our family that it may only be a couple of weeks or less that we have our Grandpa with us on this earth.  Tonight is pretty much the only night I have available to visit my grandpa with my Mom.

Right now I am experiencing a combination of mental stress from being so busy, and then the emotional stress of how I can possibly juggle everything that I had to do before and do it well with my extra emotional burdens.  Something has to give, but what can I back out on?  You know what I'm talking about.  I'm sure that I am not the only one who's been here before.  It's not the first time that I've found myself standing in a sink hole, nor is it the last.