My brother, sister-in-law, and son have now been delivered safely to the airport and, if everything went as planned, they are now somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean, soon to arrive in the Windy City. Yoko's mother will be returning back to Japan tomorrow and suddenly, our house will be very quiet again. I then will be going to Amsterdam on Wednesday and by the time I get back on Saturday, we will be making preparations for my parents coming on June 20th.
I had my deadline for my research proposal (the first three chapters of my dissertation) extended to June 15th, which gives me a little bit of breathing room, but I'll be honest about how worried I am about it. I am quite worried. My writing is simply not getting to the level that my supervisors expect, and though I am a little frustrated with their expectation that I be writing at a PhD level when I am supposed to be completing an MA dissertation, I am sure that it will be worth it, provided I can find the voice I need.
We had a really good time this week — all over London again and inside some of the stuff that I haven't seen yet (including the Tower of London) and we had a good time in Oxford. The weather and the children co-operated more or less. It was a good week, but I need to get focused again. Back to work in a serious way.