A Reading. A Reading! Oh boy, another reading?

I am frantically preparing for--dum-dum-dum--you guessed it, a reading. What exactly does that mean? Well, for me it means 3 hrs of running over music and script to make sure everything is perfect and ready to go, printing scripts for people to perform/follow along, AND 3 to 5 hrs of concentrated cleaning.

Shoot me now! We need an inflatable living room that we can tuck away just for these kinds of occasions. I swear 30 to 50% of my life passes in cleaning. Some days I stop to wonder, where did all this mess come from, and then I hear them screaming in the background. Monkeys. Hoodlums. Kids.
 
Of course there are other moments, the quite ones spent cuddled up together reading a book, or tickle fights, or sitting and watching them play at the park. Then I wonder, how did I get so lucky? 

I suppose the lesson is, there's no joy without the pain. That's something I have to remember in the coming months as things get intense with the musical. Pain=joy...eventually.