This question could really apply in so many areas of my life right now.
On the grand, big weepy scale:
* Big Princess is graduating from elementary school in 18 days. Our elementary is pre-k through 7, then she will be at the high school next year for 8-12. It seems like yesterday she was coming with me to school for the first time. Typing through big old tears.
*Little Princess will finish pre-k in 19 days. Didn't I just find out I was pregnant? WHERE did the last 5 years go? When did she become a young child instead of a baby?
And not so weepy:
This school year will end in 19 days. I still have bins of things I was going to do that didn't get done in August before the kids came. YIKES!
And, it's FRIDAY!!!!!!!!!! It was just Sunday yesterday, right?
Short term:
The last two weeks have been captain insane-o around here. Dear Husband leaving for work at 6am and getting home at 9. Registration for high school, PTO meetings, Big Princess softball, Little Princess t-ball, Memorial Services for dear friends' father, Little Princess ballet, extended day field trips, weird rash on Little Princess, standardized testing for Big Princess, birthday parties, furniture moving, school dances, etc. etc. etc.
Even shorter term:
I've been up for an hour. It's 5:13 in the morning. I've had 2 cups of coffee, taken the dogs out, checked my email, read a few blog posts, dried and folded a load of laundry, and unloaded the dishwasher. That's my routine. I am all about routine. Captain Insane-o weeks kill my routine.
I have my morning routine: coffee, computer time, unload dishwasher, cleaning task for the day downstairs, de-clutter downstairs, work on my to-do lists, plan my afternoon, and an organizing task. AMAZING what you can accomplish in 15 minutes. Get ready for work, pack lunches, get girls ready, and head out the door.
I have an after school routine: get Little Princess a snack, find out what Big Princess needs, unpack school bags, and CRASH in the recliner for 30-45 minutes. I'm a much better person afterwards.
Evening routine: cleaning task for the day upstairs, dinner, clean up dinner and kitchen, laundry, whatever has to be done activity wise, plan the next days' lunches, pack school bags, wash my face, hit the sack.
But much of my morning time is consumed with reading blogs. It used to be classwork when I was working on my master's degree, but that's done now - hallelujah! So many talented and creative people out there sharing, I soak it up like a new sponge. I get inspired. But click older posts. I have grounded myself from pinterest, other than to pin ideas I read. I have enough ideas for the time being. Except the research I do for new classroom ideas with new courses of study coming up. I'm working on cleaning and organizing my house, as it was sadly neglected during said coursework. I'm loving it. I'm consumed by it. If I am not working on it, I'm reading blogs about it. I am slightly OCD about not going to bed with a terrible mess. And yet, the comforter we bought for Little Princess is still on my couch???
Sidenote: I've deleted 10 paragraphs. I'm boring myself. Plus, this isn't an organizing and cleaning blog. I told myself that 3 times in posts already.
Here's the rub. Do you see ANYWHERE in there that I spend time with my family? Quality time?
My husband and I primarily communicate by phone. Seriously. We text when I can at school when he is on his breaks (some days, depending on my schedule, they coincide nicely with mine. Others, I text him with an update - there's always something - on my break or lunch and he texts back on his). He has a 45 minute commute home, and we talk the whole way. Thank GOD for free mobile to mobile calls! It's so late when he gets home, he eats, I finish cleaning up dinner, we go to bed.
I am so drained when I get home from school, I need that crash time in order to be a mommy. But I'm stinking in that department. It just seems that there is nothing left in me patience wise when I get home. No wonder people talk about teachers' and preachers' kids!
I help Big Princess study, and nag her to clean up. I do listen about her day, but I need to work on not analyzing everything she says. (Why is she talking about this person so much? What happened to her other friends? What was she supposed to be doing when she was doing this?) I run her all over the place for her activities.
Little Princess? Well, I snuggle with her. I watch her play, and tell her no a lot. I run her to her activities, and suggest things for her to play. She helps me cook dinner, helps me clean.
It's not enough. Please, someone, share with me the secret? How do I keep a clean, organized, functioning home while working full time in a physically, emotionally, and mentally demanding job that requires me to work at home, too? How do I interact meaningfully with my family in the afternoons so they feel like they are the most important thing to me - which they are? And make sure I call and check on my mom each day and allow her to talk as much as she needs, being a widow is a lonely place. How do I do all the things I see stay at home moms accomplish and still work? I asked similar questions to my facebook friends, and the answers were discouraging:
*Hire a cleaning service - not in the budget
*Quit my job - SOOOOO not in the budget
* Let the house go - did that for two and a half years, gotta get it back
*win the lottery - don't play it
The best solution I've heard - suck it up, it's life. Everyone deals with it. Don't let it get you down.
In the meantime, I'm looking for a superhero cape.
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