Love Reign O'er Me

So why would someone who has a leaky roof that happens to leak over her bed be hoping for downpours?  Because in my life, sometimes a bit of water is the only thing that may keep me from completely drowning.  Let's face it, life with five children is always busy, but something happens in the Spring that makes it absolutely insane.  It's like the same forces of nature that cause the plants to grow, lay their hands on my life and act as a cosmic Miracle Grow causing my responsibilities to multiply.  It's one of those instances where we're almost too blessed.  Doesn't that just sound terrible?  Too blessed?  How can someone be too blessed?  It's not the same as too much of a good thing (like eating a vat of ice cream).  It's more like, every good thing that we have, takes a lot of hard work.  All of our labor comes to fruition and yet, it still takes more work to enjoy it.  I'm not adverse to hard work, but sometimes I just don't know how I'm going to get through the week. 

The Famous Perfectly Positioned Leak

                                               
For starters, I try to do it one day at a time.  This is a really difficult thing to do when you have kids who want a weekly itinerary every Sunday.  There are some days when I'm driving from one appointment to the next and Charlotte says something like, "Mom, for my next birthday can we have real monkeys?"  "  Gee Charlotte, I'm not sure, we'll see." (now please note that I would never be able to have real monkeys at a birthday party but I realize that if I state this right now I'm opening up the possibility to a complete blubber-fest, so I do what every good mother does...I stall.)  "But Mom, what are we going to do for my next birthday if we don't have real monkeys?"  "  Charlotte, your birthday is 360 days away, we have plenty of time to think about it."  Now, poor Charlotte doesn't realize that Mommy can only concentrate right now on the road, and the 20 different places she needs to be in the next hour.  This rule applies to anything in my life.  I can only be concentrating on what I am doing at that moment.  A very wise person once told me that when my head starts to wander to the next hour or to tomorrow or what I have to do next week, to look down at my feet and remind myself that I am right here, right now, where my feet are standing.  I can't possibly be standing in next week.  Now, there's a fine line between living in the day, and having no plans or schedules for the future.  I definitely need a balance.  I obviously can't wake up in the morning, and be like, "Gee, I wonder what I'm doing today?"  I have to have some clue as to what I'm up against, but as far as worrying about it, (and believe me I have turned worrying into an art-form), it's just not worth it.

Then there's my good friends denial and procrastination.  What, you thought this was going to be a positive piece?  Nuhn unh.  This here is my reality.  It's not squeaky clean.  Now, I'm not saying that either denial or procrastination are going to get anything done.  But, sometimes the mind can only handle so much and it's those times where you find yourself doing a mental fetal-position.  Like the fact that my daughter's dancing school teacher told us about a week ago that we need to sew elastic into their ballet costumes.  She lost me on, "sew".  I don't have a working sewing machine and the last time I used one was in middle school home ec.  So, let's get this straight.....you charged me $75 for a costume that will be worn for one weekend and now I have to sew something on to it?  As far as I'm concerned this thing should come in perfect condition.  Heck, this costume should be sewn with diamond dust that's been woven into thread by magical elves.  Wait, it gets better.  Not only do I have to sew elastic into the sleeves of this dress, but it has to be nude elastic.  Knowing that nude elastic is hard to come by, the teacher suggests taking white elastic and soaking it in Lipton tea for 24 hours.  So, armed with this ridiculousness, my brain went into that mental fetal position I was talking about.  It started with unrealistic optimism (denial).  I figured I'd just ask my friend who has helped me a million times with sewing and she'd whip it up for me in no time (she can't BTW).  I put off the phone call for a couple of days because, well quite frankly my focus was elsewhere (procrastination).  Well folks, it's Tuesday and I still have no elastic, barely a plan and it needs to be done by Thursday....awesome.

Larger than Life and Worth Every Gray Hair

So, I digress....how does a bit of rain help to bail out this sinking ship?  I need my son's baseball game to be cancelled.  Yep, I'm rooting for a downpour.  Boo! bad Mommy.  Let's take a brief look at my week, before you judge me too harshly.  (This is only the after-school activities so we're not even mentioning work and other engagements before 3pm, also take into consideration meals, homework, housework, and there's this chicken poop thing.....).  Mon:  Dress rehearsal for Char in Paramus 4:15- 5:40 and baseball game for Jason in Hawthorne 4:00-6:00 (easy-breezy!).  Tues:  Twins tutoring 3:30-4:30, Jason baseball in North Haledon 3:00-5:00, Luke baseball in West Milford 5:45-7:45.  Wed:  Jason baseball in North Haledon 3:00-5:00, Gwen concert 6:00-8:30.  Thurs:  Twins tutoring 3:30-4:30, Jason game in Pompton Lakes 4:00-6:00, Gwen dress rehearsal 5:00-8:00.  Fri:  Jason baseball in Glen Rock 4:00-6:00, Luke baseball in West Milford 5:45-6:45.  Then, more baseball and 3 dance recitals this weekend.  Husband: WORKING.  Nanny:  Hahahahaaaaaaaaa! 

This boy, the computer nerd, made a double play last Thursday.

Just like at home.....yeah right!

This is where a good belly-breath would be appropriate.  "Imagine your belly as a pink balloon...."  See a prior blog if you don't know what I'm talking about.  So, am I over-scheduled?  Yes.  Are my kids over-scheduled?  Not individually.  There's just so many of the little buggers!  Could I simplify my life?  Absolutely.  I could tell them, no dancing, no sports, no extracurricular activities.  Will I do that?  Nope.  I do have a rule that you only can play one sport per season and only on one team.  I also usually have them take the winter off, except for Jason with snow-boarding and Maddie is begging for basketball next year so that hiatus may be short-lived.  I think that all of these activities are important to their development as well-rounded individuals.  I like to encourage them to exercise their minds and their bodies.  Working as a team is an important skill that they can use throughout their lives.  It's just that everything comes to a head this time of year.

My "New Years" starts in September.  June officially ends my year.  July and August are two delicious bonus months of limbo.  So with that, May means games, recitals, concerts, projects due, class trips taken and deadlines made.  It's all of the wonderful things that we've been working on for 9 months giving birth.  It's a messy business.   So I breath, I take pictures, I freak out sometimes,  I screw-up, I get so proud that I cry and sometimes I pray for rain.  Oh, and I wouldn't change a thing.