End of the year insanity

When I became a mom 12 years ago I never thought my life would be so busy and chaotic as it is today. Our life is always pretty busy with the kids, work and commitments but the next few weeks is just insane. And guess what! Matt will be gone for just about all of it. (Shocker, I know)

Sunday night we had Awana awards. Sami and Chris (Emily is too old to be in Awanas here) got first year awards and then we had a yummy hot dog roast. The kids loved being in Awanas and will be sure to go back again next year.

Sami had a field trip to the strawberry patch. We had so much fun eating picking strawberries and then having homemade ice cream. I love fresh fruit. And pretty soon it will be peach season. Yum!


Tonight is Sami's kindergarten orientation. ::Sniff sniff:: At least they serve us pizza. Now if only they had a beer or two to drown our tears in. Oh and Chris has ball practice and Em has gymnastics. Ummmm yeah. Not sure how that is working with Matt gone.Tomorrow night is Sami's preschool graduation. Oh and Emily has gymnastics at the same time. Thursday morning I am working the EOG breakfast at Chris's school, then we have the preschool goodbye picnic and then Thursday night both Emily and Chris have ball games. Next week and the week after is just as insane. I feel like I am running around like those on generic Phentermine, just never stopping.

Our weekend is up in the air as a close friend of ours finds out today if she will need surgery this week. If she does, I am going to Ohio to help with their three small girls. But we are keeping our fingers crossed that she doesn't. Shannon is having surgery on Friday and I would like to help out in any way I can with her too. Otherwise Matt will be back Friday from Illinois for a few days before heading to Brazil for two weeks. We may have a cookout for Chris and Sami's birthday since he will be gone for Sami's birthday.

Oh and in the midst of all of this my business is taking off. Totally a God thing. And a great thing. But it will require lots of time. Which right now, is hard to come by. Thank goodness for energy drinks. I think I will be taking stock in them.

Balancing Act

I need just about 10 more hours in a day and I will be fine. Do you think that is possible?

When I graduated from college I got a job at a small PR firm. After Chris was born I was able to work out a deal where I worked 3 days from home and 2 days in the office. I really wanted to be able to stay home with the kids, yet at the same time we needed the extra income. So it was a perfect scenario. In September 2000 I went out on my own. My boss was moving to Minnesota and I wanted to stay home with the kids fulltime. Luckily a large client stayed with me, plus I found other small jobs here and there. Up until this point working from home was pretty easy. Emily was 4 and in preschool. Chris still napped. I took care of calls and such during that time and finished any worked after they went to bed. Sure there were late nights, but it was doable.

When I was pregnant with Allison I found out that my large client was being bought out. I stopped freelancing and contracting, and in the end it was a blessing. There was no way I would have been able to work considering all involved with my pregnancy and her care. Plus who knows what kind of material I would have sent to clients considering my emotional state for the first few years. In August 2005 I started contracting again. The workload was small and the kids schedules were still manageable. I continued to contract small projects after we moved, and again, the workload was so small that it hasn't been a big deal –– until now.

As I said a few weeks ago I have picked up a new client. The project has escalated into a much larger project, with four new things being added in the past week and a half. I missed Sam's preschool Halloween party because I had to go to a meeting. Emily had to miss practice Monday because I was called into an emergency meeting, Matt couldn't get out of a photoshoot he was doing for work and my neighbor's were gone. Now until January will be non-stop work. Add in 3 new projects since last Friday from Cat. My small workload has tripled in the past few weeks. And the other person I am tentatively scheduled to do some work for is supposed to give me project details in the next week or so.

Three years ago this would have been no problem. Today it has turned into a crazy balancing act. I have three kids in three different schools. Sam is only in school 3 days a week for half a day. Emily and Chris have homework. Emily has gymnastics practice 4-5 days a week. Chris has football 3 days a week. That ends next week, but then he starts basketball. Sam has her gymnastics class once a week. The kids have youth group and AWANAS on Sunday nights. We have bible study Friday nights. I have PTA, booster club, gymnastics meets, volunteering at the school, teaching Sunday School once a month. Matt is busier than he has ever been at work and leaves this Sunday for a 2 week trip to Europe.

Our travel schedule is crazy. We have three more meets this year and four in the winter. I have to fly to Illinois and to Atlanta for work in December and January. Emily and I are flying to Las Vegas for her meet in January. Matt will be in Arizona for probably 5 weeks in January and February. Our whole family is flying back to Ohio in February. Matt is at a trade show in Las Vegas for 8 days in March. We go to Thailand in April for 10 days. And that is just all the travel we know of so far. Plus Christmas and Thanksgiving.

We don't eat dinner until almost 8 every night, but that is because we believe we should sit down and eat together and that is normally the time we can do so. I am just having a hard time figuring how to juggle it all. Work, family, activities, friends. Next year should be easier with Sam going to kindergarten, but then that is what I thought with her going to preschool. Needless to say, right now a Orlando vacation home rental sounds really, really good.

I know there are others out there like us and I would love some ideas on how to balance it all. Fellow WAHMs I would love some suggestions on just how to get what I need done in the time frame I have and running these kids everywhere. Being a WAHM was much easier with two small children than with three active ones.

I **Think** I'm Ready

Tomorrow is our subdivision garage sale. I had put off pulling and tagging anything because frankly I didn't think we had anything to sell. Boy was I wrong.

My dining room and front hall are full of things, and that doesn't include the Little Tikes sandbox and slide, a TV, an entertainment center, skis, clothes, a bike and other miscellaneous junk from the shed and garage. I wasn't even able to get into one of our storage closets because it is blocked by Em's bed and I know that one had a bunch of stuff I could have parted with.




It amazes me how much junk one family can accumulate. My one neighbor is bringing her stuff to my house since her house is out of the way so hopefully between the two of us we will attract many people. I think there are over 10 houses participating (we have a small country subdivision) in the sale.

Of course now each of the kids are asking if they can keep the money from anything that used to be theirs. Emily wants to save her money for her gymnastics meet in Las Vegas, Christopher wants to use his for some remote control truck and Sami wants to use hers to buy bunk beds (no clue on that one). It's a shame that only I get to keep the money (even though I am just keeping my fingers crossed for $100). Now the question is what will **I** do with the money?

A Bit More Landscaping

Shewwww... It is alot of work trying to get a new yard established. The mulch that we had bought for the front got washed out so quickly that we decided to switch it all out for landscape stones. Talk about alot of work... 5 tons of stone. But I think it looks pretty good.


Before

After