31 Days with Mama A: Carve. (Day 18)
New here? You can find the entire series here.
 |
| This is happening. Soon. |
One of my dear friends texted me yesterday asking when we could visit again--and perhaps even set up regular coffee dates. My heart leapt with joy! The idea of having some dedicated time in my schedule for chatting with my sweet neighbor while our children were playing together, adult conversation--and let's not forget the goodness of the coffee (thankyouLordJesus). We met at her home last Friday afternoon and it was life giving and wonderful. All my heart really needed was an hour or so of conversation about all this, that, and the other. Those wonderfully important, trivial, and transparent conversations held between friends who have been acquainted for more than a decade.
But then I looked in my schedule for the next two weeks and my heart sank a smidge. We are in the throws of the school year--and between my school (and after school) commitments, my husband's job commitments, my kids' commitments, our church commitments, and anything else that's occurring in the next few weeks--our schedule is slammed packed full of many things. We have something almost every single day of the week (about an hour's worth of commitments each day between work and bedtime). Our Saturdays are often full of catching up on everything that must be done, and our Sundays are full with church. The only true "optional" things in our schedule would be the older girls have dance each one afternoon a week for an hour and I choose to go to the gym 3 days a week (and I normally schedule at least one visit during a dance class, I have a standing Thursday appointment with my trainer, and I usually go on Saturdays). And while these things are "optional"--I am a believer that kids need some sort of extracurricular activity (one a piece) and my gym time is one of the only things that keeps me from losing all of my sanity (therefore, I would say that it is more of a mandatory thing).
Everything else is school, camp, or church related. Non-negotiables.
However, I find when the smallest thing is unexpectedly thrown in the mix, I begin to get the nervous sweats and adrenaline rushes and the frantic figure-it-outs.
It's not a healthy place to be.
So, mamas and dads--tell me: how in the world do you do it? How in the world do you manage to work all day, take care of the home stuff like laundry and bills and lunches, manage your family's schedule, have quality time, and still carve out time to function like a human being?
I'm all ears.
Love and smooches,
Mama A.
xoxxo
Amen. It's draining sometimes just to get the "necessary" done. Gym time is important to us too but I've had to change what that looks like. Going every afternoon just doesn't work for me. My brain goes crazy when we walk in the door close to 6 and still have to do dinner, talk, baths, stories, bed, etc. Trying out a new workout plan this week. YMCA on Sunday/Tuesday/Thursday (the kids have a special circuit/yoga class they can do 2 of those afternoons) and running/walking while the kids ride their bike on MWF. In my brain this seems like it'll work. We shall see. Last night I was able to nail down meal plans for the next 2 weeks - some stroke of miraculous workings, I'm sure - because despite my best efforts, I've just been drawing a blank and running on no plan at all. Even managed to grab the few groceries we needed for the week before church this am. That alone had me in a good place to start off the week. Getting it all done is so hard. And then - sometimes you just wanna sit with some coffee and read a book you wanna read or go to Target to just browse without an agenda or a list. Oh dear. I try to remember to enjoy the season we're in. It won't always be so. Currently re-reading 1000 Gifts to help me with this. It's even better this time around b/c our library had a digital audio of Ann reading it! The way she can put her emotion and inflection right where she knows it's supposed to be makes it even better.
ReplyDeleteSee you tomorrow evening, maybe? :-)
Yes, I've had to do some serious prep work on the weekends in regards to meals. I try to make sure I have a game plan each week based on our schedule and commitments, and I even order my groceries to save time.
ReplyDeleteYes, coffee and reading and nothing sounds all very wonderful. See you tomorrow evening! :)