The Business of Busy-ness

I'll be honest. Writing is HARD when you're a stay home mom. I didn't think it would be. I figured I could crank out about 3 or 4 really wonderful pieces of literary blog awesomeness every day. Truth is it was easier to write every day when I had a job. For starters I got "breaks". Those breaks included walking over to the cafeteria and getting a very large Diet Coke and hitting the vending machine for a B-7 - a Butterfinger. It was heavenly, and not so healthy, but it kept a smile on my face. So while eating a candy bar and drinking a Diet Coke I could write about the one or two funny things the kids did between the hours of 5:30 pm and 6:30 am.

Staying home differs in several key ways. The Diet Coke always runs out. There's never enough Diet Coke. My kids are Diet Coke junkies too so hiding it becomes an issue. And there's never any vending machines here with B-7 waiting for me. There are few "breaks". And those "breaks" are when I might get to take a shower without someone running in (the bathroom door doesn't lock very well) and asking for food, friends, or demanding justice/wrath on the sibling. It's not that staying home is particularly difficult work wise. It is very challenging time-management wise. I attribute that to us being on no man's schedule. So we wake up each day with endless possibilities; bike ride, pool, make cookies, see friends, watch movie... but then we have to work the chores in as well. So we try to cram as much stuff as we can in before 5:30 pm when dinner must be started. Staying home is freeing (except financially, because there's the other catch) but it's very busy. All stuff we choose to do, but busy none the less.

Also, while the kids still do and say amazing things it doesn't just happen once in the evening. I have them all day. Funny and interesting and amazing sling at me all day long. It's hard to catalogue their stuff.

School starts in two weeks. And I've added some additional fun things to my plate for the year. Yes, occasionally in our family I - the mom - do things. I just get overshadowed by the hubby, the kids, the pets even. I can prove it:

I somehow got talked into being the chair of the HOA Landscape Committee. Will asked if I was going to be like the mean lady on "Over the Hedge" who calls people because their grass is 1/8th of an inch too tall. No. I'm not. I just drive around the neighborhood once a month, kids in tow, eating donuts and drinking Diet Coke while we three look for pretty yards. And then I give people a sign and a small gift card. It's the best job in the HOA to have. No angry people.
I somehow got talked into playing on a co-ed soccer team. No. I didn't watch any of The World Cup. No. I do not know anything about soccer. No. I never wanted to play soccer before. I have the feeling while I'm playing that everyone else watched The World Cup and decided that they, too, could run around not touching a ball with their hands. I was told I was needed because I was a female and just by being on the team I was helping out with the "two females on the field at all times" rule in co-ed soccer. Will decided last spring he would like to play soccer again. I thought since the boy was playing, maybe his momma could play too. It's actually not too bad. I scored a goal in my second game. That means I met and overachieved my personal goal of just not embarrassing myself or getting in the way this season. My new, revised goal for the rest of the games is to not break my ankle or anything else like a woman did in last Saturday's game. Because nothing will make me re-evaluate a decision like hearing a bone snap.
I have a part-time job lined up for the fall and spring at Gigi's preschool. While this means I lose my two "days off" I had last year, it also means I won't be sitting around the house wondering what to do. Or waiting anxiously to go pick up the kids from school.
I was chosen to be the Social Advisor for a local chapter of my sorority from college. This means I get to help plan parties. Anyone who knows me knows there's nothing I love more than having a party. I love planning events. I love social stuff. I love being around people. This position was a blessing. I'm very lucky and honored to get the opportunity to work with my sorority. Strangely I attended only 5 social events during my years as a sorority member. Honest. I never went to anything unless someone forced me to go. Actually, that's how I ended up with Chris. I didn't want to go to the pledge dance and some of my friends said I needed to go. I said I couldn't because the event was less than 4 hours away and I didn't have a date. Chris, sitting at the lunch table, suddenly was invited to be my date courtesy of three of my friends. So it sort of seems natural that this was the advisory role I landed.

It's not a lot of stuff, but you add in soccer practices for Will, soccer games for Will, ballet/tap for Gigi, homework, housework, and Chris' increasing travel schedule and I'm right back to being a busy non-busy person. I'm really excited to get things started up next week when our summer hits its last week, but I will miss the days of cleaning up the house quickly, putting on swimsuits and sunscreen and heading to the pool with the kids. I'll miss catching them playing so wonderfully together with Legos. I'll miss hearing them laugh at something the two of them are doing. I'll miss the sights of older brother reading to little sister. Not that they're angels, but they're mine and soon I have to start sharing them with coaches, teachers, and friends.