My Balancing Acts

I love Friday nights! The promise of a whole weekend is so exciting! A weekend full of laundry and sweeping and vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms...I truly love that the weekend provides me with time to get caught up on all the things that I simply cannot get to throughout the week. By Sunday night, I always feel so prepared for the upcoming week. The laundry room is emptied out. The kitchen is spotless. My bathrooms sparkle. I even have the energy to prepare the coffee maker for the next morning. I've had quality time with all my boys (big Ben included). Then we all go to bed at a decent hour, and I feel like SuperMom, ready to take on challenges that may lay in the week ahead.

Come Monday morning, I wake up at 4:30 so I can get on the treadmill uninterrupted. I shower and get ready, I leave the house with well rested kids and deposit one happy child at daycare before I head onto work with my second-grader in the back seat as we discuss the upcoming week. I arrive at school ready to be SuperTeacher.

By Monday afternoon I am still feeling good. I come home and play outside with the boys, and later I even cook dinner while helping with homework. I lovingly greet Ben as he comes home from work and then we all eat dinner together. But then it all comes to a screeching halt. Chaos sets in and it lasts until now--Friday night.

It all starts after dinner on Monday. For some reason, right around that time of day, time inexplicably speeds up. Suddenly, it's a rush to get the dinner dishes cleaned and the kids in bed by 8 (okay, 8:30) and all before I pass out myself from exhaustion. Remember, I woke up at 4:30!

Starting Monday night, the race is on. I feel like "balancing" my responsibilities is not even a fair word. A more accurate word would be that I "stumble" through them. I may or may not have the energy to get up on Tuesday morning at 4:30 (usually not). I feel like I am constantly trying to play catch up and I can never seem to stick to the schedule of how I would like things to go. While I am in the midst of stirring my morning to-go cup of coffee, if I spy something awry in my house, it's all I can do not to stop and go deal with it before I leave the house. It really annoys me when I see unfolded laundry or dishes in the sink from the previous night. But there isn't time to fix anything! So I must leave it until I get home from work. And when I come home from work, I am usually totally exhausted, have hungry kids, and all I want to do is have a glass of wine and veg out. But instead of vegging out, I must do the whole evening routine and try to fit everything in before I pass out from exhaustion yet again.

That is, until Friday night! It is when I actually get to have a glass of wine and veg out, and not feel guilty about it! And the kids don't have to be in bed at their normal time, because we all get to sleep in the next day!

Even in the midst of stumbling through my days, I try to grab ahold of the things that make me feel so blessed, and not take those things for granted. I remind myself often of the things that are truly important in my day to day life (like spending quality time with hubby and kids) versus things that are ultimately insignificant (like laundry and dishes). I know that things won't always be this busy and crazy, and that I will probably miss all this craziness when it has passed and my kids get older.

But I still love Friday nights!