Getting back to real: a different kind of crazy

My girls are 9 and 11 now. And things are no less hectic than when they were 2 and 4. It’s just a different kind of crazy. Now we juggle after school academic team practices, two hour dance lessons, archery practice twice a week and meets on weekends, church, orchestra rehearsals, homebuilders’ meetings, and (I finally dropped) choir. This is not an extensive list. You all know. You are mentally adding your additional ten things to the list. This is life for the young American family of the 21st century.

That said, I want you all to know how this looks on the inside. Outside we may look like we are juggling quite well. Behind the doors, spinning suspended plates are falling out of my raised hands every day. If not the plates themselves, then at least the food is sliding right off. Especially the food.

In the last two weeks, I have left out to ruin...an entire crock pot of vegetable soup, the grape salad I was going to take to Easter dinner, a large pot of boil eggs I was cooking ahead for breakfast all week, AND all the beautifully dyed eggs we made for Easter (and might I add that we used home-made dyes because...why not add one more time consuming activity to our list so we can post it on Insta?).

Waste. When waste breaks my heart.

Then we have laundry. I start a load at 9, after putting the kids to bed, thinking I will throw it in the dryer on my way to bed...but fall asleep on the couch. Sooooo, the next morn I have to wash the load again. Because my washer transfers a nice sour smell onto any clothes left in there for more than 5 seconds after it spins. How much detergent have I wasted washing loads twice or, heaven help me, three or four times?

Speaking of falling asleep...how well do you sleep on the couch? My couch is pretty comfy but I never agree with myself when I wake up at 4 o’clock in the morn with my legs still painfully curled upon the half of the couch I choose to use when I fall asleep there. Why did I not just go to bed when I got sleepy you ask? Because I am waiting to switch out the laundry.