How did we get here?

Seriously. We have been having that kind of month. I mean season. (Please don't tell me it's that kind of year.) The kind where you find yourself over-extended, exhausted, and de-centered. That's me and my family right now.

You see, Tim and I pretty much see eye-to-eye on this kind of stuff. Priorities are: family, church, and school. That means dinner together at night, church activities, and homework. If the soccer/play/music lesson/birthday party/play date/committee/extra job conflicts with one of the above, we usually say no. We have gotten pretty good at finding that balance for our family.

Until now.

Last summer, I asked Ben if he wanted to play soccer. He really enjoys it, but he has aged out of our regular league (apparently 8 is soooo old), so we asked him if he was interested in this other league in town. He really wanted to play, so we signed up in June, so that he could play fall soccer. (Don't ask me why they need two months notice. That is a whole 'nother rant.) And then we forgot about it.

Fast forward to August, and Tim is trying out for community theater. When we lived in our previous town, he was in several plays, but the ones here always seem to conflict with our schedules (see above priorities), so he hasn't done it. On a whim, he asked Ben if he wanted to go and try out too. I saw no problem with that, and off they went.

But the problem was that all three of us forgot about soccer. Blame it on school starting back or the book or whatever, but we forgot. They both ended up getting multiple parts in Honk!, which means that they both have several practices a week. They are enjoying spending time together, but it is a large commitment.

Because it is the way things work, almost every single soccer practice or game in September conflicts with a Honk rehearsal. The play ends this weekend, and then we will start in again with the soccer. Along with that, we still have our jobs, piano practice, doctor appointments, and did I mention that Will is playing Y soccer?

I'll admit it, it was a whole lot worse two weeks ago when I was still working on the book. And at least Kate isn't involved in any extra-curriculars yet (not that she isn't dying to - she really wants to do gymnastics this winter).

But, in my defense, Ben originally refused to sing in the play, which meant he wouldn't get a part, which was fine with me. Also in my defense, when I called to sign Ben up for soccer, the lady told me there was one practice and one game per week. This is not in any way, shape, or form, true. We are supposed to be there at least three times per week for one or the other. We were also told there would be no Sunday/Wednesday games. Not true. And I didn't even think to ask if there would be out-of-town games (he is 8 for Pete's sake!). There are. So, the frustration is not entirely of my own making.

But enough of it is. And Ben is grumpy. This is a kid who requires about 11 hours of sleep a day, plus 2-3 hours of down time. (He would like nothing better than to play with his brother and sister all day long. He is a homebody like his mama and daddy.) He is definitely not getting that right now. We agreed that from now on, we really need to choose between activities. He was totally in agreement, but I have no idea which one he will choose in the spring. I just know that after October, we are taking some much needed time off!

I know some of you won't believe me, but we are not "keeping up with the Jones" kind of people. You hear about my schedule when I am stressed, but that is not our happy norm. We consider a good weekend one in which we have nothing planned, and we play in the backyard and read on the couch. We hate the stress of schedules and fees and practices. When we are tied up in that, we forget how much we actually like being together because we are rushing around all the time. We enjoy living at a slower pace than everyone around us. We do it intentionally. And now we are being reminded why we are that way.

Sometimes we joke that we are going to quit everything and move to Hawaii. But I hear that if we did that the joke would be on us. One of my dearest friends lives there, and we have talked weekly about how the stress of kindergarten and preschool and swimming lessons and dance and jobs and.... Well, it's killing them too. She is convinced that city life is the problem, but I say we have to intentionally learn to say no. Say, not right now. An eight-year-old doesn't need a 12-game soccer season. A three year-old doesn't need to drive 1/2 an hour one way for gymnastics.

We need to just be. Be a family. Be together. Be with God. And breathe.

I won again!

What's up with that? If this keeps up I am going to have to stop saying that I never win anything.

A few months ago, I won two awesome CDs (which we are thoroughly enjoying, TM) from this momma, and today, I checked my blogfeed and found this! I won a game called Mastermind, or Mastermind Towers. I am not sure which one I won, but they both look great. My kids saw the original post and wanted to know all about this game, so now they will have a chance to play it for themselves. Fun stuff.

Incidentally, Megan's blog is one of my favorites. She writes amazing posts about the Congo, her son's struggles with attachment, and parenting in general. Plus, she is stinkin' hilarious. She makes me laugh out loud all. the. time.

Thanks, Megan!!!

I think I am back...

At least for now.

In case you haven't noticed, I have been rather absent from the blogging world lately. I checked in occasionally, but haven't done much writing, blog-hopping, or commenting in a couple of months. And I have missed it. A lot.

But I think I may be back! And since I like to write, you get to hear about it.

Our church is celebrating 200 years. Last summer, the chairman of the history committee came to me and asked me if I would be willing to be a part of the committee to help plan the celebration. I asked Tim if he could help me think of a good reason not to do it. But apparently pastors think you should serve your church with your talents, or some such.... I even asked God to help me think of a reason. Shockingly, He didn't help me out either....

Anyway, I said yes, with great fear and trepidation, because I had no idea how I could contribute. This past winter, the committe was discussing its plans of a big Bicentennial Banquet and ways we could share with the congregation and get them involved, etc. I had celebrated a bicentennial with another church, so I had some thoughts, but planning events is not really my forte.

So when they started talking about a history book they were writing, I thought maybe I could help. I know how to use a computer, basically, and I can spell and use proper grammar (although I am a bit lazy sometimes), so I thought - hey, this is how I can help. They already had the writers chosen (which was good, because I didn't want that job), so what they needed was a copy-editor. Someone to read over the manuscript and make corrections.

So I agreed to do this, thinking to myself, how easy will this gig be? I will read this stuff (50 pages maybe?), make minor corrections (nothing time consuming), and be done.

And God laughed at me.

Because. I had no. idea. what I was getting myself into.

First of all, we now think the book will be around 250 pages or so. And there were six authors, all with different topics, backgrounds, and styles.

Still, I thought, that's ok. I will do them one at a time, and we will get this thing done by summer.

I know. What was I thinking?

And did I mention the footnotes? Oy! the footnotes! (I never use the word, oy. Where did that come from?)

Honestly, the authors were wonderful, but they each had very different strengths, so every time I was working with a different author, there was a different learning curve (sometimes a very steep one) with what I had to do. One of them is a fabulous writer, but didn't really want to use the footnotes. The committee wanted footnotes (ok, 2 of us really wanted footnotes - ethically and academically it's important!), so I added footnotes. Another author's topic was very sensitive, and so she and I (and several others) worked very hard to address the issue in a respectful way. I could go on and on. And on top of that, I fact-checked. As I was footnoting, I went to the source and made sure the years and the names and the places and everything else was correct. (I am sure I made mistakes, but I don't wanna know about them at this point!)

For months I have had dreams where I was in a room with the authors and we were all going through 200 years of church minutes looking for something! and we just couldn't find it.

Anyway, yesterday at 11:00am, I sat in a room with these people, and I wrote an email to our publisher, attached 25 documents, and hit the send button. And we all clapped and cheered as our book went out from our little group.

Tonight, we held our Bicentennial Celebration Banquet. I haven't had time to look forward to this event, because every. waking. moment. that wasn't spent taking care of children was spent at the library or on the computer, editing, editing, editing. (Will told me a few weeks ago that he calls the book, The Book That Never Ends.) I haven't cooked or cleaned in weeks. (Seriously, don't go into my bathrooms.) But when I got there it felt like a celebration. There were reunions of old friends, a wonderful video about the church that was made by one of our talented committee members, and an amazing singer. Ok, she was totally my favorite part. Anyway, I really enjoyed the party.

And tomorrow, our pastor will talk about beginning our third century of ministry. And it will be good. I have learned so much about how good God has been to us. How we have been through wonderful times and painful division. And I have built wonderful friendships with these people that I sort-kinda knew before. We have argued, compromised, and rejoiced together. And even though I have whined and complained (especially to my husband and GWAC - you know who you are), I have loved it. But don't ask me to do it again anytime soon.

At this moment, I am feeling very blessed... and very tired. And now I need some sleep (before the publisher sends it back for photos and indexing and cover decisions and corrections and...).

Surprise Visit

A few weeks ago (yes, I know this post is very late), my brother-in-law and his wife called out of the blue and said they were coming to visit. The house was a wreck, Tim had meetings, and I was trudging through the church project (which I will tell you about later), but none of us cared because it is always a treat when Brian and Melissa come to town.

Their kids are almost 7 and almost 5, to go with my kids, who are 8, 6, and almost 4.They love to be together, rarely fight, and play, play, play. Michael says that I have the best toys at my house.

I say he has the best pajamas ever.

And Caroline and I got to have important conversations about school lunch boxes and ice cream flavors.

I love those kids.

(And just ignore all the red eyes. I don't have time to fool with that right now.)

They stayed the night, and Uncle Brian and Aunt Melissa took all 5 kids to get donuts, which made them big-time heroes with my crew. Then I got to sit on the couch and have grown-up conversations with two people I don't see often enough. It was really, really good. Did I say really? Really.

So, whenever you're ready to come back and visit again, come on over! (Although now that I think about it, I don't think they read my blog. Oh, well. The rest of the family does, so you come on over, too! :)

Kate's First Day of School

Just to prove to you all that I haven't dropped off of the face of the earth, I thought I would share about Kate's first day of school. As you know, she had been eagerly waiting for September to get here so that she could be a big kid too. So last Wednesday the day finally arrived.

She picked out her own clothes, with matching orange socks and orange bow.

And she and her Daddy headed out on their annual First Day of School Breakfast, where she happily feasted on pancakes and chocolate milk.

When I picked her up, it was obvious that she had had a great morning and was really happy to see her friends and teachers again. She was grinning ear to ear and ran to meet me.

But when I got her in the van and asked her how it went, she put on her pouty face and said, "I didn't get any homework!" Yes, my daughter loves homework. She asks me every night when she will have homework, and doesn't understand why the teacher only assigns it (usually a story book to read together) on Mondays. My mom says I have to remind her of this in about 5 or 6 years.

A few days later I got a call from the special ed coordinator at her school. She didn't personally know Kate, but she was making rounds with Miss Julie, the speech and language pathologist who does know Kate. She said that Miss Julie's reaction to Kate's progress this summer was, "Wow!" You better believe wow! Learning to raise her tongue has only improved her ability to make sounds and words, and we are very excited about her progress.

And another plus of preschool, Kate is finding new ways to practice her sounds. Apparently one of Kate's new classmates is named Vanessa. So she spent most of Wednesday afternoon singing, "Banessa Banessa Banessa Banessa..." You get the idea. I asked her if she liked that name, and she giggled and said she did. Then she went back to her song. And the best part is that occasionally you can hear the V sound on the front of Banessa. Because of her under bite, that's a tough one!

Ahh, I love back-to-school time.