Thursday, October 12, 2006

Somethin's Gotta Give

Volleyball season is almost over. For this, I can truly thank the good Lord above.

Soon there will be one less thing to worry about. One less set of taxi-ing to do. Two less days a week we have to worry about getting to games. No more locker decorations to make, no more after-school snacky-type energy meals to fix for the girls to eat as they're going to away games, no concession stand duty, no hospitality room duty for tournaments, and no uniforms to wash.

What will I do with all my time?

For starters, I intend to cook one more meal a week. That may not sound like much, but for us, it's saying a lot. As it is there are very few evenings when we can all sit down to a family meal. The schedule goes something like this:

Monday - Volleyball game, get-it-yourself dinner afterward, me to a group meeting

Tuesday - Dinner at home

Wednesday - Trumpet lesson for Son, pick him up from lesson, stop at McDonald's for his dinner, which he eats on the way to youth group at church. Volleyball game for Daughter, either here or away. Late dinner at home.

Thursday - Band rehearsal for me, pizza night for everyone else

Friday - My evening part-time job. Do-it-yourself dinner for everyone else.

Saturday - Cleaning house, occasional volleyball tournaments, sometimes part 2 of the evening part-time job, possibly dinner at home or out with friends

Sunday - Church, most Sundays 2 services due to band. Dinner at home or at Mom's, Senior High youth group for Daughter that evening

Tuesday, Thursday and Friday - Volleyball practice after school for Daughter

The hubster does his fair share of carting children back and forth, it's true. However, when you add in his and my full-time job to the mix as well as all of the above, sometimes I wonder if one or both of us shouldn't be spending some time in a padded room just to unwind.

No wonder I can't keep the laundry done.

So, this Saturday I will be doing a little unwinding. No, not in the padded cell in the basement, but at the local Starbucks. My friend HeyJules will be there, along with a couple of other women who are much more balanced than I am.

Which isn't hard to be.

Maybe this motley crew can help motley me come to some sort of decision about what to axe. Because it's getting to the point where I feel like I don't have time to be ME anymore, much less the child of God I want to be. I need time to grow in Him, instead of just existing in His world. I need time to nurture the Spirit inside me instead of spiriting kids from one place to another. I need to work on my relationship with Him instead of relating to my work.

Yup. Somethin's gotta give.

Ecclesiastes 8:5
Those who obey him will not be punished. Those who are wise will find a time and a way to do what is right... (NLT)

2 comments:

HeyJules said...

Hey, I thought we were gonna fix ME on Saturday? Are you sure there's enough time to fix the both of us??? :-)

Pilot Mom said...

Oooohhhhh, I want to be there too! :(

Just a question...how old are your kids? Are any of driving age? Or can parents take turns and carpool the kids? I can remember one summer when Jim had his first shoulder surgery, James was in baseball, basketball and track. I had to drive everywhere! When Jim began therapy all three of us had to go. I would drop him off, go drop Pilot off, come back, pick up Dad, go pick up Pilot, then on to the next practice etc and finally at 8 pm we would come dragging into the house! I wanted to SCREAM! :) After that, we told Pilot to pick one sport. Of course, it's different with you because you have more than one child. Sometimes, our only having one child was a blessing in disguise. But, that's only "sometimes." :)