Over the past few months I’ve been considering how we might be able to make our lives smaller, simpler and easier to manage. I thought about what I could give up or delete from our lives. I looked at the choices we had made and wondered if there was room for tweaking or an alternative to staying up till 3am to complete my task lists.
We live a very busy and scheduled life. It sometimes takes 3 weeks to coordinate a dinner out with another couple. Spontaneity is not easily achieved in our family. The Road Warrior already has events on his calendar for 2014 and 2013 is almost completely booked.
The daily pace in our family is fast. We are always in motion. Sometimes it’s fun, and other times I feel like it’s all I can do to hang on for dear life as I juggle the responsibilities of: 5 children, homeschooling, homemaking, and having my husband go in and out of our weeks as he travels for business.
This weekend I sat down with the Road Warrior and compared calendars. Color-coded calendars to be exact. It is something we do fairly often, and yet it never seems like we do it often enough.
As the Road Warrior and I began to go over our schedules early Saturday morning we were both weary. The mood was heavy because we had started the morning off with bickering about WHEN we would go over the schedule. Each of us frustrated by when the other preferred to discuss it. Finally, the Road Warrior declared that if we were going to take so long discussing when we would compare calendars that we might as well do it now. So we did.
The mood was tense at the breakfast table as we began reviewing our individual plans and comparing notes. However, with each page of the calendar we turned, the heaviness began to disappear as excitement crept in.
With our calendars now matching we were on the same page. We both knew the plan, and though it was complicated at times and required some military precision to coordinate—-it was also wonderfully full of life. Our life.
There is a fair to attend and giant turkey legs to eat.
A trip to Captiva Island.
A Board dinner to host at our home.
A wedding to host.
A girls trip to Dubai.
A trip to Ireland for business.
Corporate Family Events to plan.
Two business trips the entire family can take with the Road Warrior.
Field trips to plan in Philadelphia, Texas and D.C.
Recitals to watch.
A homeschool convention in Orlando.
A Singapore Math Conference in Las Vegas.
A summer vacation to plan with extended family
A decorating project I cannot wait to start, and then reveal…
Our Family Foundation website to launch.
Birthday parties to plan.
Sunday dinners to cook.
A 13 year anniversary to celebrate.
And lots of everyday life in-between.
The truth is, this is the life I have been entrusted with. This is the life I have been blessed with. I don’t want to give up or wish away any part of it. If anything, I just need to manage my expectations and realize my individual limitations.
All of the things I’m juggling (even the challenges) are attached to blessings. All lives have challenges and blessings. The key is to focus on the blessings and weather the challenges with as much grace as you can muster.
So while I haven’t given up on my word for 2013, I am also going to just embrace this big busy life we live.
I say bring it. I’m ready.
I’m glad the heaviness lifted! I was sad for you reading those words… because I know how life and responsibilities and all the things we want to do, need to do, wish we could do… expectations… man, it can get overwhelming sometimes. I have learned to embrace MY life. The hardest part for me was to let expectations from others go. No one pressures us, but I still KNOW that living in Texas would please David’s parents and my parents. I would love to have this family or that family over for dinner because I like them and know that they need friends when they are new to this rock called Guam. But I can’t do it all and I am learning to take things one day at a time. And accepting that the world won’t fall apart if I don’t get it all done (whether I try or not).
Family foundation? I’m intrigued.
Decorating project? I’m excited!
Ireland? I wonder if it’s really that green!
Singapore Math? I liked how you mentioned their way of breaking down story problems. Do they have a resource that just explains that part it for those of us that are using a different math curriculum?