Fitting It All In.

I am constantly amazed at what a woman is truly capable of when she puts her mind to something.  As a mom of two small kids (ages 4 and 6), a wife, a friend, and a student, I sometimes surprise myself at what I can accomplish in a given day.  I hate to have to "toot" my own horn but perhaps this is more for all multi-tasking moms out there rather than just for me.  I have quite a few friends who are moms and the juggling act that we all perform on a daily basis can be incredible at times. 

Let me walk you through a "normal" day.  It starts off at 5am when I wake up (which is only about 15 minutes before the kids wake up).  I clean up, get coffee started (as that's the catalyst that really holds my morning together), and make myself presentable, (which is done to make me feel human more than anything else).  I sit for about 15 - 20 minutes and figure out what I have to get done today, check my calendar for any outstanding appointments, and begin to create a schedule for the day.  No sooner do I begin this task, when the kids come meandering in asking for breakfast.  At 530am?!  Nope, too early for breakfast.  A piece of fruit is given to tide them over until about 7am when I will gladly serve them breakfast.  Off they go to watch cartoons.  I'm okay with it because it buys me a little more quiet time.

I grab a mug of piping hot coffee and my day begins.  I pull chicken or beef out of the freezer and decide on what to cook for dinner.  My husband hates this as he says, "It's not even breakfast time and you're worried about dinner?!"  Yes!  That's how it works.  We need to figure out what is for dinner early on so there is time to thaw the meat and head to the grocery store for any outstanding ingredients we'll need later in the day.  Dinner is decided. I check to make sure all ingredients are available.  Dinner - taken care of, all I have to do is cook it later.  One thing is off of my list now.

Since my son attends public school virtually (meaning he is assigned a teacher and attends via the computer with me as his "learning coach"), I have to schedule the next 4 hours to do his computer schooling and paper schoolwork with him.  Luckily my brother or my husband usually volunteer to do his worksheets with him, so this cuts down the time I have to spend.  This means I need to spend the next two hours (approximately) doing Gunnar's computer work with him.  During this time, I also have to find Kindergarten work for Brogan to do as she wants to be involved as well.  Plus it's good prep for her for when she does enter Kindergarten.  Once that is done, I get him situated with his worksheets and send him off to whomever decides to work with him.  All the meanwhile, I am filling up cups with ice and water, fetching snacks, breaking up arguments and fights while answering emails, phone calls, and scheduling appointments for my family, and trying to listen and seem interested in the stories my kids are telling me about the latest Zoe 101 episode.  Of course there are the visits to the potty to help my daughter while she's doing her "thing" in there and more breaking up arguments between the two kids. 

They then busy themselves playing while I settle in to do my own studying.  As a junior (I just changed my major to Bachelors in Criminal Justice focusing on Criminology), I have a full load of classes that I need to handle.  I have a cumulative 4.0 GPA and have not gotten less than that in my time in college, nor do I plan to.  In order to maintain it I have to have the time to study and a quiet place to study.  That's not always feasible at home.  Thinking that it's quiet and I can now study, I buckle down and begin to situate myself with where I need to begin.  Of course by this time my kids rush in saying, "Mommy can you make us lunch?"  Right as I'm about to respond with a "no, it's way too early", I peek at the clock in the lower right corner of my laptop and realize it's already a little past noon!  WOW! Already?  My response quickly changes to "Sure" because I know that hungry kids have more tenacity that full ones do.  My goal is to give them a hearty lunch that will hopefully slow them down and if I strategically combine that with a nearly 2-hour Disney movie, maybe, just maybe they'll fall asleep; giving me much needed study time and them a much needed rest.  So, I get up and make them chicken with macaroni and cheese, peas, and a banana.  A good meal with just enough carbs to put down a grizzly!  Another 45 minutes of my day is spent. 

After I clean the dishes, get the movie on and the kids settle in, a good 15 minutes has passed me by.  It's now well past 1:30p and I get a phone call from a friend and fellow student requesting help on a paper.  I assist her while logging into my school and simultaneously doing some pre-research of my own.  Fifteen more minutes later and I've been a good friend and helped her out. Now, it's time to feed into my own demon - procrastination.  I do this by allowing it to get the best of me and I check Facebook.  I have no need, just a distraction from the countless other distractions that have already plagued me.  Finally, I go "stealth" on FB so that I can't chat and I log in to school, open up my books, pull out my highlighter and I'm engrossed in my classes and schoolwork.  You see, once I get started I'm fine.  It's the "getting started" part that is my challenge.

I feel that I have a finite window of study opportunity here because I loathe studying past 6p and I almost refuse to unless I'm backed up against a deadline.  I simply don't compute things well past that time.  I would rather get up at 2am to get things done that do them later in the evening.  In this case however, my study window is really closer to 5p since I need to make dinner.  So now I have about 3.5 hours to study and get school postings done.  Doesn't sound like much time until I take inventory of the day.  What have I done?

Well I made breakfast and lunch for the kids and my hubby, I've done school with my son, I've scheduled my husband's physical therapy for his neck/back and made a follow-up appointment with his primary.  I've helped a friend with her issues, answered emails, updated the grocery list (as our monthly shopping trip is two days away), I've checked the weekly ads for the major grocery stores we shop at, I've helped my daughter and son in the potty countless times, I've cleaned up the kitchen and baked cookies, I've washed and dried two loads of laundry, stopped to give my solicited opinion on the addition that is being done on our house, prepared dinner, caught up on my textbook readings, lectures, and slideshows and even managed to write a paper and answer a discussion.  I can't imagine having to work a secular job as well.  For my lovely female friends that do, I salute you!!!!  I sit back at times and marvel at the ability that us women have to multi-task.  We are experts at it.  My husband will do one thing extraordinarily well, but to have him do multiple things at a time isn't going to happen. 

So for my mom friends or even multi-tasking female friends, this "TOOT, TOOT" is for you; for US!  I don't think our families realize how much we do.  I think there are times when we don't realize how much we do until the end of the day when we are so utterly exhausted that we are forced to ask ourselves why are we so tired and only then do we recap our day.  Ladies, kudos to us for handling so much, for loving it, and for appreciating the fact that we "get" to have our family that keeps us so frazzled and busy!  Somedays we need to "toot" our own horns.  We've earned that right, most of us don't though.  When would we fit it in?