Crazy Busy

Disclaimer: This post is somewhat long and might even be considered boring. It just kind of got away from me, but please feel free to skip it and I will try to do better in the future at keeping things updated!

So I have been crazy busy lately and just can't seem to find the mental energy to make myself post something, but I made myself sit down and type something up tonight just so that I don't feel like I am neglecting the things that are important to me. Let's just say my brain is ready to switch to summer gear and I am dying with the thought that there are still two more weeks of school to put up with. I was talking to a friend this week who hit the nail on the head when she said that May is as busy as December. It's all fun busy, but it is busy and right now I am just in survivor mode until school gets out. (At least that's what I'm keep telling myself and maybe if I'm really lucky my wish will come true!)

Here is just a quick update of our week:
Monday: Since about January I have gotten together with my friend Stephanie every Monday and we have what we call "dinner dates." We switch off who's house we are going to and we both bring enough stuff to make 2 sets of 2 dinners so that we walk away on Monday afternoon with 4 dinners prepared and ready to cook. It makes the rest of the week so much easier and it is actually one of my favorite things, only I always feel a bit frazzled on these days. Not so much because of the dinner details but mostly because of kindergarten. I am so sick of having to go back and forth between our houses and the school so that I can pick Madeline up on early out day--but at least the end is in sight--only two more weeks of kindergarten:-) And just like every Monday, there is gymnastics for Madeline, but thankfully it is close enough that getting her there doesn't take too much time or effort.

Tuesday: Tuesday's are the day I actually feel like a visitor to my home rather than a resident. Here is my typical Tuesday in a nut shell for you: I take Ben to preschool at 9:00 where I pick up the kindergarten carpool to have them to school by 9:15. I drop them off and then Sarah and I go help in Madeline's classroom (at least we try to help, but it only works until Sarah is too distracting). Once we're done in the kindergarten classroom, we switch the take home library books. After that I have about a half hour down time where I race home and, if Sarah will let me, I try to pick up the tornado that our morning created. At 11:00 it's back to preschool to pick Ben up and back to the elementary school to help with running club (which needs to be a post in and of itself). We usually head home from running club at about 1:00--I will admit that if we tried, we could leave the school by 12:30 but we don't mostly because we enjoy each others company and once the chaos of running club is over, we like to sit and chat for a few minutes. Thankfully after that we get to go home--at least until 3:45 when we leave to take Madeline to dance. She's done at 5:00 and after that we have to hurry and get Andrew to track at 5:30. So far we have just sat with him at track practice and then we go home at 6:30, exhausted, and very grateful that I don't have to think of dinner! (Thanks Steph!)

Wednesday: (Now I'm back our week that has just passed, not giving you a general idea of my schedule) I started out the morning taking the two little kids to Madeline's kindergarten class plays. It was so cute and I am so glad I went to the morning show. Her teacher has worked so hard putting the three plays together based on popular children's books that they have read throughout the school year. Madeline got to be in the play Click, Clack Moo. She was a cow and it was so stinkin' cute. I have been so impressed with her teacher this year and seeing how well the plays turned out was just icing on the cake to a really great year. Of course after seeing that I got the hair-brained idea that as a class, particularly as class parents, we needed to do something for our teacher to show our gratitude to her. But of course having that idea meant calling all the parents in the class. Thankfully I had someone to share the load phone calls and we ended up with some really beautiful flowers for an amazing teacher at the plays that night. The afternoon was great and I decided to just skip all lessons and the kids and I just enjoyed playing outside and being together. Of course we went back to the school that evening for the plays and I was once again filled with gratitude for what I am sure will be one of the best teachers any of my kids will ever have:-)

Thursday: Nothing really exciting happened during the day, but Thurs. night, Andrew had his first track meet. I think I was a little blindsided going in to the meet without knowing what to expect. I had envisioned a well organized, quick time at the track in which Andrew would know where to be and what to be doing at any given moment. Turns out that I got the opposite, but despite that it was a lot of fun. He had no clue what he was doing and once he got over the fact that he couldn't run the mile, he had a lot of fun. He cracked Craig and I up when he actually switched lanes in the 100 and he was so funny to watch as he sized up the competition the whole time he was running. We had to remind him that he needs to only run for himself and not to worry about what anyone else was doing. Since he has been so excited, or should I say obsessed, about running club, I think I was expecting him to do a little bit better in the meet than he did, but he had so much fun and that's all I can ask for. (Plus he and I both think he is a distance runner and definitely not a sprinter!)

Friday: The say started out sad for me. Since Craig was going on a camp out with the scouts, I had planned on doing my long run with a friend this morning, but when I woke up at 6:37 and realize I had missed my run, I was totally bummed. Turns out I set my alarm for 5:45 pm, not am. Then I tried to get new running shoes, but no luck this time:( Thankfully, I did get to go and do running club again and although it takes up so much of my time, I do love being at the school and seeing all those little kids getting out there and being excited about running. It was a real pick me up for the day.(Thanks Laurie for a great idea:-) That afternoon we had so many kids over in our cul-de-sac riding bikes and eventually everyone ended up in our back yard playing. It really was so fun and we all had a blast! The only downside to that was that our neighborhood is filled with little boys and Madeline was a bit upset that she had no one to play with. So when I could tell the party was winding down, we called her a friend of hers and ended up going over to her neighborhood to play with a whole bunch of other little kids. We were all starved by the time we left, so I took everyone out to dinner at Wal-Mart. I can't even imagine how white trash we looked as we ordered our popcorn chicken with the day's dirt covering every piece of exposed skin. Since Craig was camping, I rushed the kids off to bed and spent a great evening loosing myself in a book:-)

Saturday: I made my kids help me clean the house and they were so cute as they helped with bathrooms. I have them all sufficiently scared of any cleaner with bleach and they were terrified of getting it on their clothes, it really was so funny. There was a stake Cub Scout activity for Andrew that morning and while he was there I went to the soccer park and signed Ben up to play and then we all hung out at the park. He was so giddy that I couldn't help but grin. He has been waiting to play soccer for so long and he is thrilled that it is finally his turn. Craig even decided that he wants to be his coach, so I am sure it will be a great first year for him! We spent the rest of the day just sort of bumming around--we shopped a little bit, we ate lunch at a yard sale (don't worry, it was a fundraiser for people I know, not just some random yard sale that I happened upon and thought--hey let's eat here!) Once Craig came home we set up the slip and slide in the backyard and the kids had a blast hanging out there. That night Craig and I went out for some much needed one on one time and we had some good food and even better conversation. When we got home there was once again a party in the cul-de-sac and we ended up hanging out with friends and neighbors until 10:00 pm at which time we raced our kids through the bath and on to bed!

Sunday: Today has just been our typical Sunday full of church, meetings and some fun family time. My favorite part of the day was eating dinner outside and thoroughly enjoying my family!


So there you have it, my week in review--is it any wonder I need to learn how to say "no." (Monica, I don't know how you do this every week--you're amazing)