...And We're Off!

(Photo: www.flickr.com , **msk - http://www.flickr.com/photos/estmsk )

It is that time of year where I have a death grip on my Franklin Planner, monitoring every hour of every day and planning and orchestrating every single move and complex decision which will help me to best manage the schedules of my life.

With my job, the boys’ lives, school, sports, music, and church schedules - my calendar is an intricate series of “so-and-so needs to be here at this time” and “so-and-so needs to be there at that time” and who is going to get them there and who is going to pick them up.

As a single mom, I have become a diligent 5-Star General, strategizing troop movement from battlefield to battlefield, with me shouting orders and commands as we go. There is no room for error, less the enemy (our crazy schedule) find the weak spot and inflict total schedule annihilation. We must be swift! Agile. Determined. We must not show fear. We must forage our path into school year territory and (in the words of Winston Churchill) never, never, never quit.

For those of you who read this and wonder why I never call anymore…..here is why:

(Bear in mind, I work from 8 – 5 Monday through Friday….)

Monday: 7:05 – leave home to drive Bud (my oldest) to chorus rehearsal followed by my racing back home to get Peanut (my youngest) ready and out the door and to school by 7:55 (my neighbor, who watches these shenanigans from his back porch, calls this “Round One” and “Round Two”). School until 3:15 p.m. Grandma Jane picks up Peanut and brings him home. I meet up with them at my house at the end of my work day; walk the dog; help feed and dress Peanut for football practice at 6 p.m. then leave to pick Bud up from High School football; drop Bud off at the house…tell him to scrounge for food (“Think ‘Man vs. Wild’”, I tell him. “Imagine you have been dropped into the mountains of Yemen and you must stay alive but instead of eating reindeer droppings….you might find a peanut butter and cracker pack or frozen microwavable pizza!”). Then I am off to watch Peanut practice until 7:30 p.m. Everyone reunites around 7:45 p.m. Piano practice. Viola practice. Drum practice. Homework. Showers. Bed. Monday nights are also game nights for Bud so on the nights that he plays, the evening schedule management must be farmed out to any family member with a car and the mental fortitude to help out.

Tuesday: Repeat morning and day schedule. Just substitute Peanut’s piano theory class for the football practice element. Everyone reunites around 7:45 p.m. Piano practice. Viola practice. Drum practice. Homework. Showers. Bed. Throw in a random Tuesday night game for Peanut and theory must be rescheduled or skipped altogether.

Wednesday: Transition day for the boys to their dad’s house. Repeat morning and day schedule. 7 – 9 p.m. is Catechism for Bud and me (I am an adult guide for the group).

Thursday: Repeat morning and day schedule. The boys are with their dad but I must remain on call to assist their father if he has a work conflict. Peanut has football practice from 6 – 7:30 p.m.

Friday: Repeat morning and day schedule. Boys are with their dad. Evening activities include 5 p.m. piano lessons for Peanut, later attending the high school football game and to watch Bud play in the half-time marching band program.

Saturday: Boys are still with their dad but he often has Saturday work conflicts so I remain on call. Meet any time (depending on the gametime) between 7:45 a.m. and 10 a.m. to drive to and watch Peanut’s football game. It is a traveling team, so this usually takes all or most of the morning. Bud has football practice from 8 – 9:30 a.m. Piano Lessons at 11:30 a.m. Catch up on laundry and house cleaning. Yard work. Grocery shop.

Sunday: Church – usually 8:15 a.m. service as "late church" is too contemporary for my preference. Lunch. Family fun activity or more yard work with the boys. Catch up on anything left on the list that didn’t get done. Evening dinner/dessert and card game activity with the extended family.

So…we are off and running. Eventually this will all become a carefully choreographed dance that we perform effortlessly and will, ultimately, master. For now, we clumsily take it a step at a time – until we fall into a rhythm.

To all you Moms and Dads out there: I feel your pain. Give me survival tips, if you have any. Just know that we are all in this together!

For those of you who wonder why I never call….please bear with me. I will get back to you when the schedule lets up….in about 8 years!

Until next time, I remain….1SweetMama

Ode To Moms

(Photo by sharaff, from flickr)

Last night, as I was tucking Peanut (my youngest son) into bed, he announced, “You are the best Mom in the whole world.” To which I replied, “Well, thank you! Why do you say that?”

“Just because I love you and you are so good to me.”

I couldn’t have been more taken aback. Then he followed up by saying, “Even though I bet all kids in the world say their mom is the best mom, I think YOU are the best-est.”

He gets his brains and good sense from me…..

But, this morning, I read a news item that a woman in Southern California gave birth to octuplets. Yeah – that is right. Eight babies and all are doing very well, including the smallest one – just 1 pound and eight ounces – who was proclaimed as being “very feisty”. Each baby is named with names from A to H, for each consecutive letter of the alphabet.

I also would like to reference another of my favorite “mom of multiples”, Kate, of “Jon and Kate Plus Eight” on the TLC channel. This is a mom, who with her hubby, Jon, had a set of twins and then a few years later gave birth to sextuplets. The show chronicles life in the “Jon and Kate” household with eight of their own kiddies. Admittedly, I have become a big fan of this show and have forced my own two boys (who will reluctantly admit that they also enjoy the show) to watch it as I exclaim, “See? Imagine having four more brothers and sisters exactly like you that you have to deal with!!”

I give a lot of credit to these parents. It takes lot of guts to raise kids these days. After my first one, we were totally shell-shocked with the amount of work that went in to raising him. It took us four years to begin considering a second child. I love these two boys of mine more than life itself but every day is a new challenge.

From birth to “terrible two’s” to first days of kindergarten. Then progressing to pre-teen-hood, ‘tweenhood…then (gulp!) the dreaded teens. Even after they are out of college, there are more worries. A girlfriend of mine has a 23 year old daughter who just left to visit a “friend” (of the opposite gender) in South Korea, where he is working. My girlfriend, despite her wanting her daughter to live a full and “juicy” (this is her word) life, has her own set of reservations. So…the worrying never stops.

My own sister and her new hubby are now going down this road with their own VERY recent announcement that she is now expecting. They are young and have lots of energy to raise children…which is good, as they want a big family.

Me, on the other hand, am totally complete with my two charming and handsome “handfuls”. They provide me with a very satisfying amount of joy and heartache and all, usually, within the same day.

As my “2009 Intention #17” states, “Being a mother is the hardest job on earth. Women everywhere must declare it so.” Whether it is 15 children, 8, 4, 2, or a single wonderful child, I wish all the mom’s (and dads) of the world a hearty “Well done!” and a firm “Keep on keepin’ on!”

P.S. I also have to give a shout out to my OWN mother, who proofreads all my blog entries. She has served as my own personal proofreader since high school. And while I am at it, I also have to credit her mom, my grandmother, for everything she does for me, too. As Peanut so cleverly observed, ‘Even though I bet all kids in the world say their mom is the best mom, I think YOU are the best-est’.