Our monthly calendar on the refrigerator is full. FULL! I actually had to purchase a larger dry erase calendar just so I had room to write in all our activities and obligations. Having only one or two things on a given day is a rare treat. It's not uncommon for Zach and I to head in different directions in the evening, trying to get the kids to all the things. Now don't get me wrong. These are all generally good things. These are things we signed up for. These are things we want to do. The complaint, if a complaint can be made, would be directed solely back at us as we are the ones that created this situation. But as a look ahead to our full days and our full weeks, I do find myself searching for those more empty days on the calendar and viewing them as something precious.
Our weekly activities are many. Although the end of soccer season took a few weekly games off the schedule, we still have plenty to keep us busy. Staley is currently involved in 3 different plays with 1-2 rehearsals each week for each one of them. She has Rising Stars and Broadway Dance, piano lessons, singing lessons, Student Council, and library volunteering hours. Adelie's obligations outside of the school day include Rising Stars, Stage Kids, Broadway dance, piano lessons, singing lessons, tumbling, Recycling Club, Kids Connection, and the Hornet Buzz News Team. Now that soccer has ended, Briggs just has piano lessons and Stage Kids that fill up some of his free time, although he is also starting to attend Kids Connection on Wednesday nights at church as well. I often feel like coordinating schedules and rides and snacks and activity obligations fills my brain with a constant check-list of to-dos...and to-don'ts. (Like: Don't forget to pick up your kid from their activity.)
Along with our ongoing activities, the kids are also getting to the age where they are starting to want free time to be friend time. And since free time is somewhat limited, we try to fit in that friend time when we can. Football games, Rising Stars performances, play-dates, outings...making social time with friends a priority also contributes to our increasingly full schedule. It's good. It's fun. It's needed. But it's also all part of the busy.
Life is busy. That is just our reality at the moment. We are living in the midst of kids who are finding their passions, exploring their interests, establishing their friend circles, improving their skills, trying new things, making their way. It's all good. It's all fun. It's all part of this phase of life for our family. And it's all making me just a little bit crazy.
