When Things Get REALLY Busy....

I end up being late and stressed out a lot and I start forgetting things.

I'm feeling a bit frazzled (to say the least) after a month of visitors (4 sets of visitors who we thoroughly enjoyed - Jonah and Aja and family, then Jared's brother and family, then my parents, then some dear friends from California) and a couple simultaneous weeks of deadlines (an application for Education Week, the kids' Reflections projects, some Power of Moms stuff...) and big events (the St George Marathon that Jared ran, the Senior Games for my Dad - lots of great tennis matches to watch, the school carnival, parent teacher conferences, the book fair, a joint YM/YW activity I was in charge of, the first meeting of a new Moms' Group I started, the Reflections Open House at the school that I somehow ended up being in charge of and another fun trip to the Instacare to have Oliver's chin stitched up yet again - he thought he'd try walking along a ledge with his eyes closed and learned a lesson about how important eyes are!).

None of these things were huge or particularly stressful in and of themselves (well, a guess a couple things were) - but somehow they all converged on the same part of the calendar and I feel like I've been running my own marathon for weeks with hardly a minute to catch my breath or to plan the best way to tackle what needs to happen - so things just keep happening helter skelter. When I go days (or weeks) without time to do the little daily cleaning jobs and emails and kid stuff that I usually do, everything starts to pile up quite alarmingly and tensions run high. I'm tired of being late and being stressed out and forgetting things - and I think the kids are tired of it too!

Today I was late for:

• family scripture study by 10 minutes (we were up late talking with our guests and I was so wound up I couldn't sleep well last night and getting up is always hard for me...)
  
• school by 2 minutes (we're always SO close but those last few minutes always get away from us!)
  
• preschool by 5 minutes
• volunteering in Isaac's class by 8 minutes (and then the teacher didn't really need me today and that was pretty frustrating - I don't think she could really have any idea how precious my time felt today with the million things I've had going on!)
  
• Eliza's Parent-Teacher conference by 5 minutes
• Ashton's Parent-Teacher conference by 20 minutes (because the teacher was running late - this one wasn't my fault)
• Isaac's Parent-Teacher conference by 20 minutes (because of Ashton's conference starting late)
• Isaac's soccer practice by only 3 minutes even though we'd had to leave the school so late with the late conferences (we skipped going home to get Isaac's clothes changed and would have been right on time but drove 10 minutes out of my way to pick up a child who didn't turn out to be home - I'm sure they tried to call but...)

Today I forgot:

• to remind Eliza to wear her glasses and to put cream on Eliza's scar.
  
• to say goodbye to our houseguests as I ran out the door to take the kids to school - I just took off and realized after I went into the school to volunteer that I never said goodbye and I wouldn't be seeing them again. But I called them and said goodbye and it was OK.
• to call a neighbor I'd told about our ward park day tell her we'd changed to a different park - she went to the wrong park and I felt so bad!
  
• to check on the Joy School CDs the twins' teacher ordered a long time ago and still hasn't received.
• that it's NEXT WEEK that we're heading up to Idaho for Jared's niece's wedding so I can't do an FHE with some friends that I thought would work or bring the twins to a neighbor's birthday party that I'd promised we'd attend. Had to make some apologies when I realized my mistake. I've got so many dates in my head that I keep doing stuff like this lately!
  
• to put together a flier for the neighborhood party that I helped to plan and that is now just over a week away
• to feed Isaac dinner before scouts - so the poor hungry guy didn't get dinner until like 8pm. When he came in from scouts complaining of a stomach ache (he's been complaining of stomach aches a lot lately), I finally put it together that his tummy aches are probably hunger pains since they do seem to coincide with when he should be hungry - should have figured that one out a while ago!
  
• to carefully count the kids as I left the park where Isaac's soccer practice was. I loaded up 7 kids but I was supposed to have 8. After getting Isaac's friends home and dropping off Isaac at scouts, I dished up dinner and had one too many bowls of soup. I'd left Eliza at the park! I frantically called Jared and he hurried to get her. Knowing her tendancy towards the dramatic, I was so worried she'd be freaking out and worried whether she remembered her phone number and worried that she'd be so hurt that I'd left her or that she could be kidnapped or something. Jared found her sitting on a bench, calmly waiting for someone to come back and get her. She said she was getting a bit worried and a bit hungry but she said a prayer and she knew we'd be back soon. What a good girl! What a bad mom!
  

My life is generally pretty busy and crazy but in contrast to the last few weeks, my "regular" life is feeling quite manageable and pleasant! I've resolved to plan things out better and say "no" more. And to pray more. I get so busy I don't pray and that really messes things up.

This weekend I've got houseguests again but it's a whole different deal this time. Jared's taking the kids up to my parents' place at Kolob and I get to hang out with some great women who help with The Power of Moms and relax and enjoy some time together as we do some Power of Mom planning in a kid-free house. So I'll get some perspective and recharge and life will feel much better in a couple of days. Then Jared and I will take the kids off on a road trip for their cousin Mikalla's wedding and it will be nice (and stressful in different ways, of course) to get away for a while.