3:30 Monday Afternoon
Once again it is 3:30 Monday afternoon. I’m tired. I’m frazzled. I feel like the day is gone and I’ve accomplished nothing. This feeling is common on Monday afternoons. I spend from 7 am until 9 am getting kids fed, dressed, and out the door for school. Patches has gymnastics at 9:15 and I usually use that hour for errands. Then I bring him home for an hour. Then we go fetch Gleek from school. Then 30 minutes later I take Gleek to gymnastics. Then I drive straight to Link’s school to pick him up. Then home for 30 minutes. Then I pick up Gleek. Then home for 15 minutes. After picking up Kiki it takes me about 30 minutes to feel settled here at home and mentally ready to do something. Voila! It is now 3:30.
If my only goal for the day was to meet the needs of the kids, this list of things done would be just fine. But Monday comes after Sunday. On Sunday I honor the sabbath and do not work. I don’t usually get businessy things done on Saturday either. This means I have a two day backlog on shipping out books. I feel like I should be getting that done first thing, but I don’t. There is also the inevitable backlog of housework and laundry which occurs after our day of rest. I get up in the morning on Monday and already feel like I’ve fallen behind.
Recognizing this pattern has caused me to make some shifts in our family schedule starting in January. I’ve moved Patches gym lesson to another day. Gleek and Link are both dropping out of gym so that they can take an art class together at their school. I have to volunteer for this class, but it sandwiches nicely between Link’s pick up and Kiki’s pick up. At least this way when I have home time I can just be at home rather than having to run out constantly to drop off or pick up.
I hope it will be enough better that I can finish out the remaining 5 months of school. I look ahead blissfully to the time next fall when Kiki will ride the bus to junior high. Link and Gleek will be dropped off/picked up at the same time. Instead of making 5 trips daily our family will be down to 2 trips, or less if the kids walk home.
I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned/complained about all of this before. But somehow reminding myself that it won’t last forever helps me to deal with it now.