Juggling the kids

While the title brings to mind throwing my children up in the air, all at once and swinging them around, that is not exactly what I mean.  We as mothers, juggle.  We juggle schedules.  We juggle carpools.  We juggle work and home and everything in between.  I never learned to juggle properly.  By that I mean that I cannot toss three or four balls in the air and keep it going.  My husband can, I cannot.  But I juggle my life and usually do not drop the balls, so I think that is better.  It won't get me on the Tonight Show, but I always wanted to be on when Johnny was there, sooooo.

This Thursday, the cookie dough order for the fundraiser comes in.  I planned accordingly.  I took the day off.  I arranged for my mom-in-law to watch the kids when they get off the bus, get the other child and the neighbor child from baseball practice.  Even going to get the kids to youth group, where I will be handing out cookie dough.  Awesome.  Here comes the monkey wrench.  My mother-in-law is going to a funeral three hours away, has to leave tomorrow and won't be back until late Thursday.  Let the chaos erupt.  Now, instead of smooth sailing I will be tag-teaming.  I am going to reluctantly let my almost twelve year old watch the other two for one and a half hours.  This was a tough one for me, but for the love of all that is holy, I was babysitting infants when I was ten, I have to let it go.  I am going to arrange at today's meeting about said cookie dough to have relief ready for me when I have to pick up my younger ones at home and then proceed on to baseball practice, then drop off the neighbor kid, then drive through whatever for dinner, then back to youth group, then the twelve year old has drums, then I have to get the twelve year old from drums and take him to youth group (not at the youth center, only high school goes there) then I have pick him up and make sure the cookie dough that is not getting picked up gets to Nicolina's garage until Sunday.  I know that sentence is way too long, but there you go.  I think I will drink all day Thursday, just kidding.  Drinking does not help, that much I do know.

I know that I am not alone in all of this, we all juggle.  I also know that at the end of the day on Thursday, I will be tired, the kids will be tired and we will all be okay.  It's just one day of many that we have all survived.  Baseball season is upon us.  Grant is playing Monday, Wednesday and Saturdays.  Tyler just made freshman baseball at his Junior High (Go CHIEFTANS) and he plays on Tuesday and Thursday.  This is going to freak Cooper out, but this is not our first rodeo, we have been in baseball for years.  When Cooper was younger, I would leave the car running and he could watch a movie, that was the only way he could get through the day.  We all do what we have to do, I wasted gas and blew a hole in the ozone.  

What are you juggling today?  Work?  Husband's work schedule?  Kids?  Dance or girlscouts (oh crap, we have girlscouts tonight), or whatever.  Let me know.

God bless you and yours and all that you are juggling.