Friday, November 21, 2014

Keep Going

Here is Ye Olde Blogge again, it's Apostle to Suburbia 2.0. I kept the name but had to change the web address, as some foreign spam bot had taken over the original one.

I have one of those crazy over-scheduled weekends again, where on paper it looks nutso, but in actuality it works okay, as long as I remember which kids need to be fed when and call in the reinforcements, that is, the grandparents. For example, tonight was three events at the same time: the penultimate drama performance of Number One daughter, the world premiere of Number Three daughter playing baritone horn with the sixth grade band, and den meeting night for my One and Only Son. Number Three daughter gets her time in the spotlight bright and early tomorrow morning when I'll drive her and four friends to the jazz festival for performance and critiquing.

No problem! Order pizza at 2 pm for an early bite to eat. Everyone dressed and ready before 5, drop off the actress, drive to the other school, drop off the musicians, find the grandparents, eat dinner, send scout with grandfather to den meeting, listen to band, take pictures, serve cookies for half an hour, collect musicians and grandmother, drive home, drop off passengers, let in son and grandfather, drive to theater, watch second act of show, help clean up concessions, give food money and instructions to be home before midnight to the actress, get home again, put kids to bed, check on location for jazz festival tomorrow, wait for actress to come home.

Living the "single mom" life just sucks some times. It works out, but you feel exhausted by the sheer effort it takes to get even the fun stuff done. My parents drove almost two hours in rush hour Friday traffic to get here to take my son to scouts while the other listened politely to 10 minutes of London Bridge and other nursery tunes.

Yet, by the grace of God, we carry on and life gets lived and progress is made and the kids keep growing. I'm grateful.

Looking forward to Advent, and the quieter days of winter break.  And actually, that one week in December when there are school concerts four nights in a row? Totally looking forward to that too.

For whatever reason, I've been given the grace to get through this crazy period in life, to even enjoy it somewhat, although by any logical reasoning, it should be driving me insane. I was the mom who always said no to volunteer requests, I relished my quiet evenings and quiet days and quiet activity-free afternoons. When I finally allowed one activity (taekwondo) I loved that it was one thing all five of us did together. I felt so smart, like I had tricked modern parenting into submission. The young mom I was ten years ago would never have believed I'd have kids in theater, volleyball, choir, and scouts, all at the same time.

How do I do it? I'm asked this all the time by moms with even more kids than me.

Grace. It doesn't come from me, but from Him.

And I'm so grateful. I don't even have time to think about it much, but I know, I feel it. I'm on a long swim and I have to keep moving forward. I'm pumping my arms, kicking my legs, breathing at a measured pace, finding my rhythm, head down, just keep going, Just keep going.

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