Fun Times
I realize that I have had a serious lack of pictures on here lately, but that actually leads into my topic of discussion perfectly. I'm drowning. Suffocating. Being crushed. Sounds horrible, I know. I'm buried under a giant mound of life and I can't seem to find a way out. Naturally, since I am completely overwhelmed by everything I need to be doing, I'm going to do what any responsible adult would do and just blog about it rather than actually doing something.
There is nothing truly tragic or hard or immensely important about all the things that are overwhelming me right now. It's mostly ordinary things like laundry, ironing, raising mattresses in baby cribs, getting carseats put back together, cleaning my horrendously dirty 10-year-old dented minivan, and cleaning my bathrooms. There is my list a mile long of all the little things we still need to do to get ready for Sam, like locate an evidently very hard to come by bassinet. Then there's this completely stressful thing called third grade. I had no idea that real school didn't start until third grade. I am now finding out that we've been in "Upward School," as my dear friend calls it, for the past three years, and now we are in real school with real tests (lots of them), real homework, real projects, and real grades. Sure, the whole "standards based grading" sounds wonderful until you rip that happy rug out from under a parent and replace it with good old A's, B's, C's, and other letters that we won't mention. I had to have the discussion with my 8-year-old of which letters - or letter - is acceptable and which ones aren't, but she didn't seem too concerned about it, which naturally left me quite concerned. Then there's the fact that I have two kids in school now, so there are two schedules to keep up with, two folders to peruse, and two sets of homework to get done. Okay, so Jack's homework is reading a short list of two and three-letter words each night, but did I mention his sister is in third grade now?
Then there's other things like Bible study starting up and our Sunday School class, which I stink at ministering to, and this party coming up which I have to dress up for. Can I tell you that putting on a costume and pretending to be someone else - all meant for fun - is stressing me? Then there's the fact that I tried the costume on in the privacy of my bedroom last night and was so embarrassed by how HUGE I looked that I immediately ripped it off? And I was the only one looking!
Lastly, there are all the totally unrequired things in life, which I still feel pressure to do, but that I know I'll never get done because there is no chance they'll make it higher than #32 on my to-do list. In a moment of insanity today, I bought Sam a baby book. I was having a moment of guilt and did not want him to be the typical fourth child who has no recorded memories or photos of his childhood. There's only one problem with that. He's the fourth child. I don't think I've opened Luke's baby book since he was six months old, so how in the world do I think I'm going to keep one updated for the next kid that comes our way?
So, you see, all this really means is that my life is so full of blessings that my bucket can't hold them all. I guess that leaves me with two options...refuse some of the blessings, or get a bigger bucket. I'm rather fond of my children, so I guess I'll keep them. That means keeping the laundry and ironing and dirty bathrooms. I also find their education rather important, so I guess we'll try our best to keep up with the demands of third grade. I'm kind of looking forward to Sam being around, so I guess we should do a few more things to get ready for his arrival. Can't say much about the costume party, but we've committed and I don't see anyway out other than going into labor, but it's a little early for that. I love CBS, and actually need it desperately (actually I need the time in God's Word and with His Body that it provides), and I've grown rather fond of our Sunday School class, so I guess I'll keep plugging away at those. I do admit that the baby book is a little bit of a stretch, but I might give it a shot at some point...maybe...when I have a free second...in 18 or so years.
And when I feel like I can't take one more blessing in my life, I'll do what I always do. I imagine myself at 85 years old after Chris has abandoned me for streets of gold and my kids are too busy with their grandchildren and my grandchildren are too old to find Grandma interesting anymore and I have nothing to do but sit around and watch tv, and I think of how much I'll miss these crazy days. I find it really hard to imagine at times, but I try nonetheless, and then I go back to my wild, busy, crazy life and jump in head first. Fun times. That's what these are. Fun times.
(And please excuse all the improper grammar and run-on sentences. I'm a busy girl these days with no time for proofreading.)
There is nothing truly tragic or hard or immensely important about all the things that are overwhelming me right now. It's mostly ordinary things like laundry, ironing, raising mattresses in baby cribs, getting carseats put back together, cleaning my horrendously dirty 10-year-old dented minivan, and cleaning my bathrooms. There is my list a mile long of all the little things we still need to do to get ready for Sam, like locate an evidently very hard to come by bassinet. Then there's this completely stressful thing called third grade. I had no idea that real school didn't start until third grade. I am now finding out that we've been in "Upward School," as my dear friend calls it, for the past three years, and now we are in real school with real tests (lots of them), real homework, real projects, and real grades. Sure, the whole "standards based grading" sounds wonderful until you rip that happy rug out from under a parent and replace it with good old A's, B's, C's, and other letters that we won't mention. I had to have the discussion with my 8-year-old of which letters - or letter - is acceptable and which ones aren't, but she didn't seem too concerned about it, which naturally left me quite concerned. Then there's the fact that I have two kids in school now, so there are two schedules to keep up with, two folders to peruse, and two sets of homework to get done. Okay, so Jack's homework is reading a short list of two and three-letter words each night, but did I mention his sister is in third grade now?
Then there's other things like Bible study starting up and our Sunday School class, which I stink at ministering to, and this party coming up which I have to dress up for. Can I tell you that putting on a costume and pretending to be someone else - all meant for fun - is stressing me? Then there's the fact that I tried the costume on in the privacy of my bedroom last night and was so embarrassed by how HUGE I looked that I immediately ripped it off? And I was the only one looking!
Lastly, there are all the totally unrequired things in life, which I still feel pressure to do, but that I know I'll never get done because there is no chance they'll make it higher than #32 on my to-do list. In a moment of insanity today, I bought Sam a baby book. I was having a moment of guilt and did not want him to be the typical fourth child who has no recorded memories or photos of his childhood. There's only one problem with that. He's the fourth child. I don't think I've opened Luke's baby book since he was six months old, so how in the world do I think I'm going to keep one updated for the next kid that comes our way?
So, you see, all this really means is that my life is so full of blessings that my bucket can't hold them all. I guess that leaves me with two options...refuse some of the blessings, or get a bigger bucket. I'm rather fond of my children, so I guess I'll keep them. That means keeping the laundry and ironing and dirty bathrooms. I also find their education rather important, so I guess we'll try our best to keep up with the demands of third grade. I'm kind of looking forward to Sam being around, so I guess we should do a few more things to get ready for his arrival. Can't say much about the costume party, but we've committed and I don't see anyway out other than going into labor, but it's a little early for that. I love CBS, and actually need it desperately (actually I need the time in God's Word and with His Body that it provides), and I've grown rather fond of our Sunday School class, so I guess I'll keep plugging away at those. I do admit that the baby book is a little bit of a stretch, but I might give it a shot at some point...maybe...when I have a free second...in 18 or so years.
And when I feel like I can't take one more blessing in my life, I'll do what I always do. I imagine myself at 85 years old after Chris has abandoned me for streets of gold and my kids are too busy with their grandchildren and my grandchildren are too old to find Grandma interesting anymore and I have nothing to do but sit around and watch tv, and I think of how much I'll miss these crazy days. I find it really hard to imagine at times, but I try nonetheless, and then I go back to my wild, busy, crazy life and jump in head first. Fun times. That's what these are. Fun times.
(And please excuse all the improper grammar and run-on sentences. I'm a busy girl these days with no time for proofreading.)
Upward school-crack me up. I will remember this when I have not one but 2 third graders next year! And don't even mention a baby book-C & O have one and I think I got as far as writing their birth info in it and maybe when they crawled, I never even bought one for K!
ReplyDeleteBaby Books are a joke. Filled in like 2 pages for Jd and saved my money on Zach. I just try to take pics when I remember.
ReplyDelete