This Organized Chaos: As merry as the day is long

Last night at 10:45PM I sat in the loft area with Halle working on homework. She had several projects that were due on Friday, almost all of which she started on Wednesday. Without going into every assignment we ended the evening practicing for her spelling test today. So into the night we went "c-o-n s-t-i-l-l-a-t-i-o-n-s", NO listen to the word and hear the letters". "Listen and spell it again c-o-n-s-t-e-l-l-a-t-i-o-n-s, Yes that’s it"! "Ok now retriever"…..into the night we spelled, circled nouns and looked up definitions.

Now I understand why most mommy blogs have titles like Confessions of a Suburban Housewife, Redheaded Temper Tantrums, Desperately Searching for my Inner Mary Poppins, The Mommy Trenches, the list goes on. I certainly named this blog perfectly. As my children get older, more and more gets plied on my plate. Last night Tony sat in the loft area with me while I was working with Halle and he said “I cannot get over how long our days are”. Sixteen hours of the day are spent doing things for other people, the children or taking care of responsibilities. That leaves 8 hours in which we must feed ourselves, spend time a little time together which is when we usually end up nodding in and out of sleep on the couch together and actually sleeping in bed. There’s no room for anyone else. Now there’s talk of Wesley taking some karate classes. Between working, school, housework (which there is never time for) homework, parent teacher meetings, fundraising and more parent meetings, MY Melaleuca business, and being everyone’s Girl Friday, I am crazy.

Right now I am sitting here about to wake up Kyra for school. Wesley and Justin left for seminary at 6:35am this morning; Tony drove them. I made them a quick hot breakfast after waking up at 6:15am. I could get up earlier but I don’t. Perhaps if I woke up at 5:00am I could squeeze in a post to my blog. I listen to XM radio in the van as I travel back and forth because if I don’t I would never know what was going on in the world. There is ZERO time to watch TV which is why we cancelled our cable subscription last year. No one had time to watch TV in my house. I opened a Netflix account so that we could at least watch movies on the weekend. Also with everyone being so busy I found that the TV was getting in the way of us connecting when we could. Without the TV I feel I have their attention more often.

In all the chaos we still have Family Home Evening occasionally on most Monday evenings for about an hour. It helps to keep everyone in the team effort. It also reminds us that our family is the most important thing above all else and above everyone else. These 6 people and our purposes are number one. All these little world’s with their own trials and tribulations, the homework, the chores, the scripture memorization, earning merit badges for Boy Scouts, the school projects, the half painted walls, unfolded laundry, the sink full of dishes, the 2 dogs pooping in the garage, the constant flow of trash being emptied from smaller receptacles into a larger one for Friday pickup. When does it end? And it the midst of all of this chaos we are supposed to be madly in love, have mind blowing sex, remember to say I love you, meet all the kids emotional needs, keep a clean house, be friends, manage finances and this house and be a good Latter Day Saint. All of this while obeying the words of wisdom and keeping our bodies clean and free of drugs, caffeine, alcohol and anything else that is harmful to the human body. I tell you if it were not for my beliefs and my commitment to the gospel I would be under the influence of something everyday…LOL.