I’m so tickled to be here on the third day in a row just sharing life. I need to and will get back to some more curated content- recipes, Friday favorites, etc, but gosh right now it feels good to just show up and chat with you. I’m so encouraged by your responses that you miss this style of blogging, too. It’s less in your face, isn’t it? That’s how I feel reading my favorite blogs. Like I can just drop in when it works in my schedule and check in with a friend. I hope you feel that way here.
Enough waxing poetic, let’s chat about a less balanced day 🙂
Thursdays have been our super full days and yesterday was no exception. I woke up (6:15- trying to slowly move back to that 6:00 mark), had coffee, wrote my blog post, then realized I had skipped right over my available window to walk the dog. Sorry, Finley. She got a quick up and down the driveway, then I headed to the kitchen to prep breakfast and pack lunch at the same time.
Breakfast was Greek yogurt with chia seeds and no grain granola with two fried eggs and my usual cod liver oil and vitamin D. While I ate that, I prepped some earl Grey tea to go, washed the produce, and threw lunch stuff into our big cooler. I got dressed and the girls and I were out the door on the way to co-op by 8:30 (ish… funny how that gets later and later as we get closer to the last co-op day).
Our co-op is super sweet and we’ve enjoyed it so much. We start with morning time which consists of composer study, artist study, and bible study, then I assist in science for the oldest kids (we played with circuits), then I helped with the toddlers, then music with the young kids, then lunch, nature study (my fav!), and ended with Shakespeare. We stayed afterwards to let the kids play in the gym (basketball and then some fierce dodgeball) and the moms chat. It’s my favorite time of the day!
We will miss seeing this sweet group weekly when we switch co-ops next year. We’ll be switching to an option where I don’t have to teach so I can concentrate solely on my kids’ curriculum and lessons, which was a bit of a struggle for me this year since I’d spend Wednesday prepping and Thursday teaching other kids. It felt like we missed two homeschool days and at the ages my girls are at, we need to adjust.
We left the church just shy of 4:00, which meant a quick turn around at home. I threw in freezer meatballs in my trusty Dutch oven slow cooker, ate a quick snack (cottage cheese and BBQ chips), grabbed and Spindrift, and K and I were back out the door by 4:20 to head to theater rehearsal.
She had rehearsal until 8:00 and while she did that I returned phone calls, swung by Target to get a kid birthday gift and a dust pan, and got gas at Costco. We got home around 9:00 (it’s quite a drive for us to the theater) where I inhaled some spaghetti and meatballs, poured myself a magnesium, and chatted with the family before we all headed to bed shortly after. It’s weird when your bedtime becomes the same as your kids!
Theater runs through this weekend, with three more performances. I have mixed feelings on the program we’ve been part of this spring, as they allowed everyone who auditioned into the show, resulting in a ton of tiny parts (think two minutes of stage time for a 80 minute production). Combine that with a demanding schedule and mandatory volunteer hours on top of the monthly fee, and it was… a lot.
However, they are adjusting things for the fall musical theater set up and now K (and maybe even H!) want to audition. It has me thinking a lot about family priorities and how to match those up with kid activities. I am a big believer in the benefit of free time. It’s one of the reasons we homeschool- time to explore personal interests, play outside, be bored, etc. I also see the benefits of activities- learning how to be part of a team, sportsmanship, gain experience in performing/speaking to a crowd, etc.
I’ve said all spring season long, that we would be signing up for less in the fall. But figuring out exactly what that looks like is challenging. H is fairly straightforward; she wants to do piano and soccer. But now she’s curious about musical theater as well. K wants to do musical theater, soccer, softball, TKD, and voice lessons. Obviously we can not (and don’t want to) cart her around to all of those. Plus the girls will do youth group at the church, which is one night a week.
Add in appointments (chiropractor, dentist, hair cuts, and all the other little things that pop up) and co-op and we’ll be setting ourselves up for another drive-happy fall.
All moms know we have to start figuring this stuff out by summer because that’s when all the registration happens, so I’m curious how you handle this. I have friends that do nothing outside the home and their lives look idyllic- slow evenings, unrushed mornings, time to make beautiful dinners, and kids exploring outside. My heart mostly craves that, but yet I also love cheering on my kids from the sidelines and watching them shine up on stage. Is there a balance to be struck or is it simply a season of life that gets a little crazier and you just buckle up and enjoy the ride?
If you’ve figured it out (or if you haven’t), I’d be curious as to how to A) plan to handle it if you have little kids B) are handling it if you’re in the same season or C) handled it when your kids were in this stage and if you (in hindsight) would have changed anything or have any advice.
And if you’re just silent reading from your phone today, that’s OK, too. 😉 Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Oh, and one last picture from our busy day- proof of dinner and crazy kids wrestling on the couch.
Tarayn Comer says
I’m in the same boat! I run kids around like a lunatic. We homeschool as well and I’m constantly on them to clean up, get chores done and do school work. 😭 it’s been an eye opener for me but I don’t do much for myself anymore. Mainly because everything revolves around their schedules. Tough balance. I’d interested in hearing if you get feedback from older moms who have lived this season already.
Brittany Dixon says
Do you hope to/plan to change anything for the fall? Or do you feel like it just is what it is?
I agree on the “something for me” boat- I’m really enjoying my garden and home projects and driving (because most things are far for us) really cuts into any of that margin time.
Heather says
My life looks a little different as both of our kids are in public school and my husband and I work full-time. Our kids have started wanting to be in more activities, though, and I don’t even know where the past month has gone and our evenings feel rushed and I’ve had no time to really plan meals. I don’t know how other moms do it with more kids and more activities!! I agree with downtime being so important and putting a limit on activities, though. We already have so little time with our kids, I want to make sure we do have time as a family and time to just take a deep breath and slow down.
Brittany Dixon says
I don’t know how families with more kids do it either! My bro has two kids and both he and his wife work full time and it seems like often one of them has to be leaving work early to get them to their sports. Or rely on carpool. I don’t see how these activities have start times at like 4:00 because how is that possible for working families?
Laura says
I don’t know how families do it when the activities roll into the weekends, and take up the entire weekend, especially when both parents work full time outside of the house, it’s like- HOW???, you are literally never home!! That seems to be so common now with club and traveling sports. And often the tournaments are in places I’d really enjoy a weekend trip to (Albuquerque, Phoenix) but from what I can tell there isn’t much free time outside of the games. I draw the line at major weekend commitments. We do regular weekend trips and outings as a family, but outside of that there is just a lot to catch up with as far as laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping, and relaxing for like a minute. I’ve also had to say no at work for running clubs and teams that would take up weekend time. But I know lots of families that love their traveling club time, so it works for some!
Good or bad, my boys don’t really seem too interested in too many extracurriculars right now. They like to chill at home once they get home from school, likely because they have a longer day with the after-school care they go to (ends up being a 9+ hour day for them). My youngest lately has not loved going to soccer, and will tell me he’s already played soccer over an hour between recess and after-school. They do the fall and spring city soccer league, but that is just twice a week. And the latest we’d be home is 7:45. Other than that, the YMCA basketball which is also only twice a week. I’m impressed you lasted until 9 pm for dinner- I’m an early dinner eater, like 6:30 would be late for me. I usually rush something in the time I have and get the boys fed, then take mine to-go to eat on the field.
We used to do summer camps, but have even dropped that unless like this year I need coverage for training. For the cost of camp we can just do a road trip, and the boys prefer that anyways (and I will take that as long as I can)! I have the luxury of having 8- 10 weeks commitment free for summer, and like to fill it with as much travel as possible. Basically, at this stage (9 and 11) we are signing up for less and less, and never more than 1 activity at a time. I’m sure that’d change it there was something one of my boys felt very strongly about, but for now they seem to be able to take it or leave it.
Haley says
It is a balance! My kids are younger, but having one evening commitment a week is plenty for me and my kids. They are homebodies and love a lot of time to play. I like fitting in other activities in small bouts (one day pottery class, one morning of art camp), so they can experience new things or do things they enjoy without a big time commitment. I know as they get older it will be harder to decide how to spend out time. Commute time is big for me too, we aren’t very close to a lot, so driving more than a certain distance cuts down on a lot of options I’d even consider.
Brittany Dixon says
Same on the distance front! Driving takes up so much time. We use it to listen to audiobooks and have good convos, but it’s still a lot. Love the idea of adding in one day experiences like pottery!
Amber says
Love this post! I homeschool my kids so we try to do activities during the day (i.e. swimming lessons, hair cuts, etc) when possible to help ensure we have time for family time in the evenings. One thing I’ve found that is helpful is to rotate seasons of commitments. For example, my kids are runners so the fall (cross country) and the spring (track) are really busy for us so we don’t commit to extracurriculars in the winter and the summer. I’ve found it helps me embrace and look forward to the periods where we are really busy and the periods where we are slower. It may not always look this way or work out this way but it has for the past few years and I’ve really enjoyed it!