People always ask me the same thing. “How do you do it?”
I’m busy. I run a business, when its not running me. My husband travels for work. We have six kids. His, hers, and ours. I have been known to over-extend myself, I volunteer for committees, say yes to advisory board spots, and I’ve been the class mom, on more than one occasion.
I don’t know how I do it, but I know I have help. My older kids are superstars. My little monkeys are pure joy…when they aren’t screaming, refusing to eat or beating each other silly. My husband is pretty awesome. My little one’s school is just amazing, and we are lucky to have a handful of babysitters and family that pitch in.
So, I just do it. I aim for controlled chaos, but usually fall short in the control department. My house isn’t “magazine clean.” We try to eat organically and homemade, unless we don’t. The laundry’s mostly laundered, and, unfortunately, so was Buzz Lightyear. My three year old has an excellent vocabulary of swear words and isn’t afraid to use them quite appropriately. I haven’t run out of gas in years. But I came pretty close last week. And, last fall…I left the house in two different shoes.
The older I get, the clearer certain concepts become. Control is an illusion. Time speeds up when you reach your thirties. You can’t be everywhere at once. You can’t make everyone happy, all the time. Tomorrow’s another day, and a gift. The universe will never give you more than you can handle, but it also doesn’t take no for an answer.
These small, seemingly insignificant moments are what life is made of.
They are the memories we carry forward, reflections of who we were & who we are to become. They are everything. And yet, sometimes, we miss them all together. We get so caught up in the grind of the day-to-day that we get busy. And we stop seeing the magic of everday.
The time we got, its all we got. We can’t get it back when its passed us by. We can’t make more time. And we never really know when it will end. But, it is everything. In the far off future life, someday, when the chaos is quiet…we will look back and remember these crazy times. Wonder where the time went. I’m hoping I will still have what’s left of my sense of humor…but for me, these six little people will be among the best work I will have ever contributed to the world.
