under pressure

i've been doing a lot of talking with my girlfriends lately and the main theme of our conversations is this: we are overloaded...overwhelmed...overworked...overtired...and spread WAY too thin. as you may (or may not) know, i'm working on simplifying our lives. you can read my epiphany here .


i've decided to start raising funds so we can research this problem extensively. just kidding. but, i would like to talk about it. now, i will admit that some of my angst is self-induced. i have over-scheduled myself and our kids in an effort to keep us busy and allow less time for whining. we had a great summer...probably just the right amount of activities. however, it left me feeling out of breath and struggling to catch up on daily life. captain adventure was in an all boys gymnastics class at the Y at the end of the summer. he LOVED it. it was great for him. for me the only problem was the timing...every wednesday from 4:30-5:15. little mother hen gets out of school at 3:40...we get home by 3:50 and she only has a few minutes to catch her breath, do her homework, and grab a quick snack before we leave at 4:15. i know -- it was only once a week, but sometimes that is enough to throw a kink into the smooth running machine that is our life.

i joke with my friend jill that we are less like stay-at-home-moms and more like live-in-the-car-moms. i'm tired. i'm tired of the constant power struggle with our kids. i'm tired of so much running and so many activities. they're tired too. all they want to do is melt into the couch and stare at the tv (which is an entirely different post). they don't want to be constantly running between here and there any more than i do.

another part of the problem is that i have put WAY TOO MUCH PRESSURE on myself to be the perfect mom...to bake, to craft, to haul, to enjoy, to never yell, to always cook, to always be calm and collected, to do it all and have it all. i have set myself up for failure by setting totally unrealistic expectations. so, i suppose i need to revamp my expectations for myself and the expectations that i have for our family. we need to re-prioritize as part of our simplification plan. that's cool. i can do that.