In overdrive

Life has been so busy lately, and I’m getting a little bit (or maybe a lot) run down.  I knew having an exchange student live with us would add more to my plate, but I guess now I’m realizing the full extent of it.

Life seems to be flying by right now.  Here’s what a day in the life of me looks like right now.

6:50am – Alarm goes off, get up, get myself dressed and ready for the day

7:15am – Get Abbie up

7:15-7:45am – Do everything I can to get Abbie to get dressed and fed.  (She needs a LOT of coaxing to get going in the morning, which I find really ironic because on the weekends, she’s up at 8am, dressed and ready to go, all on her own.)

7:45am – Get Ben up and dressed

7:55am – Take Abbie to school

8:10am – Get back from taking Abbie to school

8:15-11:30am – Clean the house, get groceries, run errands, feed Ben lunch, play with Ben, etc.

11:30am – 2:50pm – Ben naps and I work from home or blog or write letters or nap.

2:55pm – Leave to go get Abbie from school

3:15pm – Get back from getting Abbie at school

4:15pm – Load the kids back up in the car to go get Emily from her cheerleading practice

4:45pm – Get home, get changed, start dinner

5:15pm – leave to get to my real estate license class

6pm – 9:45pm-ish – In real estate license class

10:15pm-10:30pm – Get home from class

10:30pm – clean and organize kitchen, make Abbie’s lunch for the next day

10:30-11:30pm – relax, watch tv show, check email, etc

11:30 – 12:00am – go to bed

It’s a lot to deal with.  Thankfully my class is only Mon, Tues and Weds, and this is the last week of it being 3 days a week.  Then it’ll drop down to once or twice a week until I take my test in November.  It’ll be worth it, but it’s a lot.  And it’s great that Emily made the cheer team, but it is a lot going up there to get her 4 days a week.  I think she’s going to try to get rides home from practice sometimes, and I think soon her practices will only be Mon and Weds.

Last weekend was really busy also.  I had to get up at 6am on Saturday (no, I’m not at all a morning person, ESPECIALLY on Saturdays) to take Emily to a volunteer thing she was doing 30 mins away, and then I had to go volunteer at Abbie’s school to avoid paying a $500 penalty from 1-5:30pm, and that was kind of a waste of time.  We ate at our friends house on Saturday night, went to church Sunday morning, went out to lunch with 2 families after church and then took Emily back to church at 5:30pm for her teen thing.

I love being busy, but this constant running around gets a little old, not to mention expensive.  I can usually go 2 weeks or so on a tank of gas and I barely made it one week this week.  I’m struggling with how much help I should expect from people around the house.  Thankfully, my husband is the best one around and picks up my slack when I’m at class.  He will make dinner for the kids, clean up the mess, give the kids baths and put them to bed without ever complaining and that’s after he’s gone in to work at 6am for 11 hours.  I’m not sure I could ever ask for a better partner to have a family with.  I think Emily is used to her family life revolving around her and her twin sister, and I think if I had two kids that were the same age, my life would revolve around them too.  But since we have two little ones that demand and require a lot of attention and then Emily, who demands and requires a different type of attention, it is exhausting.

And on top of that, I think I’m extra pissy because I’m really missing fall here.  I get to read everyone else’s status updates on Facebook about how the fall weather is so nice and meanwhile, it’s still 105 here.  I LOVE fall weather and the crispness in the air and the jeans and t-shirt attire you can wear.  It’s a little depressing when most other people are getting that and we still have temps here hotter than they had all summer.  The joys of living in the desert.  On the bright side though, when everyone else is having their winter, we’ll be enjoying our “fall” weather.  I’m looking forward to that!