Sunday, December 05, 2004

Accelerating and Slowing Down

This has been a wind-up/slow down weekend so far. My husband worked overtime all day Saturday (starting at 5am) and he's back at it today. I've been running around fulfilling busy kid-schedules and doing a bit of cooking, cleaning, Christmas shopping and other necessary chores.

Friday evening I spend a couple of hours at Planet Lazer. Daughter was at a friend's birthday party there, and I agreed to help ferry a carload of 11 and 12 year-olds to the birthday girl's house after laser tag. When I got home at 8:30 my husband was already sleeping and son was lounging, so I went into the crawl space under the stairs and got out all of the Christmas lights and decorations. Party was over at 11 so I did a pick-up run then.

Saturday was 1 rehearsal, 1 tap-dance lesson, 1 concert in the evening. Son vegged out in the morning and took himself to the video store by transit to rent a game in the afternoon. In between on Saturday I got some Christmas shopping done, dropped and picked Solly up at the groomer, did about 14 loads of laundry and 3 loads of dishes and made supper. Husband (bless him) grocery shopped on the way home after 10 hours at work.

Somehow in between and around all of this, we've grabbed a little time to make restful moments. I walked the dog down to the groomer in the morning while the kids lounged. I love that walk "into town." It's about 30 minutes - a good distance to stretch and unwind a bit. After tap lessons and picking up the dog I dropped over to my neighbour's house for a glass of wine and a chat. In the evening, as tired as he was, husband came to daughter's Christmas recital. We held hands in the dark. Our daughter sang so well. This was her first time in a duet, singing the harmony. She remembered her notes and choreography and looked like she was having a great time. She sang "Perfect Christmas," now on my list of favourites just because.

During her rehearsal I ran over to the mall. I bought us a new board game to enjoy over the Christmas holidays. Games make us stop and play as a family. Usually we need all 4 of us to make it work, and we have a lot of fun. This one is called Mad Gab. It looks very silly.

Then at the show, the stage manager invited me to join the stage crew of Beauty and the Beast (daughter's spring show). To be asked is a total honour - only trusted and reliable people are asked to work backstage. I thanked her and told her I'd think on it. I think I'll have to pass for this year and see about the next year. I've already made a commitment to our son that we will work together as volunteers for our NDP candidate during the provincial election. The show is late April, so that wouldn't work out very well. I'd like to be able to do both, but I don't think I can without stretching too thin.

Today we'll go to church in the morning, something that takes time but is pretty much like exercise as far as time and energy goes. Invest 90 minutes in worship and gain courage and re-invigoration enough for the next few days. I never regret taking time to go.

Daughter has rehearsal again all afternoon (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat opens on Thursday). While she's there I need to help our son with a science project, but I think there will also be time to take the dog for a walk again. I hope my husband will be home by that time so we can go together. Supper is frozen pizzas so instant yummy. Oh yeah, I have to work on my wine, but I can do that while I help my son with science. Wine-making is a lot of "do this for 2 minutes then go away for 15, come back and repeat."

So I guess what I'm meaning to say with all of this is that a variable speed mom can find time to power through what needs to be done and also stop and smell the mandarin oranges. (I can still smell those just fine!)

Question: am I crazy?

mompoet - zero to sixty and back again, wait five minutes and repeat

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