That's How It Feels

I recently stumbled upon a quote that made me smile and nod:

Any mother could perform the jobs of several air-traffic controllers with ease.

~ Lisa Alther

That's really how it feels, isn't it? The balancing act of knowing, really knowing, each of my four children and meeting their individual needs (which change hourly just to make the job more difficult); coordinating the schedules of the six people who live in our house (as well as being familiar with the schedules of others with whom we interact); maintaining a livable home--no, more than that, a home filled with peace and beauty; being discerning enough to know when it's more important to do a load of laundry and when it's more important to spend that time listening to my son play the piano; trying to be an excellent teacher so that my children will have every opportunity to excel academically and in other areas...not to mention all the other roles that I (am supposed to) fill. Whew! Maybe it does make the job of air-traffic controllers seem easy in comparison. ;)

I'm learning that I need to assess my productivity in terms of an entire week, rather than a single day. Every day will not be perfectly balanced as far as how much time I spend on housework v. time with children v. schoolwork v. whatever. But if I look at a week as a whole, I can see that there is a more appropriate balance (certainly not perfect, but that's OK) that exists. Some days, I realize from the start that I'm just not going to be at home very much, so when the end of the day comes and I look around at a mess and feel like I didn't get anything done, I know that there will be more time the next day to catch up at home and bring balance in that way. I started this paragraph by saying that I'm learning this concept: "trying to learn it" is probably more accurate since I still get frustrated with myself far too often when I don't manage to accomplish as much as my lofty goal-setting nature had projected.

Enough rambling on this subject for tonight... Here's a picture of my darling David with a brilliant red leaf from one of our maple trees. I'm not sure why his eyes were closed; but hey, what does it matter? I still like the picture. :)

Day 10 - Today while we were doing school, I read to the boys the story of William Tell and his bravery (as well as his skillful aim!). We talked then about the famous William Tell Overture by Rossini, and I mentioned how that music has had many lyrics put to it through the years. They are familiar with it from their Wee Sing Dinosaurs CD, but my most prominent mental connection with it is from my mother singing, "Giddy up, giddy up, little rocking horse" to that tune. When it was time to trim our toenails, she would have us sit on her lap so she could reach our feet; but when she was finished, she would sing us this song and bounce us along, still sitting on her lap, until the phrase "fly away to candyland" when she would pretend to let us fall. The anticipation of that silly song, complete with bouncing and mock falling, made the ordeal of having our toenails cut seem minor. :)