Dropping the Ball

• Jaime
• May 4, 2021
• Family, Juggling life, Kids, Laundry, Life, Mom choices, Motherhood, Parenting
• 3

Most of the time, I juggle life and kids and projects and all the things pretty well. We all do, right? Somehow, this last month or two, I feel like I have been dropping the ball a lot on things at the house.

Oh, I’ve kept up with the basics: laundry, dishes, making meals and cleaning up after. Getting all the kids to all the things – mostly. I forgot my kids had soccer after school the other day…they went straight to the field, so at least they knew where they were supposed to be!

What I haven’t done so well? Keeping the living room, family room and dining rooms cleaned up, vacuuming, and hard core cleaning. Also, ironing. Which I hate the most. (See Logistics Manager)

I’ve been busy helping my husband with the big office project (see Office Space), and running kids around to a whole bunch of activities (does anyone else feel like we went from zero to 180 in no time???). Trying to get some actual work done, and driving all over creation for a variety of random things.

Sports out of town, dentist and doctor appointments at home and in Denver (two hours away). Add in a destination wedding and a day of meetings in Denver, and I don’t feel like I’ve been home much. And even when I have been home, I’ve dropped the ball on more than the necessary daily chores.

And that’s okay!

I’ve said before, None of us are Perfect. Isn’t that what makes us all human?

Whenever I get overwhelmed or feel like I’m not doing what needs to be done around the house, I get grumpy with everyone else, and super-sensitive when anyone comments about the mess.

How many of us do that?

I try to stay calm and just take on what’s next. To have patience and calmly respond that anyone can help me clean up after ourselves. And I do get my kids to help clean up all of their stuff around the house. I take one room at a time, and nudge everyone to put all their things away.

And I still lose it sometimes.

When we have been to and fro all over the place, running between all of the activities and barely having any time at home to relax? Everyone gets grumpy and we all dump our stuff on the dining room table or the front living room couch. It happens.

I spent half a day last week just cleaning up, wiping down the kitchen counter and dusting the surfaces on the main floor. I didn’t even get to the vacuum, but taking that time to do a few little things helped me feel better about my house.

Over the weekend, we had amazing and gorgeous weather. I did some yard work for the first time in forever, and it was so nice! Sunshine and warm temps give me such a boost!

I’ll tackle the actual cleaning sometime this week. I promise. But for now, I’ve caught up with myself a bit, and don’t feel like everything is chaos – at least not like it was.

Sometimes, dropping the ball on a few things is necessary for us to concentrate on whatever is most important during any given day or week. Getting my kids fed, making sure everyone brushes their teeth and takes a bath or shower so they don’t stink – necessary. Keeping up with laundry so it doesn’t become a giant mountain – definitely important (and endless). The rest? It’ll happen and I’ll get it done. Just maybe not all at once!

We all get overwhelmed with all of the things we have to juggle in our daily lives. Keeping our kids fed and healthy, making sure to get them to school and keep up with those pesky annual checkups (see Smile!) are the most important things.

All of a sudden, my kids are super busy and they’re back into all the things. A year ago, we all took a pause, and the down time was good in many ways. But, I don’t regret agreeing to let them do all the things now, either. I wrote about the Busy-ness of Childhood last fall, and now that my son is literally in 4 different sports at the moment and going in all directions…he is so happy! We’re all exhausted, we get a little cranky and hangry here and there, but happy.

So, I’ll take a little bit of dropping the ball on the super-duper spring cleaning that I normally have done by now. I’ll get the windows washed later.

For now, we’re enjoying life. We’re living again, and I can’t wait for more of the same.

[Side note – get vaccinated so everyone can do so! We did!]

We may be even busier than we were before 2020…I can’t really tell. My kids are bigger, and somehow my 9-year-old is doing travel baseball and golf tournaments all over the region. His little sister is jealous, but I’m hoping t-ball will make her happy in a few weeks.

Friends, dropping the ball on housework or regular chores here and there is ok! Get out and live in the moment. The rest will sort itself out.