Saturdays Are Tough

  A friend posted on FB that often blogs seem impossibly positive, that too many bloggers represent their lives as full of sweetness, light, and endless fun.

  I don't know if that's true, but I'll be real today to counteract that perceived trend :-).

 Saturdays are tough.

  The reason, for me, is that Saturday is my "catch all" day.  I'm busy all week with teaching the children, plus the occasional doctor appointment, plus library trips, skating events, and so on. We stay home way more than most families, but we still have occasional forays into the outside world and all of them take time.

 So I wake up on Saturday, knowing we won't have school but that I have a LOT of work to do. I usually have many papers to grade, plus I need to plan school for the next week.  Saturday is also our day to change sheets and that means 10 beds need new sheets.  I usually do extra cooking on Saturdays so we have some food stored up for the week.  Last, but definitely not least, Kevin and I try to go out on a date on Saturdays for at least a couple of hours.

  The problem is that while none of these tasks are particularly unpleasant and some indeed are enjoyable, they take focused attention and...the kids are here.  Now I love the kids, don't get me wrong. But this morning, by 11 a.m., I was totally stressed out and exasperated as every 3 minutes (it seemed) I was interrupted from the task at hand.

  I told Kevin that I understand better why my parents used to let me watch literally 6 hours of Saturday morning cartoons when I was a child.  It meant I was in the basement and leaving them alone while they got a million jobs done.  We don't allow the children to watch random TV, but they are allowed to play "extra game time" (which they earn in various ways) on weekends.  If it was just the older 6, I'd probably find life comparatively peaceful on Saturdays as they each can play 30 minutes of game time, and that means (potentially) 3 hours of extra game time.

 But of course, we have 2 little ones.  Daniel is very demanding these days, Sarah only slight less so.

  Of course, I know the kids are more important than the tasks, but the tasks are important too.  I honestly have not figured out how to make this happen. I've been really tired in the evenings lately and don't feel up to lots of grading and school prep in the evenings.  So Saturdays and Sundays are my time, but often the children just make it hard to get my stuff done.

  We have some additional stress right now because Kevin's grandmother is in the hospital and her health is failing, so that's hard on everyone.

  I don't feel very perky today. I know things will work out, that I can do what God has for me to do, but I wish I had more time to do things WELL.  I am all for working hard, but how do I balance all these needs?  Only the Lord knows, and I have faith He'll show me what to do.