Keeping My Head Above Water

This is a lovely time of year, filled with joy and laughter and lounging around the fireplace playing games with my family. Yeah, right, in my dreams! In actuality, this is the busiest, most stressful time of year. I have a to-do list so long it's ridiculous and I fall into bed each night hoping I'll make progress the next day. Then you throw in parties at work and school, music programs for the kids, special projects that teachers assign that Mom's have to help with and all the extra get-togethers because it is the holidays. It's enough to drive me crazy and call a strike on Christmas. Seriously.

The past couple of weeks I've felt like I'm barely keeping my head above water with everything going on and that I have to do. I told my mom the other day that I hated it and she said, "Well then don't do it all." If only it were that easy!

I think as Mom's we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to "do it all". And it's hard this time of year. I want to do fun things with the girls like make a gingerbread house and decorate gingerbread cookies, play games and go sledding. But then I also need to send out Christmas cards to friends and family, do the shopping, wrap presents and make cookies for this party or that party. How do I fit it in?

Well, for one, I gave up on most of the housecleaning last week. Instead me and the girls made the gingerbread house and decorated cookies and it was wonderful. My bathrooms are gross, but my kids are happy and that makes me happy.

The girls' projects are done because I made them a priority over them playing with friends, and although I felt like the bad Mom at the time, I'm glad they are done and now they have lots of time for friends. I felt good about teaching them the difference between wants and needs and prioritizing things. I know I've had to remind myself that lately. I think my hard work has paid off, though. Most of my "Christmas related chores" are done and now it can be a matter of doing more fun things with my kids. I seriously cannot wait for their Christmas break from school to do some serious lounging! I suppose I'll have to clean the bathroom at some point, too.

Kera's project was to "invent a toy" out of household things that would be used for a gift exchange. She wanted to make a holder for Bella Sara/Pokeman cards. I thought that wasn't very "toy-like" so we concocted a monster that holds them. I have tons of fabric and buttons and stuff so she helped design it and do some of the sewing while I did the detail stuff. She loved it and now wants to make her own! We'll see if we have time!

How are you doing with the Holiday busyness? Hanging in there?