Thursday, September 28, 2006

Margin? What Margin?

If I wasn’t convinced that simplifying life is the way to go – I am FULLY convinced after today. We survived the “Day of Seven Engagements”. I am not sure HOW that happened. I am not sure WHY everyone in this town and this homeschool community plan everything on Thursdays but I will not be manic like this again. LOL I’m too tired to share the “moment by moment” account of the day.

I’d been saying earlier in the week that a HOMEschool Mom needs to be HOME….and after today I’m more convinced of that than ever. Several of our things were educational, several were ministry related and several were fun…regardless of the motivation…..we still like being HOME best. :::snort:::

I’ll share one part of the day! Our art class this a.m. was to be at a studio. Somehow the email I got gave an incomplete address. I thought it may have been incomplete, but when I put that address into map quest it gave me a map. I headed out. We left 5 minutes before we had planned to leave. We were in the middle of downtown – looking, searching, retracing our steps and NOT finding this studio. I tried to call our organizer but she’d left for the class (duh! LOL). I called home and Cy couldn’t find the address in the phone book. I tried calling two friends but their phones were busy (hmmm…just realized they may have been talking to each other….Adrienne, Tricia???? Is this ANY way to treat a FRIEND? ::::snort:::) I was resigned to driving all over downtown inch by inch until I found the studio. Arielle and Nolan were being troopers but really wanted to attend the class. I said, “God – it would sure be nice if you would tell me where this place is.” The cell phone rang as I started the car. I picked it up. It was Charly. She immediately said, “You sound frazzled are you ok?” (OK, wouldn’t you sound frazzled if you thought God was calling you on the cell phone???) Charly is my friend who is currently visiting family in GA. I said, “I’m LOST”. I explained that we were trying to go to an art class that had started at 10:00 (it was 10:00) and that map quest had me downtown……she asked the name of the studio, I told her. She knew where it was. It is real close to my house…within 5 minutes. LOL Is that God or WHAT? I love it! She called from GA, I was supposed to encourage HER but she ENCOURAGED me big time…I hate to admit this as I know Mike is going to read this…but we talked as I hit the loop and drove back across town.

I’ll say it for you Mike, “Get off the phone and D*R*I*V*E*!” It was soooo nice to hear Charly’s voice in the middle of such a busy day. :::: sheepishly signing off:::::

5 comments:

Cynthia said...

I know the feeling. Three freinds and I have been on a mission to cut things out for the last year and a half. I've weeded everything from my schedule except 3 "board" type things that are significantly reduced from what I used to do and now the kids are starting to cut their activities. I've also decided that I can't scheduled anything "extra" when it's a "worship" weekend. IOW, if I'm scheduled to practice on TH and play Sat/Sun then I don't schedule a single other thing those 2 weeks a month. It's made it really hard to even find a time to have dinner with someone, but I'm determined to stick with it because I know it will help me stay caught up. I'm also going to let go of one or possibly two of the above "board" things come January. Even though they don't take very long they still take a few hours a month.. a few hours away from my family....
Hoping you find a way to balance it all....

Debbie said...

Oh, my! I do not know how you do it. I so not like to have so much to do. Right now we are in soccer season and that is driving me crazy.

When it comes to away from the home activities do like a lot of margin!

Glad you survived your day.
Deb

Lisa in Jax said...

Repeat after me... margin and moderation. Margin and moderation. There, now go write it down and prominently display it.lol

I do this all the time and it's usually during the chaos that I realize it. I'm trying to not commit to anything before consulting the calendar and the kids. It has helped tremendously. My kids are much more reluctant to add things than I am.lol Everything always looks and sounds so good that I could easily make it impossible to ever be home to school.lol

lisa

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

It's not terribly bad because it was ONE day and not my lifestyle any longer. LOL I've talked to two people today who had the same day yesterday - many of the same activities. For some reason our group has a "policy" of all the activities, field trips etc being on THURSDAY! This makes no sense at all to me! BUT "it's always been this way". LOL I simply need to be more aware of it in the future..... One of the meetings has been moved to Tuesdays from here on out so that will help. It's only once a month.

I allow one activity and that's that. I do Bible Study. The boys do House of Faith. Josiah works. Arielle, Nolan and Zander have park day.....usually not a big deal...but when they ALL fall on the SAME day....along with a few other things thrown in.....LOL

Jodi said...

Last year girl scouts, TKD and archery were all on WEDNESDAY. Then another HS thing was coming up and I said to the organiser please have it any other day than a Wednesday! This year the only park day that is near enough is on Wednesdays at the same time as TKD (so we can't go, unfortunately) and the new scout troop, that we opted out of was also on Wed. It must be regional in NH we must have activies on WED. in TX it must be Thurs. it's a plot...maybe an alien plot. LOL