Mine is a story familiar to many suburban mamas of school-aged children, I'm sure.
With three kids in three different schools, much of my life is spent waiting. Waiting for a school bus, waiting in car line, waiting for grades to come out, waiting for a kid or two to get ready or to finish their homework. Waiting for music lessons to start and finish, waiting in lines, waiting for our name to be called up on the "choice school" waiting list, waiting at red lights from one thing to the next.
We all need an abundance of downtime, so I am very intentional about our family not overextending ourselves. Each kiddo gets to pick one extra-curricular thing per season (if anything at all). Also, I try not to schedule more than one event per day for us, for the sake of my own sanity. Sometimes I'm great about that, but other times it can't be helped. However, there are still the end-of-school events and project presentations and honor roll assemblies, class programs and concerts and volunteer lunches to attend and field trips to chaperone.
Today, Parker had state testing for reading comprehension. Since he's in Virtual School, I had to bring him to the school board across town, to test in a classroom there. A couple hours of testing today, a couple more hours tomorrow, a few hours next week and again the week after that.
So. Many. Tests.
Is it summer yet??
Until then, I sit and wait for my kids. And wait a little more. I work in between dropoffs and pickups and lessons and dinnertime. I schedule sessions while I'm at bus stops and I plan my month out during the few hours of alone time I get each week. It's just the season we are in right now. Shifting tides, balancing acts.
Life is fluid like that.
After Parker's testing ended today, we had lunch and then sat at a coffee shop to finish his school and my work. He wanted to sit in the sunshine, I wanted to sit in the shade. So we both got a bit of alone time. It was such a nice day and I almost wish that we could have stayed longer.
But then again, we still have tomorrow to sit and wait. And next week. And the week after that.