It's that time of the year again...

Life is beginning to get hectic again. School has started for the kids. Soccer practices, too. 2 kids x 2 practices/week (all on different days) + one of them has flag football once a week. Another kid with four-day-a-week football practice, but at least he can stay after school for that and doesn't need to be driven. And then there's the actual soccer and football games. And one son who also referees soccer games for two different leagues (well, another son could ref at one league, but doesn't very often).

Let's throw in Hebrew school, which begins next week. Twice a week for the youngest son, but the middle son will be a volunteer helper on Sundays only (same time as the youngest). Year-round we go to services on Saturday morning, although we wind up skipping here and there during soccer seasons (fall and spring). And one son sometimes volunteers at a dog rescue shelter (four-hour shifts at a time). Let's not overlook the one-time events which start off the year as well (back-to-school nights, etc.).

My husband and I share some of the driving, but I think the most difficult part is just keeping track of it all, and finding time to breathe.

I enjoy my job (40 hours/week) and I enjoy going to the gym five mornings a week (takes about an hour-and-a-half for the workout and shower). But all this adds up, timewise, too. Good thing I don't sleep much. On the other hand, I don't always use my evening hours wisely when I'm still awake. After dinner, my youngest son will read to me, then I'll check facebook yet again (I love my Blackberry when I'm stuck in traffic!), and then the killer: read the paper and/or watch television, when I should be doing things I need to do (bills to pay, papers to file, stuff for the non-profits I'm involved with, whatever...).

My idea of heaven during the school year would be to get a day off every two or three weeks, to just let me get stuff done. Sad, huh, that that's what heaven looks like to me.

When I was in college, I'd get depressed thinking about how insignificant we were in light of the never-ending enormity of the universe (I mean, it's infinite space and infinite time!). Today, it's a different story. Who even has time for even thinking about that kind of thing when there are reinsurance proposals due, newsletters to write, lunches to prepare, homework to check and dentist appintments to schedule?