A Busy Calendar

I knew that one day my seemingly empty calendar would again be full. More full than I wanted it to be. I thought this would probably come about when Emry was 6 or 7. I had no idea it would come when she was 4!

In Pittsburgh, we didn’t do much. Ed’s work schedule was all over the board, so we could never commit to anything. When he was at work, as far as the kids and I could go was as far as we could walk, which is a considerable distance with a stroller but it wasn’t as if Rochester had that many things going for it: the post office, park, library and grocery store. Not terribly exciting.

The move here brought more consistency to our lives. Ed works a regular shift (plus tons of overtime, but at least I know when it starts and about when it ends). And while we still don’t do much during the day (outings with Grandma, school, walks to the park), we seem to be in overdrive for the evenings. Unable to commit to anything in Pittsburgh and feeling somewhat starved of friendships or fellowship, we joined not one small group at church but two! They are very different from each other and we enjoy each for different reasons. One is every other Sunday evening and one nearly every Thursday evening. Then Emry has dance class Tuesday evenings, which she thoroughly enjoys. Somehow we got “trapped” into helping in the Cubbies group of Awana at church Wednesday evenings, which is fine considering we were going to take the kids anyhow. Which leaves only Friday evening every other week for grocery shopping, especially since Ed seems to work most Saturdays as late. With church on Sundays (and us teaching Emry’s class once a month with Ed on security another Sunday), our lives have become very busy.

With so much going on, I put a calendar on our refrigerator. I keep a calendar in my head, but I know I can fail to communicate that with Ed. So, I felt this was a good solution. As I added an event my sister invited me to this past week to the November page, I stopped short and realized there was hardly an empty day on it. Between all our regular activities, I have a playdate, my first doctor’s appointment for the baby, a show Grandma and I are taking Emry to, an event with my sisters…I stopped short and wondered when in the world my life became so busy. Especially when I all I feel like doing right now is sleeping 24/7!

Winter may slow things down a bit, which will be nice. I look forward to cold, wintery days and snuggling on the couch with the kids and some books I want to share with them. Before sending them out covered in clothes from head to foot because they’re bouncing off my walls and they need to go out no matter how cold it is! It will be good. It’s all good now. Even if it doesn’t allow any spare time to sleep!