How Many Hats?

I am thinking this post will likely speak more loudly to women than it will to men, especially those women that are moms. There is a magnet on my refrigerator that a good friend gave me years ago. It is ringing ever so true for me right now. It reads, "I try to take one day at a time, but lately several days have attacked me at once!" Who knew that a magnet could speak so loudly through the morning silence.

Pat is off to work, and with him Andrew is at martial arts. This leaves Adrian and Amie in bed and me on our new computer. (Who knew our old one was SO old. I guess you just do not know what you are missing until you have something new. The old computer pales in comparison.) You would think that I, being the solitary type that NEVER gets enough quiet time, would be reveling in the silence. That would be true if my list of THINGS TO DO was not screaming inside my head!

Talk about overburdened. Check this list out, and see if you don't get a headache:

- Take post-Christmas stuff from kitchen to garage.

- Reorganize garage before tomorrow in preparation for husband unloading contents of our old transmission shop into it in preparation for going back into business at new location this year.

- Regain control in office which is still being attacked from post-Christmas remnants.

- Do 2008 filing and prepare for filing taxes.

- Update the bills, and do a new financial plan for the year. Put in place new savings plan in preparation for new business.

- Do the laundry, again!

- Update calendar to include new weekly and monthly commitment.

- Update calendar with Dustin in mind adding Tabitha's school and work schedule. (Dustin is our 2.5 year old grandson that I will be watching while his mom goes to college and work.)

- Prepare candy vending machines to be placed back out in the community in support of Solid Ground. Write up plan for Amie and Andrew to run business. Clean and empty machines. Get new candy. Get new stock of fliers and newsletters. Compile list of businesses.

- When old computers come back from repair capture bookmarks, email files, address book, and program files to disk for new computer.

- Create meal plan for month to prevent me from totally going insane.

- Write and mail Thank You cards for Christmas gifts.

- Box up gifts for Tammi and Rocco, daughter and grandson in Indiana, and mail. Do the same for grandparents in Florida.

- Plan our remaining educational calendar, and update my records. Gee, that's a quick and easy one!

- Get Amie's college books. They run almost $300, and she starts next week.

- Start back up with the Homeschool Teen Community Service team yet. We haven't met since October!

- Start planning VBS and the games for my family reunion in June.

- Start planning Christmas this month. My plan is to work on it one day per month until it gets closer. I just need to set aside the time.

- Get Adrian to make some real progress in his Pathfinder workbook. We have a ton of reading to do.

- Call Micro Center about new computer in regard to bright pixel on new monitor, missing product code for software, and the camera not staying closed.

- Pay cell phone bill and mortgage.

- Make sure kids' plans are straight for weekend outings and trips this weekend and next. Especially next weekend since I will be out of town.

- Plan a night away at nice hotel with husband as his Christmas gift to me. (Too bad he's not planning it, too, as part of the gift!)

So, do you have a headache yet? I know for sure that is not even everything. How does that happen? How do we get SO overburdened? How do things snowball to such an extreme? It seems to happen to me at least once, but more like twice, per year. I always make it through, but this time it seems so overwhelming.

Just how many hats is a mom supposed to wear, and can she possibly wear them all at once? How does she choose which one to wear and when, when the rack is so full of choices? I honestly feel like a toddler trying to choose what clothes I want to wear. Why can't someone just set out two choice for me to minimize my burden? All I have done today is get up, talk to Pat and Andrew briefly, send an email and do my Bible Study. I am already ready to go back to bed. It feels like 11 o'clock at night, not eight o'clock in the morning.

I am thinking the remedy for me right now is to go take a long soak in the tub with some Epsom salt. You would not believe the health benefits of an Epsom soak. We have a 1920's claw-foot tub that is five feet long. I am only five foot, four inches. It is the perfect tub for a soak. My husband and I found it in a salvage yard and re-did it when we remodeled our downstairs. The bathroom is by far my favorite room in the house. I seriously consider taking the tub with us when we finally get around to moving.

That is another thing I need to deal with. We have had our house on the market since mid-November. It is a terrible time to move, but we have wanted to for so many years. I need to get with the real estate agent and discuss our options again. It's time to review what they are and are not doing in regard to selling our home.

Johnathan Hatch at How to Get Rid of Things: A People's Guide to Better Living has a great article on How to Get Rid of Stress. There are some wonderful tips there as well as some great resources. I am going to start off first by making a TO DO LIST and hanging it on the refrigerator. It will put things in perspective for me. Next, I will update my calendar including allocating time for the things that I need to do. This will give me a light at the end of the tunnel and make things more manageable for me.

Stay-at-home-moms, home educators, working moms, single moms; MY HATS OFF TO ALL OF YOU!