It's been a loooooong week

Wow, it has been a super duper long week. I had to go someplace every single day (except for today) and I forgot how much that completely exhausts a homebody like myself. We had a doctors appointment, a vet appointment, a grocery run, Awana, another run to the vet to pick up a med to address an issue that is just too icky to write about, another store run to pick up grocery items I forgot, and a run to drop something off somewhere. Any one of those things in and of themselves wouldn't be so bad. It's just the constant running and going places that has me beat.

Mostly, I think I am feeling very out of routine and very overwhelmed. We have not found that happy groove yet now that we are 3 weeks into this deployment. Not unusual, but I think I had a bit of a "honeymoon period" so to speak and that kind of set me up to think this wasn't going to be so difficult after all.

I think the big thing is the girls schooling. We took a nice long break, to have some pre-deployment time to share with Nick, then the after deployment, when things were just not going to get done amicably and then right into the holidays. I had fully intended on starting up this past week, and we got a pitiful amount done. I am not overly concerned, at least this is what I tell myself. The girls are bright, they are smart, and while we may not be doing "sit down school" for hours at a time, they have been learning a lot of different things. They are most definitely improving on life-skills. We've done some doggie duty, laundry learning, meal preparation, and they can pour me a mean cup of coffee. We've also talked a lot about financing and making and sticking to a budget and the necessity of saving. The three older girls wrote nice essays, 2 of them chose puppy care, and one chose the how to save money topic. They were very entertaining to read (our kids have definitely gotten some of our sarcastic humor passed down to them) and it helped to solidify that they actually do listen to me and learn from our discussions.

All that being said, I have GOT to get back on a better schedule, learning once again a good balance between schooling them, getting the household chores done, cooking, and saving a little bit of time to myself to maintain my sanity. The cleaning/schooling balance is always one I have struggled with. It is difficult enough to find that balance when I have another capable adult to help me pick up the slack on the weekends, but when I am alone, I find it nearly impossible to figure out. I keep telling myself it will happen, and I hope and pray that is true, but right now, I feel like I am just gliding by trying to jam whatever I can that is meaningful into my days.

This week coming up, I am hoping to get back into somewhat of a routine. We have awana on Wednesdays, which is a blessing only partly because we eat dinner there and that is the one night a week I don't have to cook. I know there will be another grocery run, but that is all that I have planned and I hope to keep it that way. It's not that I don't enjoy going out, I do (although not necessarily with 4 kids in tow, but that is the life I have chosen and it is my responsibility to make it work and I honestly cannot imagine my life any other way), but it's just that I find my peace at home. Right now, I need to re-claim that peace in my home and find a routine that works for all of us. Hopefully next week I'll have a good update on that.

Today I managed to get all of the Christmas decor down and put into the proper bins. Where I am going to put these bins, I have no clue. I am not sure I can manage to wrangle them into the attic, and the outside shed is not weather proofed. They may just end up being part of my dining room decor until R&R. Hey, I can always cover them with a pretty tablecloth, right? The tree, well, that is sitting in pieces in my playroom right now. No idea on what to do with that. I think it is too big to fit in the attic hole, and I have nowhere else to store it. I'll have to think on that one.

But for now, I have a belly full of home made potato soup, I am going to go bathe my youngest, do some fun activity with all of the girls, and try not to worry too much about tomorrow, and let it care for itself.