I am doing something I have never done before and I'm feeling very strange and nervous about it....
....today was the big fund raising event at the kids' school. I am the room mom for Jack's class and I had to arrange the volunteers to set-up, run our assigned game, and clean-up. I also had to put together our class's auction item.
Well, I was NOT one of the volunteers today and I just took my kids and enjoyed the time hanging w them (it was a carnival!). But i did sneak in a little "checking in" on the volunteers.
And here's the REALLY BAD thing I did...I said that I would help with clean up but I'm not going back up there to help.!!
I was there for about 3 hours w my kids spending my money. I also did a ton of work ahead of the event working on the auction item and getting the volunteers lined up. I also had a ton of other responsibility for the class in the fall with decorating their swamp room, organizing the teacher's holiday gift, organizing and helping w the holiday craft--WHILE also being a regular in the health room AND my other 5 MILLION volunteer duties (unrelated to the school) AND working part-time....SOOOOOO i decided to be selfish today!
I'm not sure if it feels good or if I just kind of feel awkward b/c I was going against my nature!
I'm so glad that I have a sitter coming tonight and I can hang out with my best friend and just talk....I sometimes feel like i'm going a little crazy b/c I cannot say "NO" when asked to "step up" and help out. I think this is truly a form of mental illness.
Here's a list of my current roles & responsibilities (it's kind of ridiculous):
A. Wife -- keeping house organized and helping Chris be happy.
B. Mom -- in addition to the major parental responsibilities (providing shelter, food, comfort and good values), they both have school, involved in scouting and startied dance lessons recently --- OOOO and the biggie in mid-Feb---QUINN's surgery...urgh
C. Part-time Capital Campaign Fundraiser for SRVS (www.srvs.org to donate)
D. Friend--feeling bad that I haven't organized ONE girls' night in the new year yet!!!
E. Family Member -- in addition to "just being there for my family" I am planning the Loud Family Reunion that will be here in July!!
F. Stewardship Consultant at Church -- helping w the sermon tomorrow during the service--wrote up my talking points last night and will be practicing later.
G. Co-leader of Quinn's Daisy Scout Troop
H. Room Parent for Jack's 2nd Grade Class
I. Board member of the Germantown Education Foundation
J. Board member of the Center for Transforming Communities
K. My health--bottom of the totem pole right now...need to make some regular check-up appt's that are WAY OVERDUE and need to get back on the exercise and eating healthy bandwagon!!
I'm just tooooo darn busy to fit in any therapy! ;-) So i'm just going to have to settle for my selfish moments like today (that don't really make me feel good) and going out with Chris and/or friends and "blowing off steam"!!
peace!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2 comments:
I stay just as busy my friend
between being the wife and mother and teacher for all three kids, swim class, science group, enrichment classes, babysitting for friends, and taking care of the hubby...I am beginning to think this "illness" we all have is more common than we think!
Rob's sick tonight with virtigo and a friend just called to see if I can watch her baby tonight for an hour in return for her picking up dinner for the kids and I....I really should have said no...BUT I said yes..just like I said yes to watching him on Monday from 1pm-11pm while she has work and school when I that is the only day I have that has nothing outside of the house so the kids and I can focus on lessons....I just can't say NO when I know someone needs the help!
enjoy your little breaks when you can, I know I do!
Sheila, I feel for you because work/life balance is almost impossible for Moms to achieve. A couple things I wish I had done when my kids were your kid's ages: I wish I had tithed my volunteer time the way one tithes money. For example, if I worked 40 hours a week, I wish I had made an effort to be completely conscious of the volunteer time I volunteered and limited it to four hours a week (10% of my time - just like 10% of my money).
Back then, I would also sign up for board commitments not calculating the time required for committee work. I would often get ''volunteered'' to run a committee when I didn't actually have time to do so. That giant sucking sound you heard was my free time going down the drain. Sometimes, I was serving on three different committees for one board!
If I were to do it over again, I would let the board commitments go and devote all of my volunteer time to my kid's activities. I am stunned at how fast it all went. Boards will always be looking for good people and will still need you when your kids are grown.
Post a Comment