Idolized planners and more...

I'll admit I'm not feeling the writing magic flow through my fingers tonight so I'll jump right into it. I tried making a video, but I couldn't stop rambling. I am a stream of consciousness train wreck at the moment. We are at the crescendo of homeschooling furor. The end of the year always brings big projects, performances, grading, evaluating, registration for next year (AS IF I want to think about next year when I'm in the middle of this year's drawn out, agonizing, dying breath).  Also, the weather is as stable as Brittany Spears in 2007. 

Today was Charlotte's last play. I signed up to bring turkey roll ups to the after party potluck. I dutifully bought all of the ingredients yesterday, I THOUGHT. Then I woke up early this morning to make them and realized my tortillas were too small. They would not roll. Plan B was chips from Harris Teeter. I felt bad because I was the mom that brought chips to a party that I fully intended to use as lunch for me and the kids. So...yeah. Thankfully, most of the moms were much more capable this week and brought an abundance of food. They had homemade gluten free cupcakes. Like, I barely got Lay's to the party, and they had decorated, homemade GLUTEN FREE cupcakes. Thank God for those moms. Seriously. Sometimes I am that mom. This year I was the potato chip mom. 

In my last post I talked about a certain planner that I was idolizing. Yes, idolizing. It was one of those "If I only had this, then I would be happy, whole, and on time" items. And yes, it's on it's way to my house right now. It just checked in at Pflugerville, TX. By the way, Pflugerville, TX is a real place. I really thought it was a typo until I googled it. Anyway, I broke down and ordered the beautiful planner. I'm hoping it has magical properties that make my life work. I got some dashboards to go with it. I think they're supposed to help me keep things in order. They're so cute. As if all I ever needed was a laminated chart to keep things straight. As if this isn't the first time I've tried laminated charts! I've been homeschooling a long time, Eric Condren. I've been laminating for longer than you've been schilling you customized calendars. Well, maybe not. I have no idea when they started selling their dashboards, but it sounds hipster-ish so I think I've got them beat.

And then there are the kids. Matthew is in the middle of a personal crisis. No, I don't mean his ongoing anxiety which manifested itself so far this week with a fear of tornadoes and facebook ridicule (from the picture of his disaster of a room that incidentally looks like the aftermath of a tornado). No, this is bigger. He's getting over a cold and his lips are chapped. Yall. This kid can not even with chapped lips. He came running up to me halfway through football practice today to get chapstick because his lips hurt. I'd give him his own chapstick, but I'm down to only a few. He loses them. Either he loses the entire thing, or else, he loses the chapstick stuff somewhere. I have no desire to find chapstick wax smooshed into my carpet or coating all of the clothes in an unfortunate load of laundry. 

Charlotte's glasses broke. I am not the glasses parent. The glasses parent is in California so Charlotte is going sans glasses until I can get her to the eye doctor for the appointment she was supposed to have last summer. I know. I KNOW. She was due for an eye exam last year, but I kept bumping it and now it's April and her glasses need to be replaced. At least she's not blind. She barely needs glasses so it's okay. What's not okay is everyone going "Charlotte! You got contacts!" And she says, "No, my glasses broke and my mom won't fix them." That's not exactly what she says, but that's the gist. 

Tommy. Sigh. Tommy. He has to learn to drive. I need him to drive. I have to teach him to drive. And I can't do it. All I see is death, fire, and blood whenever I try to tell him to drive somewhere. I have to get over this. It's not like me to make choices based on fear, but I suppose when it's your child driving a CAR in Charleston, I should give myself a little grace. Although tonight I was driving to pick up Charlotte and the car two vehicles ahead of me STOPPED AT THE GREEN LIGHT. Then everyone behind the car that thinks green means stop screeched and slid to avoid colliding. And that's when I think it's okay to wait another day for Tommy to drive. 

Finally, there's Jon. What can I say? He wants to help with certain things, but he can't. It's hard to do things when you're across the country. That's why Charlotte is waiting on glasses, Tommy still can't drive, and we've already eaten at Moe's this week. Anyone care to teach my son to drive? We'd all appreciate it if he got some driving hours. =)

Over the last few weeks, people have been talking about building margin into their lives. My natural bent is to pile on too much. I know this. Some of it in the last few months is really not my fault. I feel justified in saying some people threw stuff onto my pile of responsibilities that I did not welcome. I also was already full with no space for those extra "life" things that come up. That's why I'm so excited to get to the summer when most things drop off my plate, and I can slowly add things back in when we get to August. I'm almost there. Things will start dropping off now. Musical theater class is shorter. After next week, my Mondays and Tuesdays are clear. I'm looking forward to staying home for a few days. I'm spending too much time in my van at the moment. We'll go to the beach! We'll go to a movie! We'll go visit our friends! I'll get the house deep cleaned! AND it will all go in my idolized planner before I do it!  

I guess that's all. Another Tuesday is done. 29 down, 1 more to go.