What do you mean I can't do it all?!?

I have lived the past few years under the assumption that I could do it all--work, be a mom, be a wife, cook meals every night, mow the yard, keep a clean house, stay totally caught up on laundry, remember all the details of life for 4 people AND keep my sanity.  I have just now realized this is not possible.  I have passed on one of my responsibilities...mowing the yard.  For the first time in my life I am paying someone to mow my yard for me and I am thinking about making it a regular occurrence.  The relief I felt last night when I did not have to make the choice--sit the kids in front of the TV while I mow the yard or spend time with the kids--was incredible.  I helped the kids ride bikes up and down the street (one of these days they will figure it out) and we played soccer in the front yard until it was time to get ready for bed.  Beautiful!

Fall in love

I love Fall. Just as you are getting sick of oppressive heat that seems to go on and on...Fall sneaks up on you.  Cooler nights, gentle (and not so gentle) rains, breezes with just a bit of chill.  Love Fall clothes, warmer but not the heavy necessity of winter.  Love Fall foods, chili, beans, baking...yum!  The great thing is that Fall is still warm enough to grill and play outside until bedtime.  I love Fall.

And they call Chicago "The Windy City"

I've never understood that.  Being from Oklahoma, wind is just a fact of life.  It blows...a lot.  In fact when I was living in another town for a while I could not figure out why driving seemed so different, until a windy day.  Then I realized that I had spent my entire adult life compensating for the wind while driving.  Funny.

I have wind on my mind today because we went to the zoo on a very windy Labor Day.  It was one of our best zoo trips yet...cool, breezy, lots of active animals to see, no tantrums.  Thankfully we left just as the rest of OKC decided to hit the zoo and my kids decided to have meltdowns.  Timing.  That's what parenting is all about.  When is the optimal time to do something and how long can we do it?  Great that I figured this out now that the kids are almost 4 and 5.  I could have saved myself a lot of pain over the years.