Hell Week

Do you ever have one of those weeks where the thought of it will send you crawling under the covers, shaking and crying? That's my next week.

We find out Saturday night (at midnight) if Marc will be flying to Los Angeles to cover a company strike for anywhere from 1 day to 2 months. It might not happen. They might work without a contract and wait until August. It's a complete unknown and I can't think about that until it happens.

Meanwhile, I've decided I want to host Easter because they are my kids and I want to stay home. And now, the grandparents might not come and the husbands might not be here. Is this a "What if..." worry?

Now for my week. Luckily I work from home on Friday and Saturdays and I work for my friend just up the hill an hour or two a day so I can get the laundry, groceries and time at the gym done. Including any school PTA events that I need to get completed this week.

I'll need to make copies of a flier for our school gear sale and then get the school dance fliers ready, copies and sent out. I need to finish up our school's reading plan and start the planning for the canned food drive that starts in 2 weeks as well as the (I just remembered) Pennies for Patients drive that we will do at school. I'm overwhelmed just thinking about this part.

Now to throw in the clincher. I've scheduled all 4 of my kids to play Spring Sports (I didn't know the husband might be done). 

So this week we have:
Monday - soccer game at 4:45 for Miss R that I'm coaching (no one else would step up)
Tuesday - soccer game at 6:45 for Miss M, baseball game for Mr C at 7:30. Now they both have to be to their games early and I'm scorekeeper for Mr C's team. His game will go until 10pm. What the hell am I to do with a 6 and 7 year old until 10pm while keeping them quiet so I can pay attention to the game.
Wednesday - soccer practice at 6pm for Miss R.
Thursday - soccer game at 4:45 for Miss M, PTSA meeting (My last year as President) at 7pm and a baseball game for Mr C at 6:45. So, I'm skipping PTSA (that's why I have a vice president) and I'll get a sitter for the other 3 so that they are not out until 10pm again.
Friday - work most of the day from home and then batting practice at 6.
IT'S NOT OVER YET!!
Saturday - baseball game at 11:30 for Mr C, soccer practice at 1 for Mr N and indoor soccer game at 3:40 for Miss M.

Then it's time for some heavy drinking. I know I did this to myself and I am very careful to not let my kids see my stress over getting everywhere and doing everything for the week. I can only hope that Marc doesn't have to leave on strike and count on the kindness of my kids teammates parents to help. I'll have to be leaning on the baseball coaches wife to help with score keeping because I can not split myself in two and be everywhere.

My stomach hurts thinking about this schedule and getting through this week. If Marc is gone, everything repeats with some variations for the next 8 weeks. I have plenty of down time to recover during the day, but I can't drink then to forget the hell of a position I've volunteered myself into.

Does anyone else volunteer too much? I know I should say no, but I couldn't have my daughter not have a soccer coach. And I didn't realize baseball was so insane. I will survive.

PTSA President

Being a stay at home Mom is a hard job. A rewarding and fulfilling job. It my current job and I love it, but I'm ready to go back to work. I'm ready to make some money for our family. I'm ready to add a new level of insanity to my already busy days.

To help me transition back into this life, I've been volunteering at the kids school. I started out on a committee or two. Then I volunteered as our PTSA Secretary for 2 years. Now, I'm busy being the PTSA President. In addition, to being more busy, this job brought me some happiness and got me through the long, cold, dark winter. I was happy being so busy, but having control over how busy I would be. I'm very nervous about going back to work (and very excited).

But back to my busy, as President I oversee (barely) our day to day business. I run our monthly meetings. I'm to go to for any questions and problems. Really, I've found it very easy and happy I have something to add to my resume (rather than a 10 year blank). In addition to being President, I like to be in charge of a committee or two. In November, I coordinated our schools Food Drive (very successful - over 3000 items) and leading into February, I'm coordinating our annual Science Fair.

This extra task required (because I thought it was needed) me to rewrite our science fair packets. To make the packets more in line with state standards and our schools wording from grades K-6. This (president and science fair) required me to be at school for 2 days for several hours making photocopies. 475 copies of 2 page (double sided) newsletter to go home to our parents (I'm very happy that we are leading into a online newsletter, but it's taking awhile for parents to adjust to this idea). Then, I went back to school to make the science fair copies. A full class set from grades 3-6 and a few copies for the younger kids. Now it's time to email and line up all those judges for our kids.

 (I was chained to this machine until 5pm one day - worth every minute)

Busy and exciting. I hope I choose the right roads and enjoy my travels.

42/365

Thurs, Feb 11: 

I'm thinking my daily photos should be photos, but they are about a snapshot of a day in my life. And the PTSA has become a large part of my life. We usually meet on the 1st Thursday of every month, but this month we were having our Science Fair and decided to not pack our schedules too tight since two of us running the Science Fair are also on the PTSA Board. This is my second year as the PTSA Secretary. I am at the end of my term. We can serve for 2 years in any position. I must admit, I LOVE being Secretary. It's a little like being in college with taking all the notes and then going home to type them up to share with the rest of the PTSA members (who do not show up for the meetings).

Tonight we discussed our Board for next year. We need to decide on nominees by the next meeting and then vote the following meeting. I'm hoping some parents come out of the woodwork and decide to be a part of this group. Otherwise, the 10 of us who come to the meetings will continue to decide how to spend all that fundraiser money. Bwaa-haa-haa-ha!!

Seriously though, the PTSA kept my winter depression away last year and I will always be thankful that I am able to be a stay at home mom so that I can volunteer so many hours to my kids school. And that my little 2 are so willing to follow me around school when I am there volunteering (although they do try and sneak off to the playground a lot lately).

41/365

Wed, Feb 10:

My friend, Maribeth, is the best. She volunteers to help me with every project I volunteer for at school. It's great to know I have such great friends..because I volunteer for a lot. Well, I volunteered to lead the Junior PTSA at our school and they do a lot of events. If I wasn't such a control freak, I think the kids would do more and I would do less. Maybe next year. 

Anyway, we are in the middle of an easy fundraiser called "Friendship Grams". Maribeth used the die-cutter to make 1000 paper hearts. She then punched 2 holes in each and stamped them with a "To: From:" and a square box for the room number. We then spend Mon, Tues and Wed on the stage at school selling these grams to the kids to send to one another. After they are sold and filled out by said kids, we thread a tootsie pop through each one, put a piece of tape on the back to hold them and attach a pretty butterfly clip to each one for a girl. The kids love to get these and it was an easy way to buy my kids their class set of valentines this year. In total, we made about $150 which will go towards the Junior PTSA end of year party. 

I must admit, I did allow 3-4 kids to help us by threading the tootsie pop, applying the tape and clip and sorting all 700 grams into the bags for the classrooms. Maybe I am relinquishing control after all.