My husband is an avid sports fan. Every year he gets so excited for March Madness. He loves the exciting schedule of college basketball and all of the chaos it brings on. Soon March ends and it’s wonderful April (birthday fun) and then like a slap in the face comes the event that all moms dread! May Madness!
May Madness is the month with chaos, overlapping schedules, overlapping sports seasons and over all exhaustion! No cheerleaders for this sport! May Madness brings teacher appreciation days, baseball tournaments, swim team practices, band concerts, elementary school choir productions, and more. May Madness brings the mad rush of squeezing it all in before school gets out.
This last week when I turned on my computer and looked at my daily calendar I was stunned to see “6 events” or “8 events” or more! What has happened? I pride myself on being intentionally under-scheduled. I pride myself on making family dinners a priority, but come May Madness – all bets are off the table!
Let me give you an example of May Madness from last Thursday –
6:30 a.m. wake up (which is a half hour earlier than usual)
7:30 a.m. pick up co-worker & head downtown for an amazing conference
8:30 – 3:00 Powerful Tools for the Caregiver training (I had to leave early)
Drop off friend, pick up Madi bring her home. Drop off Madi go to grocery store. Pick up Madi take her to private lesson for French Horn. Drop Madi off at Klein HS. Pick up Jack from play date, drop him off at pool for swim team. Pick up Madi from Klein HS, drop her off at pool for swim team. Run home, pick up husband and reapply makeup, head back to pool to pick up Jack. Go to Jack’s musical at school – Madi walks over and meets us there. Come home eat dinner, take Madi to dance class, come home watch Grey’s and cry. Pick up Madi at dance. Fall in bed!
That was just ONE day last week. The weekend continued like that with swim team time trials & baseball tournament same day. Mother’s day & Jack’s birthday same day!
Are you exhausted reading this? I am. So today… today I said ENOUGH. Today I decided to take the Madness out and put the BALANCE in. I Took the kids to school came home, walked the dog, called a friend and visited. Relaxed. Watched a tv show I’d been meaning to catch up on. Cleaned up. Headed to the salon for a spa pedicure!!!! ohh yessss. Went to lunch by myself -Table for One, please! – ate at a nice cafe, read my magazine, laughed out loud!!! relaxed. Went to a couple stores (love to shop), ran to the grocery store, came home and said hooray for a day OFF! Today I refilled MY cup! Then to top it all off, when I returned home, the cleaning fairies had come and my house sparkled (hooray for housekeeper day)!
Now, I can put on my chauffeur cap and feel energized as I head into the late afternoon to pick Madi up from French Horn, take her home, take Jack to swim, pick Jack up and take Jack to final baseball practice, take Madi to dance! but that’s ok. Today I can handle May Madness ~ with a little ME time, I was able to get some balance again and it give myself a pep-talk to finish up this crazy season of May Madness.
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I didn’t know Madi was playing French horn. Fabulous. I played from 6th grade through college, and went to college on a partial band scholarship. Keep it up! Does she like it? Good way to meet boys, too; the brass section is usually much more male than female. And amen to the May madness, and I only have one in preschool.