Things sure have changed

I've had this blog for many years, and over those years I've often gotten this question:

How do you do it all? Family, work and riding?

The fact is, right now, I’m not getting everything done that I want to. One of those things is this blog.

When my girls were younger, it was easier. They went where we went, did what we did, and went to bed early. Now they are older and have their own interests. What used to be an afternoon of picking the girls up at daycare, eating dinner, and going to bed, is now a mad rush to leave work, pick them up, get homework done, dinner eaten, and then a dash out to get them to their activities, then showers and bed.

Something had to suffer, and it was writing my blog. I used to be able to shoot off a quick blog post at night, but by the end of the day now I’m too tired to write. So instead of writing I try and spend some time with Craig before I need to get in bed myself.

Other things have suffered a lot too. Like my house. First, my tack is cleaner than my house. For a while I was driving myself mad trying to keep the house clean. I’d stress about all the toys on the floor, and the state of the girl’s rooms. I’d look outside at all the weeds and overgrown bushes and fret about it.

It’s taken me some time, but I've finally just given in to the fact that these things don’t really matter. My girls are 9 and 10 years old right now. In a few short years their toys will be replaced with phones and computers. They won’t want to be at home, with their mom and dad. They’ll want to be out with friends.

So I've been trying very hard not to let the mess bother me. Sure, sometimes I go on a manic cleaning binge, but for the most part if I can walk a path through the room I’m ok.

I've been trying to spend some more time with the girls. I know I don’t do that as much as I’d like to, since I have a full-time job that also requires me to work one or two weekends a month. But we try and play games together. I know that being a stay-at-home mom is not an easy job, but when summer rolls around and I know that a bunch of moms on my street have their kids all summer, I get jealous. They go to the pool all day, or to the lake, or where ever. I know that it’s not all fun and games, and that there’d be times that I’d want to tear my hair out, but I’ll never have that.

Yes, I’m still riding, just not 5 or 6 days a week like I used to. Now it’s 3 or 4, which is really ok. I need to spend this time with my kids now, because I’ll never get this time with them back.

I do have updates on Phil and Kaswyn. I'll get those posted when I can!