How did my week fly so quickly?

I can't believe it has been almost a week since I wrote last. It has been an unusually busy week with a lot of various things going on. Besides swimming, soccer, piano, play dates, play groups, lunches with friends, Activity Days, this week found me volunteering at Jefferson's class, presenting Villette at book club, taking James at the Zoo, spending our Saturday attending a baptism, having fun at Six Flags, playing with friends at the park, and ending it eating ice cream at the ice cream parlor. All of this with no husband at home. Elijah and his boss were on a "business" motorcycle trip along side the West Coast all the way to Oregon. I was so glad he went. He truly had a good time enjoying the beautiful views that the West Coast has to offer.

I felt I could do it, the single mom thing, with no problem, until Sunday came. I had to take Charlton out right at the beginning of the testimony bearing and let him walk joyously the halls of the chapel without disturbing the church meeting with his happy noises, and sometimes with the not-so-happy noises. That left my other three by themselves. My children are pretty good at church and anywhere else for that matter, but not having a parent close by would be unnerving for any one. From where I was standing in the foyer, I could see James trying to lay down, Jefferson trying to hide under the bench, and Gillian eating Charlton's crackers. I couldn't believe my eyes. I left Charlton with a friend outside in the hall, and walked toward my children. They straightened up the minute they saw I was next to them. After I gave some ultimatums, I resumed this Sunday attending seat out in the hall. The children seemed to behave fine after that. I came home, and I felt exhausted. I was grateful that one of my friends offered to take care of Charlton during Primary, since I had to be with my class and help them with the Primary Program practice. But any of you who has had to help little children during Primary Program understand how tiring that gets after two hours.

This morning I had a lot of catching up to do with my cleaning, so we stayed home and took care of the laundry and the rest of the housekeeping items. Life seemed definitely calmer, till I had to do it again, pick the kids up from school, take Gillian to Activity Days, pick her up and then take them to swim lessons. come home and finish homework, eat dinner, and do FHE. Elijah, who came back yesterday afternoon, realized that I wasn't feeling well, made the correct decision of having the kids watch an episode of Star Trek as an activity for tonight, giving me some time to decompress.

I have to admit that I personally like it when I'm busy, but when my busy schedule doesn't allow me time to sit with my children and read for hours, I feel guilty and very unhappy. Today was one of those days. Because of my decisions to take the children everywhere last week, I ended up doing the cleaning all day today. I talked to my children and spent time with them helping them with homework, but I didn't get a chance to relax with them and enjoy their company without having to hurry from one thing to the next. Balance is such a hard thing for me to find. Oh, well, there is always tomorrow to try again. And as Anne of Green Gables says "Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet."

Here are a few of the many pictures I took as my children and I enjoyed the beautiful weather of California last week (I had to include the pictures of the bats, with Halloween practically knocking on our doors):