Uncle!

So it's the end of November and I'm already crying 'Uncle!'. I'm tired. I'm beat. I give in. You know you've hit a wall when you're standing in Safeway bawling your eyes out without even noticing if anyone is around to see your meltdown. DS woke us sick and I had just called his Doctor to get him checked out only to find out that the doctor has left the practice and they won't say where he's gone. It's just another thing to add to my growing To Do list. I now need to find a new doctor for DS prior to his allergy tests that take place in just over a week. He's anaphylactic so he needs someone to prescribe him his Epipens! Seriously, just not something I needed to add to the crazy birthday/Christmas list right now.

Every year I try harder to get things organized early and yet every year I'm still scrambling to get things done on time. This year I ordered our Christmas cards early, I got DD's birthday invitations out 2 1/2  weeks before the date, I shipped my niece's birthday present a month and a half early, and yet I'm looking at my To Do list and I feel like I've crossed nothing off. How can that be?

I realized that the older the kids get the more the list grows. This year I need to get gifts for 3 teachers, not 1. I also need to attend 3 Christmas concerts between 2 children and not only need to do our Christmas cards but have to help the kids do their Christmas cards for their classes, teachers and support staff.

With them both being in school it means more birthday parties to attend. Every year we only ever had to worry about my DD's birthday at the end of November, and 2 nieces that live too far away to attend. Now each kid gets invited to a birthday party almost every month so it means more scheduling, and shopping for presents.

The older the kids get the more activies seem to pile up in my calendar. I have become a master scheduler. If I had to toot my horn about something it's that. I'm pretty much never late even carting around 2 kids to multiple events throughout the day. Do they offer degrees in that? If so I should get an honourary one.

Not only has our schedules exploded as they kids have gotten older, but Hubs has been travelling a fair amount for work. He has been on 9 business trips in the past 12 weeks and he's going on 2 more over the next 3 weeks. It's left me struggling to figure out how to work the snowblower, searching for a vehicle to eventually replace mine, attempting to get quotes on a new home security system, putting in a warranty claim for our house siding, and buying ALL the Christmas presents he would normally buy for his family...even the ones from him to me! With him being away so much and so busy I've been trying to play both roles in the family and it isn't working out very well. I handed over the reins to these kinds of things long ago and am not too keen on picking them back up.

I'm worn out and in this wrestling match against the To Do List I've given in. Sadly, even after crying 'Uncle!' the To Do List is not listening and keeps giving me a pounding. Let's just hope that the next time I have a meltdown like that it's not in such a public setting. In the meantime I'm going to dream of Easter.