Let the madness begin

Its hectic being a single mom some days.  I mean, think about it, I work all day, come home and have to make sure the kids have done their homework, that they get a little attention and love, and dinner and bed, and cleaning, and everything else!  Then you add on the stress of my own needs to take care of and being a woman like myself who is never satisified with just sitting around, I feel the need to make myself a little better each day.  Whether I learn something new, push myself a little harder, or help someone who needs it. 

I do all that and I started tutoring math students a few months ago.  I started training in Brazilian Jujitsu and recently competing (more on that in a minute).  I race in local races, trying to work on my times and hopefully one day acheive the status to be invited to run on a team of elite runners (we can all dream). Sometimes I even have a social life.

I have seasons and I am deep into the beginning of race season and competition (Jujitsu) season.  I also am coaching this season and I took on new projects at work hoping to one day get a promotion.

And I wonder to myself some days how I do it all.  I am sitting here on the eve of the Baltimore half marathon, I just competed in my first ever grappling match a couple of weeks ago, and I still am trying to figure out how to fit everything in next week and hopefully manage to do a load of laundry. 

No wonder I almost never sleep. 

And sometimes it affects my coaching, my parentings, and my friendships when I become overwhelmed.  I lost patience more easily and I dislike it when things get that way for myself. 

However, I love how perceptive children are.  Sometimes even my own kids do this but I have noticed over the past couple of weeks a great few things. 

5th graders-they are really stepping up and taking on leadership of their team mates.  Helping them to understand the way things work, and being there for each other.  They push their team mates to run harder, move forward and have a more positive attitude.

So to my fifth graders-that are growing up so fast, I hope one day you see what your parents, teachers, and myself all see in you, a wonderful and bright future with no end of possibilities to what you can acheive.  I thank you for all making every practice worth dragging my tired butt too and hope that in some way I have positively affected your lives.