A Mommy Story

It just occurred to me that August is nearly over, which means summer is nearly over. And I’m now baffled as to where the time went?

I’ve been told the years fly by faster as we get older, and I’m convinced that the only reason this is said is because we pile on more responsibilities every year so we’re too busy to even remember to place the X’s for each completed day on the calendar.

Time didn’t fly as a kid. When I was eight years old, summer lasted for what seemed like forever. But at eight years old, my only summer responsibilities were picking up any toys I brought out of the house and being back home before dark. Hardly a packed schedule.

Now I have so much to do that things always get neglected due to running out of time to get to them. It’s vital to mentally sort what needs to get done from what I’d like to get accomplished and make sure the needs are finished before moving on to any “what I’d like to do” items.

And sometimes? Even the needs have to be sorted into extremely important and not-so-important categories. Hopefully you know what I mean – those days when you have to say “Do I NEED to do laundry today, or can these jeans go one more day?”

For example, at the beginning of the summer, I was excited to get outside and make this the year our yard looked nicer. We trimmed the edges of the lawn, I planted flowers around the base of the tree (which are still mostly alive despite my negligence), and I dutifully weeded around the house and the patio. There were plans to do even more, too.

But it didn’t happen. Other needs got in the way. Aaron has continued to mow all of the lawn regularly, since that’s one of those extremely important issues the HOA would crack down on. (Also, we don’t want ticks.) The front yard has even had the edges trimmed a few times, too.

But the backyard? Total disaster. My first weeding experience was intense, and I used a weed spray to make sure they wouldn’t come back. Weeds, however, are the genetic supermutants of this century, proving the theory of evolution as they laughed at my weed spray and grew back faster and with more vitality.

So fast, in fact, that some are trying to overtake my youngest child.

Yeah, I’m just as surprised as you, Mira.

For reference, she’s four feet tall.

So yeah, the back yard is slightly overgrown. Or very overgrown, if you regularly keep a manicured lawn. In my defense, I had a lot of other stuff going on this summer, and didn’t notice that two months had gone by without weeding. And at this point I don’t know how much weeding I’ll get done going forward, other than the patio, cause we do use it more in the Fall. I may let the ultimate weed-killer – aka: Winter – take care of the rest of them and vow to start fresh in the Spring.

I have the best intentions with my to-do lists. But I overestimate what I can get done in a certain amount of time, then have to cut the list down to only the items that will cause problems if they’re not finished. Work gets done, food is purchased and prepared, bills are paid, the family and our clothing are kept clean, the house is kept sanitary (but cluttered), appointments are (mostly) kept, but everything else? It may or may not happen.

Someday I will be more organized, but that day is not today. The rest of this week is likely booked as well.

If anyone thinks they’re more organized and on top of their to-do list than me, please feel free to share your secrets to getting it all done in the comments. Cause my only solution at the moment would involve adding more hours to the day, and I’m not sure everyone else would be cool with slowing down the Earth’s rotation a little for that purpose, even if it did have the side effect of making us weigh less, too.