How do you decide when you are too busy, and what do you do about it? I got it in my head that I needed to volunteer at the school more. I have a business that I would like to grow. I’m responsible for most of the cooking, cleaning, and gardening. I have responsibilities with church. And mostly, childcare. This fall, we have five sports teams, a choir, and a toddler to entertain. At times, I’ve needed four adults to get my children everywhere they need to be. I’m grateful for grandparents and carpools that help make it possible.

Recent adventures: We went to Curiosity Farms, the new Family Park, and Timpanogos Cave.

My husband asked me at one point, When do we cut back? It’s a hard question because mostly it’s the fact that I have a lot of kids that’s the problem, not that any one child is too busy. Henry just has choir and piano lessons, Zack is just doing soccer, and Curtis is just doing tackle football. The exception is Peter, who is doing piano, flag football, basketball, and soccer, and has a job as a ref. But he loves everything he does and is still usually keeping up with school and has free time. So I continue to drive around a lot and stay busy, and luckily many of the activities are seasonal and will end. (Soccer is over and that is wonderful because it always was the worst times and farthest driving distances.)

Some things do fail. My business is fledging, and I choose to not spend lots of time on it. Chores get done, but often not well. Sometimes dinner is mac and cheese or cereal. You can’t do everything, so I can choose to fail at some things right now and that’s fine.