The Necessary Labor of May

It's getting crazy around here. I am trying to find and maintain some type of balance, but the reality is... it's nuts!

The end of the year has a pregnancy feel to it sometimes... a feeling that we must get so terribly uncomfortable before we birth this brand new thing. Feels that way today. Mark is staying home today to help with some big projects (the garden, specifically) and offered to take the children to school. They left just moments ago. Mark out first and the chaotic cacophony trailing behind him.

This morning, the kids slept late, overtired from attending last night's soccer game. They wandered sleepily from room to room, getting ready for their day in an unorganized way. It looked like this:

-Benjamin cannot find his over-due library book and, though he is not dressed, is sure that is his highest priority for the day. (It's not.) He has to say the Gettysburg address today so he is practicing in his best Abe Lincoln, unsure about what it all means. Mark is talking to him from the kitchen about the depth of the speech while Benjamin scratches his head and works hard to try to make it matter to him...

-Noah has another after school party. Yesterday he celebrated the end of the play. Tonight, the end of track. He needs a form we have never seen and money of an undetermined amount. I email the teacher and pull muffins from the oven. Mark and I wonder if either of us have any cash to send with him for the party payment.

-Josiah has taken off at least three outfits, leaving the clothes on in the middle of the family room floor. He is now wearing his 13 year-old brother's ill-fitting shorts and searching for his backpack. ( I am searching for the family room floor. )

-Elizabeth, slightly lost in the mix this morning, takes 20 minutes to eat a muffin and attempts to leave for school, hair un-brushed and missing shoes. I can see that she is not really awake just yet and wonder what the day will be like for her.

-My house is trashed, my supper swap meals are not made and the yard... oh, the yard... is as unpresentable as it can be. (And did I mention, I have a house-guest? My mom has been here for a while to witness all our nuttiness.)

Yep, it's getting kinda crazy around here.

This brief season of our life has gotten to the place where it is just plain uncomfortable. We are finding ourselves in a spot where every part of my momma self is screaming for a break. I know my kids are tired. I know they need more sleep. I know it is time to wander at farmer's markets and eat fresh fruit and run in the sprinkler and read good books and do that thing that comes up next.

I remember feeling similarly at the end of each of my pregnancies. I remember thinking it had just gotten so uncomfortable. My body was stretched, my mind distracted and I was ready to get past this part and move on to what came next... and I would go through anything to get there.

My kids love school and I love it with them. I love our teachers and am so grateful for all that they offer my children each day. And saying good-bye to them, to the year, is a sad and difficult thing for us all. But, this week feels like labor to me... a necessary working through of details and actions that will bring us to the next big thing. And I don't want to rush it... don't want to wish it away... but I love that I can focus on that spot on the horizon when life will just slow down. When my kids will just be home. When parties and practices and homework and hurry have all just faded away... and we will have arrived at the place that looks so beautiful from here.

Eight more days. Eight more days. Between here and there, we will say sad good-byes and accomplish a lot of work... but in the end, it gets us where we are going.

It's a labor I don't want to miss.

Blessings on your day.