Out of Practice

This morning while I sat at the computer, my heart started racing, my palms were sweaty, and it was hard to breathe. Before I decided to call in sick from work and find out what horrible condition I was suffering from, I remembered this is an experience I have every year when I get the boys' baseball schedules and I add them to the calendar.

This year I'm using iCal, which is a cool feature on the mac OS. I can use it at home and school, and (hopefully) keep track of everything I need to do. It has little alarms on it that nag me or even send me emails if necessary to remind me about upcoming events. 

So I'm sitting at the kitchen counter, computer in front of me, stack of baseball schedules beside me, and I'm happily typing away. I even made a cute little color-coded system... green for Ben's high school games, blue for Sam's little league activities. Of course, I already had home stuff and church stuff on the schedule with their designated colors.

Then things started to get complicated. I was running out of room to type on many of the squares. Sam's piano lesson at 4:30, game at 6:00, plus Ben's Varsity Double Header in Knoxville at 5:30. My head started to throb as I entered dates and times that were overlapping. I imagined these future days, racing in the car to make it to most of the boys' activities, eating on the run most nights of the week, and going to bed at night unprepared for the next day at school.

 I got to the last week of May when varsity baseball is in full swing, and the panic attack started. Ben has games 4 nights that week, and Sam has two. How can I work full time and manage it all ??! Before I started whimpering out loud and woke up the family, I gave myself a mental shake and remembered back to previous years' baseball seasons. 

Life will be hectic, the house will get dirtier than I'd like, and I will do lesson plans on my lap as Perry drives down the highway to the next town on the schedule. We will eat dinner at strange times, keep most of our worldly possessions in the car, and do much of our parenting via cell phone. It just sounds like a nightmare right now because I'm out of practice. Just as Sam's batting will improve, I will get the hang of this new pace of life.

Once the season officially begins, there's no place I'd rather be than on the bleachers eating concession stand popcorn and watching my boys play baseball.