Just say "Maybe."

I don't think I'm all that different than most moms I know. Except that my kids are gone from the house three or four nights a week, which allows me some extra cleaning time, some extra talking on the phone uninterrupted time, and some extra time to miss them and remember just how much I really do like them. But you know I pick up toys, I make doctor's appointments, I drive kids to swim class, I cry when someone does his first dive into the deep end (y'all he TOTALLY did it today, it was SO cool!), and I get asked to do a lot of things for school, for book clubs, for parent groups, etc. And like most moms I know I get over extended. I'm really terrible about keeping my calendar in my purse up to date, so sadly, not only do I over book, but sometimes I double book. I usually end up doing this on my weekends when the boys are with their dad. I think this probably goes back to the early days when I desperately tried to fill up those hours so I didn't have to think about missing them or really being angry at their dad. But it also comes from the ability to add an appointment to my Yahoo calendar without actually checking to see what is already on it. So I woke up today with exactly four appointments on my calendar today at 10 a.m. Can anyone spell "Imadork?"

Two of them were walks, fundraisers for charity. I did a pretty good job raising money for both of them and I decided no one would actually care if I was there or not, as long as they got the money. I topped off my contributions with an extra $10 and decided to call that good. Now the other two were my problem. One was the swim class I mentioned earlier. I knew their dad would take them but...I really hate missing classes when it is my turn to take them. I'm lucky to be co-parenting with a man who sees sitting through things like this as a parenting privilege, not some form of drudgery. So we are a little competitive when it comes to who gets to go to what. We have on occasion BOTH gone, but I would feel wrong skipping out on the two walks to share time with him, you know? But the OTHER appointment was to pick up something I wanted to buy on Craigslist, which I've been needing. If I didn't show, I was sure my new kitchen table would go to someone else, someone more deserving because they know how to manage their organizer. I called the girl, sweet little thing who is a college student. Why I'm buying furniture from a college student, I'm not sure. When I was in college my kitchen table was my desk...but...anyway. She was adorably ready to switch times with me and I'm quite sure she's going to provide boys from a frat house to load up the Vue for me. So I got to see the first dive into the deep end. And that makes all the juggling worth it.

The thing that made me happy about all of this is I've finally learned, despite my terrible abilities at keeping a calendar, to never say "YES!" But I never say "No." Either. My annoying and completely honest response to nearly everything these days is "Maybe." Is it evil to do this? Maybe. But it works for me, because honestly? I don't know what I'll be doing 20 minutes from now. Oh wait, yeah, the table. Definitely that.