Over-scheduled no more!

There was one thing I knew I wanted to avoid before having kids.

And I did so well the first five years of being a parent. I avoided team-sports, because I truly believe before the age of 7 it's best to learn those sport-skills at home in your backyard with your family and friends. I would only sign the boys up for one activity at a time, if any. We would always have dinner together at a reasonable hour.

Then kindergarten started. Not only did kindergarten start, but full-day kindergarten started.

I had to keep Quinn in his swim lessons - he's made such great progress and if there's any competitive sport this child has a chance at it will be swimming. (All the other sports I'm afraid will put too much pressure on his feet.)

The local children's choir, which is a world class youth choral organization and is internationally renowned, begins with students at the kindergarten level. Quinn loves to sing. He loves to make up songs. And most importantly, he can carry a tune. So of course, we signed up for this.

This was in addition to the two nights or days a week of Quinn seeing his physical therapist to build his leg strength back up after his surgery.

The start of Quinn's school year wasn't quite the start I was hoping for. He'd have school Monday-Friday, of course. Tuesdays - choir, Wednesday - swim lessons, Thursday - therapy, and Saturday - therapy. That meant, dinner on Tuesdays was early, Wednesday and Thursday a late dinner, and no sleeping in or relaxing on Saturday mornings. It also meant Mike was rushing home from work on Wednesdays and Thursdays so we could get to where we needed to go without Liam! Quinn was tired. I was tired. We all were tired.

Oh! And we got a piano and so I've been teaching Quinn how to play. Over the summer we had no trouble finding time for our piano lessons (usually once a week while Liam was napping). Lately, we struggle to find the time and Quinn is always asking for a lesson.

Thankfully, we just got the okay from the doctor to end our physical therapy sessions.

And, I'm switching Quinn's swim lesson time from Wednesday evening to Saturday morning - less traffic to deal with and less rushing around after school.

That just leaves us with Tuesday evening choir - which I'm not giving up. Quinn loves it too much.

And Saturday morning swim lessons.

This will be much better. Much much better.

The other night we were eating dinner at our normal time, everyone finished up, and then Mike was performing his infamous magic trick of making something dissappear and then reappear in one of the kids' ear or something. Anyway, it was exactly how our family dinners should be. Relaxed. Not rushed to get the kids to bed. Not rushed to get the kids out the door.

I realize that our old schedule is nothing compared to what some families manage to accomplish in a week - and that's okay with me. I just know that for us, it wasn't working. I've also learned that I need to be careful with our scheduling.