Aspiring Plate Spinner

Okay, okay. So I started this silly blog to keep all family and friends up to date with our ever changing family and I find myself too busy to post all the things I want to. Most days I feel like one of those plate spinners. Ever seen one at the circus or on tv? I think I saw one recently on Sesame Street...you know how it goes...there are pins or whatever that the little guy balances the plates on and then spins them. He gets a few in the air spinning away then has to keep the plates going or they fall and shatter. I don't know why this is so popular as a circus act - what am I saying?!?! I don't know if it is popular at all - ah, my point!...that's motherhood with three kids under three and a half. Multi-tasking the plate spinner style - racing around from plate to plate and then remembering that one plate all the way at the other end of the table (the one that you know you will never reach in time but you try for it anyway). As you save the wobbling plate you realize the plate at the (yet again) opposite end starts to loose balance and down it goes in a dramatic crash.
There are days that Brian opens the front door to a mess of toys, dishes leftover from lunch and a basket of laundry collected before breakfast still waiting at the top of the stairs to be escorted to the basement for a wash, dry and fold, BUT the kids have been kept busy with a game of hide-n-seek and enjoyed an outing to the boardwalk park. I have one end of the motherhood table of tasks spinning away but am watching in horror as the far end of the table of spinning plates- the housework, phone calls to make, errands to run, meals to plan -slow to funny wobbles and begin falling. Ugh.
Other days I greet Brian with a clean house - toys in their baskets in the toy room (the room that toys never seem to want to stay ) laundry done, beds made, and dinner actually started, but low and behold the other end of the table. Plates begin to fall...the kids are bored, picking on each other, and have watched too much tv as I whisked through the house quicker than a Merry Maid.
So, you've heard it here - motherhood is a circus act! I know with more experience and practice I'll be a pro at spinning the loooong table of plates. I admire those women (we all know atleast one) who manages to have a clean house and happy, tended-to children. I have a personal goal to become one of those women. I know it is possible. It just requires focus on ONE table. Atleast, I know it would for me. I don't know how a mom works outside the home, has kids and keeps the house. I know, I know, the husband...Common! Please!!! Only kidding. Brian is wonderful and does way more than most husbands I know of, but still when it comes down to it...when he's out of underwear or work clothes, hmmm...who's fault is it? Ah-huh. "Uh, hey babe, that plate is falling..."
Of course, Brian has his own circus act to perform and in construction his plates are way heavier and way more difficult to balance, let alone keep spinning. For me, if I don't do the dishes at lunch I just have more to do at dinner. If Brian doesn't go to work the bills don't get paid. Hmm, can we say "pressure"? I had a crazy thought the other day - Brian, a mere 26-year-old young man, supports a family of FIVE all on his own. I don't know why that is so shocking to me. I guess that means we're all grown-up. Sigh.
Anyway, I may not be the professional plate spinner I desire to be today. I have a few plates shatter every now and then, but at the end of the day I do manage to have a few plates happily balanced and spinning away. I must admit my life is pretty entertaining. And a tough act to follow.