Making Dinner at 7am

It's 9am and dinner is ready. (Well, almost.) Whew.

No, we're not celebrating Opposite Day (although that is one of my kids' favorite days). But I am observing another "no time to cook dinner at dinner time" day.

I remember when we first returned to Maryland six years ago. We moved into our "house" (which was more of a renovation-construction zone than a home at that point) just one day before school started, and quickly found it was too late to sign the kids up for any fall activities (which we had hoped would help them make friends). But within a few days we had made fast friends with two families on our street who each had two girls of similar ages. So we spent that fall getting to know our neighbors and our community. I remember trying to get together with my sister and commenting how busy she was... and how un-busy we were.

Eventually we started "getting involved."

My oldest wanted to play softball. (How exciting that she picked one of the few sports without a time limit ;) )

Then came soccer. For both girls. On different teams. And a desperate plea for coaches (I couldn't resist).

Church. Work. Foster care. Book club. Fundraisers. School parties. Youth group. Horseback riding lessons. After school activities. Young Life. Lots of prayer time. Six years later we are intimately involved with our neighbors and our community. We are busy.

So now we delicately walk the line between being joyously "full of life" and exhaustively over-scheduled.

To avoid the latter, we set up some guidelines and try our best to follow them: God first, family second, everything else third. No reoccurring activities on Sundays (except church). Only one sport at a time. Dinner together always (or as always as possible).

We turned our backyard into a playground (pool, basketball, swing set, trampoline), to give our kids things to do at home, so they wouldn't have the constant need to go somewhere.

We convinced our bosses (or found bosses who were agreeable) to let us work at home, so there is always a parent around. So anytime can become family time. And alone time doesn't become lonely... tempting... or dangerous...

Yes, we are busy. I might make three trips (or more) to three different schools in a single day, while juggling laundry, shopping, cleaning, working, homework, meetings, and everything else it takes to manage a household with kids. We have to be able to say no and pull back the reins whenever it gets to be too much. And when there's a makeup soccer game on a Thursday night, I might make dinner at 7am so we can have dinner together in between school/work and the game.

It's a lot. And it may seem strange to make Smoked Sausage and Beans before breakfast, but I wouldn't change a thing. :)