Sheer Insanity . . .

. . . is what would most accurately describe the status of our lives right now! Here's my day today:

• got up WAY too early - Jack and Noah have decided that 6:15 a.m. is a good time to get the day started (that's going to change as soon as school is over!)
• Anyway, got them ready and delivered them and their hamster to school (the hamster was show-and-tell today);
• Left the school, headed to the car wash to wash the truck;
• Went to Eileen's Cookies to pick up treats for the boys' birthday celebrations at school today (they celebrate the summer birthdays the last two weeks of school);
• Stopped at an undisclosed location to order end-of-the-year gifts for my MOPS steering team members (they read this blog, so I can't tell you where that was!!);
• Delivered previously mentioned treats to the school;
• Stopped at a second undisclosed location to get additional MOPS thank-yous;
• Went home, got ready (yep, I was running around town without having readied myself for the day!);
• Started packing for our trip tomorrow;
• Left home again, stopped back at first undisclosed location to pick up previously ordered MOPS gifts;
• Went to Piece of Cake to pick up cake for luncheon baby shower;
• Attended aforementioned baby shower;
• Ran to the mall to get birthday gift for niece who we will see on Saturday;
• Picked up boys and hamster from school - mauled on the way out of the building by all the kids wanting to see the caged rodent;
• Immediately took the protesting kids to Cost Cutters to get boys haircuts;
• Got kids home, fed them a snack and sat down for 30 minutes of snuggle time with them to watch the end of last night's American Idol;
• Got the kids ready for baseball practice and shipped them off to said practice with Mark (important to note here that practice started at 5:30);
• Finished packing for trip tomorrow . . .
• Noticed it's now 7:00 p.m. and kids still aren't home! Hmmm. Blood starts boiling. Called Mark and told him to pull kids out of practice and bring them home (90+ minutes is enough for 6 year olds, no? More on that later.)
• 7:25 Mark and the kids arrive with McDonald's and a friend from school/baseball who needed to stay with us until Mom could pick him up;
• Mark literally turns around and leaves for his men's church small group which started at 7:30. I'm left to try and get 3 dirty, wound-up little boys to eat their supper - and my two are supposed to be in bed by this point!! uggh.
• 8:00 - friend leaves, I get boys in the shower. Brush teeth, do devotional, prayers and finally lights out at 8:40. WAAAAY too late - esp. for two little dudes who were up at 6:15.
• Load the truck for trip tomorrow.
• Finally I get to hit the bathtub and shave my legs - shorts weather arrives tomorrow. :)

And today is just the tip of the iceberg for the next few days! Tomorrow we have the boys' all-day track meet, and then as soon as we can get them out of there, we get to jump in the car for an 8 hour drive to MN - Mark's cousin gets married on Saturday. Sunday morning we'll jump back in the car and race home so the kids can attend the birthday party of a very dear friend at 4:00 p.m. We wouldn't make that effort for anyone other than this little girl, whom Jack and Noah just adore.

Anyway, we'll continue at this pace through next week - the last week of school (done on Friday!), the last week of MOPS (done on Tuesday!), the last week of sorority (done on Wednesday!), the last week of Mark's small group (done on Thursday!) and then, I'm hoping life will come to a screeching halt!! It's amazing how even when you make genuine efforts to keep your schedule under control, it still gets away from you. I'm actually looking forward to our car ride tomorrow, when we can all CHILL out and relax.

Now on to my latest pet peeve - although that's a mild term for how I'm really feeling, my blood pressure was through the roof tonight: Since when did kids sports get so out of control?!?!? Is it really necessary to push these little 5, 6, 7 year old little kids so hard?? With soccer, we were supposed to have 2 practices and 2 games per week - WHAT?!? Luckily I was married to the coach this season and he didn't go along with the League recommendations (thanks sweetie!). Plus, we were expected to play in rain, sleet and snow, 50 mph winds, 25 degree weather - you name it, you just don't cancel. Ever. Ridiculous. My new term for the Rapid City Youth Soccer League is the Soccer Nazis. Thankfully we're done with soccer, but are just starting our season of baseball, and it's already out of hand - as you can see from our hour-and-a-half-plus practice tonight. Mark left at 7:15 and they still weren't done. Unbelievable. And this coach has scheduled 3 practices per week for the rest of the month - HA - he's got another thing coming. He's met his match with me - no way are my kids going to spend that kind of time on baseball. Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox, but I think the people in charge of these leagues need to get some perspective (and GET A GRIP!) . . . .

Okay, now for the last item on my to-do list for today . . OFF TO BED! (My favorite part!)