Up early and enjoying the quiet.

The perks of getting up early on a freezing cold Sunday morning to drive my son to basketball training: seeing this stunning sunrise!

The title of this post says it all really. I've been longing to write for a while, but the pace of life around here seems so hectic lately that, most days, I can barely manage to write a shopping list let alone a blog post. Nonetheless, here I am. I woke up at about 5am when my hubby left for work and wasn't able to get back to sleep. So I got up, got showered and came out to the dining room, where the laptop lay quietly on the table - with a flat battery of course......the kids don't seem to know how to plug it in to the power. Once it's gone flat they just abandon it and go off in search of some other electronic device!

I've been missing the process of writing down what's going on in my brain and in my soul. I've been feeling quite flat lately. I think it's just tiredness. The tiredness that comes with being a Mum to one teenager and one almost teen. They have such busy schedules, which means that hubby and I also have busy schedules; running them around to all their various sport training sessions and matches, in addition to the normal school routine. I'm not complaining about this for a second. This is where I am in my life right now, and I honestly do feel incredibly blessed to have two happy, healthy, busy kids. I know when these crazy days are eventually done, I will miss them terribly. Having said that, there are times when the fatigue does get to me, making me a cranky mumma and making me long for a bit more "me-time". I know that my hubby must be feeling the same way. Perhaps more so. While I'm a stay-at-home mum these days, he has to go out to work for 8 hours every day (plus about 2 hours a day travel time). By the time he finally sits on the couch in the evenings, he's asleep within less than 10 minutes!

I know that school holidays are only a week and a half away, so I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks with less structure. Not that they won't be action packed.....there are plans afoot! But it will be nice to step out of our usual weekly routine and mix things up a a bit.

I don't really like to come on here and seem to be whinging about my busy life. I know that life is only as busy as you make it. I used to shake my head at parents who complained about being so busy, and running their kids around everywhere. Now I'm one of them. I understand why they do it. You love your kids. You want them to be able to do what they love. You want to show an interest in what they're doing - not just do the drop and run. You need to volunteer for team manager roles etc. because if you don't, then kid's sport can't happen. These are the reasons we do what we do. Every now and then, I get a bit frustrated at the back seat my own interests and passions seem to have taken, but I remind myself that these years will be short and I don't want to miss them. I remind myself that my kids notice, and will remember the way I showed my love by being there for them in these busy years. I remind myself that I need to have patience.... some day down the track I'll have so much "me-time" I won't know what to do with it. I remind myself that being a parent is an ongoing act of self-sacrifice, for those you love more than life itself. I remind myself that this family life is such a blessing - every crazy, exhausted minute of it.