Compliment? Or confirmation?

My Mom is the Queen of Organization.  When I was growing up, nothing ever happened without her having a plan to handle it.  If she didn’t actually have a plan, she faked it so well that it seemed like she had a plan all along.  She was a teacher, and then a school administrator, and she regularly worked sixty to eighty hours per week.  My father worked full time as well, so I guess that my brother and I were Latch Key Kids before that term was ever used.  But that doesn’t mean that Mom and Dad weren’t fully in control even from a distance.  We checked in to let them know we were home, Mom left recipe cards on the counter with any dry ingredients needed to make dinner.  The other ingredients were kept together on a particular shelf in the refrigerator.  Homework was to be done before anything else, and we made dinner in turns.  By the time our parents got home, if all went according to plan, our homework was finished and dinner was on the table.

Saturdays were cleaning days.  We were allowed to watch cartoons until noon, then it was time for housework and yard work.  She always had a plan of attack, knew who would be doing which chores, and how long each one should take.  Generally dinner was in the crockpot and cooking while we did all of the things necessary to keep the house as neat as you CAN keep it with two children living there.

Mom always had a plan.  I learned most of what I know about organization from her, and believe me, I know a lot about that subject!  I had a boss who used to laugh at me.  He said he could always tell when I was organizing something because that was when I was happiest.  I can’t help it, really, there’s just something so intrinsically satisfying about turning chaos into order.  When you’re done, no matter what it is, you can SEE the results and know that it happened because of you.

I suppose it is a good thing that I have that mental filing cabinet where I keep everything organized in my mind, because life has been really crazy between The Husbeast’s schedule and mine.  I’m working a full-time job as well as running my own business (pretty much another full-time job), he’s working his job, we are juggling a house, and three cats, and friends, and all of the other normal life objectives.  This means that things can get rather hectic.  It also means that the thing that gets sacrificed first is relaxation, and the second sacrifice is sleep. 

We’re planning a trip to visit my parents when they return to Florida in the Fall.  I’ve always wanted to go to the Disney Food & Wine Festival.  The Husbeast and I are major foodies, and we love trying foods from different cultures and cuisines.  So this is going to be triple-amazing because 1) we’ll be visiting my parents, which is always awesome, 2) we’ll be doing it at Disney World…I mean how much better can it get?  3) we’ll be doing all of this and indulging our love of culinary experimentation at the same time!

Mom and I were on the phone, discussing things like dinner reservations, plane tickets, and the like, when conversation turned to what is going on in our lives in general.  I gave her an account of my last week or so, and then it happened.  My Mom…Queen of Organization…gave me either the biggest compliment I’ve ever gotten, or the most definite confirmation that I am just plain insane for trying to juggle as much as I’m juggling.  Quite frankly, I think that her words carried a bit of both the compliment AND the confirmation.  She said, “How do you manage it all?” 

That doesn’t seem like much, right?  People ask it all of the time.  But this is coming from MOM…the woman who juggled her career, her family, her family’s obligations like marching band and sports, her husband’s career and his secondary career (Dad shared ownership in a motorcycle and snowmobile shop for several years), not to mention normal household requirements.  She did all of it seemingly without effort, and yet SHE is asking ME how I handle everything I do????

Every time I have thought about it today, I have smiled.  Sure, I know I’m crazy, but I also know that the craziness will lessen at some point when I can afford to pay myself from my business and don’t have to work another job on top of it.  There IS a light at the end of the tunnel.  Right now it is just a pinprick of light, but it is there.  And until I reach it, I can know that I am accomplishing things that other people only dream of or wish about, and whether I succeed or fail, at least I tried, which is more than most can say.

I can do the impossible.  And, like my Mom, I can make it look easy. :)

(This is Mom.  Isn't she AMAZING?)