How busy do you consider yourself to be?

[Ginevra]

Do you think you have too much going on most of the time? Or are you pretty content with your busy-ness level? Or are you watching Dr. Phil and eating bon-bons on the couch? ;)

 

Poll to follow.

[Impish]

Not as busy as I'm gonna be :lol:

[Mrs Mungo]

We are currently stupidly busy. Looking at my schedule makes other people's heads hurt.

[ChristusG]

I get WAY too stressed out if we get too busy. I have purposely made it so that we are not too busy.

[Jean in Newcastle]

It goes in waves. Right at this exact moment I feel ok because I've been sick and my family has left me to go play for the last couple of days. I'm not so sick that I can't work on stuff at home and am feeling like I'm sort of on top of things. But 3 days ago I was tearing my hair out because I was insanely busy!

[SKL]

If I do all the things I am supposed to do, I have negative free time. But, I procrastinate on some stuff so I can fool around a bit. So I always have backlog hanging over my head.

 

I wake up, get my kids off to school, get to work, pick my kids up, feed them, do evening stuff with them (including "afterschooling"), put them to bed, and get back to work until I can't stay awake any longer. Even on weekends, I work full-time. When I steal a little time from work, it's to do some household chores (I work at home) or visit a few favorite internet sites (mostly this one). I go nowhere without my kids (except for work). I'm single, so I do all the "guy" stuff as well as the "mom" stuff. My personal reading is done in the loo.

[delaney]

Very busy. 2 boys in travel soccer, girls dancing 5 days per week, a toddler in with 3 being homeschooled...and then there's the laundry:glare:

[DawnM]

Some people might consider me busy but I really don't feel all that busy. It may be because I am comparing it to working full time and having evening activities vs. staying at home full time and even doing the same amount of evening activities.

 

Dawn

[regentrude]

Pretty happy. I work 25 hours a week and homeschool two older children who are very independent. I have enough time to read these boards, sing in choir, spend my weekends doing outdoorsy stuff with DH and kids. Perfect balance.

Of course I could always spend more time on housework... if I wanted to.

[Ginevra]

Not as busy as I'm gonna be :lol:

 

That's for True! :001_smile:

 

If I do all the things I am supposed to do, I have negative free time. But, I procrastinate on some stuff so I can fool around a bit. So I always have backlog hanging over my head.

 

I wake up, get my kids off to school, get to work, pick my kids up, feed them, do evening stuff with them (including "afterschooling"), put them to bed, and get back to work until I can't stay awake any longer. Even on weekends, I work full-time. When I steal a little time from work, it's to do some household chores (I work at home) or visit a few favorite internet sites (mostly this one). I go nowhere without my kids (except for work). I'm single, so I do all the "guy" stuff as well as the "mom" stuff. My personal reading is done in the loo.

 

That sounds tough. Your last line there cracked me up! :lol:

 

I'm glad I don't have to do the "guy" stuff, too. Who would grill the salmon?!:D

[Parrothead]

I'm not all that busy.

 

I'm actually so unbusy that I forget to get to the parts that need doing.

[Jennifer3141]

I only feel busy-ish when I don't get stuff done so I need to remind myself to get to DOING instead of just planning all the time.

[cindergretta]

We are insanely busy, to the point of we can't make everything happen without enlisting help from others. :( I'm not very happy about it, now that I really think about it. And I have no idea how to slow it down without letting my children down. <sigh>

[Farrar]

Well, we're all here, aren't we? The really busy people will have to answer the poll later. :D

[Ginevra]

Well, we're all here, aren't we? The really busy people will have to answer the poll later. :D

 

:D Well, this is my downtime...evening, after M is in bed. But I have Lord of the Rings calling me, and CW nagging me for the laptop, so I'm about to leave the boards. :D

[Julie in CA]

It's a combination of things, and strangely, most of them are not child-oriented. My kids are older now, and not very demanding of hands-on time with me.

 

My work has accelerated beyond what I'm used to, and I now have multiple daily deadlines rather than a deadline once or twice a week. Deadlines stress me out. :001_huh:

 

I am blessed to have only 3 dc to supervise in their studies now, the others have successfully graduated. Still, that's 3 kids to get through high school, and I feel the pressure of the one that's a senior this year, and not very motivated. It's a fair amount of work every day to get him through. :glare:

 

I'm also feeling obligated (though not necessarily enriched) by activities within my church. I'm cutting back on some responsibilities there, but our worship time on Sundays has increased from 3 hours per Sunday, to 4-6 hours. While I wish this were a good thing, it's really just increased the pressure. :001_unsure: I feel guilty for not enjoying it, and it adds complications to the day and the day before that involve lots more work.

 

I'm also feeling stressed out with planning for my mil's birthday party in November. It's a meal & pinewood derby for appx. 65 people at my house, a formal party (I do the catering) the next night for appx. 100 people, and houseguests staying with us that will bring the number of people to provide comfort & sleeping arrangements to in my home to around 30. :eek: I can do all of this, and gracefully, and happily, *except* for the unpleasantness between my sisters-in-law about every single party arrangement. :confused: That part stresses me out and makes me feel busy even though it's mostly mental gymnastics until closer to the event.

 

I guess for me, it's not just the schedule, and the amount of actual busy work I have to complete (which is challenging on it's own), but the fact that the emotional/mental busy-ness takes it's toll in addition to the actual, physical work that I need to get done.

 

So yeah, truly *insanely* busy at this point.

 

ETA: And I have a broken foot that makes my running around meeting deadlines really, really ridiculous.

Edited October 17, 2011 by Julie in CA

[Renee in NC]

I said moderately busy. However, next week I am adding 2 graduate accounting classes (in 8-week sessions, so like taking 4!) THEN I will be busy!

[momsquared]

I put moderately busy, but it depends on the day or the week. This weekend was pretty quiet, but next weekend is very busy. This are just never consistent one way or the other.

[IsabelC]

Tricky question here. In theory, I'm not too busy to do the absolute essentials. In real life, I'm not sufficiently organized and I do waste some time, so I feel insanely busy.

[joannqn]

With a set of older kids to teach and a set of younger kids to entertain, I feel like I'm meeting no one's needs. Either I'm neglecting someone, or I'm doing everyone poorly.

[Lily_Grace]

I put moderately busy. I teach two co-op classes and run a den of cub scouts, so half my week is spent planning and gathering materials. The other half is spent teaching and playing taxi driver to my kids, when I'm not trying to keep up with the house. The people around here know me as "the lady with the baby on her back".:lol: It keeps the little one up and out of trouble while we're running around.

It's 7am and I've already been up for over an hour. Laundry started, dishes done, baby is nursing in my lap as I type. By 8am I'll be starting our school day and won't sit down alone again until dh gets home to make dinner.

[Rosie_0801]

Other: Not very busy, but with two little kids around that doesn't mean I have hours of downtime. I have hours to mooch about here doing nothing important, but they if I try to sit down to do something productive like study or sew, they come and climb on me so I can't do it. I can steal away to hide in my room sometimes, but there isn't much point if I'm too sleep deprived to do anything that requires brains. I've always been envious of people whose kids nap!

 

Rosie

[swellmomma]

If I do all the things I am supposed to do, I have negative free time. But, I procrastinate on some stuff so I can fool around a bit. So I always have backlog hanging over my head.

 

I wake up, get my kids off to school, get to work, pick my kids up, feed them, do evening stuff with them (including "afterschooling"), put them to bed, and get back to work until I can't stay awake any longer. Even on weekends, I work full-time. When I steal a little time from work, it's to do some household chores (I work at home) or visit a few favorite internet sites (mostly this one). I go nowhere without my kids (except for work). I'm single, so I do all the "guy" stuff as well as the "mom" stuff. My personal reading is done in the loo.

 

You just wrote my answer for me :D Also a single mom, so having to do everything on my own, 4 busy crazy kids. Boy scouts, Girl guides, kids church, appts for speech therapy, counselling, lawyers, cast care etc, extra activities for girl guides mostly but occasionally for youth group. The activities are not that bad BUT they are 20 minutes away in the next town and so I sit around wasting time that I could be doing other things because it doesn't make sense to drive back and forth like crazy. I babysit out of my home, currently only every other Saturday and the random days I am needed, but once I have a fulltime kid that will change. It is nice not working everyday out of the home like I did last year, though if I don't get some fulltime kids soon I may have to see if I can get my old job back. Once the snow is on the ground cross country skiing. Volunteer commitments, teaching all 4 when none of them is independant at all in their studies. Plus driving 2 hours each way when my ex dh wants to see the oldest 2 kids. Now that I have internet again it is a lifeline. Between here and the facebook groups I have discovered the last couple weeks I can get a break in frequently. THough I always have a to-do list hanging over my head and just not enough hours in the day to do it all.

[Jyniffrec]

I try to keep our lives very quiet in order to be able to get our studies in and to maintain a routine for our more sensitive ones. It just doesn't work very well for us to be running around all the time. We are going to need to introduce some sports soon, but hopefully those will mostly be within walking distance to our house.

[Soror]

I'm as busy as I want to be, sometimes a bit too much. We try to be purposeful in commitments we take on as I don't want our life to be too hectic. As it is I'm looking at what I can cut back now to get it back to a level that is good. I felt we weren't doing enough so I took on some things and then we had some things that just kind of happened. We joined Boy Scouts but no sports, we are not a sports family anyway but I couldn't take multiple weekly commitments for long periods. Doing summer swimming is at the edge of my limits as it is and that's only for 2 weeks. If we lived closer to town I could see we might do more but we don't and do not want to for various reasons.

[Joyofsixreboot]

More people in a household just equals more to do. We are much busier than most people I know but I'm sure others are busier. We've got robotics club, German club and Boy Scouts for oldest two along with 17 yo working at a radio station during football games. The 13 yo is in a play, Girl Scouts, youth group and Boys& Girls club. I lead the GS. She also plays soccer along with the 10 and 7 yo so practices and games to attend. The 10&7 yo do BGC along with Brownies and Cubs ( I'm a helper). The 7 and 4yo do Kids Klub at church where I also do the lesson. I teach Sunday School and do children's message during church service. Then there is teaching, cooking, shopping, errands, laundry and vision therapy appointments an hour away weekly. Last week got overwhelming and I couldn't breathe. I took Sunday off so I can do it again this week. On the bright side my kids are getting older so no tots to drag along.

[MissKNG]

I put "very busy". My days with the kids awake are about 15-16 hours long and are action packed, practically non-stop!! They are exhausting! Plus I keep a really neat/clean house and I make as much food from scratch as possible. I even bake our family bread during the cold months (no bread maker here!).

 

I do have a 45 minute stretch for "me" during quiet time. I am able to sneak online to check out WTM and hotmail. But overall, I consider myself to be very busy. But I do enjoy the how busy I am and it keeps me rather fit. But I get everything done because it's all about efficiency and multi-tasking imo.

Edited October 17, 2011 by MissKNG

[SorrelZG]

It depends on what/how much I choose to do and I'm not consistent.

[Mommyfaithe]

If I do all the things I am supposed to do, I have negative free time. But, I procrastinate on some stuff so I can fool around a bit. So I always have backlog hanging over my head.

 

I wake up, get my kids off to school, get to work, pick my kids up, feed them, do evening stuff with them (including "afterschooling"), put them to bed, and get back to work until I can't stay awake any longer. Even on weekends, I work full-time. When I steal a little time from work, it's to do some household chores (I work at home) or visit a few favorite internet sites (mostly this one). I go nowhere without my kids (except for work). I'm single, so I do all the "guy" stuff as well as the "mom" stuff. My personal reading is done in the loo.

 

This....only I homeschool and work from home....I am married, but dh is also so busy, I do the guy stuff as well...car maintenance, dry wall etc.

 

Faithe

[6packofun]

I feel moderately busy, which I like, but we'd be busier (and I'd feel like a better mom) if my kids had more opportunities outside the house. :001_unsure:

[cheryl h]

I voted very busy. I really don't know how to be less than very busy with 4 dc, especially the ages they are. Music lessons and 4H are part of the educational 'big picture' here and I suppose we consider sports in that category too for excercise(PE) and social time. The older 2 also have youth group once a week. We like to cook from scratch as much as time allows, which is also time consuming. I do freak out a bit if random things interrupt our schedule like illness, car repairs, etc. I have had no time to spend on hobbies since we started our homeschool journey. Hundreds of dollars of scrapbooking supplies have laid idle, sewing machine covered in dust, not to mention the condition of our garden. The house is mostly clean, but cluttered because we are constantly working on something...but not allowing time to put the stuff away. My own fitness is very hit or miss, right now, it's not happening.

 

I feel like to get everything done that I want to, I would literally have to not sleep. :tongue_smilie:

[twoforjoy]

Not very busy. My kids are young enough that we're either at home or close to home (like at a friend's house on the block or at the library that we can walk to) nearly all the time. I take DS7 to a breakdancing class on Tuesday nights, and Wednesday nights I go to a small group at my neighbors' (I take the oldest and youngest), but otherwise, we're pretty much at home during the week.

 

I find that it's really going different places that eats up all my down time.

 

I definitely have times where I'm overwhelmed, mostly because sometimes all the kids have very pressing needs at the same time, or just feel frustrated with the amount of time and number of trips it takes to get everybody out of the house (one trip for the stroller, one for the baby, one for the toddler, one for the items we inevitably forgot...). But, it's more like, during my day, I have some moments where I'm overwhelmed than that I'm busy.

 

I definitely have a good amount of downtime. DD still takes a nice long nap every day, and we all rest during that time. I also usually have some free time in the morning before the kids wake up, and once DD is in bed things also calm down, and I get a few hours of free time at night. I don't have long stretches of uninterrupted downtime--somebody usually needs something at regular intervals--but I definitely, if you add it all up, have a good amount of time to relax and do what I want during the day.

[justamouse]

Not that busy, and I refuse to make myself that busy.

[Sukale]

My level of busy comes and goes. My husband does the hard schooling stuff with our oldest. That started this year and has been a huge help. I work about 15-20 hrs a week. Hubby is usually off Fri, Sat and Sun. We don't spend much time in the car. Most trips are within 3 miles. I only have the 2 girls and there is a big gap between them. I am mellow by nature and would hate to be very busy and stressed.

[Night Elf]

I'm not that busy. My children are all teens and don't require much of my time anymore. I live in a kind of small house so housework isn't an issue that requires a lot of time. I'm no longer in school and do not work so I am not out of the house much, nor do I have homework to do. I actually have too much time on my hands. I miss my children being little. They don't "play" anymore.

[SweetMissMagnolia]

mine comes in spurts---meaning one week might be crazy busy with appointments or errands....another week I might not leave the house all week LOL.....the busy days can be sooo tiring sometimes with getting it all done (housework-study time with kiddo-me time LOL whatever that is)......

[Canadianmumof5]

Bordering on insane but managing to stay just far enough away.

A busy toddler, 3 kids "doing school", working from home, and trying to keep up with housework, etc.....yes, pretty busy but I truly wouldn't change a thing. Although if DH suggested a housekeeper or more take-out, then I could be easily persuaded :)

[Tap]

Moderately busy. I hate it. I am used to being super busy and sitting around is driving me nuts.

 

I had a back injury a couple of years ago, and still hurt from it. I have to take a 20minute break every hour if I am doing any kind of physical work.

 

Add to that dd4, who dictates most of my schedule, and my life is pretty mundane. Some times I feel like I just sit in a chair and play dead, because if she sees me move she will throw a tantrum. :glare: What a life. :(

[Catherine]

I have four kids (three of my "own") and an exchange student, I work half time, homeschool 2, and am helping eldest apply to college. :tongue_smilie:

 

Next year will be a breeze compared to this. I'll only have two at home, and only be homeschooling one. Ahhh!

[I.Dup.]

Weirdly, even though I have 6 children (including 5 in 6 years), they are with me all the time and I also work part-time (from home), I do not consider myself busy. Maybe because I refuse to be out running around? Even though I KNOW there's a ton I do around here, I do not feel overly "busy", maybe because I get to be the one to decide what and when I do things? If I was running around from here to there, or working outside the home, I would consider myself VERY busy.

[Tutor]

I voted that we are "very busy", but I have to admit that I really like the business level that we are at right now. I have a tendency toward entropy, so I need to keep myself moving or I become a slug. :D If I add anything else to my plate right now, however, I can easily see myself rapidly becoming prohibitively stressed, so I am guarding our schedule very aggressively right now.

[gaillardia]

some other overlooked concept I haven't accounted for. Is that what it said? I can't remember anything, does that count?:lol:

[amyable]

Haven't voted yet, because I can't decide...

 

On the surface I look only somewhat busy. Like I do often have inordinate amounts of time to fool around online. ;)

 

In reality, I feel very busy - maybe because I'm everybody's everything, and they always all need me at once? Activity wise, we have one "sport" at a time - 4 roller skating classes right now (soccer in the spring most likely), and youth group for the older two. A little more than typical amount of doctor/dentist visits for a family of 7. Laundry for a big family, and lots of cooking from scratch because of all the food allergies. Littlest has rheumatoid arthritis and needs to be helped to do things - toileting, going up and down stairs, carried around to do everything when it's bad, etc. His meds and pain make him whiny and sometimes I feel most busy just dealing with his behavior! (and the rest of them, phew!)

 

School wise my oldest is nearing high school and is dyslexic/LD/ADD - needs a lot of help and hand holding, as does my 6yo who disappears if I don't tie her down to do her work (KIDDING! :lol:) - but seriously, she does nothing w/o constant prodding and oversight, and more prodding. School time is when I'm online a lot - I can multi-task watching them do math worksheets or their spanish video and surf.

 

My dh has back problems and comes home and sits most days/weekends - so really nearly everything is up to me, night and day, to the point where I'm dizzy tired by dinner.

 

It feels like a lot and I'm overwhelmed, but it is probably just a mental/emotional thing than true "busy".

Edited October 17, 2011 by amyable

[Guest]

This year has been a bit busier than *I* like to be...(I don't like to be busy, I'm a homebody!) Due to various unforeseen circumstances, my life is about to get kind of hectic and even busier. It is what God is calling me and our family to at this time, so I'll go with it! :)

[golfcartmama]

We are currently stupidly busy. Looking at my schedule makes other people's heads hurt.

:iagree:

[enviromommy]

Pretty happy. I work 25 hours a week and homeschool two older children who are very independent. I have enough time to read these boards, sing in choir, spend my weekends doing outdoorsy stuff with DH and kids. Perfect balance.

Of course I could always spend more time on housework... if I wanted to.

 

Ok, I rarely post, but I have to say that I hero worship you, Regentrude! Perfect work-life balance, intellectually fulfilling (and impressive) career, homeschooling two brilliant kids. You really have it together.

 

As for me? I voted "insanely busy". Homeschooling with 5 kids (including a 15 month-old), taking care of my mom, driving the kids to WAY too many activities, HUGE backlog of cleaning/organizing/office work to do, trying to get a part-time job as a lawyer (with WHAT time?) to pay for the kids' activities, and always going to sleep anxious about having forgotten a million things that may or may not have made it from my addled brain to my to-do list (which currently has a record-breaking SIXTY-FOUR items on it). Feel guilty every time I take a few minutes to glance at the boards, have weeks' worth of newspapers piled by my bed that I won't give up on reading and recycle. And I always make things harder on myself by picking teacher-intensive materials, picking individually for each kid, lesson planning till late at night, etc. So, yeah. Not feeling too calm most of the time. :tongue_smilie:

[enviromommy]

We are insanely busy, to the point of we can't make everything happen without enlisting help from others. :( I'm not very happy about it, now that I really think about it. And I have no idea how to slow it down without letting my children down. <sigh>

 

:iagree:

 

I feel exactly this way. The way to slow it down would be to cancel activities that they LOVE and get a lot out of. It's a conundrum.