The Social Butterfly

My dear, sweet E2 is filling up our schedule. It's another one of those weeks where if I allow myself to dwell on all that is going on my right eyelid will begin to twitch, and it's all E2 The Extrovert's fault. Beginning tonight, she has something going on every evening or day through Sunday - last night was her only night 'off'. Now that I think about it, it reminds me of when Rob and I started dating and he was playing softball every night of the week except Monday...and I had a night class on Mondays.

Tonight it's softball team photos followed by the last Brownie Scout meeting (which I have to attend too to help finish a scrapbook they worked on last week).

Wednesday night it's softball practice.

Thursday night should be gymnastics, but we have the Spring Concert at school (which means a make-up gym class next week).

Friday night, after her class field trip that day, she's got an ice skating party with her Brownie troop.

Saturday it's ball practice again, and then she wants to audition for a local kid-filled production of Alice in Wonderland.

Sunday she's singing in church with the Children's Choir.

It's a shame she has no self-confidence, eh?

Once again, it brings to mind a speaker we once heard at church. As part of a program to encourage church members to be more involved, a young woman spoke to the crowd about the benefits and enjoyment she had found in being involved in different roles in church. To her credit, she is very involved in our church and we as church members benefit from her participation.

She spoke about how even though she is not married and has no children, she still has a busy life (listing committments and participation), and yet she still manages to participate in the church as much as she does. And again, she does do a lot both in the community and in our church - I won't argue that point.

However, her comments caused Rob and I to look at one another and shake our heads a little. You see, back in the day before we had kids...before we were married even, we were involved a lot more in the community, and with family events, and our jobs, and wedding plans...and we thought we were SO BUSY.

Now, looking back we think about how much free time we really had. Because our time was our own; we could choose where we wanted to spend our time. These days, we have our own busyness PLUS that of our children. By allowing our children to participate in activities, we're committing ourselves as well - they have to get there and back, after all, and often times we have to wait for them.

If only we could have banked all that free time we didn't realize we had back then in our single/childless days...and the money we thought we didn't have.

I think the toughest part of all this involvement is the overlap. E2 will most likely need to miss some play practices (assuming she gets a role) for softball or gymnastics, or softball for play practices. In a way, it defeats the whole 'commitment' of joining a team or a cast when you constantly have to juggle. Should we be making her choose or letting her try new things?

We're just waiting to watch the butterfly emerge...
...and seriously, the butterflies above need to emerge already. I sincerely hope I don't have to tell E3 that NONE of her caterpillars turned into butterflies.