How DOES She Do It??

As I sat at the McDonald's Playland while Nas ran laps around the play area and Jay squealed her infamous joy squeal, I noticed a woman I see out and about around town quite often. I know her story only because she attends the church we do and when I asked where I could donate Jay's gently used clothes they told me about her. Tracy is a married mother of seven children. She takes her kids out to play and enjoy the same things my kids love doing, I've seen her at the library, the park, and the local book store. When I see her she is out and about with her brood as I am with mine.

So the kids and I finished our lunch and I was left there sitting reading, sort of, the book I picked up at the library. When I glanced up to check on my babies I would look over at Tracy. Amid the screaming children whirling around the room she seemed so calm. Her kids were clean, dressed neatly and they just played and enjoyed themselves the way the other kids were. Not that I expect a mother of seven to have dirty, unkempt children but I struggle to keep Nas' mouth wiped off after a meal and indeed he had ketchup plastered to the side of his little lips while he ran his laps, but seven mouths to wipe?

I kept watching her in amazement, in wonderment and in awe of how sane she seemed. My day gets a bit dishoveled when I have the 2 year old I sit for out in public with my own two! So Tracy truly amazes me. Her kids are well-behaved, at least whenever I see them they are, and Tracy and her husband are somehow able to provide for their family without looking like stressed out lunatics...which is what I often feel like! Not to say they don't have stress or fall prey to the constant job of parents and providers, but they sure seem to have it together.

My amazement comes more from wondering why I can't organize my life, especially during the school year, so that I keep up with most everything going on at school. Why I can't seem to find two matching socks before it's time for Jay to leave? How do they get seven kids in the car, the little ones all buckled into their car seats, without leaving a kid or two behind at the Playland? And I wonder how on earth they buy all of those school supplies requested by the schools for each grade level, because I'm guessing I'll spend about $40 on Jay's for the first grade. Although most of Tracy's kids are younger than school age, she does have school kids. School kids need pencils, shoes, backpacks and clothes...what are we doing wrong that makes this a bit of a struggle when I realize Jay's pants are approaching high-water length?

Maybe they plan very well. Maybe one of them is a money manager like you wouldn't believe. Maybe they get help, financially, to care for their family...but maybe they don't! I'm not awe-stricken by all that Tracy does because I want to know if the government helps her family with food or any other necessities but because I'd love to do my job as mother and household 'manager' the way a mother of seven does! Do my job that well for a family of four? I'd be mother of the year!

I don't know how she does it but she obviously does it and from the outside, it looks like she does it well. Maybe I'll stop complaining about "all" I have to do for two kids and think about her daily to-do list...imagine her "me" time, what would that look like for a mother of seven? Oh, and when she stood up I noticed number eight is growing strong inside the round bump tucked under Tracy's maternity top...how does she do it?