Hello friends! Welcome to my football newsletter! Just kidding, sort of. Between Charlie playing and Izzy cheering, football is life at the moment. Thanks for coming along for the ride…
Summer has ended and a new school year started. We have two in high school now and it’s going by way too fast. Teen driving, dating, sports, and school dances…never a moment at home. It’s a fast moving train and I want everything to just slow down.
I’m the morning alarm clock and the maker of lunches; a last minute study partner and the finder of chargers. I’m the number one fan in the stands at football and baseball games. I am the uber driver, listening for tidbits of information on the way to swim practices and sleepovers.
Parenting teens is more than a full time job. This phase of my children’s lives feels more all-consuming than the constant care of infants and toddlers, or the over-scheduled hoopla of elementary school. My presence now is less wanted but more needed.
So when do I get the writing done? The early high school start time throws a wrench in my morning routine and I haven’t found a solution. I work full time. I exercise daily. I squeeze in twenty minutes here and there for writing. I try to block off a few solid hours during the week. I wish it was more. I need it to be more.
I said I would begin querying this memoir after the summer, and because there will always, always, always be a reason that I’m not quite ready…I’m going to do it. I am sticking to my plan because I need to move past this revision stage and stop fearing this next part…but I’m also not in a hurry for hurry’s sake. I want to do this right.
So stay tuned, my friends. It’s happening. I’m going to do the hard thing, the thing that scares me. Because I only have this one life, and I fear regret more than I fear failure.
We all have a million things pulling at us, life itself distracting us with heavy news and chaos. People who need us and ask more and more from us.
Tell me, how do you make time for your big dreams?
And because fall is just another season and this question is evergreen. Mary Oliver puts it best.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
—Mary Oliver
Football and family have my heart.
Oh, I understand so well. Yes, these teens need us and how wonderful you can be there for them (AND find time for your writing). Such a short, but significant time of life. Enjoy every second. I LOVED watching my children compete...this fall feels bittersweet with no one playing soccer after a good twenty years...ah well. And keep writing, however slow it feels. The 1% is what makes it all happen!