Perfect Storm

Every summer we have the makings of a perfect storm, and much like those poor souls in the movie, we see it coming and are powerless to stop the drowning that follows.  It begins like this.....  We live with no margin.  You know, margin. The space around your paper so that when as a kid you had to write a really big word like photosynthesis or ethnocentric, it didn't run completely off the page.  You know, margin.  The areas we leave along roads so if you have to swerve you don't immediately topple off the hillside.  You know,margin.  The space we should leave in our lives so when a child is up all night sick, or a friend invites you to lunch, or work is a little more demanding, you don't completely fall apart.  We have no margin.  We fill each day to the max and then some.  Then summer begins to show on the horizon.  Just seeing it come closer on the pages of the calendar sends us rushing to sign up for additional sports.  Spring/summer sports seasons always coincide with the end of the year activities like parties, and field trips and science fairs.  The air warms and we race to get in garden.  An activity we both love and hate as it takes considerable time and effort both in the field and the kitchen as the harvest begins.  The few free Saturdays that exist we feel guilted into getting to the lake.  Pack up, load up, sunscreen etc.  Imagine packing for vacation each and every time you go.  This has led to this summer where the lack of margin finally shoved the lake out almost completely.  We have not been since May and not made either of our weekends for the lake house.  Frustration!!!  School lets out so everyone is home.  No preschool or play dates etc.  Just the four kids and me with all The assorted demands to be entertained, fed three or more times a day, and all day mess making.  I carry Lucy way too much and for the second summer in a row develop serious pain.  I mean high end painkillers kind of pain.  I mean can a deacon's wife drink bourbon if it's for medicinal purposes pain. (I know,carry her less.  Someday I won't be able to, but until then I plan on helping her slide and jump and swim and everything else.  She is worth it.)
 And then the church summer hits.  Four weeks, usually back to back, of camp,VBS, cottage prayer meetings and revival.  Four good weeks.  Sometimes even great weeks, but exhausting is hardly the word.  Add a few travel days from Brian and even before it begins I am screaming "MERCY!"  I watch it coming.  I know when it is over or even just part way through, I will have had it.  My blood pressure will be up.  My pain will be up.  I will be threatening, as I did yesterday, to take a job as a hotel maid where I will at least be paid to do 20 loads of laundry in a week.  Brian and I will be struggling to have a conversation beyond pick up times and how much supper cost.  Three of the four kids will be mad at me, and one will say as we try to pick up supper while another is at cheer so we can eat before revival, "I want a new Mommy and Daddy.  Mine are too mean."  AHHHHHH!!!
There are rainbows after storms.... right?