Date Night at the Concession Stand: 3 Tips for SURVIVING & ENJOYING the Month of May!

Can anyone else believe how fast time is flying? May is officially here! Curious how to enjoy May and possibly survive? Keep reading to see my easy 3 tips to enjoy May like a pro!

 

I have a very serious question!  Have you ever been asked out to dinner at the Concession Stand? 😳🤗  Because, GUESS WHAT?!?  I was FOUR times last week… 😭…Yep, You read that right!  On Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, my hot date of almost 18 years, aka the Ex-Little League Coach (not sure whether he resigned or got fired?) –took me to yet another baseball game and to the concession stand for dinner! Like- can’t he see this is really getting old?!?   Saddest part was when we showed up for Monday’s date, the concession stand was actually closed! For real???  I was actually craving those cheese sticks.  It took a while for me to process the whole thing… I was actually disappointed! 🙃 But five minutes later, I realized that the stand wasn’t open because it was MY turn to open it… and work in it for the entire evening..and close it after the game. 😂 My dreams of a romantic evening with fine dining began to quickly fade.  Can I say #dategoals or #marriagegoals?   #theconcessionstandstolemybrain #andmyhealth #andmysanity #andallmymoney  Geesh!  How is the concession stand such a thief???

Baseball season is now in full swing! (no pun intended)  It’s the month of May my dear friends, and the good news is…DRUM ROLL PLEASE… It’s more than half way over!  The end is near folks!  It really is!  By now, the enormous loads of school papers are stacking on the kitchen counters, the kitchen table, the floor.  Heck– I even found a stack in the bathroom.  Someone tell me why my kid would think it was okay to empty a book bag in a bathroom? And the bigger question that remains is… what is actually in all of those stacks of papers?  I have no clue, and I probably won’t for a few weeks, and odds are– if I see the school number coming up on my caller id, I just won’t pick up the phone.   It’s wacky here.  Update: Since I didn’t answer the phone, my daughter came home with copies of 5 papers I never signed.  I guess you can say I’m winning. LOL.

The baseball games are endless (not to mention the mental stress of whether or not the game will even happen because of rain), the laundry is now officially out of control (insert here- uniforms covered in mud from attempting to play game in the rain only to find it’s rescheduled for tomorrow), and all of the other events that mark that culmination of a wonderful year that I can’t keep straight – concerts, graduations, and recitals.  And let’s not forget all the special days at school!  My brain is swirling.  My mind is whirling.  I’m now struggling to actually complete sentences.  And yesterday when confirming a dentist appointment, my speech actually started to slur.  I’m not kidding.  May is NOT a joke.  (Add in starting a blog and being knee deep in building a custom home and I’m not sure WHERE I am or WHO I am at this point?)

But we WILL get there.  How do I know we will?  Because we are over half way there and chances are… if we survived the first half of the month, we will also survive the second.  Oh, and did I mention?  Hope springs eternal!  The glorious days of summer will soon be here!  These are the days when we will get caught up on all that organization we put off all month!  Our housework will be complete.  Ha.  I have big plans of washing my windows, cleaning my stainless steel cookware (that hasn’t been done in 10 years), and scrubbing tile grout with a toothbrush!  Those beautiful summer days are quickly approaching!  Let’s envision it….we will wake up, peacefully drink our morning coffee without worrying about getting our kids off to school.  I can just imagine it…My kids will awake shortly after at 10 AM,  make their own breakfast, and then without being asked, will go outside to play peacefully in the backyard with one another (while never complaining of boredom or hunger).  They will then come inside and watch only ONE YouTube video, determine that they have had enough electronic devices for the day and will come to ask me what they can do to help out around the house. 😳🤪😭   It’s coming!  It’s coming fast!  But before it comes… It’s OH SO CLOSE…  I must share My Top 3 tips for Surviving May!

 3 TIPS TO ENJOY MAY (AND EVEN SURVIVE IT)!

Just Embrace it! DUH!  

By definition, embrace means “to welcome it with open arms, hold, hug, accept completely” –I know.  Doesn’t this sound SO cheesy?!  I know the pictures in this post might make it appear otherwise, but there is no-one I really want to hug right now and one of my love languages is physical touch.  I just can’t understand why my husband has been trying to touch my butt since May 1st and is asking to cuddle at midnight. 🤔  Like– doesn’t he realize there are 11 other months in the year… RECOGNIZE?!  These times are utterly insane and OH SO HARD!  But reality is– We have no other choice but to embrace them.  I know we are told over and over again to just embrace the chaos, but when you actually TRY to apply that statement to your life-  it is a game changer.  It suddenly turns MAY from chaos to MAGIC.   Isn’t that unbelievable??? Nothing that is happening in the month of May is in your control, so you have NO choice but to accept it completely.

Leave your mom guilt at the front door!  (with the dirty and wet baseball spikes…)

This is not the time to be hard on yourself.  This is not the time to lay in bed and admit defeat.  You are doing great!   You are doing wonderful!   You are doing your BEST!   The other day I had a friend tell me that the only thing we can do is “just do our best.” We don’t have to strive for perfection. Why?  Because we aren’t perfect and we aren’t called to be!  You don’t have to feel guilty about miniscule things that don’t really matter!  Most of our MAY problems – they are FIRST WORLD problems… which means, they ARE NOT REALLY PROBLEMS AT ALL.  Concession stand dinners and cereal suppers… these are okay!  Truth be told — so are frozen pizzas and spaghetti O’s.  And oh my word – how did it take me so long to realize this?  As a recovering organic, home cooked meal mom, I can’t believe I didn’t try these shortcuts sooner.  If I can learn how to drop the mom guilt, so can you.   Your kids will be fine.  They really will be.  The only thing they will probably remember about the month of May is that you were at the game.

The grass probably WON’T be greener in June!

I looked outside at our grass yesterday.   You know- the grass that our neighbors are looking at out their window, watching grow by millimeters each minute…as they are JUST hoping by tomorrow we will have our act together (or that our son’s baseball game will be cancelled due to rain) so we will be able to cut it. HA!
But really– I looked outside and noticed how green our grass was!  Over the past few years, I’ve tried to become more intentional with paying attention to my outside surroundings.   When I starting doing this,  I realized I found out why spring is actually an amazing time of year!  Spring… insert rainbows and butterflies and warm fuzzy feelings.  Everything around us starts turning so green.  I also love that spring brings new life.  Leaf buds on trees, crocuses poking through the ground,  peepers peeping, baby birds chirping…. Okay- I know I’m getting super annoying now!

Back to the grass though.  I noticed the grass was green.  And you know what…that grass is probably going to be the SAME shade of green in JUNE!    The grass is NOT greener friends.  This is why we must look at all angles of our life and just try our best to be happy in the moment.  I know I was sarcastic earlier about waiting for summer to come…  but when summer comes we will have a different set of challenges to face than we did in May… Among them–beating summer boredom, finding a way to disable FORT NITE, keeping our kids active, and wondering how our kids were able to sit through school without demanding a full course meal every five minutes.  I absolutely love summer.  I love my kids being off school and not having to do the “grind.”   But come September, I will probably be ready for the structure, discipline, and crazy schedule of school again.  The seasons of the year are just like the seasons of raising kids– each have their own challenges.   This is why we must try our best to just try to enjoy the PRESENT… not reflecting on April….not looking ahead to June or September.  But actually enjoying MAY!  Let’s just do our best to not just SURVIVE MAY, but ENJOY MAY!  We can do this!

Okay- And now I must follow my own advice.  I must go back and not only read my three tips again, but I now must intentionally try to live by them.  JUST A few more days people!!!  Hang in there!  As always, feel free to reach out for support.  I’m your friend and I’m your pal.  But there is one thing I am NOT.  And that is SUPERWOMAN!

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