Spinning Plates

My partner in crime used an analogy this week to which I could instantly relate.  He spoke of plates spinning on sticks, and trying to balance them all.  My plates are the fellas, supporting the love of my life as he builds a business of his own, being a good Mum and Stepmum, writing, my career, and working out.  The plates are all ones I want to balance and sometimes that act is filled with empowering adrenalin and at other times with stress, guilt and feelings of failure.  

Sometimes the plates seem to grow from saucers to dinner platters and spin out of control and at others they whirl in synch making a harmonious humming sound that is pleasing to the ear.  This week has been a typical week in our lives, filled with fun and activity and people needing to be in different places at different times.  It has been a week of balancing spinning plates and trying not to let any fall.  On Monday we let everyone settle back into their routine having returned to school for a couple of days the previous week.  The plates are spinning at a medium pace and nothing looks like it is ready to topple.  

On Tuesday we did a little divide and conquer with one parent heading with one boy to soccer sign up and one with the other three fellas to shop for jeans.  I learned that the only acceptable jean color for one is black, the only acceptable style for another is skinny, and that the other is very easy to work with and therefore he was the only one that found acceptable jeans that evening!  The plates are spinning but wobbling a little bit too because one boy has two pairs of jeans to make it through the entire week; this means more laundry, another plate on another stick.  

On Wednesday our teenager called to say that his finger had been jammed in his locker.  My immediate reaction was that this was a big plate on a very thin stick ready to launch into mid-air.  Thankfully, he seemed to be calling more because the school had asked him to than because he was in dire distress.  I spoke to the school nurse who suggested I might want to come and take a look at the fingernail just in case.  I headed out the door with another boy in tow, performed a school drop off and headed to the other school.  The fingernail was not a pretty sight but fortunately not swollen.  We agreed he would tough it out and I returned to the car to head to work.  I arrived thirty minutes after my intended arrival time.  No plates had fallen although a couple had started to slip.  After school we headed out for haircuts something we had planned for that week so we were healthily on track.  The plates slowed down a little as I sat peacefully waiting for handsome shorn boys to reappear and I started to consider what I might write about this week.  My theory is that if I write at least once a week I will develop a habit I can grow, otherwise, the plate that falls and shatters is my writing plate.  Thinking about it in retrospect, Wednesday was a good plate day because we even made a trip to the gym in the evening.  

On Thursday I worked from home for half the day and took the other half off because we had a couple of appointments.  One was to send off passport applications which is quite an undertaking between American and British birth certificates and a Green card.  The plates are spinning at a fast pace prior to arrival at the Post Office, breakneck speed when I see the length of the line, and then slower when we realize that there is no-one in the line for passport applications.  The Post Office is a plate all of its own and I do not think that requires any explanation.  We make it in and out in 35 minutes which I consider to be a tremendous success.

On Friday I felt like I erased several tasks from my list at work which made that plate spin in a perfectly balanced fashion.  I really like it when that happens.  I came home at a reasonable time and all the fellas were interested in skating so we took four happy campers, plus friends, fed them all and let them tire at the skating rink.  The somewhat lame adults stationed themselves in a booth with their laptops and worked on designs and websites.  Although we sat hip to hip, we couldn’t hear each other over the loud music but worked away harmoniously side by side.  We had made it through another week without shattering any plates!  A fruitful week at work, happy fellas, working alongside my partner, and jotting down an idea that matured into this -  that is the ultimate plate balancing act!