Discovered our max time we can stay idle…

Our idleness this fall (or rainy season here in Manila) has been good for family bonding and exploring our new camera. So many buttons and the instruction book is VERY thick.  I have barely figured out how to turn the flash off. Ok, to be honest, I haven’t really figured that out yet. The weekends are full of us in our pajamas, doing very little. We like it that way! Maybe I should rephrase, I like it that way. Curt gets antsy and wants to get out. To his defense he spends all his hours either sleeping or working. He is awake for a time, but again, he’s still in this apartment.  I am out daily, trying to volunteer, lunch with friends and getting errands run. I managed to slow my life down and am able to spend more time at home, but that only seems to happen every 3rd week. Don’t get me wrong, 4 kids is still my dream, but it may just have to stay that, a dream. I can barely keep up and I have 2 domestic helpers and a driver. I know, if I just gave up lunch with friends a few days a week and mahjong and bridge and my Tours Chair position, I would have more time. BUT, then I wouldn’t be living in Manila and taking advantage of what it offers. Trust me, I have played and replayed the scenario. Balance is the key, but balance is elusive. Just when we think we have it, it slips through our fingers. Not to mention, my first-born, eldest by 7 yrs, self says that fairness is the way everything should be. So, be fair to each child, don’t slight the subsequent children and also…be educated enough to know that you need to be fair to yourself. I don’t have to fall into the “mom-only” archetype and I can be true to myself and have my own personality outside of my major role…oh, sometimes it’s all talk I tell you! Anyhow…balance comes and goes and the lesson I have learned more recently is that balance doesn’t have to exist day to day, it’s just a general term spread over time. No, this is not an attempt to justify my social life.

For instance, Aleah is struggling at school and I am focused so much on spreading my time between all the kids that I needed the epiphany my mom gave me when she said “Aleah needs you now, you have to shift.” She was right. I do feel like I am losing my time with the baby while I focus on Aleah, but right now the situation calls for it. So, before that ball drops, I got to run to it… I can’t believe I couldn’t see it myself, but I was born to see fariness in everything and find justice for those that can’t. Beats me how I couldn’t see the forest through the tress…life just blurs it all!

Onto our idleness…

This spring we traveled every other weekend, if not every other….we were NUTS! To balance this, I was reluctant to go down the block this summer on home leave. Finally, I had found my maximum for travel. Eight and a half weeks in the states and now close to 10 weeks in the Philippines and we haven’t gone so far as Batangas (for those not from Makati, it’s about a 3 hour drive from us) since we landed in August. Curt had the itch, but I kept dragging my feet. Craving routine and pj’s on Sunday…all day, I had no desire to go anywhere.

Well, it only takes the fear of the girls on a week long school break to spark my interest in traveling. Not traveling means entertaining all three kids and traveling is built in entertainment…we will travel! So keep your eyes peeled for our next blog entry that should be all about our time in Taipei. We have friends who have lived there, have visited there and some that currently live there. All of which should make our time there so much fun. Til next week!