Sports Overload

Once upon a time, it felt like there weren't enough sports in the world for Jacob.  He loved every sport and couldn't get enough.  He constantly had a stick, bat, or ball in his hand, and he'd play every chance he got.  Our living room has been a hockey rink, lacrosse field, football field, soccer field, and even a basketball court.  But lately, it seems we've hit our limit.

Jacob is currently playing for three lacrosse teams - his FCA travel team, his Greece Storm house team, and his team in the Knighthawks box league.  As much as we've enjoyed box, I'm not going to lie--we're all looking forward to that finishing up this Monday.  It's 40 minutes from home, and it definitely starts our week off a little hectic.  We don't get home until a little before 8pm, and usually one person or another still needs to eat dinner.  In addition, Craig usually has to stay for two more games after Jacob's, so he's getting home late, generally right after we've rushed through dinner and moved directly into bedtime.  Tuesday is Storm practice, which is done by 7 but still makes our evenings a little nuts.  We've had crazy Tuesdays lately, too, from Jacob's equipment accidentally being left in my trunk twice, to Craig having work events that night.  That's usually my grocery shopping night, too, so when that doesn't happen, another night is going to get thrown off.  Jacob's Storm games are on Fridays, which either means we rush through dinner early or eat late.  Sunday is his FCA practice, which is for two hours from 5-7.  And Craig's been working the last couple weekends, so it's made for a long couple hours to kill with Carter, plus 20ish minutes there and back, meaning dinner is once again a mess.  Our schedule has been intolerably crazy, and it's really starting to wear on all of us.  Jacob's also been frustrated because neither team actively playing games right now is winning, and FCA is just months of practice for only two tournaments in the spring.

Everything takes a break after this week, and while we lose the box league for good, in January we start basketball, which will include one night of practice and one game.  So, that's potentially five out of seven days that will include sports.  None of them are ideal to quit, but it's just too much.  Add in Craig's crazy schedule and the fact that Carter's been asking to do karate for months, and I just find myself at a loss.  Jacob is none too thrilled either, but he's been so excited about basketball that now he's talking about wanting to drop the Storm.  I'm guessing they're first on the list because they're pretty awful this season, but I think that would hurt his FCA skills a bit, and we've already struggled enough there.  But we may not have a choice.  Jacob says he's exhausted, and I feel like I'm stretched too thin with everything else--I haven't worked out in weeks and I'm totally off whatever moderately functional dinner groove I was in.  I can't seem to coordinate buying ingredients with when I actually have time to make things, and even the instant pot can't seem to save anything.  And that's not even counting the nights I'm alone with the boys and shouldn't bother making anything fancy.  But when we have too many nights like that, I start running out of options fast!  We have so few choices to eat out, and who wants to eat that crap at 8pm anyway?  And yes, it seems like most nights we've been eating closer to 8pm.  Not good.  We're just sort of one big mess.

Maybe it's not fair to make this claim now.  After all, it's Christmas, which means we're incredibly busy anyway and therefore I'm extra sensitive to lost time.  At every moment I'm trying to figure out how I can get another gift or use my time more wisely to make sure everything gets done.  Last Sunday when Jacob had FCA practice, at the last second I grabbed an item I had to return to Target because there was one down the road from practice.  We killed about an hour there between the long return line and doing a little more browsing.  The second hour was spent in front of my laptop while Carter played games on the tablet.  I spent the entire time online shopping on no less than three sites.  I placed orders on all three, but it seemed like I barely made a dent.  There's just too much to do right now, and we have big plans this weekend so our shopping time is limited.  Christmas is going to be here before we know it.  I can't believe how quickly time is passing, but I guess when we're just surviving a week full of sports, one day at a time, that's bound to happen.

I'm not sure what the answer is right now.  Maybe we just need to get past the holidays and see if it's any better.  Four or five nights a week is pretty significant and I'm not sure how long we can sustain it.  The question is who will crack first--us or Jacob?  I'd never have thought that sports would be such a sore spot for us, but here we are.  Only time will tell, I guess...