I'll Help You if You'll Help Me

              I often think about the saying, "it takes a village". Do you ever feel overwhelmed and as if the kids are running the whole show? Four kids in four different activities scattered throughout the valley, hours of homework of my own as well as the homework of the all kids, house to maintain, mouths to feed, a day job, and a calling all add up really quick. If we take a 24-hour day and subtract our six hours of sleep, because lets face it, we would love to actually get eight hours but know that's not happening, we would be left with 18 hours in the day. At first glance, that may seem like enough. Let's break it down a bit. We need about eight hours for work, two hours for meal prep and clean up, two hours for household duties, four hours for personal school work, at least one hour for helping kids with homework, and one hour of driving to and from all extracurriculars. As you can see, we are already at our 18 hours in the day and we haven't even included the most important thing yet, family scripture study and prayers. This is the best case scenario; this is if everything goes as planned. We all know that is rarely the case. Usually there is a missing cleat, tears over spelling words, laundry the equivalent of a mountain, and so on. The other day, I had a friend text, "Hey, I'm at Costco. Do you need anything?" Yes! Suddenly, my friend was promoted to "best friend", and I had hope that I could actually accomplish everything that needed to be done that day. It is so simple. Set up carpools, pick up those few items for a friend since you're already at the store, share tips, and cheer each other on because it really does take a village.