Taking care of the kids, while trying to maintain a blog and come up with the occasional freelance article, is always a challenge. I never have enough child care. Ian’s special ed activities always involve lots of driving. Jonah’s soccer schedule is never simple. But this past few weeks have been a blur. I haven’t had enough time to read the twitterfeed or the major articles of the week, nevermind writing my own stuff.

I have three articles half written in my brain that need to be spewed into a Word document. Pitch letters need to be written. They are all parenting articles, because the parenting responsibilities have been monumental lately. No chance to read up on the latest education or policy research.

I want to write a long rant about suburban sports. Jonah and his cousin were completely humiliated by their experiences trying out for the high school soccer team. Jonah will be haunted for years by the public weighing of the boys. He gained six pounds and two inches, since his last doctor’s check up in June, but he just wasn’t big enough for the team. For a kid who spends all of his freetime following European soccer leagues and playing FIFA soccer on the XBox, there will be a big void in his life this fall.

I forced him to go to the cross country team’s workout this morning. I think it will help him get over the disappointment. I think he’ll be good at it. But right now, he’s not in the mood to be flexible. I dropped off a depressed kid at the corner near the high school this morning. I never forced him to do an activity before. I hope that I’m not scarring him for life. (UPDATE: He LOVED it. Whew!)

Ian is having his first real camp experience this summer. It’s a camp just for kids on the autistic spectrum, so there’s lots of good people and support for him. They do typical camp stuff, like swimming and art and music. He’s in the car waiting for me to drive him every morning. However, the camp isn’t nearby. The camp is five hours long, and my mom and I spend 3-1/2 hours driving him back and forth every day.

So, between driving Jonah to soccer tryouts twice a day and the driving to Ian’s camp and a visit from the in-laws and an extended family (17 people!) party on Sunday, writing and blogging were unthinkable. I haven’t been able to even return phone calls from my BFFs.

This week should be slightly better, but I won’t get a solid block of writing time until school starts on September 9th. I am itchy to get back to work.