Ten Reasons I Am Not Blogging Right Now

Updated! I forgot the most important reason. See 1a below.

10. Soccer. Three kids on three different soccer teams, my husband coaches one team and we're team managers of another. All soccer, all the time.

9. My kitchen. My new kitchen has helped me discover my love of cooking. Some things I've made lately: Irish stew and homemade rosemary focaccia, brussels sprouts three ways, tortilla soup, homemade quiche, BLT pasta , Thai curry vegetables, skillet lasagna and lots and lots of stuff from here like this, this, this and these. So yes, I am enjoying my new kitchen. A lot.

8. School. All three of my children are in elementary school. Which is great, but this means that I thought I would have tons of time to volunteer and so I said yes to pretty much everyone who asked me to volunteer for something. It's all stuff I enjoy, but my gosh some of these moms can keep a meeting going on for a really long time. I also like to volunteer in my kid's classrooms. Three separate classrooms. I have these little chunks of time spread out across the week doing various things in the classroom. It really cuts into the flow of my day, but I like getting to know the other kids taking a small peek at what how my kids behave at school.

7. Laundry. I've talked before about my relationship with my laundry. When we remodeled our house, I decided to move my washing machine and dryer upstairs. It makes perfect sense. The clothes are upstairs, so no more hauling the laundry basket up and down the stairs. Brilliant.

Having the machines upstairs has had zero effect on my ability to actually get it all folded and put away. I spend most of my day downstairs while the laundry just piles up on the second level. I like to watch TV while I fold or do it while my kids are working on homework. The only TV in our house is on the first floor and my kids do their homework at the kitchen table. So guess what? Now I haul the laundry basket down the stairs to fold it in the family room, then haul it all back upstairs to put it away. Laundry: 5,942. Me: 0.

6. America's Next Top Model. I have never seen an episode of this show until recently. Have you seen this show? When I am at home by myself during the day I rarely turn the TV on. I'd much rather turn on some music or listen to NPR than have the TV on. Having the TV on makes me feel lazy and like I should be on on the couch eating bon bons.

But one day I decided I'd watch a cooking show while I folded some laundry (see number 7). My choices on the Food Network were Semi-Homemade (does anyone really watch her?? why does she have a show??) or 30-Minute Meals (eh, not my thing). So I switched over to Bravo and oh my stars there was a marathon of ANTM. I was completely sucked in. The next thing I knew I was two minutes late to pick up my kids.

This went on for a few days I'm ashamed to admit. I would tell myself just one episode while eating some cereal. And again, I'd end up late to pick up the kids. Then one day I sat down and instead of Tyra and the crew, it was Millionaire Matchmaker which did not hold my interest at all. Now I just avoid the TV all together during the day.

5. Words With Friends. No explanation necessary.

4. Jet Lag. Can I still claim jet lag even though I've been back from Europe for 2.5 months?

3. Stuff Management. Ballet, Tae Kwon Do, Girl's Chorus, Soccer (x3), Jazz Dance. These are all the after school activities my kids are involved with at the moment. It's all well and good, but it means I do a lot of running around between 3pm and 6pm. It also means I spend the last half hour before school pick up setting out the proper clothes/shoes/hair accessories, planning or packing snacks to eat on the go and making sure I have something for the child or children who will be sitting the car or waiting room while their sibling does plies, practices round kicks, hits a high note, shoots a goal or does their best jazz hands. It's a lot of stuff to manage.

2. Restoring Order. Each day after I drop the kids off at school, my kitchen looks a little something like this:

It takes a lot of effort to get it back to this:

No matter how many times my phone chimes that it's my turn on Words With Friends, I really can't get anything else done until order is restored and the floor is vacuumed.

Sometimes I don't really know why I bother though, because the island and the counters seem to collect crap about 10 minutes after the rest of family is home.

But for at least a few hours a day, all is right with my world.

1. Angry Birds. Halloween version, level 3-9.

1a. Laughter. Having conversations with bloggers over wine and good food is sometimes much more fun than having conversations online. I love these ladies.

Mosey Along, Issa, Liz, me, and the lovely Jill.

p.s. I'm Norwindian on WWF.