I am a juggler. This evening I even confirmed that fact with my daughter. In response to my asking her if I can juggle, she replied, “Yes, Mom, you are the master juggler.” We are not talking about oranges, bowling pins, or balls. I have experience with none of those. What I am able to keep circulating without losing rhythm or casualties is even harder to manage. To toot my own horn, I will readily admit that I have become pretty astute at handling multiple crises at once. It’s a bit of triage mixed with flexibility and calmness that is key. My experience with four kids (three boys and a girl) trained me for this kind of maneuvering. Just as you do with balls, you can never take your eye off of a ball in the air, but need to tend to other balls consistently, keeping them within reach.

The challenges that came my way as a mother over the years always seemed to arrive one after the other, demanding my focus and discipline to stay strong and work on a solution. It could have been during one of our ten moving days with the chaos of packing and loading or just a Saturday morning in spring when unexpected stuff just happened. One son jumped on the bed and knocked his teeth through his upper gums, his brother needed to be escorted in a Memorial Day Parade with his baseball team, and I was 7 months pregnant and it was a hot humid day in Connecticut. I trudged along that mile long parade route with my three year old daughter on my hip. Those are just things I learned to do when faced with adversity.

The past seven days have tested my repetouir of juggling skills. The water leak that damaged the hardwood floors has caused some crazy intervention: obnoxiously loud fans and dehumidifiers with tubes and mats spaced around the floor, visits from different inspectors and then more extreme measures taken with tents pitched in the kitchen to dry/bake the soaked wood. Meanwhile two rambunctious aussiedoodle puppies are curious about the tubes and cords. They are also at the beginning of their puppy school and need some attention, love and practice. I am worn out. I’m not going to drop a ball, but this is a challenge. I think about what my daughter said, “ Mom, you are the master juggler.” I can do this, my family needs me to perform my magic. I got this.