I am not supermom.

I would gladly take the "supermom" title but I just don't feel it is rightfully mine.

(If you haven't already done so, go read last weeks blog post before you dive into this.)

So, you are wondering how I "do it all?"

Let me tell you...

I freakin' don't.

Even with having 5 kids, a sexy husband, homeschooling, normal daily tasks, and running multiple businesses from home, I'm not that overwhelmed or "too busy."

Wanna know why and how?

Let me expand for you.

We do absolutely NO extracurricular activities. (And I don't feel my kids are worse off because of it.)

The kids get to do one 6 week sport in the summer (starting at about age 5 and its a morning session at that) and that is about it.

Currently, the kids are ages 8, 6, 4, 3, and 1.

We do this because we really cherish our at-home time. And if our weeks are spend running to 5 different events and activities constantly, our quality of life would just... well... suck. And so my husband and I made the decision that we wanted to create the culture of our home and how our family functions. Even though the world is shouting at me to put my baby in swim lessons. And my toddler in music class. And my 4 year old son in football. And my girls in dance class and musical lessons.

I'm not saying any of that is bad. It isn't. It's all wonderful. But I am saying NO to it. (For right now.) Because right now, family dinner EVERY SINGLE NIGHT is what is important to us. Spending evenings at home together when daddy gets home from work is what is meaningful to us. Family time and just "BEING" is what we most care about. We are building such an intricate foundation right now and this time is so fleeting.

We don't want to spend it in car rides to practices and eating supper on the go. We want to spend it intentionally at home. And I'm not going to feel guilty for not having my kids in every activity available to them.

Plus, I know that time will come. Where we are running to 27 different practices and events and so I'm just going to relish this time of "No."

I'm a people pleaser at heart so I always want to say "Yes" and most of my life, I did just that. And I ended up doing a lot of things I didn't want do to. I'm not saying you should never sacrifice or ONLY do things you want to do. There is such grace in giving of yourself, even when it's not directly benefiting you.

But I'm talking about being able to know the capacity of your life choices and not stretching yourself too thin so that you are overwhelmed and overworked.

There have been so many perks to our lifestyle of "No."

I can run errands when I need and it never feels like too much. We have a good amount of downtime in our days. We can pick up super fun spontaneous plans and say "YES" to unexpected surprises because we don't have a ton of other pre-planned commitments.

Living a life with less schedules and appointments makes for more adventures. We have time for more sponaeity because we aren't bogged down with all the things we HAVE to do and instead have room for randomness and more YES'S. We have the opportunity to spend ALL WEEK at home or making surprise trips and outings.

Hate me if you want because it wouldn't be the first time I received crap about it, but I don't even have constant doctor appointments I have to drag the kids to. My oldest daughter has been to the doctors once for stitches and otherwise, we only go if we absolutely need to but we are pretty much always healthy (must be because we are home so much, HA!) But really, it's so freeing that we don't have constant appointments to head to.

Although I have tried it before, we don't even have a homeschool co-op we are a part of. We do have a great community within our church and that allows for our children to be socialized. Plus the fun playdates and events we do choose to attend as a family make it so that my kids don't become the "weird homeschool kids."

I know this season of life will not last forever.

I know that my kids will get older and really become passionate about sports, hobbies and dreams in life and I want to support that. If that means driving them to each practice and event, I will do that.

To what extent, I'm not sure yet. We will see when we get there. I'm not sure if I will ever want to sacrifice family dinner, sunday morning church or family events for the sake of an activity. I'm all about living for today and so if this is the last day I get to spend on earth, I think about how I want to spend it.

And so to be honest, I would be a freakin' mess if I had my schedule jam-packed with driving the kids to and fro. I'd be a HOT MESS. I know that I wouldn't enjoy life and I would be STRESSED. So, we don't do all the extras. We say no more often then not. And we say yes to what we have capacity for. (And that has been a real learning process for me.)

So there you have it. The reason I can "do it all" is because I don't do much at all. ;)

Phot Cred: Ashley Baker and Melissa LeeAnn.