Burning the candle at both ends and straight down the middle. . .

As a full-time working mother of two special needs children, I'm constantly in the middle of an SNK tug-o-war. If I advocate one child's needs, the other one suffers. I can multi-task with the best of them, but we all have our limits and I often reach mine.

Yesterday, I tried to write two checks at once, while talking to our daughter's therapist. I wrote the first check to the IRS for $20. Now that's wishful thinking. Good thing I caught myself before I wrote the therapist a check for $$$$$. She would have been thrilled, but the IRS would not.

Probably not a good idea to tick off the tax man when one is filling an extension, due to LACK OF TIME.

Today, instead of basking in the small joy of having the money to pay my taxes, I spent 4 hours home-schooling my child.

Okay so that's a slight exaggeration, since technically we were doing homework. However, my daughter is in a state-funded charter school and no one told me I would have to spend half of my free-time finding and printing out Internet research about the subjects she is studying and my remaining free time explaining the subjects to her.

Don't get me wrong, my daughter and I had a great time this week creating trading cards for her science project on the solar system. But I can't do everything.

So now it's late and instead of relaxing in my jetted tub, I'm venting.

I can't win for losing. I spent all of last week concentrating on my special needs son to the detriment of my special needs daughter. Tonight, I told my son he would have to wait for dinner, because I was in the middle of printing up his sister's Internet research.

I'm the only one in the house that can cook his eggsies, which is one of only two protein-based foods my son can and will eat. Food allergies + sensory issues = a veerrrryy limited diet!

It would be so easy to just throw in the towel and crawl under a rock and sometimes I do just that. Luckily tonight, I persevered. The homework got done, the project is finished and my son got his eggsies.

So tonight I will sleep soundly and wait until tomorrow to worry about how I'm going to get my work done, chaperon my son's lunch-time field trip, spend 4 more hours on my daughter's homework and get her to the soccer field for practice on time.

Nianya