Tara’s Takes
Since the news broke of Per and I purchasing three additional papers, the number one question I get is, “Aren’t you already busy enough?”
The simple answer is yes. The more complex answer is, if you want something to get done, ask the busiest person.
No, I’m not the busiest person. Every single person is usually stretched a million different directions. We just have different areas of our life that pull us. Mine happens to be more public.
Yes, there are days in the last two plus months I’ve wanted to pull my hair out. There are also many, many moments that I am so glad we accepted this challenge and jumped in with both feet.
I’ve learned so much about the communities we cover and have met so many amazing people. I am on the road a lot more and sleeping a lot less. But I can make up for that later.
I often get asked, “How do you have any time?” We all have the same 24 hours in a day. I just handle mine differently. I cannot tell you the last TV show I’ve watched for more than 10 minutes. Much to Per’s disappointment, I very rarely watch TV. It’s usually more like background noise.
It’s not for a lack of trying on Per’s part. He has recommended more documentaries than I can count and I’d probably enjoy them all. I just don’t prioritize watching it. Natalie watches “The Rookie” every week like it’s her job. She tells me about it because she loves the show but I’ve maybe seen five, minutes.
I do, however, make time for board games. This week Brady is home on spring break. We started the week with a very intense rockpaper- scissors decision as to what game we’d play. Brady won and we started with Scrabble. Brady won of course. After that we moved on to Banana-grams. It’s a fun, fast-paced game that allows my kids to show me how much smarter they are than I. I work with words every day, but put a bunch of tiles in front of me and I can’t seem to spell anything past three letters.
Monday night brought a round of the game of life. It was an All-American evening. We had Casey’s pizza for supper while team USA in the World Baseball Classic played in the background and competed in an exciting game of Life. This game of life always seems much calmer than real life.
Last night, Clue was the game of choice. I don’t think I have ever won the game against my kids. I also know that even if they have figured things out, half the time they are just moving each other's pieces to a dierent room just to make them mad. Ben was the champion that night. But it didn't come before several accusations of cheating and everyone building a wall around their list of suspects, rooms and weapons so you couldn't see what someone else had figured out. Wednesday is delivery day for me so it will have to be a quick game. I don't know if we'll get a nightly game in every day until Brady heads back to college for the semester, but it's a welcome break to the chaos. Yes, life is busy. Life is chaotic, Life is crazy. But it's also wonderful, full of laughs, trying to one up each other in games and a few stolen moments around the folding table drug into the living room.
No matter how busy life is, I'll always have time for board games.
