Where does the time go?

I have about 15 different blog posts in my head, and can't find the time to organize my thoughts and get them translated to cyberspace. We are nearly 10 weeks done with school, my babies are all another year older, holidays are right around the corner and I do not feel a single bit more organized and settled than I did a year ago.

There has to be a better way. We chose homeschooling so we could experience life as a family. See our children achieve important milestones in their lives and shape their morals and civic outlooks ourselves. And to a large degree I feel we are successfully doing those things. But some days I wonder how much of "the other stuff" we really need to do. The field trips, the play dates the classes.... what is the right balance? Obviously kids need to explore their interests and abilities. But in all of the running around are we losing their need to just be?

Each year we go from one extreme to another and I have yet to find the right balance. We try to limit the kids to one extra curricular activity at a time. But then you start adding in all the educational field trips and the next thing you know you have no time for schoolwork.

We have had some fantatic field trip opportunities this fall, and I feel blessed to live here. But someday, somehow, I hope to learn balance.