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For the last few weeks, when people ask me how I am my standard line was “I can’t wait until football is over.”

I blame football for my burn-out. Really.

In my opinion, football is the most intense of youth sports. And with two sons playing, it’s 5 days a week and some Saturdays we can spend 6 to 7 hours at the ball field just to get all the games in. Long days, running back and forth, rushing to get homework, showers, dinner, etc.

My husband works a lot of evenings so I’m doing coordinating, driving, getting kids ready by myself most evenings.

And then there’s the conflicts. Since our kids are in Catholic school but play sports for the city, we don’t know a lot of families . . .so what to do when two (or three) kids need to be somewhere at once? Awkwardly asking for rides from people who barely know us, or trying to figure which practice, which game, which place to go with which kid . . .

Yeh, football season gets long. It got to me. So I started to always say, “I can’t wait until football is over.” And then I realized . .

I sounded like one of those moms.

You know the harried mom. The perpetually stressed mom. The mom you feel sorry for because she’s lost all perspective and everything just seems like a big hassle to her. That mom.

I thought, I must sound like I’m really unhappy with my life.

But I’m not. I’m just busy. And perhaps just looking for a little sympathy.

But that’s not who I want to sound like and it’s definitely not the way I want to be.

Am I busy? Yes.

Stressed-sometimes and burnt out-sometimes.

But being a stay-at-home mom to five beautiful kids is exactly where I want to be. And if the life and activities we choose to follow sometimes leads to stress, burn out and a few dropped balls, well, that’s okay. Or at least it will be once the pieces are picked backed up. We figure it out.

So I stopped saying it. Not to be dishonest about how I’m feeling but actually to be more honest. I’m happy with my life.

I’m not too busy to remember that.

So from now on, I’m not complaining.