Gettin' It All Done

I get asked fairly often..."How do you do it with 4 kids?"  Or I get the comment..."I don't see how you do it."
So I'd like to address that today.
Well, first off, ridiculously this song runs through my mind.  Oh, you know you know Montell Jordan's big 1995 hit single  "This is how we do it.  This is how we do it.  This is how we do it...it's Friday night...?" No?  I'm the only one?  Oh well.
No really. I'm not the first person to have 4 kids and there are lots of people out there with more than 4.  However, when I was asked that by a lady with 2 kids yesterday...this ran through my mind...me running from preschool to grocery shopping to a load of laundry to car inspection to washing dishes to preschool pickup to lunch to getting little ones to nap to sewing holes in 2 shirts to mopping the floor to homework to snacks back to car inspection to soccer to flag football to dinner/bath/bedtime routine to clean up/lunch packing to me trying to read before falling asleep at 11.  And that's just a rough outline.  There are lots of little things in between. Granted this day was a tad busier than the every day, but it is somewhat normal.  And I assume that once the little ones get a bit bigger and more involved in things it will only get busier.
So back to the big question, "How do you do it?"  My answer, "I don't."  This usually gets a "huh?" reaction. Then I explain...
I cannot do all things every day.  I cannot pull a Cam Newton and tear open my tank top and lo and behold there's a SuperMom "S" emblazoned on my supersuit.  Some days I can go grocery shopping and volunteer at the school, but cleaning doesn't get done.  Sometimes I can vacuum, dust, and fold laundry, but I don't play any games with the kids.  Often, much to my husband's dismay, the vacuum cleaner will sit in the same spot in the living room for days on end and the house will only be half-dusted.  Why?  Because I didn't finish vacuuming because it was nap time.  You can't vacuum during naps, and I can't go in at least 2 rooms to dust during nap time or I'll wake up the kids. Then the next day I don't feel like it or am doing something else.  The vacuum is abandoned in limbo until I return. Sometimes I am almost finished with something, but then it's time to go to dance or start dinner.  I have a pencil and paper calendar near the pantry that has everything written down.  I look at it probably 10 times a day.  I can't seem to transition to a phone...I need to see things large and well in advance.  I have a cork board with schedules and receipts and notices.  I also started carrying a little notebook in my pocketbook to help with to-do lists and spur of the moment thoughts that I need to address later.  We'll see how well that works out.
It's a give and take.  No day is perfect.  Well, I take that back.  They are as perfect as far as a perfect day with 4 kids is gonna get!  Some days are better than others, fo sho.  But, I think we've got it pretty good.  I've got good kids who are sometimes great, sometimes not, but always good!  I've got an awesome husband who helps out a lot.  I'm sometimes on the mom-thing like white on rice, but other times I'm more like stink on s**t  (rude, I know).  My husband and I are good parents who are sometimes great, sometimes not, but always good.
Bottom line:  How do I do it?  I do it the best I can.  I try to put the kids first.  I strive to put my husband first.  I too often put me first.  Second, is the cleaning, activities, extras, whatever.  So, I do it the best I can...whatever that means on each individual day.