She still had her eyes on all the balls, knew where to connect her hands to each one to keep it afloat.

One was her family. She kissed and hugged, helped with homework, shared her day, but the house was falling into disarray and her bed seemed farther away each night.

Then there was work. She took calls, mediated, did her share of disciplining, praised, delegated, and monitored. She typed, filed, walked, played, and read, but keeping all the ducks in a row was not easy.

One ball was for homework. There was a lot of reading, assignment turning in, note taking, planning, and second guessing and editing. Could she really keep it up?

There were occasional surprise balls, too. The phone calls, the notes from her sons’ teachers, the runny noses and even issues at work. Sometimes they threw off the trajectory of the balls already in flight, shifting her focus to deal with the newcomer until she could be rid of it and resume her normal feverish rhythm and cycle.

Her arms began to tire.