What to do? And School is back on, YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, it has been a big weight off my shoulders to decide on doing IMLP this year. Now, its figuring out all my other races for the season. As a mom of 4, trying to organize my kids school and activities and trying to fit in all the training is an ordeal, and it takes up time, however, I like to race and you need to race to keep sharp, so the questions are:

1. Do you just do local races so you don't have to travel and be away from the family too long?
2. How frequently should you race given that it takes away the whole day typically and that doesn't bode well with the hubby.
3. Signing up for races is a big deal now because you can't just wait these races close out fast so you need to really figure out your schedule now, it can be financially expensive, especially if you have to back out and usually you don't get back your money. If you do, you don't get back the full amount.

So I am sitting here scrolling through all the races, where they are located, how long it would take to travel, cost, time away from family, etc.... I really try to be considerate to my husband and my kids and I want to spend time with them so the logistics are really important. It's also important that I'm doing the right races for me and for my prep for IMLP. I don't want to waste my time and spend time away from my kids/hubby for a "junk" race. So picking races for me isn't so easy, its actually pretty brutal.

The tentative races I have down on paper right now are( revamped from a few months ago) but nothing is set in stone except for IMLP:

a1. Harpoon Indoor time trial Jan 30th, 2010
a. Wrentham duathlon 4/18
b. Sudbury sprint 5/9
c. Harriman 1/2 ironman in NY 5/16
d. IMLP camp June 5-7th
e. B2B 148 mile bike race on 6/19 or The Patriot 1/2 ironman on 6/20/10
f. The Black fly trifecta July9-10-11 ( TT, Olympic and sprint combined) or The original Pow Wow sprint tri which is now the "Dam" sprint triathlon on July 10th, or the Old colony Olympic triathlon same weekend.
g. IMLP july 25th -gone for 5 days
h. August- ? races, recovery
i. September- ? Syracuse 70.3 on 9/19/10 or Pumpkinman 1/2 ironman 9/12/10
j. Duxbury sprint tri at the end of september

Now this doesn't include any of my training on the weekends and any road races that I may have to do to tune up for my "A" races. so you can see how this is hard when it comes to being a mom and trying to figure it all out. This is very stressful to me but hopefully I'll get it all worked out in a few days. coach will have to help.

With regards to my kids, they go back to school tomorrow, woo hoo. I love them but its time. since my kids get up at such an insane time in the morning ( 5;10am) by 9 or 10am they are bored, they want to kill each other and mommy has run out of ideas. It's crazy, they love each other and at the same time they want to kill each other. I look forward to structure again in my life. No more working out at 8pm or 4am for now, back to my routine. Lets just hope for health, no sickness.