How do you do it?

I get this a lot. From family, from strangers, from sympathetic moms with less than four children who are weighing what they assume my day is like based on their own daily grind. The truth is, I don't do it. Nothing is ever done. At no one single time is everyone happy with my performance. The house can always use cleaning. The laundry is never done. Dinner sucks quite often. Hmmm....when have I last showered? Damn, we have no milk. Shit. I squeak by most days. If you live here surely you notice. If you see us on the street and everyone is clothed, walking with some semblance of order and not yelling I can see how you would think that I am doing it. Doing the mom thing, the wifey thing, the work thing, the friend thing- some or all of the above. 

I am trying. I am tired. I don't clock in for 60 hour work weeks but my job never ends. No days off. No "do what I want" moments. I am not doing it. That's how I "do it" if you really want to know. I fail every day. But when my head hits the pillow I know I tried. I hope when my kids are big they can appreciate the effort.