The cartoon that IS my life right now

I purchased the right to use this cartoon in our company newsletter a while back, and have purchased others from the same cartoonist over the years of doing the personnel newsletters. We stopped doing those company newsletters several years ago, but I was looking through them one day and saw this cartoon. I think this cartoonist must be my long lost twin brother or something, because he hit the nail right on the head on how I feel about my life these days. He is truly a smart and talented man who does a lot of office and manufacturing-related humor.
I used to want to be a cartoonist when I was a young girl, but life has gotten in the way of the dreams of my youth, which included: Wanting to be a missionary-to never marry and have kids, but to adopt them and devote my life to helping spread the love of God and help curb hunger in the world....to be a skilled and avid guitar player...to play tennis professionally...to speak many languages fluently...to be an award winning author and poet, then there was the cartoonist thing...to open and manage a youth center for teens where there could be game playing and music and snacks, but a safe drug-free environment...and the list goes on. I had big dreams and now I've scaled them down to fit my life.
I have my own three kids and I am married, but I have helped raise several other children in our extended family that were not my own. I have one niece that is with us every weekend, so I think of her as a second daughter. I've mentioned in earlier posts that I am slowly trying to learn to play guitar and learn Spanish. I play tennis with my kids often in the warm months and we have a good time doing so. It's not an event covered worldwide, but it sure is a fun way to pass the afternoon.
I write this blog, I scrapbook and journal as I go and I jot my poetry on every napkin and loose scrap of paper in my car when inspiration hits. I doodle on my desk calendar, which is the extent of my cartooning. I have more teenagers in my 1 acre of land most evenings than I knew even lived in our little neighborhood. The only hunger I have accomplished curbing is that of my 8 year old, because my two teenagers never get full. One day when they're grown up and out on their own, the thought occurs to me that I'd still like to go on a mission trip. It's not a lifelong commitment, but it's not something I've ruled out.
So, that's how I've taken my childhood dreams and reassigned them new priority in my life. Sure beats not dreaming at all.