Working mothers guilt

Life as a working mother of two little ones in school often leaves me feeling overwhelmed.  Juggling a full time job, cooking, cleaning, shopping, & having a life of my own, all while being present and engaged in my children's lives is not easy to do.

One of the things I've been struggling with lately, particularly now that I'm pregnant, is rationing my vacation and sick time.  B and I are already stretched pretty thin just dealing with the standard school holidays, school breaks and sick days.  Two kids in two schools with different holiday and break schedules doesn't make this any easier (a 2 week Christmas break, spring break (different weeks for both kids schools of course), winter break (at b2's school), etc).  While I love seeing my children in their end of the year celebrations, performances, and parties, I often fear that one of these events will be the proverbial straw.  Or... maybe it is just pregnancy hormones talking right now.  What do you think?

Below is our schedule for the last two weeks:

May 22 - b2 - Closed for parent teacher conference
May 25 - b1&2 - Closed for Memorial Day
May 28 - b1 - Sick
June 5 -   b1 - Sick (1/2 day)
June 10 - b2 - late night fundraising event for school
June 12 - b2 - end of year performance at 9:30am
                b1 - birthday cupcakes at school at 2:00pm
June 17 - b1 - school carnival at school, families invited (we are not attending)
June 18 - b1 - end of the year performance @11:30am.  School closing at 12:30
June 19 - b1 - school closing at 12:30
                b2 - midsommar celebration that family is invited to attend at 11:30 (not attending)

All I know is that I am soooo truly thankful to have a mother-in-law that comes and stays with us for 2-4 months a year to help with the children; a sister-in-law that helps with the children both in the U.S. and in Sweden; a mom that will fly here and work from my house so that she can help us out with school closings, school drop offs and pick ups; two local sisters who are always helping me when we need it; and a father and step mother that sometimes take the kids away on the weekends so that Benny and I can have some much needed time to ourselves.  We are a truly lucky family to have so many people that love us and our children and are here to support us!  I don't know how other families manage. I am truly grateful for how lucky we are!  It makes it easier to cope when I'm feeling like butter scraped over too much bread.