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Monday, April 19, 2010

The Irony of (no) Time Management

I love my weekends.  Well, I love the idea of a weekend, anyway.  I imagine Saturdays spent with my 7 yr old at the wonderful park across the street: me with a riveting novel, he playing with his friends on the playground.  I imagine Sunday afternoons much like those of my childhood-coming home after church, eating "dinner" and then relaxing, maybe even napping before heading back for evening services.
Of course, all this depends on the imaginary upkeep of my house during the week, allowing for the leisure time.

The reality is that I have a 9-5 M-F with about a 45 minute commute each way.  My husband delivers newspapers from 2:30 a.m. until 7 and then gets the boy off to school.  Then naps.  Then does all the errands that I can't get to from work.  Like some men, my husband-God bless him-does not see the things that need to be done in the house like I do.
About 3 weeks ago I scored a gorgeous large(r) dresser for my husband. (FOR FREE!)  He'd been using a small-ish one, and he has a lot of clothes.  Which means that we had piles of his clothes here, there, everywhere in our room.  This new (to us) dresser sat in the middle of our living room for 3 weeks, making it difficult to keep the room neat, let alone clean.
So my teensy goal for myself this weekend was to simply switch out his dressers and get the living room vacuumed.  That is all.  Win.  And I even got some laundry done, and some papers sorted/discarded.  My house is still a hot mess, but I feel good about accomplishing my goals.  Because I was able to do it despite our weekend schedule looking like this:
Friday night Cub Scout Pack meeting @ 7 pm (I get home from work at 6:15)
Saturday morning deliver my husband's second paper route (he likes to be at my son's soccer games, and needs to catch a little sleep)
Saturday morning Soccer Pictures @ 8:15
Saturday morning Soccer @ 9
Saturday afternoon schlep son to Grandma's
Saturday evening pick son up
Prepare for bible class (I teach the 3-4 yr olds)
Sunday morning deliver my husband's second paper route (this is so he can get a quick nap in, thus maybe staying awake in church.)
Sunday morning church @10 (till about 12:30, then much "congregating" afterward)
School-mate's karate-themed birthday party at Amerikick @ 2 (til 3:30)
Cub scout's birthday party at Sahara Sam's indoor water park @ 3:30 (til 6:30)

And to top it all off, my husband was knocked out by his allergies this weekend, so he spent a lot of time out of commission (he skipped church, and slept through my dragging that huge dresser up our un-carpeted wooden staircase!)
The bottom line is, I think I got more done than I would have if I'd had all weekend un-scheduled.  There is some kind of a MUST-DO that kicks in when my time is limited.  I like it.  Maybe not as much as I'd have liked that Sunday afternoon nap, but I don't feel any of the guilt that I sometimes am left with after taking that nap.
We'll see what happens next weekend, when all we have is soccer.

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