Spare Time

"What do you do in your spare time?" is a question that is really REALLY hard for me to answer these days.  I forget, quite frankly.  What is spare time again?!?

In all fairness, I'm sure I have just as much spare time as the next person... I just waste it by prolonging the things I should be doing.  Like this morning, I TOTALLY laid in bed for like 20 minutes - LUXURY!

I know that we really shouldn't waste time.  I feel like I'm forcing myself to be more scheduled because of the lack of scheduling that home school brings.  I have no one else to tell me when and where to be but myself, so I really have to be on top of things.  I REALLY don't like being busy and super scheduled, so I make my "to do" list and get going until it's done.  By the end of the day, I usually have a whole lot of things left to do... but as we all know, "Tomorrow is another day" (and tonight I'm exhausted).

My goal is to be as good as my Grandmother who literally has only gone to bed ONCE with a dish in her sink and that was because she had just held a Family Dinner for her son's wedding at her house.  That's it!
I have learned from her and my mother's example how to optimize the moment and how WONDERFUL it feels to go to bed knowing that your house is perfectly clean and you have only to do tomorrow what tomorrow brings... now THAT is bliss.

But I digress... what do I do in my spare time?  Well, I learned what stops me from answering that question.  I don't do things in my spare time.  I do things while I do other things.  I have been binding a quilt while I practice music with the kids.  On the way to the temple last weekend I (finally) sewed the letters onto my quiet book.  I blog (in between math questions from the kids).  I cook, clean and teach as much as I can.  I don't know if that counts as spare time or not??  I do the budget while my blog pictures upload.  I watch my favorite movies in pieces while I fold laundry.  I suppose the true answer to the questions would be one word:  SLEEP!  That's the only time that I have just to myself and I'm too wiped out to do much else.

I just found this quote which sums up what I am TRYING to be better at:

Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away.
Charles Caleb Colton

I have loved being so busy with the things that I love.  I'm constantly doing things - but I enjoy (almost) every minute of it.  How lucky am I?  I'm surrounded by 5 of life's GREATEST blessings 24 hours a day and I get to choose what we do for every minute of it (although I admit... sleep is my kryptonite!  I could probably cut back on that and get to working out a bit more).

A couple more good thoughts on time:

Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.
William Faulkner

For disappearing acts, it's hard to beat what happens to the eight hours supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work.
Doug Larson

I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.
Golda Meir

Lost time is never found again.
Benjamin Franklin

After reading this over, I want to specify that using my time wisely has always been one of my greatest weaknesses... thus the reason I'm so proud of myself these past 2 months.  This is not meant to make me look good, it's just a step in the right direction - and it feels great!