My last post was about going back to work so guess what's been keeping me so busy?
If you guessed work... well, you are somewhat wrong. It is part of the reason, but not the full reason.
The short answer is: I've been keeping myself busy.
The long explanation is: I've discovered in the last year that I have an addiction of saying YES to everything I am invited to do or anything I want to do!
I keep a day planner and I almost feel incomplete if there is a blank space anywhere on it. You see, it's not like I really enjoy being super busy and usually stressed out, but I sometimes long for a quiet/lazy day (or at least a couple hours) at home with just Jeremy, Andrew, and myself.
About once a week Jeremy will ask me what the calendar has in store for us for the upcoming week. I say, 'I don't know, let's see.' and pull the trusty planner out of my purse. I then proceed to list off the items on our to do list. When I come to a day that we have nothing I say, 'hmmmm, we have nothing planned for such and such day!' in a baffled yet slightly excited way. In the same conversation we usually come up with one or two things we could be doing that day. The most common being having dinner with friends or family we haven't seen in a while. We can always think of something that we should do to fill that empty spot in the planner. Sometimes one of us will insist that we must keep that day open for just us, but in the meantime something will usually come up.
What keeps us so busy you ask?
- Work - it is part of the reason. I leave the house at 6:45 am and return at 6:15 pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursdays. Jeremy is gone before me and usually home after me. The nights we don't have anything planned, we have just enough time to cook dinner, the boys take showers while I clean up after our cooking, and then we go to bed around 9:30 pm if we are lucky.
- Church - besides every Sunday morning service and the once a month preschool rotation we are on, we have some regular weekly activities that keep us somewhat busy. We have Home Groups (Bible Studies) on Tuesday nights from 6:30 pm-at least 9:30 pm. By the time we get home and ready for bed it is easily 10:30 pm. Jeremy and I both teach kids on Wednesday nights at the church. We leave the church at about 8:30 pm and we are usually ready for bed by 9:30 pm. Then there's softball on Saturday evenings. We used to play co-ed and Jeremy would play men's, but that was resulting in our entire afternoons and evenings being spent at the ball field each week. I learned to say no to playing co-ed (not to mention I was a terrible softball player and it made me mad at myself). Jeremy and I also have a monthly gathering called a Connection Group for our church. These are usually held on one Friday evening each month from about 6:30 pm-9:00 pm. There are also random activities each month which we are happy to help with, but they add up quickly. This month we had the Easter Egg Hunt for the Community, we have the Church Picnic this Sunday afternoon, I have a Leadership Conference to attend from 9am-4pm on Sat. Apr. 5th, we have a Nascar event out at PIR on Apr. 11-13, Jeremy has a Golf Tournament on Apr. 26 and I am organizing a Bake Sale Fundraiser for Apr. 27. We are a small church and we are always willing and happy to help or participate in these events. I am not complaining about this stuff and I realize there is plenty in here that we can "cut out" of our schedule, but we feel that one of our callings from God is interaction with others and it's stuff that we really enjoy doing. Sometimes there are more activities than others during a month and March/April is one of them!
- House - In the midst of all of this, I have two days off during the week that I desperately try to use for keeping my home in decent condition. Cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, bill paying, etc. easily whisks those days off in a hurry as if they didn't happen. I am thankful I have these 2 days or I would be scrambling amongst my jam-packed weekend to get this stuff done. How do you full-time workers do this???
- ETC - I love scrapbooking and seeing "Chick Flix" so when I have a free day or night I chose to do those things. Jeremy and I love going out to dinner with friends and family or especially having them over for dinner. And Jeremy enjoys riding his bike and playing basketball, softball, or golf so when he has a free night or day he usually occupies it with those activities.
Most of these activities are not very time consuming, but they certainly add up along with all the other shorter time frame items.
Does anyone else have this problem? If so, how do you keep your sanity? If you don't have this problem, how do you maintain a non-packed schedule? Can anyone else put my schedule to shame? Let me hear about a day or even month in your life! This will be fun!