If you’re tracking time this week, congratulations on making it through to Friday! Now it’s on to the weekend. While we can learn a lot about our schedules and lives by tracking weekdays, I think it’s just as important (maybe even more important) to track a weekend. Weekends comprise a lot of our time, and for many people, there’s at least some more discretionary time. A little accountability goes a long way toward letting us use this discretionary time for enjoyable and rejuvenating things.
Anyway, last night went well. I’m always happy when a plan goes as it should.
After posting on this blog, I heated up my dinner, ate it, and supervised the 8-year-old getting ready for swim team. He, the 16-year-old, and I left a few minutes before B left with the 3-year-old to go get the 13-year-old at fencing (B was working late as my husband was out of town Tuesday to Friday). I walked the 8-year-old into practice and confirmed he got in there, then drove with my eldest to church for choir practice (which started promptly at 7).
We sang a lot of challenging music, including a rather chromatic Petr Eben piece, the “Let the People Praise Thee, O God” William Mathias piece that was commissioned for the Prince Charles/Princess Diana wedding in 1981 (a very joyous piece, even if the marriage didn’t work out…), and a brand new piece we commissioned from Kim Andre Arnesen as part of the church’s 150th anniversary celebration. Between sanctuary choir, his regular high school choir, voice lessons, and then hopefully his school’s select choir and possibly the a cappella group, my son is singing a lot!
Meanwhile, B and the little guy picked up the 13-year-old from fencing (7:00), then drove to get the 8-year-old at swim (7:30). Everyone was retrieved and brought home, and when I arrived home at 9:00 the 3-year-old was in bed. This is the way that things should happen but when my husband is covering Thursday nights, somehow the 3-year-old is rarely in bed when I get home. Hmm.
Anyway, him being in bed turned my evening into a playground of possibility. I made sure everyone else was in their rooms (with no devices). The 16-year-old has been reading Harry Potter to the 8-year-old in the evenings, which is really sweet! I then worked on my puzzle from 9:20-9:50 p.m. or so. At that point I went up to chat with the big kids and turn out the lights. I went to my room a few minutes after 10:00 and read (Ken Jennings on the afterlife) until 10:45.
Unfortunately, the night didn’t go as smoothly as the evening, though it was my body, not the kids, that was at fault. I may have drifted off, but jolted awake at 11:30 again for unknown reasons. Then I woke up again at 5:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep. I lay in bed for a bit, then got up at 6:00 and had a quiet cup of coffee before the 6:20 start to the day.
The morning went much as yesterday, albeit with the 3-year-old accompanying me on the high school run. He woke up just as I was headed out the door around 6:50, so I put him in the van and we left more like 6:55. I still made it back in time to get the middle schoolers on the bus. Then I made sure the little guys had eaten and were in fresh clothes. They elected to play a computer game together again, so after giving B the grocery list I was at my desk working by 8:05!
I did work-work of various forms until 10:30 or so, at which point I spent way too long constructing the schedule for next week (admin-work). Let’s just say there are a lot of moving parts. I sent that off to the various involved parties, then continued to work (with a 5-minute break to make my lunch) until about 1:00.
Then I drove to a nearby nature preserve to run on some trails. The woods were quite nice and it’s a little more challenging to do things like cross streams or scale fallen logs than it is to just run on the road. I finished about 1:50, went home, and changed clothes.
At 2:15 it was back to my desk. I’m planning to continue working on various things until 4:15, when I need to drive to an activity. I’ve got a few plans for the weekend that should be fun. Do you? If not, it’s not too late to think about it!
Here’s my log in table form:
6:00 eat dinner, ready
6:30 drive A swim, J to choir
7:00 choir practice (w/J)
7:30 choir practice
8:00 choir practice
8:30 choir practice, wait J, home
9:00 kids, snack, puzzle
9:30 puzzle, kid chats/lights
10:00 read in bed
10:30 read, ready bed
11:00 (in and out?)
11:30 bathroom, sleep
5:30 up, bathroom, lie in bed
6:00 get up, coffee, shower
6:30 ready, make list, drive J (w/H)
7:00 drive home, H+ kids, van
7:30 home, A+H, laundry
8:00 B chat, work
8:30 work
9:00 work (+ work/rituals)
9:30 work
10:00 work
10:30 admin
11:00 work, make/eat lunch
11:30 work
12:00 work
12:30 work
1:00 drive, run preserve
1:30 run (2.8), home
2:00 change/hair, work
2:30 work
He he.. my only chance to drop names! I studied orchestration with William Mathias during my junior year abroad in Wales, 1972….he he.. had no idea that professor would be in the big time in the future! He was such a nice guy, and we had a small class. Ahh… (I did both math and music for majors..then did all my grad work in math and statistics…. so no more orchestration for me. But I’m glad I did it.)
@Ann – how fun! To have studied with William Mathias before he was a famous composer…I enjoyed singing the piece today.