sueeeus

The dream is alive. Now, it’s just a matter of choice. What view would I like best, from my kitchen window

Shall it be water and mountains Or a grove of white barked trees. With large rock outcroppings scattered in the distance

I think I’d like the water view from a covered porch, where I can sit and enjoy the evening air.
I’d like to make the most of passive thermal heating and cooling properties, so I’m going to have to figure out the lay of the land, North and South, East and West. The dream is for a green home that uses energy wisely.  I like a woodsy, Asian, contemporary flair.  It will be a Pacific Northwest Zen home, at one with the environment and the family. So many things to consider, but oh! The possibilities!

The clock is ticking, but I’m not sure when we can take those steps and boldly go forth and immerse ourselves in Rural America. Mr. Gadget’s heart isn’t there yet. But I’m working on him.

For now, this piece of paradise is ours.  It’s a step.  A leap, in fact.

Let’s try that again, shall we

• 5:15 – 5:35 a.m. wake up (4 mins)
• 5:19 – 5:39 a.m. prepare for work
• necessary hygiene
• bathe (20 mins)
• brush teeth (3 mins)
• get dressed (5 mins)
• apply warpaint (5 mins)
• pack lunch bag (5 mins)
• 5:57 a.m. prepare for daycare
• dress the munchkin (5 mins)
• pack diaper bag (5 mins)
• snuggles and cuddles (5-10 mins)
• 6:12 – 6:17 a.m. make the bed (ha ha, as if that will happen) (3 mins) 
• 6:15 -6:20 a.m. drive to work (35-40 mins)
• 7:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. work (8.5 hrs)
• 3:30 – 4:15 p.m. drive to daycare (45-50 mins)
• 4:15 – 4:25 p.m. daycare pickup (10 mins)
• 4:25 – 4:35 p.m. drive home (10-15 mins)
• 4:35 – 5:05/5:35 p.m. prepare dinner (30-60 mins)
• 5:05/5:35 – 5:35/6:05 p.m. feed the munchkin (30 mins)
• 5:35/6:05 – 5:50/6:20 p.m. feed myself (15 mins)
• 5:50/6:20 – 6:10/6:40 p.m. clean the kitchen (20 mins)
• 6:10/6:40 – 7:05 p.m. exercise (25-55 mins)
• 7:05 p.m. miscellaneous household chores (30 mins)
• 7:35 p.m. bathe the boy (20 mins)
• 7:55 p.m. change into jammies (5 mins)
• 8:00 p.m. put him to bed (15 mins)
• 8:15 – 8:20/9:00 p.m. get him to sleep (5-45 mins)
• 8:20/9:00 – 9:00/9:40 p.m. marriage maintenance (40 mins)
• 9:00/9:40 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. me time (20-60 mins)
• 10:00 p.m. prepare myself for bed (5 mins)
• 10:05 p.m. – 5:15/5:35 a.m. sleep

I don’t know why I was complaining.  According to this schedule, there is not only room in my life for exercise, housecleaning, and marriage maintenance, but there is me time as well.  Except, I just realized, that apart from the 5-10 minutes of morning snuggles and cuddles, I am completely ignoring my child.  This will never do.

This is more what honesty looks like.

• 2:30 a.m. wake up for diaper change, put toddler back to bed (10 mins)
• 2:40 a.m. back to sleep
• 5:00 a.m. wake up for another diaper change and hungry boy, give in and feed him something (20 mins)
• 5:20 a.m back to sleep
• 6:30 a.m. wake up exhausted, realize we’re late again, wonder to self, “what’s the point “, try to get up, fail, go back to sleep, drag self out of bed, finally, after a ten minute struggle
• 6:40 a.m. prepare for daycare
• dress the munchkin (5 mins)
• pack diaper bag (5 mins)
• snuggles and cuddles (5-10 mins)
• 7:00 a.m. prepare for work
• necessary hygiene
• bathe (20 mins)
• brush teeth (3 mins)
• get dressed (5 mins)
• apply warpaint (5 mins)
• pack lunch bag (5 mins)
• 6:12 – 6:17 a.m. make the bed (ha ha, as if that will happen) (3 mins) 
• 7:20 – 8:00 a.m. drive to work (35-40 mins)
• 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. work (8.5 hrs)
• 4:30 – 5:15 p.m. drive to daycare (45-50 mins)
• 5:15 – 5:25 p.m. daycare pickup (10 mins)
• 5:25 – 5:35 p.m. drive home (10-15 mins)
• 5:35 – 6:05/6:35 p.m. prepare dinner (30-60 mins)
• 6:05/6:35 – 6:35/7:05 p.m. feed the munchkin (30 mins)
• 6:35/7:05 – 6:50/7:20 p.m. feed myself (15 mins)
• 5:50/6:20 – 6:10/6:40 p.m. clean the kitchen (20 mins)
• 6:10/6:40 – 7:05 p.m. exercise (25-55 mins)
• 7:05 p.m. miscellaneous household chores (30 mins)
• 7:35 p.m. bathe the boy (20 mins)
• 6:50/7:20 – 7:55 p.m. play with beloved child, pay bills, misc. household chores, delete spam, waste time
• 7:55 p.m. change into jammies (5 mins)
• 8:00 p.m. put him to bed (15 mins)
• 8:15 – 8:20/9:00 p.m. get him to sleep (5-45 mins)
• 8:20 – 9:00 p.m. delete spam, blog
• 9:00 – 10:00 p.m. marriage maintenance (i.e., watch tv together)
• 10:00 p.m. prepare myself for bed but get distracted by an assortment of distractions, including but not limited to: blogs, tv, arguments, chores, daydreams, internet research, projects, and so on, and so forth.
• 11:00 p.m. – 2:30 a.m. sleep

And… somewhere in there I manage to shop for groceries, fuel the car, do some banking, and so on and so forth. 

It’s been exhausting, just trying to sort out where my day goes!  However, I think that I shan’t berate myself quite so much for not making more time for exercise.   

I am using WordPress as a blogging tool, which I like very much.  I even migrated my family’s personal web site and message board to WordPress recently.  However.  There are times when it doesn’t work well or efficiently, and I’m not sure how much is related to my hosting situation, and how much is related to WordPress itself.  I’ve read on the WP technical support forums that there have been complaints of extremely slow performance with the latest version, which I’m using.  I’ve also read reviews from other forums that rate my particular hosting service as downright awful.  In either case, it’s frustrating when it’s slow, or doesn’t even respond. 

Some day, when I’m smart enough (or driven enough) to rectify the situation, I’ll make some changes, but for now, I’m not interested in fighting this particular battle.  So, my blog availability may be sporadic, and for this, I apologize (to my extensive readership –cough– ).

Is readership a word   I can’t be bothered with looking it up at present.  Although I find it interesting, and disheartening, that my vocabulary has deteriorated dramatically with age.  However, I theorize that it’s not so much age related as it is usage-related.  I think language skills tend to be ‘use it or lose it’ skills, that need to be continually exercised in order to maintain.

I’m the type of person who does well with schedules and routines.  I’m very process oriented.  These things work for me.  Structure.  I like structure.  With that in mind, I have some new restated goals (in the interest of re-focusing my life, and gaining some control over the chaos in which I live.)

D A I L Y   G O A L S

• an uninterrupted night’s sleep, which can theoretically be realized by the following:
• wean the beautiful boy from his bedtime bottle habit so that he doesn’t wake up between midnight and 3 a.m. needing a diaper change.  every. single. night.
• find a way to fill his tummy with non-liquid food to keep him from waking up hungry between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.  every. single. morning.
• an hour of exercise a day
• more realistically, 1/2 hour a day
• more realistically, 1/2 hour every other day
• wholesome organic glucose friendly meals.  period.
• more realistically, omit the packaged/canned/preserved/prepared foods.
• a clean kitchen
• a tidy home (to the unscrutinizing eye)
• a little bit of me time (ha ha ha ha guffaw ha ha ha…)

I’ve distracted myself so much with the thundering guffaws in my head, that I’m not able to continue this list.  It was nice to start to think about, at any rate.