Found Time - Days & Hours #Productive

My calendar is absolutely blank for the next three days. Nothing scribbled in pencil, nothing typed in. Three blank squares.  I think I've figured out how to clear out days of nothingness, time to catch up on all the stuff you still have to catch up on.  How to find that extra day we all need.  Cancel all your plans!

We planned to go away and then had to cancel that trip.  So while we were planning on not being here, I didn't put anything on my calendar.  Ta-da!  It's like a snow day, but without all the slush and cold.  The possibilities are endless!

I could clean my house. When you get busy, it seems like the house suffers.  All the shoes pile up, everyone running in and out, changing for the next activity. And laundry, sheesh!  And, yes, embarrassed to admit there might be a cobweb or two I could knock down.

I could bake some cookies. That's always a good idea.

I could write. I'm in the process of writing book number 2 and finding time each day is crucial to staying on schedule.  I could catch up on a few hours.

I could catch up on Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder.  Note - Do NOT tell me anything that has happened, I don't even want to know which white coat Olivia Pope is wearing.  As previously noted, such spoilers could get a friend de-friended.

I could go out to eat, grab lunch all by myself somewhere with nice table cloths.  I know some people don't like to eat out by themselves, but I do. A book, a drink, a good meal.  And movies, too - I love have the popcorn ally o myself.

I could work-out.  You know when your kinda fit a bit big jeans start to feel snug? You can deny a lot of weight-related signs, but the jean fit is a clear indicator.

I could wander around the neighborhood and walk the dog.

Hmmm... the possibilities.

But since I don't actually want to cancel too many vacations, perhaps, I will use the concept of blocking off days to do nothing. Here's a couple other ways I've found useful in finding a few extra hours.

Use waiting time.  Almost every weekday, I'm picking up/dropping off my kids to some practice or activity. I used to sit and watch them do whatever, waiting until they were done. Sometimes, I still do when I really don't have anything else to do - I can read or crochet, enjoy a quiet, non-moving few minutes. But when I do have stuff to do, I try to squeeze it in then. Someone asked me the other day if I'd have some time to meet with them. Sure, for this hour and half within a 15-minute radius from this practice location - I'm there.  It's also a good time for grocery shopping and other short errands.

Schedule outings, meetings on the same day. If I had several meetings that would take me out of my house, I used to schedule them on different days, thinking that would minimize the hours/day that I've got to be out. But what I found is that it makes my time at home less productive because I'm getting ready for and driving to those events each day. Now, I try to schedule outings as much on the same day as possible. Recently, I had some meetings at our school central office; instead of going over three days in a row, I scheduled them all on the same day. Started in the morning, went down the hall, grabbed lunch, had another - and I was done for the week.

Schedule email and online time. I read this tip in a post about getting to a zero-email inbox (only 600 more to go) - have a set time and time limit when you are going to check your email. Read it, act upon it, then move on with your life. Good point. I do check my email when I'm bored. Or trying to procrastinate. And it probably is a big time waster, so I'm working on that.

There's three quick tips. Share any others you have in the comments.  I'm off to go enjoy my found hours!

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Split Loyalties: A Parent's Dilemma

It starts from the moment the second (or third or fourth) child is born. This one wants to nap, that one wants to go out and play. That one wants to go on the slide, this one wants to go one the swings. Let's get pizza, let's get burgers.  Which one's whining wins out?

When Serena and Venus play for another Open title again or Jim and John Harbaugh faced each other for the SuperBowl, there was one big question for the parents: "Oooh, who will they root for?"  At least, they only have to go to one venue and see both their kids, who wins is up to the kids.  What's hard is when you want to cheer for both kids and they are not in the same venue.

It's the smart parents that put all their kids in the same sport. On our summer swim team, we had a family with 4 (or was it 5?) kids, they all swam.  Easy, right?  One Saturday morning, one 4-hour block, all kids are busy and occupied, and parents can be there for everyone. But some folks don't do that. They put their 4 kids in various and separate activities, with the idea that it will give everyone their own identity, a unique talent and sense of pride. Great. Until all of their hardwork culminates on one day.

This weekend we have swim team Championship meet and all the hoo-ray that goes with that, tennis team district play-offs, and a church fashion show.  And we havent even thrown in stuff like meals, church, and sleeping.  Are you thinking that there's too many activities for the hours allotted to a weekend? I would agree.  There's overlaps and conflicts, especially when you throw in travel to two counties.  Obviously, the kids will get to their events somehow, but how does a parent choose where to go?

We generally try to pick the most "important". Yes, I know, it's all important. But for instance, music and show performances usually trump regular games and meets, and definitely any practices, because there's usually only one per quarter/season/year and you can't miss something that's that infrequent. Then, we consider if one is some type of play-off, championship, super-duper something. After that, we split up and text each other progress.

But what happens on a weekend like this one? One-time event, championships, play-offs, and celebrations. That's when we fire up the helicopter and the be-in-two-places-at-once machine. Let me know if you'd ever like to rent them.

What I did over Spring Break

Nothing.  For the past week, I have done, for the most part, nothing.  And it was great.

I had a meeting to go to, I think I was on a conference call at some point, and I worked on Election Day.  Other than that, nothing.  Then we went to the beach and did nothing there, either.

I took a moment to take a picture of this tree on an industrious morning.

We slept in, ate breakfast around 11.  The kids played outside a bit - basketball, rollerskating, riding their bikes.  I think one of the kids went swimming one day.  Someone got a new bike, someone checked books out of the library.  I started reading The Global Achievement Gap and The Weird Sisters (2 separate books, more on them later), still waiting for one of my girls to give me The Hunger Games back. I wrote a little bit.  Crocheted a little bit - almost done my poncho/shawl thing.  We ate out more than I prefer - can get a little expensive for a family of 6 - and the kids didn't do as much academic practice as I would like.   We enjoyed home-made beignets and experimented with making funnel cake.  I cooked Easter dinner.

There was a lot of other stuff we could've done.  On a good day, I've got a good laundry list of things to do around the area, day trips, craft projects, and educational activities.  But we didn't do any of it.  I think my kids have enjoyed their break, they haven't complained about not going to a museum, although they have asked to go to the movies.  And before the break, my oldest asked me to please not sign her up for camp because she didn't want to wake up early and that would take up her whole week of doing nothing.

If you've ever read any other of my posts, you may have picked up on the fact that we have a busy schedule.  So a week of hanging around doing nothing, has been good.  And now we get back to our regularly scheduled school - homework - Girl Scout meetings - swim practice - TaeKwanDo lessons - basketball practice - chorus/play rehearsal - tennis lesson - PTA meetings - a hot meal would be nice life.


(and Congrats! to my friend & her hubby who welcomed their new baby to the world on yesterday - enjoy this time while he just eats & sleeps & poops.  Before you know it, you'll be wheeling that stroller, hurrying off to art class and French lessons!)

"The tournament has been cancelled due to..."

I kinda stop reading the email at that point because, really, do we care why it was cancelled? All we need to know is that we're not spending Saturday driving to the next state to sit in another school gym for the day, eating concession stand hot dogs and potato chips. Instead, we get a rare Saturday to sleep in, granted only for a little while because there are still two (at least) activities scheduled for the day.

It's a mark of an over-scheduled life when you feel like your calendar is out of your hands. I sit reading emails and checking phone messages with my date book and my cozi.com calendar open, putting in appointments and practices and notes for carpool so I don't forget anybody's child somewhere, including my own (and yes, I have). When dentist appointments and play rehearsal and swim practice and PTA meetings all bump into each other, that goes on the "to call" list to start shifting things around. And when I come across an empty calendar box, I start going thru notes again to make sure I didn't miss anything.

How did we get to this point? The days that begin at 5:30 a.m. and don't end until well after midnight. I want to warn my new-mom friends - don't rush, wait another year or two, even three, before signing the little one up for anything - whatever jumping/swimming/art/music/foreign language tutoring/Pre-algebra that you think they will need or are interested in before their first birthday. Because the time of sitting and watching them discover their fingers and toes will go fast.

And on the other side, I am warned by my empty or almost-empty nester friends - enjoy the hours cheering them on from the bleachers, splashing them from the pool deck, singing along in the audience theatre, helping them sell enough cookies for the next coolest prize, and driving all over town with those few minutes to talk about their day. This time before they move on to the big world of their own will go even faster.

Share in the Comments - in what sports/activities are your kids involved?

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Waiting...all in a mom's day

The street appears to be melting with the rain sliding down the glass. Every few minutes a car speeds by and splashes water against my door. Trying to balance my need for fresh air and the desire not to get my carseats wet, I open the back windows just a fraction of an inch. It's all a part of my rainy day routine. I'm sitting at the corner, waiting for my 2 youngest to hop off their yellow chariot. Then we'll head around the corner to pick up my oldest from her bus-stop. The last one will get home 30-40 minutes later. The car pick-up is an addendum for the wet weather, it’s on top of our regular-day busy schedule. The rain just complicates things by adding wet raincoats and backpacks to the mix. But the sitting and waiting, I'm used to that.

As any mom with busy kids can attest, there's a lot of waiting time. It might be in the car or the waiting area outside of the school gym, class, park, dance studio, or theatre. Our kids are involved in basketball, tennis, swimming, Tae Kwan Do, and drama. No more than 2 share the same activity, and due to their age and skill difference, they do not practice or play at the same time. And they go to 4 different schools. So this leaves our schedule after 3pm a jumble of activities spanning across the county.

All that to say, we spend a lot of time in the car and waiting for someone to finish doing something, rain or shine.

I haven't perfected it yet, but I am working on maximizing the efficiency of this waiting time. Here's a few things that work well for us. And I’m always open to more suggestions.

- Always keep something to read in the car - waiting for kids is a good time to catch up on Real Simple, People, or the daily newspaper.  If you're lucky, you might even be able to string enough time together to read an entire book.

- An alternative to the reading material is any other portable interest or hobby. At times, I have kept a skein of yarn and a crochet hook and stitched up squares. By the end of the year, I had a blanket done.

- Plan ahead for meals. Because we often move from one activity to the next with little time to go home and not everyone eating at the same time or place, it's easy to get caught up in the fast food drive-thru for dinner. On a good day, I cook an easy "on-the-go" meal - something simple, tasty, and portable (and hopefully nutritious). Whether chicken and rice with veggies, spaghetti with sauce, or a quesadilla, I put it in plastic containers, one per child, pack them in our insulated tote, along with a drink, plasticware, and napkins, and we're on our way.   And if you need ChickenOut or Chipotle to help you with this healthy, portable meal - don't feel bad.


- Pack some snacks. For shorter days, throw some snacks and juices/milk/water bottles in a bag for the ride. No matter how you may feel about snacking, they are hungry after school and bored riding around, so save the aggravation and avoid the vending machine. Whether its cookies, crackers and peanut butter, nuts, or fresh fruit – be proactive. And throw something healthy in there for yourself, too.  Or chocolate, whatever keeps you going through the day.

- Keep school supply box in the car so kids can get homework done while waiting for their activity to begin or brother/sister to finish theirs. Load it up with the basics: pencils, pens, crayons, scissors, glue stick, small ruler, small calculator. Contents of course are grade dependent.

- Keep sports/play equipment in the car. Balls, Frisbees - if one kid has an activity at a school or athletic field, let the others run around outside, too and get some fresh air. Deck of cards, coloring book – in case its raining.

- Get your exercise! Moms are notorious for not making time to exercise, so use your waiting time. Walk around the neighborhood. Run around the track. Swim in the other lane when your kid is at swim practice. Hit a tennis ball against the wall. I even keep a set of dumbbells in the car for a quick workout. It may not always be a long workout, but it's better than sitting in the car eating chips (okay, maybe not “better” but healthier).

- Take a nap! What mom doesn't love pulling up to the parking lot with 15 minutes to spare, just long enough for a quick power nap?

Wait - the gym door is opening and the team is filing out.  That's it for now.  Basketball is over, time to get home for bedtime.