Time

TIME FLIES (Photo credit: Neal.)

Shakespeare mused that Love’s not Time’s fool; Jim Croce wanted to save time in a bottle; the Rolling Stones had time on their side and Bob Dylan knew the times they were a changin’. I too have come to appreciate how finite and precious time has become to me. In the five months since my son was born, I have developed a new appreciation for time. And a new sense of determining what is truly worth my time.

I have learned that much of what is truly worthy of my time must be meted out in 15 minute increments. Or rather, I can be assured of fifteen minute reprieves here and there. A nap might garner me a total of 30 to 45 minutes (and maybe an hour on a lucky day). However, I can not be certain of what sort of day it is, so I set about completing several fifteen minute activities, knowing that I may or may not get the next fifteen. So, it is imperative to decide on what is important and in what order of importance these tasks should be completed- as one may inevitably be dropped. As you can imagine, it is better to drop sweeping the floor over brushing your teeth. Also, it is important to consider how clean you really need your kitchen to be; that is, do you want to move in to your second increment of 15 minutes and finish washing last night’s dinner pots, or is it good enough clean? I mean, wouldn’t you rather move on to the shower portion of the day (or, as I have come to call it: rinsing off yesterday’s puke- since I really don’t have the time for the luxurious time suckers I used to indulge in in the shower; shampooing, conditioning, shaving…). I try to balance my incremental reprieves with household tasks and things for me. For example one nap might include: making the bed and putting in the laundry (especially since most all of my clothes are covered in puke, spit up or dried up breast milk); showering; a general wipe down of the kitchen; and a cup of tea with my feet up. I have wanted to return to regular blogging, but it is hard to choose writing over my own personal hygiene, sleep or catching up on the shows I PVR.

But alas, Mommy brain has its stranglehold on me and I must again learn to exercise the old grey matter from time to time. So, I have been working on actually composing a blog about how I have no time… and it has taken me approximately two weeks of incremental bursts to get it posted. Don’t hold your breath until my next post… but I am getting better. And, as my little one grows and becomes more independent (how can this be happening at 5 1/2 months?) I am relishing moments here and there to slowly come back to some of the things that I formerly took for granted. Baby’s crying… guess this will be how it ends.