Daily
If I were organized and efficient, this is what I'd want to accomplish every day.
I'd like to wake up at 9:00. This means I would need to start going to bed around 1:00. I don't generally need a full eight hours, but I need about seven-and-a-half. I would stumble into the bathroom and brush my teeth and not exit the bedroom until the bed is made. (I write this because sometimes my teeth don't get brushed and my bed isn't made until early afternoon, which is craziness.)
I was talking today in Sunday school about how I want to be a better pray-er. So I could get out my prayer notebook (which I don't really have yet) and spend some serious time with God.
I would like to do a yoga routine first thing in the morning. I used to have this dvd called A.M. Yoga starring Rodney Yee that was fantastic. It starts out so gently and by the time you're done you just feel so READY to face the day! I really do think I need to get into yoga again because with my aches and pains it is easy to lose flexibility and I want to keep whatever I can keep!
I'd like to eat a healthy breakfast. Lately I've been addicted to pumpkin oatmeal and I see no reason to change. I make regular oatmeal and just before it's done cooking I add a couple heaping tablespoons of canned pumpkin and a few shakes of pumpkin pie spice. I stir it up, finish nuking it, and then sprinkle it with chopped pecans. Sometimes I drizzle it with honey or maple syrup, but I think I like it best with some brown sugar (when I use that I add it when I stir in the pumpkin).
I would like to write for a couple of hours. If I actually followed this schedule, I'd be ready to sit down and write about 10:45, so if I wrote for two hours-ish that would be 1:00. Sometimes I have projects -- writing or editing for work or for friends. But many days I don't have stuff for others, so I could work on my own projects.
At 1:00 I'd like to exercise. Ride a bike or do a dvd. Nothing dramatic, but I need to get moving again. Then, say, by 1:45 I'd like to get my twenty minutes in the sun (I realize that the time for reclining in my bathing suit in the hammock is coming to an end; it's going to be chilly here soon -- but I can do it for a few weeks yet, maybe). Then a shower. Let's say that I've slipped up on timing somewhere, so I get out of the shower around 3:00. I could start dinner prep -- sometimes dinner is quick, but sometimes it's not. And sometimes "quick" involves things like rice, which take time to make. So -- sort of evaluate the situation around 3:00 and see if I need to start getting something going.
There's probably an extra hour at least stuck in between 3:00 and sitting down to eat dinner that doesn't involve actual cooking. I could do something around the house (my fridge, for example, has pumpkin in it that I left before I went to Florida two weeks ago; it is now furry). There's ALWAYS something around the house. I could walk around outside and enjoy my yard while plucking dead leaves or pulling a weed or two (again -- winter's coming, but there's still a few weeks left for that sort of thing).
Bruce gets home around 5:15, so dinner could be served around 5:30 and he'd be happy. Eating, chatting, clean-up -- all of that could easily be done by 6:30. I'd like to get back to practicing my piano, so I could do that between 6:30 and 7:00 or 7:30. Then I would like to listen to one of the lectures that I purchased from The Great Courses (although I won't have that EVERY night). So -- let's say 8:30 or so.
Then...I dunno. I almost always read at night, so that would still be in there somewhere.
Here's the thing, though. The days that could unfold like this are in the minority. There's grocery shopping, driving Mel places (which is a joy and not a burden, but it is also something that takes place inside the schedule of my day), watching Kael, etc. There are dentist appointments and running to the post office, popping by the bank, teaching the kids on Wednesdays -- a hundred little things that come up from day to day. Life, in other words. And -- I actually work sometimes, too.
Obviously, on days when I have things to do I need to cut back. I can get up at 8:00 and rearrange things. I don't have to listen to a Great Courses lecture every day and I don't cook every day (leftovers!!!). I can trim piano down to thirty minutes. Figure out a way to add three hours to each day.
Sigh.
More later...