Free Time? A Seriously hot commodity!

Life is a precarious balancing act.  The bowl needs the spoon, and the spoon needs the bowl.  Otherwise, the contents find themselves spattered around.
Image courtesy of Ian leaving his soup-bowl perched last week. 

I had originally set this post to go live at 7am.  And now it's a day late.   Oops.  At any rate, here's a look into a typical weekday at our household...

7 am...That's about when Blake starts to wiggle and jiggle and giggle in bed.  By 7:15 I've pulled him from his bed to Ian's, where it's his job to wake up big brother for school.  I take a shower while Ian gets dressed, then dress myself and Blake.  We go down at 7:45, where we'll eat oats or cereal, and either Jen is packing Ian's lunch or I do some daddy magic.  8:03 and we're walking to school, Ian bundled into a stroller and Ian chattering away with Jacob, the next-door-neighbor.  

By 8:35am, Blake and I are back home, when I finish getting ready for work.  If I don't dilly dally wish the dishwasher or dealing with dirty laundry or disposing of diapers, I can be out the door and at work somewhere around 9:00-9:15. 

{Magic Happens while I'm gone.  I do magic at my desk, Jen does magic all around.  }

 I come home around 5:30-6pm, after which we do track A or track B.

A: Dad's home.  We eat, play for a short while, then I bathe/pajamify Blake.  Family Prayers/Rocking with songs/Bedtime #1.  Then Ian's "projects", perhaps some cleanup or games or family night.  By 8:15 we wind down, pajamify, read scriptures, brush teeth, tuck in for Bedtime #2.  

-or- 

B: Dad or Mom has an evening commitment.  She or I eat fast and run out the door.  Somehow miraculously {the other} feeds the boys and does the rest on her/my own, and the house is quiet when she/I come home.

Under both A and B, typically around 9pm I'm home, and have until 11:30pm before my body starts to shut down auxiliary systems.  Every minute counts.  Maybe we watch a show.  Maybe we clean the kitchen.  If I've got gumption, I'll throw in laundry.  Maybe I tick down my List.  

I certainly can appreciate how with kids, there is an intense desire to have a brief moment of self-directed activity.  Even better, if it could be RESTORATIVE.  I feel it.  My stay-at-home wife (who has role of mother also) must be feeling it, too.    I'm glad she got a weekend to spend with one of her long-time friends with reduced worry about balancing each element of life.  As mentioned last week, it's better to be a restorative diversion than an escape.  Here's my list of restorative activities that are tough to wedge in after the sun sets and 14 hours of the day's activity:  Geocaching, Hiking, Reading, Woodworking, AutoMechanics, Basement Organizing, Overnight Camping, Canoing, Gardening, Exercising, Deal-hunting, Computer geeking (I made that one up).

I stumbled upon this great article from Ardeth Kapp (July 1991 New Era, excerpted from a BYU Devotional) entitled "Packing Your Wagon"

Too often we allow ourselves to be driven from one deadline, activity, or opportunity to the next. We check events off our calendar and think, “After this week things will let up,” or “After this semester …” or “After graduation, then the pressure will ease.” We live with false expectations. Unless we learn to take control of the present, we will always live in anticipation of better days in the future. And when those days arrive, we shall still be looking ahead, making it difficult to enjoy the here and now. The beautiful fall leaves come and go and in our busyness we miss them.

I'm inclined to think that even as the days are filled with routine, check-lists, and even last-minute activities, there are ways to "repack the wagon" every night, finding ways to let the "scripted" days be restorative.  Certainly on the weekends.  It's tough sometimes to slow down and assess the priorities, so that we include the things we find to be of highest value.

I think the answer is somewhere between these two:
Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much can be done if we are always doing.
~Thomas Jefferson

 and
It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?
~Henry David Thoreau

To this, I say, Good luck!