Thursday, February 04, 2010

Where Does Time Go?

Prague Astronomical Clock, photo by Wolfgang Staudt

Time. It moves way too quickly. Each day is too short, especially the hours from after work until I have to go to bed to prepare for the next work day.

The evening fills up with errands after work, reading the day's mail and email and facebook and blogs, making and eating dinner, doing dishes if we're motivated (or the next day we get to do a double load), perhaps an evening meeting at church, exercise session at the Y, check-in with hubby on how our days went, read a few more emails, look up something on Google, do a load of laundry, prepare lunch for the next day, make sure I pack clean shirt and socks for the next day's visit to the Y. Before I know it, I haven't finished half these things, and it's time for bed.

If I'm lucky, an evening will include some time to sit down and read, or some time to work on a quilt top. Often if I squeeze these in, I'm stealing from my sleep time.

And this is life without any children left at home. How did we used to fit in all the kid-related stuff?

I miss having sewing time. It seems odd that I used to do so much more sewing than I've managed to do in the last few months. How did I do that??

Time is mysterious. I'm eager to see if its properties change for me after I retire. I'll be sure to let you know! How do you manage your time so you can fit in the things you love (reading, quilting, or whatever it may be)?

4 comments:

Andrea said...

How funny that I read your time post this morning :-) I was up at 4am just so I could knit a few rows before the fam wakes up. I never wanted so many hobbies before I had kids, now that I have 2 I'm obsessed with making things. Life is funny like that...LOL.

Twisted Quilts said...

I often think of how we did it all when the kids were home! Time does move fast except when you are at a stoplight.

Patrick said...

In the comic strip "Arlo and Janis," a strip from about 25 years ago has always stuck with me. Arlo asks Janis - rhetorically - "Where does the time go?" Their son, about eight at the time, replies - straightfaced, "To a small town in southern Ohio."

I hear that whenever anyone asks where the time goes. It still tickles the old funny bone.

Cathie said...

It is hard to manage doing everything I want, just as you say! I know part of the reason is I work full time now, and that only started a couple of years ago. I was lucky to be home with my kids for 16 years, and then worked part time for a few years.

I have to confess that I feel slower at things - every task seems to go in slo-mo on some days. I hate to think of how I will be in 10 more years, or if I had some disability or ailment. At the same time, the clock hands are spinning, aren't they?

There are some days I find myself doing everything for only a few minutes each - chores, running and exercising, reading, sewing, keeping in touch with loved ones. On other days I try to devote larger chunks of time to certain activities, so cannot get to every area of interest!

I used to have big time frames in which I could start, work on and complete whole projects. But I wouldn't get anything done if I hadn't convinced myself that if I only had 10 minutes to work on something, I could still make progress.

I guess part of the "management" is to tell myself that I will get to do "whatever" soon, and not to fret so much.

Thanks for your thoughts... often the same as I'm thinking these days.