Finding the time

Day 2 of my weaving class finished today. It's been wonderful to have two full days to learn new skills and spend two whole days doing it. It also means that I will be spending a good chunk of tomorrow afternoon catching up on all the things I haven't done for three days. (Thursday I was gone all day because we were at co-op.) There is a lot of catching-up. 

Over the past couple of months, I've begun to understand why people seem to be amazed at what I do in any given week. You know, those ever present comments of, "I don't know how you do it!" or "How do you have time to ___________?" I truly don't think I do anything super human, but that is the reaction I tend to get.

I think there are two things at play. The first I figured out earlier this winter when I began driving H. twice a week to her Rising Lights group. It's not terribly far, it only takes 15-20 minutes to get there, but by the time you double that for the trip back as well as the time it takes to park and walk her to the building, the amount of time is closer to an hour total. Then there is the pick-up trip bringing up the total to 1 1/2 to 2 hours. That's kind of a significant amount of time taken from the day. That's a load of laundry started and another load put away as well as some general picking up and an email or two answered. And that's just for one child, two times a week. I tend not to drive people a lot of places. It's just not something we do a lot of. It also means that I am not spending those hours driving around in the car. This is one difference between my life and that of many other parents.

The second thing is that I work at home... even my paying job(s). (Except for our co-op, but I totally write-off co-op day from any actual or mental schedules. It is just the day of the week where I have no expectations of getting anything done at home.) I'm not driving to get to work, so no commute. If I don't have students back-to-back, I am home, so I can head into the house to do whatever needs being taken care of at that moment. When I taught piano every afternoon, I could dash into the kitchen in between lessons and do the next step for dinner quickly... putting something in the oven, starting pots on the stove, asking a child to do a task, etc. 

The reason I appear to do a surprising amount of things in a week while I feel as though I don't actually do anything remarkable is all about the assumption of available time. I happen to have a lot of it because I have been able to order my days that way. I realize not everyone is willing and/or able to do this. (And getting things done isn't a competition, by the way.) Consequently, I have more time than many people. But if someone were looking at what I mention that I do during the week, but assume that my amount of free time is the same as theirs... working outside the home, driving children, etc. ... then it would seem surprising at how much I can get through in a week. Heck, I'd be impressed myself. 

The bottom line, I am not superhuman or able to somehow fit more into an hour than most people, I just have a lot more time than most people. There's actually not that much amazing about it.