Whatever happened to time?

Last night I went for my first nightwalk of the season! And about time, too.
Lately I feel I have been neglecting so many things: friends, my yard, books I'm meaning to read, cooking, my darling Snowy.

I had every intention of walking daily. Or at least 5 times a week or something. That's my normal routine and I miss it when I don't do it. Before you think "ooh, she has so much discipline", you should know that this lady above waits outside for me every.single.day. And she doesn't wait quietly, oh no.

Take a look at our back door:

Yup, that's my dog's doing. She waits outside the door, and as soon as she hears me walking inside the house she starts scratching madly at the door. "Come out and walk with me, mom!" I basically don't have a choice if I care about that door at all. (Which, at this point, I don't.)

After the walk she's perfectly happy and leaves the door alone.

Until the next day.

God I love that dog!

 

But, like I said, lately I simply couldn't find the time. I swear that somebody stole a few hours out of every day! If I ever find that person...

 

There is work. My sweet '4 on, 4 off' gig (which is the best schedule in the world, honestly) sneakily transformed itself into a (almost) full-time job over the last few months. How did that happen?? I have no idea. Apart from the pay checks (payday tomorrow!) I don't like it.

 

Then there is housework. I like a clean(ish) house. We live on a farm. My dear husband is messy.

These three things don't go readily together. It's a constant battle, me against the dirt and messiness, with the dirt+messiness team threatening to take over. Two against one is so unfair!

We have hay on the floor every day. How does that happen you may wonder?

Well, it's simple: Take a bail of hay out to the horses twice a day. When you carry it close to your body (which you should, it's good body mechanics) it will attach itself to your clothes, fall into your boots, and get stuck in your hair. You think you brushed it all off outside, but you never do. There is always plenty left to distribute itself allover the floor in the house.

 

And don't forget about the laundry! Farmwork+landscaping+hospital germs = a lot of laundry. Even though it's just the two of us I do at least 4 loads a week. Plus I iron Richard's shirts, my German upbringing combined with my OCD tendencies won't allow otherwise.

 

We are in the process of updating/fixing/painting our home. Because of the much-lamented flood we had back in July (I promise I will stop talking about it soon) we have

a) holes in the walls everywhere

b) drywall dust (because of the holes)

c) paint cans on the floor, because I feel when I put them away then I will find a reason not to paint and I really, really want to.

 

So yeah, that's my current pickle.

 

All of the above interferes with:

a) my blogging time (the horror!)

b) getting Netflix (I'm afraid I will get hooked on shows but don't have enough time to watch them which will then interfere with sleep, which makes me extremely grumpy and hard to live/work with)

c) campfire time: we still have entire trees (I'm not kidding, look) lying in our front yard, plus a mountain of cut-up shrubs in our back yard, and no time for a nice, big fire, aaahhhh!

d) dog walks

e) hanging out with friends more often (sorry guys!!)

f) responding to emails in a timely fashion (I try, but am only partially successful)

g) actually going horseback riding once in a while

Not necessarily in that order.

 

That's my current situation. I guess I needed to explain to peeps in my "real" life why I have been AWOL lately - so much to do, so little time.

But I want to will change that! Say NO to work more often, YES to fun times.

 

Love, Miriam