Things I Do

Here are some of the things I do in no particular order ... it's not all I do. Because it doesn't take into account the errands, the phone calls from friends and family when they have a crisis (or not). It doesn't account for silly times, and ice cream. It doesn't account for movies and magic. Or any of the oddments that real life is made up of. It's just the big rocks that go into the jar of my life. Then I fill in around the edges with everything else.

I run our home and house ... this is a full-time job by all the standards set down by our government. Fortunately, LightHusband considers running the house a team effort and he does alot of this too. He likes to iron among many other things. The other thing is that we do not have very high standards.

I home educate our children (3rd and 6th grades). This is also a full time job according to the department of education. At home in the mornings I teach them the basics (math, writing, grammar, spelling, history, science, health, hygiene, manners, household maintenance-hah-see above, etc.) then in the afternoons we go to 4-H (Mondays) and swimming lessons (Tuesdays) and French lessons and a science class on basic machines (Thursdays) and a Kids Can Make a Difference on Hunger Project (Fridays) and I teach Latin twice a month (Wednesdays - not that I know Latin ... I just keep a couple of steps ahead of the kids, keep dancing, and have a couple of good curricula).

I'm helping to run our church ... which means I help run the service each week and sometimes I even give the message, deliver the content (the non-sermonic exploration); I have a certain responsibility to God for what people hear about Him every week ... along with the rest of the leaders of our church ... there are about 7 of us. In the aggregate (do you like that word?) I spend about somewhere around 10 or 15 hours a week on this when you consider my odd time daydreaming, reading and websurfing - but it bums the rest of the team out when I do too much websurfing ;-) because I seem to find the weird sites, the oddities, the funny places and that sends us on too many tangents that we really shouldn't go on. So I try hard to stay focused.

I'm helping to run a quilt guild ... I'm on the board. As a former prez, I'm the go-to gal for the prez and the vp and the secretaries ... we talk often about the health and welfare of the guild. We were in the news this week for a quilt-in for the victims of Katrina. I didn't have anything to do with that ... except that when I was president a few years ago, I put a huge emphasis on community service and that seems to have really stuck with the members and carried on, but I really don't think that has anything to do with me. I do the newsletter every month and try to maintain a sad little website that I wish were better, but usually my choice is website ... OR ... sew ... hmmmm. I spend about 10 hours a week on guild stuff ... especially if you include the fact that I belong to a bee. That's my quilting ladies. We gather twice a month in the evening and until recently I was the youngest by far. While everyone else swaps grandchildren stories, I tell children stories - I keep them young; they keep me old ... I don't think that's a very even trade. But somehow we're all very good for each other and I miss them when I don't go at least once a month.

Then of course ... I do like to quilt. Which is the reason that I even belong to a quilt guild. I keep telling myself that I don't do very much. Because after all ... all I'm in is guild and church. I don't work, I'm a stay-at-home mom. Why am I so tired all the time? And never have enough time to read or do the things I really want to do? Why are the quilts that are in my head still screaming to get out, even on paper? When I write it all down ... now I know why I don't seem to have a lot of so-called "free" time! Unless you consider that it's all "free" time. All the time I have is all the time anyone has. So I should quit griping ..... and get back to teaching, and quilting, and reading and most of all the laundry ... because ... well ... we're out of clean clothes this week!! ;-)