So

So I can't really think of anything to say.

I'm busy today preparing for my classes at Stampin'Cat on Saturday. Seems like I'm crazybuzy....I need to create a couple of more handouts, and finish two mini-albums for my Feburary Paper School class. And when I mean finish, well, one of them isn't really started.

I had this fallacy that when I was a stay-at-home-mom, I'd have all of this time. I'd have a clean house. I'd have time for my hobbies. I'd have time to work out every day. I'd take lots of naps because I had all of this free time. Well, I've been a SAHM (well, 'cause of the store more of a Work-at-home-mom) for about four years now, and I've yet to see much of this elusive free time. I know I'm not the only woman in this situation either. Where did all of the time go?

For me, I know that a lot of my time has been slowly chewed up by lots of volunteer work. I work with the youth group at Church specfically the 14 and 15 yo girls. This takes the bulk of my Thursday nights and some of my Sunday as well. Plus there are various planning/presidency/organizing meetings scattered here and there. And quarterly, I chaperone a youth dance. And now I'm helping out with the annual summer Girls Camp, so that's another meeting. I do a lot with my church. I lead choirs, sing, help out whereever I'm needed. It's all good work, but it does take a lot of my time.

I'm also on the design team for the ScrappersChallenge yahoo group. This is a very large group that will be moving to it's own website in the next few months. While I am thrilled with this honer, it does come with specific responsibilities, like writing articles and working with monthly kits, and so forth. I moderate or help moderate a couple of other scrapbooking groups, specifically ScrapbookTalk and ScrappingReflections. More time. Small bits of time here and there can add up to a lot at the end of the day.

I also teach 3-4 classes a month for Stampin' Cat. I'm learning that this realistically needs 10-15 hrs a month prep time, as well as the 6-8 hours of teaching, as each class is 2 hours each. Plus the store is about 25 minutes away from my house, one way, so if I am dropping off samples, etc., that's an hour of drive time alone. If you total it all up, that's about twenty to twenty-five hours each month or 4-5 hours each week of work (or with me, it's 10 hours of prep time the week of my classes or about 15 hours that one week 'cause I didn't spread out my work) not counting any drive time.

Speaking of drive time, my youngest ds has been diagnosed with a Speech Communication Disorder. This is really not much more than a fancy way of saying, "he's a little behind in his speech." Not enough to be very worrisome (especially when you are looking at the long run of things) but enough to qualify for free preschool through the county (Yes! A nice side benefit of paying taxes). Well, his preschool is 25 minutes away from my house as well (the OTHER direction, so not really easy to combine trips) so every Tuesday and Thursday, I get to spend an hour in the car dropping him off. He takes the bus home.

Throw in a little volunteer work teaching music at the elementary school (I'm teaching one Kindergarten class this year), driving for taekwondo classes, scouts, grocery shopping, library trips, and so on, and then add on the demands of keeping house for and feeding five people, and you can see where the time goes. It's also important to me to have time for myself, for reading and scripture study. And for naps. Naps are good.

So where does your time go? Personally I hate the phrase "waste time." Time is too precious to waste. Sometimes we spend it too frivolously as well. I think as part of my challenge to "DO" this year, I'm going to pay attention to how I am spending my time. Maybe through careful budgeting, I can find some more of it.

And that's the other side.