A ten minute treatise on time with a ten minute update

Yesterday, Frank asked me late at night how my day had been. It suprised him and I when I really didn't have a good answer, in fact, I was pretty happy just to be at the end of the day, not at the beginning.

Don't get me wrong, I like my job and my family. But my days are a blur and many days there is no room for contemplation. Every weekday, I get up at 4:50 to get to work at 5. At 6:30, I get K up for the day, and Frank shortly afterward. K has breakfast, lunchbox, vitamins, teeth brushing, diaper/clothes change, and binky before I hand her off to Frank to take to daycare at 7:30. Then, I go back downstairs and work until at least 2. Then comes the cleaning (yes I do do it), the dishwashing, the shopping list, the bottle washing, dinner-ing on M/W or anything else best done without baby in hand. Anything not done off of that list, it has to go onto the "post-K bedtime list".

(I've got 4 mins left)
Today I got out at 2:45, meaning all I could muster was a quick dishwashing/tidy up. If I want to exercise for at least 20 mins (how sad is that, to go to the gym for 20 mins of stairclimbing?), I have to get out the door in 3 mins. So I can pick up K at 4. So I can get to the grocery store by 4:30, then feed baby by 5:30. Dinner for me must fit between 5:30 and bathtime at 7. Baby in bed by 7:30, and I from then to my bedtime to relax and/or eat and/or finish everything else on my list. Bedtime for this bonzo is 9 sharp.

This isn't a pity party, it's just the way it is. So the next time I am asked what my day has been like, I may just reference this blog note. It would save time. I'm already late by 2 mins for my gym time. Whew!

UPDATE: So I reread this today and thought I'd clarify a bit. Of course we've got it good -- certainly there are a lot of parents juggling a lot more than I am. I have a wonderful husband who likes to cook and helps out where he can. This schedule above is just the result of the combination of our schedules and the choice that we all have to make to manage our time against what needs to get done everyday. For example, I could do more while K is in the house during weekdays, but I choose to spend as much of that time as I can with our family as the priority. So while I do sometimes wish for some personal time, this schedule above obviously is busy but it at least works.