Time Management

I have found myself trying to convince people twice this weekend that we are not as busy of a family as we seem. I know that – because we talk a lot about training and softball and work – it sounds like we’re always doing something. But in reality? We are also spending a LOT of time sitting around watching Doctor Who. (I’m on the Donna Noble season. I LOVE HER.) It’s hard to convince people of this so I thought I’d take some time to point out things you probably do that we don’t.

1. CHURCH. We are non-believers so our Sunday mornings are free for trail-runs and trips in the TARDIS. For some faiths that gives us our Wednesday night’s free as well. This is a real perk in this town because most organizations through the school avoid planning things on Wednesdays if they can because so many people go to church. So…people like us? Get a bonus night with rarely any activities…SCORE ONE FOR ETERNAL DAMNATION!
2. YARD WORK. We mow our grass when it REALLY needs it. Usually about 3 days past when our neighbors have started talking about us. We only weed the “flower” beds about once a month. And a couple of times a warm season, Donnie weed-eat the hell out of our wooded back yard. Probably, on average over the entire summer? You’re still only looking at about an hour a week of yard work. And that may be a bit optimistic. It might actually be less than that.
3. FOLDING CLOTHES. The kids don’t have and clothes that require folding. They all just get thrown in the drawer. A few things probably need to be hung up, but they stay in a pile by the closet. The only clothes of Donnie and I’s that require folding are my pants and his t-shirts. Everything else is either hung up (Once every 2-3 weeks) or crammed in drawers. We avoid a situation that requires folding clothes AT ALL COSTS. So we hang up (way quicker) or we wad up and cram in a drawer.
4. CLEANING. We keep things picked up every day. But mainly that is us yelling at the kids to put up their toys. But we don’t ever really clean baseboards or windows or anything like that. And the big stuff, like vacuuming and sweeping, we only do that once a week and only if we’re expecting company. We dust for some company.
5. TV SURFING. True. I only turn on the TV if I have something very specific to watch. I never just turn it on just to kill time. When I sit down to watch TV it’s to watch a show I’ve recorded or something I’m catching up on. My TV watching is PRECISE.
6. GROOMING. I never get anything done to my nails or hair. About once every 2-3 months I’ll go into the Headstart by Target for a trim, but that’s only because I like it when they wash my hair. Donnie cuts his own hair and we wait until SEVERAL weeks past due to deal with the kid’s hair. And often I cut Nikki’s for her. At least I did when it was just bangs. We are very stress-free when it comes to grooming, even on a daily basis. Donnie can shower and be ready in 15 minutes. I am okay with 15 as well, it just requires I leave the house with wet hair. I never blow-dry my hair but I do like getting “read” a couple hours in advance so it dries on it’s own. But in reality? We get ready in about 15-minutes time.
7. HOUSEHOLD UPDATES. We have put everything on our “To Do” list around the home on hold indefinitely. We just decided that – this is our forever home. It can wait. So it does! We haven’t done any big upgrades since we moved in. And we’re totally fine with that. No painting. No flooring. Hell, we bought new light fixtures for the bathroom and haven’t even put those in yet and that was 2 years ago!

What common things do you feel like you give up in your life? Do you ever regret this? Sometimes I wish I spent more time doing spa things so that my nails would be pretty and my eyebrows manicured. But over all I’m very okay with the sacrifices we make to allow for more slovenly activities like Marvel Superhero Movie Marathons.