Time flies

I'm taking this week off from work. I'm not going anywhere. It's just a chance to get some things done that I can never find time for.

The problem is that the days seem to disappear way too quickly. I know it's only Monday, but it feels like I've gotten about a half day's worth of stuff done since Friday night.

Part of it is just the nature of being a parent. Particularly a parent with a very inquisitive three-year-old who never stops talking, and another who never stops tearing up the house. But I don't know where the rest of the time goes. It just goes. I have a rather ambitious list for the week. I know I won't come anywhere near completing it, but I hope at the end of the week I have at least a handful of things crossed off.

I often run into problems when there's a chain of dependencies. I need to get the grapevine into the ground. But first I need to move the serviceberry to a more permanent home and away from the grapevine's home. I want to put the serviceberry in front of the propane tank, but because of it's curved shape which is hard to mow or trim around, the area under the tank is a haven for weeds. So I decide to cut back the weeds, create a weed barrier, and cover it with mulch or pea gravel. But I don't have anything handy to accomplish this with, so it's off to the store. And if I'm going into town, I should hit several stores to get the other things I'm going to need for other to-do items. Otherwise it's wasted time and wasted fuel making more trips. But then I need to put together a list of the rest of the items I need before I go. And if I leave now, it puts me too near the siren call of fast food when I'm bound to be hungry. Plus, I either have to face the wrath of my son who hates to be left behind (and I don't really mind taking him), or I have to expect him to fall asleep in the car, have an abbreviated nap, wake up grumpy, and stay that way for the rest of the day.

Trips like that are a black hole of time. I drive into town to pick up a few things, and come back missing half of them. They don't have what I'm looking for, I forget my list, they're out of stock, it takes too long to find so I have to cut my trip short and skip a destination...

Suddenly it's dinner time, then cleanup, then bedtime for the kids, and all of the sudden, it's dark outside. I thought the days were supposed to be getting longer as we near the summer solstice! I think it's a myth.

At least it's still Monday. Never thought I'd say that.