Amber Dusick

Where does the time go?

Inspired by Amber's time management series this month and Marisa's a week in the life series I decided to track my time for one day.

This is a typical Thursday, it is the day where I get the most free time all week. 

 

7:30 - Baby wakes up.  Nurse.  Change diaper & clothes.  I throw on some clothes, brush teeth. 

8:00 - Wake up 3.5yo.  Get him dressed, pee on potty, make him breakfast, brush his teeth, start the diaper laundry.

8:40 - Load car with two kids, diaper bag, toddler's school lunch and drive to preschool.

9:00 - Drop 3.5yo off at preschool.  Drive home with baby.

9:30 - Nurse baby.  Check emails and answer two, typing one handed while nursing.

10:00 - Plan meals and write grocery list for next week.  Rinse cycle diaper laundry.  Change diaper.

10:45 - Whole Foods grocery shopping.  Baby falls asleep in wrap.

11:30 - Check out line, realize I haven't eaten anything yet.  Grab bar of chocolate in line.

11:45 - Ralph's market for two more grocery things. 

12:00 - Stop at bank to deposit a check.  Baby awake and upset now from being shuffled around in and out of the car so much.

12:10 - Home again.  Put groceries away.  Baby pissed.  Put diapers in dryer.  Change diaper.  Nurse baby.

12:45 - Back in the car to pick up 3.5yo from school.

1:00 - Preschool pickup.  Drive home slowly so he falls alseep.

1:30 - My 3.5yo transfers asleep from the car and is asleep in his bed.  Baby asleep in my lap.  One handed typing, I work on a website page.

2:00 - My 3.5yo wakes up already.  Cranky.  Make him lunch.  Baby awake.  Nurse baby.  Change diaper.

3:00 - Husband home early for my "work day" and takes both kids so I can work.  I still haven't eaten but now time is even more precious.  Inhale a few bites of cottage cheese while writing contentfor my websites and answering work emails.

4:30 - Baby crying and needs to nurse again.  Stop working in the middle of a page.  Jump in shower for three minutes.  Get dressed.  Nurse baby.  Change diaper.

5:00 - Husband holds baby and starts dinner for tomorrow while I heat up marinated skirt steak and fire roasted peppers leftovers for dinner.  Serve and eat dinner together. 

6:00 - Wash dishes after dinner.  Get diapers out of dryer, sort and put them away.  Pick up family room.

7:00 - Pick out photos on the computer for 3.5 year old's poster that they'll hang up at school.  Meanwhile playing with 3.5yo and baby.  Nurse baby.  Change diaper.

7:30 - Husband runs to drug store to print out a few photos for poster.  Play with both kids.  Make a phone call while they scream in the background.  Glue photos on poster.  Argue with husband how I don't have enough time to get any work done much less have creative "me" time.

8:30 - Get 3.5yo last snack before bed. 

9:00 - Make school lunch for next morning.  Fight with 3.5yo over not wanting to go to bed.  Struggle to get on pjs, brush teeth.  Read bedtime books.  Tell him a story in bed.

10:00 - Change baby diaper, put on his pjs.  Get in bed with baby.  Nurse baby and he falls asleep next to me.  Husband shuts off light and we talk alone for a few minutes before falling asleep...only to be woken up several times in the night to nurse the baby of course 

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Like I said, this is the day where I get the most free time.  Not a whole lot, huh?  My 3.5yo only goes to preschool two days  a week, and you can delete the husband coming home early on all other days.  If you add it up, I worked for a combined total of 2.5 hours.  Two and a half hours each week to get all my work done for three businesses! 

What about time to do art?  Relax?  Read books?  Watch TV?  Sit with my husband and have a meaningful conversation over a bottle of wine without being inturrupted?  No, no, no, no and also "Wow, how cool would that be?"  No.   

Sigh. 

Before I scare anyone off the idea of having children...it does get easier.  Eventually my baby will sleep through the night and not need me and I could potentially stay up all night to do my own stuff, which was how I kept woodmouse going.  Or I could even stop the torture and hire some freaking help a few times a week...something that this experiment made me realize I probably have to do to keep my businesses thriving.

On the other hand.  I guarantee that in a few years down the road I'll be writing a post with the same title as this one.  Only I'll post old baby photos and be whining that "my babies grew up so fast!"  Where did the time go?  Why did I spend so much energy trying to get free time?  Why didn't I just enjoy every minute while they were so young?  It goes by fast and in the big picture, it is like a tiny blip in life.

So.  Tracking your time.  A good experiment.  Give it a try! 

(but feel free to ditch it if it winds up just making you grumpy like it did me)

 

    

 

Nursery Shopping & Raised Beds

This weekend we finished building our two 4' by 16' raised beds for our 2010 vegetable garden.

 

We also went to our favorite nursery a few minutes away, for some expert advice.  34 acres of every plant and tree you can imagine.  Wandering through it takes hours.

They are pretty strongly pro-natural and organic, which I like. 

They are family owned, 3rd generation.  And they have a very friendly resident cat.  I love this place. 

I can't be the only one who gets excited about stacks of planting pots, can I?

And flowers.  Don't you just feel better being around them?  I'm so inspired by colors and scents.

The delicate white blooms of this baby pear tree were so precious and sweet.  I wanted to take it home but I think we already have a pear tree.  Someone told us it was a pear tree when we bought our house, but I have yet to see pears on it so I'm not sure...I'll be watching it closely for any pear-like signs!

So have I stirred up your gardening/spring bug yet?  Isn't the community of blogging so fun that you can see my Southern California spring and then jump to someone else playing in the snow?  (Like Maya's snow unicorn that is so beautiful it makes me wish for snow to sculpt with.)

PS - my photos lately are all taken with my iPhone, with the help of Camera Bag.  An app that my friend Marisa comepletely convinced me to buy.  She was right, it is amazing, I can't stop taking phone pictures. 

The Great Garage Clean Out of 2010 & cool junk

The great garage clean out is finished!  I first mentioned it here and will say a few things as I bask in the warm fuzzy feeling of a job completed.

Before:

And after:

Cans of primer = 1

Black widow spiders detected and squashed = 3

It wasn't our clutter in the garage, by the way.  Most of it was left here from the prior owners who lived here for over 50 years.  Imagine a garage collecting 50 years worth of odds and ends.  We had to sort the useful from the useless.   

Like drawers and drawers and drawers full of stuff like this:

and also this:

Which of course fall in the useful category.  Hello?  Robot parts?  I kept it all.  I couldn't resist.  So hard to declutter when my creative side takes over.  I can find a use for anything!

One of my favorite discoveries though was this:

A little counter thingy.  Still works.  Currently on 5216.  What was this used for?  Looks like it was once mounted on something.

Now I've got a clean slate.  Time to create!  And decorate!

 

Time doesn't stop to say hello

News of tragedy surrounds me this week. 

It is unfortunate that for so many people (myself included) it takes hearing of or experiencing tragedy to make our mundane daily moments feel precious.  A ride in the car.  A walk across the yard.  Precious and fleeting.  Time.     

You find yourself thinking, "What if today was my last?"  Suddenly your mind races to look back at your day with new eyes.  Those simple moments you took for granted are played back in your mind.  What was the first thing you saw when you woke up?  What was the first thing you said?  If you knew it was your last and could relive it again, this time you'd pay attention.  But it is gone.  Moments.  Time.  Gone.  

The more I try to grasp it with my hands the more it sifts through my fingers.  The only way I can capture it is by being fully present.  And I breathe.    

So breathe.  It doesn't stop time but it slows it down.

    

Planning

We've been:

Measuring out a spot in the yard.

Digging up the earth.

Visiting lumberyards.

Browsing through seed catalogs.

Dreaming about harvest time in several months.

Lots of changes happening here at the happy yellow house.  In addition to the great garage clean out happening inside, we're also laying down plans to add to our homegrown edibles outside.  Our herb garden is coming along nicely, now we just need some veggies!  Can't make a meal out of rosemary alone, you know?   

How do you narrow it down when picking what to grow?            

 

It's a Sign

Found a block from my house on the way home today.  :)  

How to Clean a Garage (aka - make way for greater things)

I know how to clean a garage.  I transformed a garage into a studio once already so I have some tips.  

Problem is, I'm convinced that these guys (or should I say gals) are everywhere in the garage, lurking.  Haven't found one yet but the only way I can be brave enough to stick my arm in dark, cobweb covered, possibly poisonous nooks and crannies is to wear my specially designed garage decluttering uniform:

Tip #1 - Bright orange rubber gloves and bright red rubber boots.  I usually opt for paint splattered t-shirts and surgical scrubs for the rest but the gloves and boots are required. 

Tip #2 - The other spider deterrent I've invented is to swear a lot.  And use a a British accent.  While swearing.  Scares the @$%# out of creepy crawlies and makes me feel badass.   

Tip #3 - If you come across something and you have to ask yourself "What the heck is this?" chances are, you don't need it.  Straight to the donate or trash pile. 

This "uniform/accent swearing/throw it out" combo gets the job done! 

Proof:

One corner down, seven more to go.  Or something like that.   

 

I continue to pick very messy hobbies that require garages.  Hmmmm...

 

Building

I'm big on journals.  I always have a personal one going and I have a journal for each of my babies too.  I had a pregnancy journal.  A dream journal.  I've kept separate creative ideas/business journals a few times also, always at the exciting start of something big.  Like now.

Ideas whirling around so fast I can barely catch them.  I had a stack of plain pocket journals and dug around in my stamping stash to find just the right image to capture what I've been feeling.  What I want to accomplish.  Houses!  Of course! 

I used a stamp I carved when I was house obsessed and first started selling the wooden ones.  I sold my first set during my first month on Etsy so I consider them one of my founding designs.  I still love houses, they are my all time favorite design motif.  What better symbol to adorn a book to jot down my creative hopes and ideas to build upon.  To build.  

I couldn't stamp just one of course.  Stamping is more fun when you can see multiples in different colors.  The brown version stays with me and the rest will be given away with future orders. 

 

Yes, I said future orders.  I do plan on returning to Etsy but the details...only the book knows for now.  

 

Gratitude

Lisa wrote this post on gratitude and it inspired me to make my own gratitude list today.  I love the idea of a daily ritual of recognizing things you are thankful for.  Very grounding and centering.  I need this.

Right now...

1. The rain.  It doesn't happen here very often so when it does we have fires in our fireplace and drink hot cocoa and pretend it is winter.  This is exactly what tonight's plan is.
2. Quiet.  My oldest is taking a rare nap.  My husband is out and all I can hear at this moment is the rain. 
3. Laptop.  Switching to a laptop from desktop was the best thing I bought in preparation for our first to be born.  Nursing while sitting on the sofa and typing with one hand?  Check.

And that is my "right now list" of gratitude.  What is on yours?  Right at this moment?