I'll Take an Hour, Please

I have done more with "one hour" these past few days than I have done with a week the past several years.

Hallelujah! I feel like one small piece of me is finding its way home.

Now, what is the key??

A goal, a deadline or a reward seems to be what's in it to win it for me.

I tricked myself into going away for the weekend because I told myself I could back out at any time. No one was expecting me to do anything. The choice was all mine.

I needed that back-out clause. I have somehow created the belief that I must do things and that need is suffocating me.

By creating a way to cancel without hurting anyone's feelings or letting anyone down, I played a little game of "if I don't go, I will have everything done and I can just sit back and do what I want to do all weekend".

It worked like a charm.

I did go away and I returned to a home that was exactly has I left it, thanks to my Youngest Son who is pretty much perfect that way. He doesn't create work for me. He is a godsend. In so many ways...

That was followed up by a half hour gift at the end of a daycare day. Everyone was gone a half hour earlier than normal. That half hour, combined with the other half hour that I normally fritter away, became enough time to mow and trim the lawn. I had five minutes to grab some food and settle in to watch Dancing With the Stars.

Last night, I had a meeting with someone who needed help with their income tax. I had exactly one hour and five minutes between the time my daycare family left and she arrived.

Before I knew it, I was racing out the door to buy groceries. I didn't have time to pick up take-out food on my way home but I knew a fast meal I could make. I made supper, put away groceries, ate and even had time to brush my teeth before she arrived.

She apologized all over the place for making me rush around after my busy work day and I assured her that I normally use my "day job" as an excuse to sit and do absolutely nothing at the end of the day. I thanked her for the gift of that hour to do more than I normally accomplish all night.

My daycare days are busier. And the phone just keeps on ringing. It isn't ringing off the hook, but my spots are filling up as they are becoming vacant.

My daycare is "full" and I have a waiting list. An opportunity to take on some extra work helping someone with their income tax came out of no where.

I am busier than I have been for a very long time. And I am getting more "extracurricular" work done around the house than I have done for even longer than that.

Funny how that works.

Give me a year and I'll take six years to do the job. Give me a week and I'll take a month. But give me an hour?? And I'll get more done than I would have done with five more of those hours.

I'll take an hour any day of the week!