Things I managed today

[Chicken lady]

Or, chicken lady continues to juggle.

i got up at 5:30 made (and ate) breakfast, packed two lunches, did my chores, restarted the dryer, loaded the car and left for work by 8. There was also “dead time” in there drinking coffee, petting the cat, and reading the paper.

got to work at 9. Talked with another teacher about students and planning then taught from 9:30 to 12:15. Lunch break is supposed to be 12:15 until 1, but the first 15 minutes were taken up by a student and the last 5 by the building manager. So all I had ttime to do was warm and eat my lunch.

taught 1-2, spent my 15 minutes break meeting with director about a student, taught 2:15 to 3:30.

had the room cleaned up and was in the parking lot with the car loaded by 4.

stopped at the grocery store. Got home at 5:30, unloaded the groceries (But didn’t put them away), restocked the fire wood (Dd restarted the fire) and made dinner. Ate at 6:20.

partly cleaned up and read by the fire, did evening chores, showered, and it is now almost 9, I am tired, and I haven’t even finished off today (groceries, dishes, laundry)

I want to exercise, keep up with the pottery, and make some progress on my house. But I also want to sit and read. Because I get tired.

[mschrisgo2]

CL, that was a pretty full day! I know I was always more tired when others used my breaks, as I looked forward to that time to catch up with myself. This evening you are tired. Tomorrow is a new day.

[Chicken lady]

I am trying to reset my biorhythm. I noticed again this morning that when my alarm went off, I was dreaming, so it is waking me from rem sleep. Before vacation, I had gotten to the point where I was waking in the morning, wondering if I should go back to sleep or get up, and discovering when I checked the clock that the alarm would be going off within about 15 minutes.

also, separately, but likely connected, dh is reading or watching videos (with headphones) in bed at night again. So, I need to bring this back up. Dd2 is staying with us at least until Saturday, so I will probably just tough out the week.

i enjoy the 30 minutes to an hour (depending in part on how tired I am) of waking up slowly with coffee and the paper, my journal, and/or various websites, and sometimes the cat, but I am wondering if there is a better way to get my morning started.

20 minutes on the bike - which would leave me needing a shower and so require morning schedule negotiation with dh who is not a morning person and has trouble sticking to his morning schedule - crosses my mind as a good idea. The bike is noisy, but if I move it into the new basement, it might not bother dh.

my weight is creeping back up since I got home. Implicated are: bad sleep schedule, poor food choices (because I am hungry after school, and then I am in the kitchen and hungry, and by the time dinner is ready I am no longer hungry, but I eat dinner anyway because it is nutritious and social), and lack of exercise.

but as my brother pointed out over break - you don’t lose weight in the gym. You get fit in the gym, you lose weight in the kitchen.

[razz]

but as my brother pointed out over break - you don’t lose weight in the gym. You get fit in the gym, you lose weight in the kitchen.
That is great wisdom to have. It will be my mantra for a few weeks to help me stabilize my eating again.

[Chicken lady]

Up at 5:30. Made dh breakfast, (he had lunch at work) did morning chores, a load of dishes and a load of laundry.

Left home at 8:30. stopped at the bank to take care of a bill

Drove down to the public studio to finish glazing 6 pots and pick up my fall work and unsold ornaments (80% sold!) talked with the owner about the school kiln. Bought myself a small new toy (compensation from dh for breaking something).

to school - got there early - short conversation with director, long conversation with other art teacher, straightened up classroom. 12:15-1 Supervision duty, 1-2:15 planning period (planned), 2:15-3:30 class. Cleaned up and out by 4.

Stopped at store to buy materials for class tomorrow. Home around 5:30. Made fire, unloaded car, switched over laundry, petted cat, checked e-mail now 6:15.

i have evening chores and prep to do for class tomorrow. Dd is having dinner with a friend and dh won’t be home until 7:30. Not sure if he will have eaten or if I will eat with him - I am fasting today and so am not hungry anymore (got hungry, but was in places without food and stayed distracted until the feeling passed), but will become hungry when I start eating again so will have to think and eat carefully. I have breakfast planned.

[BikingLady]

Very full days.

[Chicken lady]

Had soup last night. Ate pretty much normally - neither well nor excessively - today.

another full day, didn’t even do dishes or laundry. Did reapply for my job (have to every January, i’m not too worried.)

very tired. It took two hours for the fire to warm the great room after I got home from work. Even leaving the heat set very low our power bill is going to be atrocious this month. You know you are cold and tired and tired of being cold when you find yourself wondering if you can just give the rabbit an apple and skip thawing the water bottle tonight. (I thawed it)

still, I am warm, and I have a clean, soft, comfortable bed waiting and someone I love to keep me company in it. My food concerns are too much richness and abundance, and I am not even passingly ill. (Knock on wood!) all I really need is to let myself sleep.

[Chicken lady]

So, temperatures are finally improving here. However, it is currently right around freezing and “winter mix” is falling from the sky. The schools are closed, so the food bank is also closed today. Dh is going to go into work late. I have a few “surprise hours” free that I need to use wisely.

this morning I woke up and rode the bike for 20 minutes in its new basement location before fixing breakfast and lunch. The noise did not bother dh and he has agreed to stick to his morning schedule (or at least respect mine) if I want to make that a regular part of my week.

i will need to get into the habit of laying out exercise clothes the night before so I can sneak out of the bedroom quietly.

[Chicken lady]

I feel like I am more productive in the mornings now that I am riding the bike, and I also added swimming back in on Tuesday. However, I am also more tired in the evenings, and I have made little or no time for my pottery and the cleaning out/organizing work I want to do, so I am still struggling to find balance.

the current fitness plan is:
M/Tu/Th mornings 20 minutes on the bike (but I did 1/2 hour today)
swim 800 yards Tu/Th after school. (But I did 1000 on Tuesday)

i wanted to do a fasting day every week, but I don’t think that is going to work with the exercising. For now I am setting a goal weight for each week and each day I am not below it - no desserts, unhealthy snacks, or alcohol. This week the goal weight is 148, (after hitting 154 at Christmas time) and I am happy to report that I can eat anything I want (in moderation) at the school poetry reception today. Next week the goal is 146, and then I plan to drop it by single pounds for a while.

i’m trying to eat more vegetables and less everything else.

[Chicken lady]

SNOW DAY!

i didn’t realize how badly I needed a snow day until I saw the notice and felt the tension leave my body.

in the 4 interrupted weeks of class since thanksgiving, I have added 5 new students who need to be oriented mid curriculum, dealt with multiple student absences involving make up/catch up work and requiring a lot if individual planning, had to “reapply” for my job (which involves turning in a rather thought intensive packet of proposed curriculum and scheduling), started evaluations, and had the annual school art show (a big event for me) moved up 6 weeks.

[Williamsmith]

SNOW DAY!

i didn’t realize how badly I needed a snow day until I saw the notice and felt the tension leave my body.

in the 4 interrupted weeks of class since thanksgiving, I have added 5 new students who need to be oriented mid curriculum, dealt with multiple student absences involving make up/catch up work and requiring a lot if individual planning, had to “reapply” for my job (which involves turning in a rather thought intensive packet of proposed curriculum and scheduling), started evaluations, and had the annual school art show (a big event for me) moved up 6 weeks.

Im sorry if I’ve missed it but what age are your students? And also, do you have emotional support students integrated?

[Chicken lady]

Ages 5-18. If you can get to the classroom by yourself and create only minimal disruptions for other students, you can be in my class.

(Edited for too much ranting and detail.)

[Chicken lady]

Well, we’re starting late today, but it’s back I go after a lovely long weekend. My inner hermit is bracing for the peopleness of it all.

i could have accomplished a lot more while I was home, but honestly, it was nice to just take a vacation.

[Williamsmith]

Well, I hope you have “minimal disruptions.” My wife cringes as she has up to 13 disturbed children of elementary age who are quite capable of spitting on you, cussing you out with the f word, kicking you and threatening to kill you. All because you ask them to do a tinsy bit of work. The only education they get is in the school yard when someone bigger than them bloodies their lip. How has it gotten to this?

[Chicken lady]

Wow. Ok, I do not have those kids. Some cussing, but not at me or classmates. I had one kid who bit somebody, and I have another kid who can only be in older groups and supervised because he is literally incapable of not blurting out what he’s thinking, and he’s 16, so you can guess what he’s thinking most of the time....

both kids are social services removed adoptions whose mothers were taking drugs during their pregnancies. The biter was moved back and forth between birth parents and 5 different foster placements before parental rights were terminated and he was adopted at age 6. so there is one of the ways we came to this.....

[Chicken lady]

Edited to add: one of the things that makes it interesting is that in the same classes, I also have kids who will graduate early, attend Ivy League colleges, join the military, go to technical schools, or possibly have careers in the arts - based on the fact that they are with me because their rehearsal/performance schedule doesn’t fit with “school”. Some of my older kids are already working part time in chosen fields. Some are medically fragile. Some fit multiple categories.

[Teacher Terry]

CL: I am confused as to the purpose of this thread. Is it just to keep you accountable? It seems like in the past suggestions were not welcomed as things you intend to do are set in stone.

[Chicken lady]

It is to help me look at where I am spending my time and what impact different decisions have on that. To help me take an honest look. For example - currently exercising, losing marginal weight, more energy in the morning, feel like I have less at night. Not doing pottery. Marginal housework. Working on evaluations - which is an extenuating circumstance, but there is always an extenuating circumstance. Dh has been doing more cooking.

so I don’t so much want suggestions as observations and questions - suggestions tend to be based on other people’s experience “I find it easier to plan meals do all my shopping for the week on Tuesday. You should try that instead of all these stops after work” vs. “you seemed a lot happier about food when you were snowed in and scrounging for dinner. Could you use that experience to plan some weeks based mostly on staples and minimize your shopping?”

maybe be those two things sound the same to you, but they sound completely different to me, because my life experience makes “plan meals and do all your shopping” sound like a complicated and intricate challenge likely to result in hours of cooking and inevitable food waste. Whereas the second one is like “if I have potatoes, onions, eggs, noodles, rice, nuts, and beans, what’s the minimum I need to make 4 healthy meals?”

also, I just thought of the food thing while trying to give you an example. So, helpful question!

and then I got sidetracked talking about work....

i had 2 students today. Literally. 2. we don’t offer transportation.

[Chicken lady]

Today is a don’t exercise day. (Just go up and down the stairs at work a bunch of times)

after work I need to do a big grocery shop. I have a list of all the things we ran out of.

also, I need chicken breasts, broccoli, beets and Brussels sprouts. That will cover dinner for the rest of the week.

I realized this this morning that while I was having my vacation, laundry and dishes got completely out of control (I had to sort through a pile of clean laundry to find dh underwear)

key items for today:
chores
teach 4 classes
groceries
fire
dinner
laundry
dishes
chores
evaluations

in order by schedule/importance

[Chicken lady]

So, here is how this went:

chores - done
teach 4 classes - done
groceries - done and put away
fire - done
dinner - done
laundry - did enough to be good for tomorrow and Friday
dishes - did enough for tomorrow
chores - done
evaluations - nope.

tired and cooked, going to bed very soon and no evaluations will happen tonight. I’m not sure how that is going to turn out. (Worst case, they are late and I get my pay docked.)

i looked at my list for tolmorrow. I’m not going to post it. I’m not going to finish it either.

[Williamsmith]

CL, you might appreciate this.....my wife came home with a little more zip in her step today. She said she had a good day because so many of her students were out of class today she only had four. The rest were suspended! She said she walked past the Principles Office and stuck her head in, “Hey thanks for the gift today!”

[Chicken lady]

I understand your wife’s position, but for me, it just breaks my heart when they get suspended. I’m all about their parents taking some of them on vacations though!

here is what I got through today:
30 minutes on the exercise bike, build fire, breakfast, pack lunches, chores, charge phone (and remember phone), pack (and remember) swim bag, shower, wash a load of laundry, pick up packages at post office, load the school kiln, lunch duty, sub during my planning period, class, swim (and shower again), pick up forgotten/unavailable at store yesterday groceries, rebuild fire, put away groceries, dry laundry, cook easy dinner, partly unload dishwasher, eat, chores, 8 evaluations.


More dishes to do, food to put away, more evaluations to do, planning to do for classes tomorrow. Dh is setting up the coffee for me for morning. I’m thinking my best bet might be put food away and go to bed. Do the best I can on the other stuff in the morning.

[Chicken lady]

I had forgotten this thread. Two months later, very little has changed. I had a long list of things I wanted to accomplish on my break last week and have done only a couple.

what I have done is skip exercising all week, snack too much, mess up my sleep schedule, and gain 4 lbs. all in the name of “resting.” (There is a Bill Cosby skit about people getting wasted on the weekends and looking forward to Monday because “i’m no good on my own.”) the time change didn’t help.

this morning I set my alarm for 7 because I have been sleeping too late and having trouble going to sleep at night (dh was sick Th/f so I didn’t have to get up to make him breakfast) and i’m about to be on a schedule again.

i sat down with a fresh, hot cup of coffe, which I set on the tray dh has been using for a table on the arm of the couch. The tray is about 4” wider than the arm of the couch. The cat habitually jumps into my lap in the morning/for cuddles while I drink my coffee. This morning he tried to get there by way of the tray, overbalanced it, and soaked both of us, my bathrobe, and the couch cushion with scalding hot coffee. I just wanted to cry because I already have too much to do today (as always)

[Zoe Girl]

ahh, yes. This is a good thread. I took off work early yesterday and had a DR appointment. I HAVE done so many important thing, like buy cat food but wander the store for 30 minutes also, clean old food out of the fridge, crochet a lot under the impression I was preparing to teach my class, and pass 3 levels of Toon Blast! Dude some of those levels I had to try many times (you get a new life every 30 minutes up to 5).

What I didn't do was write a new resume and cover letter for a dream job, vacuum, do a few essential work tasks that were simple,

I will disagree on the Monday thing however, I have spend many weekends mildly ill from stress and exhaustion so I feel no guilt about some of my weekends.

[Chicken lady]

The Monday thing was an acknowledgement that in the absence of outside structure, I make decisions that are bad for me - like staying up too late and eating crap. I would never eat crap on a school day (until after 5) because the kids would see me.

i have done my chores, cooked a healthy breakfast to share with dh, started the dishwasher (including the last plastic drawer of the set that has been loitering in the garage for months), and started a fire. Next up, compost and laundry.

[Teacher Terry]

If all your time was unstructured you would learn how to manage it. I did once i retired. However, you have so many home tasks that I think you could easily fill your time productively.

[Tybee]

Good point about being home and structure, Teacher. I just finished 6 hours of teaching this morning--I routinely get up around six and work til I am done, and then start my "real" day, but that rough structure does remain, because it evolved into a way to do the unpleasant first and then get to do what I want to do. I do work on Saturdays as well as M-F, but go off around noon on Saturday so that I have some weekend.

[Teacher Terry]

Tybee, it sounds like your class is a lot more structured then mine or maybe you teach more then one class. All my lecture notes are online so I grade and then respond to emails, calls from students and post items to stay in touch with the students. I get on my class when I want too. I don't have to respond on weekends at all but I do anyways unless I am out.

[Tybee]

Yeah, I teach at two schools right now and have a load of four courses at once. But the work itself is as you describe, I just like to knock it out early, the check in again with students for emails later in the day, and trying to limit it to once or twice at most later in the day, as I tend to overwork.

[Chicken lady]

Compost, one load of laundry, found most of the paperwork for taxes, recycled a lot of paper.

[mschrisgo2]

CL, good for you! and great job on that recycled paper.

[Chicken lady]

Found ALL the tax paperwork and did my part of the taxes. Saved us $734 through good record keeping, so I feel pretty good about that.

[mschrisgo2]

Congratulations, CL! Indeed something to feel good about.

[Zoe Girl]

The Monday thing was an acknowledgement that in the absence of outside structure, I make decisions that are bad for me - like staying up too late and eating crap. I would never eat crap on a school day (until after 5) because the kids would see me.
.

Ahh got it, I have largely self-structured days. Just check the emails, make a list, get as much as I can done before the bell rings and then run programs for the kids. I decide when to start my day, and no matter how early it still seems not early enough. But you all know that.

I do pretty well with self structure, sometimes I wish for a little more outside structure that means I am actually finished with something! I am actually craving a job that you just show up to, work your tail off, and then leave it when you go home with reasonable assurance that you (and everyone else agrees) got the work done. Well I don't think there are that many jobs that pay well and are like that.

When I move on I realize that I have a tremendous amount of self discipline in some ways. Just think what I could do with it in the right context. When I was a stay home mom I sewed all the curtains (roman shades for 10 ft wide window), painted the interior of the house, made all my food from scratch including bread, built up a garden from rock hard soil, wrote daily and completed half a novel. So now to just see what are the factors in what I get done and don't. Went off on my own tangent there!

[Chicken lady]

Zoe girl, isn’t the part where you are running programs structured?

when I was a stay at home mom I read stories and made homemade play do and built blanket forts and played with brio trains and drew on the sidewalk with chalk and fed my kids peanut butter out of the jar and grapes off the bunch, and chunks of cheese and bread and raw veggies and then went off to the park with them leaving the books on the bed, the playdo all over the kitchen table, the train all over the living room floor, the chalk in the driveway, the blankets draped over the dining set, and the peanut butter and bread open on the counter. Then I forgot I was going to have to cook dinner and stayed at the park until everybody was hungry and tired.

Dh was basically the only grown up in the house for years. He would say he still is.

today I did chores and some laundry, cooked breakfast, got some things ready and in the car for tomorrow, and worked in my pottery studio on examples for class. I’m going back out to my studio in a minute.

tomorrow I have a schedule.
5:20 - up, coffee/reading/journal/internet
5:45 - pack lunch and make breakfast
6:30 - milking and chores, finish loading car and organize day
8:20 - go to food bank
11:00 - leave food bank early, stop at post office, drive into city for class I am taking, pick up a few items before class
1:00 - class
3:00 - class ends, options begin: continue work at class studio?, grocery store?, swim laps?, come home and work on stuff here? (At least an hour of driving at some point to get home)
make dinner
do chores
try to get to bed by 9:00

[Chicken lady]

I did all of the things on the schedule. I decided to come home by way of the grocery store and do some work here after class, but I got as far as restarting the dryer and putting the perishables away. Then I sat down to check my e-mail and the cat decided I need to be a cat pillow for a while.

“ Cat pillow” seems like a good break in the schedule.

[nswef]

Excellent CL.

[Chicken lady]

I did not get to bed by 9. I blame the cat.

[Float On]

I did not get to bed by 9. I blame the cat.

I tried for 9 too. The dog has a collapsed trachea and it was really bothering him last night....outside my bedroom window. He's too old to invest in surgery and cough syrup doesn't work any more. We may have to make decisions soon. Honestly surprised he made it through the winter.

[Zoe Girl]

I did not get to bed by 9. I blame the cat.

I did not go to bed on time, I blame finally setting up Amazon Prime video and Dr Who

[Chicken lady]

I have been pushing pretty hard and getting most of the th8ngs on my “today” list done every day. The items on my “soon” list get moved from day to day until they either become “today”, get picked off, or are abandoned.

i think I am doing better about not over-planning. I am definitely doing better about not over-planning my classes.

i was going to make ice cream mix tonight and freeze it in the morning, but I decided that my weight is up and I need rest and relaxation more than ice cream right now. I will put catching up with the milk on my list for the weekend.

[Chicken lady]

Also, I put my list in order. I just set up the list for tomorrow. An appointment scheduled for 8:30 in the morning is literally in the center of the list.

but the afternoon things are longer, like “swim” which takes the time to drive from work to the pool, change, swim, shower, dress, and drive home. Which matches the morning “pack swim bag” which is just refilling my travel shampoo, putting my bathing suit (which is hanging to dry overnight) into the bag, and tossing it in the car. Only morning chores take more than an hour.

[Chicken lady]

Yesterday I was sad because I couldn’t find the energy to do some of the things on my list that I thought were important.

but this morning, I set boundaries!

i met with the 4h kid I am mentoring for a goat project and his mom (and his “surprise, you don’t mind do you?” Little brother - well, gee, I guess not, the kid is already here, and i’m Sure an extra child who wants to touch everything and has no experience with animals won’t be a distraction, you go ahead and ignore him....) on Thursday.

the mentoree was cool to lukewarm about the project, but he has some characteristics that I know can make new experiences more difficult. Mom said the6 would get in touch with me about when this week they wanted to start.

on my list for today was to contact her to ask if the boy had changed his mind. But when I got up this morning, I had an e-mail from the mom sent at 11pm asking if they could come tonight at 7.

i have plans. They could easily be rescheduled, and if this was going to be the only decent weather day this week, I would probably reschedule them. But today is absolutely the worst possible day in the entire ten day forecast. Plus, 14 hours notice. (So she thinks she gave me 20, still bad.)

so i e-mailed back that I was sorry, but i generally needed more notice and I have plans.

her response was, “I understand. The only problem is...” reasons why tonight is the only night that works “maybe we should skip this week.” Lady, I am not here to enable you. I am not here to make decisions about your life and your kid. I am not even going to suggest that unless you just found out at 11 at night that all the rest of this stuff was unavoidable, it would have been a good idea to contact me sooner.

i just replied back with the days I am “currently” open next week.

yay me!

[Tybee]

Yesterday I was sad because I couldn’t find the energy to do some of the things on my list that I thought were important.

but this morning, I set boundaries!

i met with the 4h kid I am mentoring for a goat project and his mom (and his “surprise, you don’t mind do you?” Little brother - well, gee, I guess not, the kid is already here, and i’m Sure an extra child who wants to touch everything and has no experience with animals won’t be a distraction, you go ahead and ignore him....) on Thursday.

the mentoree was cool to lukewarm about the project, but he has some characteristics that I know can make new experiences more difficult. Mom said the6 would get in touch with me about when this week they wanted to start.

on my list for today was to contact her to ask if the boy had changed his mind. But when I got up this morning, I had an e-mail from the mom sent at 11pm asking if they could come tonight at 7.

i have plans. They could easily be rescheduled, and if this was going to be the only decent weather day this week, I would probably reschedule them. But today is absolutely the worst possible day in the entire ten day forecast. Plus, 14 hours notice. (So she thinks she gave me 20, still bad.)

so i e-mailed back that I was sorry, but i generally needed more notice and I have plans.

her response was, “I understand. The only problem is...” reasons why tonight is the only night that works “maybe we should skip this week.” Lady, I am not here to enable you. I am not here to make decisions about your life and your kid. I am not even going to suggest that unless you just found out at 11 at night that all the rest of this stuff was unavoidable, it would have been a good idea to contact me sooner.

i just replied back with the days I am “currently” open next week.

yay me!

It sounds to me like you are getting messages from your internal warning system to not work with this family. the kid is cool to the project, the mom annoys you, the little brother annoys you--why work with them at all?

[Chicken lady]

Because I think the project will be good for the kid. There is a contract that goes with the project (which we will both sign if they ever come back) and I am putting in there that either party can end it at any time at will. So if the kid doesn’t become interested, or if I don’t feel like he’s getting anything out of it, I can just say “this isn’t working for me.” I have no stake in the kid finishing the project (actually, I think it is unlikely and will probably not be done well if he does) - but if he completes any of it, that will be an accomplishment for this kid.

[herbgeek]

Aren't there kids who are just chomping at the bit to work with goats? Why use your limited energy on a situation that even you don't think has a successful outcome?

[Chicken lady]

Because this is the one who asked.

i think there aren’t a lot of people chomping at the bit to work with him.

From what I have seen so far, “Successful” for this kid this year will be if he learns to latch the gate properly on his own and becomes confident enough and developes enough of a relationship with the goat that he can snap the leash on and lead the goat out of my barn, around the yard, and back without help. If they make it into the ring at fair that will be awesome. If his mother doesn’t fill out his project book (not my problem, not in my control) that will be even better.

i don’t care about the project. I care about the kid.

[early morning]

That's a great thing to do, Chicken Lady. 4H + animals + kids with issues often = generally good outcomes. Some of our group-home kids (that's one of our lower levels of court-involved youth) from the inner city started a 4-H club and took chickens to the fair last year. Seeing these kids hauling their chickens around and talking with confidence to the "country" kids about their projects and animals was totally awesome. They shed their street personas and became - well, kids. It was amazing.

[Summer]

I managed to cook a traditional polish dish that mom taught me a long time ago. Didn't manage to cook it (and cook it well) since she passed away...

[Chicken lady]

Summer, that is cool that you got to have your dish.

i am still “managing” my too many things.

dh made me clean all my unfinished projects out of the new room yesterday. It made me grumpy. I think I need to not treat this room as a work space, except for very limited projects. Up side - I will spend less time in it and be farther from the snacks.

in the afternoon I got out to the studio and worked on some projects for the class i’m taking. Mostly because I was annoyed with him and wanted to be alone.

i am going to skip working at the food bank this morning. I feel a little bit bad about it, but I need more time alone at home to focus on some other things. I have been thinking about my “big rocks” they are: the farm, pottery, and teaching. I should be able to fit one or two of those into every day.

”middle sized” rocks are the 4h kid, the food bank, swimming and working on the elephant. I should be able to fit one or two of those into every day for a total of two or three.

housework and laundry and cooking and dishes and errands are small rocks. I need to stop planning around them.

[Chicken lady]

So, on reflection yesterday, my day can be partitioned into two big rocks and a middle sized rock, or one big rock and two middle sized rocks with more space for “ small rocks”

my plans tend to bend around dh on weekends. Mondays used to be my “day off” but now they are food bank - middle sized rock that uses a big rock time chunk, class - big rock, 4h kid - middle sized rock. Bonus if I get housework or an errand done. Wednesdays and Fridays teaching takes both big rock time chunks. Sometimes 4h kid comes on Wednesdays. Tuesdays and Thursdays teaching takes one big rock time chunk and I try to swim afterwards. Leaving me trying to do everything extra for the farm and pottery two mornings a week. Mornings I tend to get a slow start because there is no external pressure, i’m dealing with dh’s Unpredictable morning “routine” and i’m tired.

i have no solutions, but I think I have solved the mystery of why I have been feeling grumpy toward dh lately.

[Chicken lady]

Yesterday I got called in to sub and the pool was finally fixed, so two big rocks of teaching and a middle sized rock of swimming. Fit in two small errands and no housework, just routine farm chores. Today I teach all day plus an hour of tutoring (two big) and dh is taking me and Dd our to dinner, so that will be all.