Longing for Simpler Days

Do you ever find yourself at the end of the day Sunday wondering where your weekend went? Or worse? Going into the weekend feeling overwhelmed at all that has to take place during those two prescious days off?

My husband and I both work full time. And sometimes we can find outselves with a lot of stuff that needs doing on the weekends. I admit we don’t get enough chores done during the week. I always have aspirations to do more but my hobbies and pet projects usually get my attention instead – I opt for a workout instead of tidying my kitchen or blogging instead of vaccuuming.

But what happens, is we end up with the lion’s share of chores needing doing on the weekend. It sometimes feels like we don’t have much time for fun.

Now, part of our challenge is that mini-man still naps, so we have a 2 hour chunk during the middle of each day where we can’t plan on being anywhere. But we’re not very good at using that time wisely either. I don’t know… maybe we’re just lazy. I find the running around shopping and errands of a Saturday morning lead me to want to chill out during that coveted noon naptime rather than, say, scrub my toilet bowl.

To keep the quality in our lives, we try and do one fun thing as a family each weekend, if only for a couple of hours. Sometimes we’ll go swimming, or we’ll go to a park, or an indoor play area when the weather’s bad. There’s storytime at the local library, or even just playing a round of Wii Bowling. I think it’s more important to spend time together than it is that your home is just so.

Having my son in daycare every day gets me down sometimes. He’s there 9 hours each day Monday through Friday, and sadly, we couldn’t live in the community we do – where I grew up and grew to love – if I quit my job to stay home with him… or my husband did. But sometimes I long for a simpler life.

Just yesterday I found myself wanting to pack up and move.

In the meantime, however, I remind myself of how blessed I am to have a good job in this current world, to live in a beautiful community in a great city, to be happily married with a beautiful son… to have a loving and helpful extended family. And while I do find myself longing for simpler days, I still hold out hope that one day I’ll find that beautiful place of balance.

Lost in busy-ness

extranoise on Flickr

Photo: extranoise on Flickr

This week, being Thanksgiving and a short work week, was super busy. Not only that, but I didn’t even get to doing half of what I’d hoped to do.

Election Tuesday

My cold has still been kicking my behind, particularly at night – I’m still coughing like crazy (it’s all very attractive), and so I didn’t go to my kickboxing class Tuesday evening. Instead, I left work early to cast my vote and then went for a walk around my neighborhood to take photos for Urban Shore. I then after mini-man was in bed, I watched the Canadian election results to find that we have managed to elect pretty much the same government we did last time.

Fellowship Wednesday

Wednesday after work, big-man and I went to a home church group for our Passport – Life in the Kingdom study we’ve been doing. It was really nice to get into a small group again; it’s been a long time since we’ve participated in one. I’m reminded of how important fellowship is to a Christian’s spiritual journey. Just hanging out with other believers is super encouraging and I’m always surprised (though really I shouldn’t be) to find out everyone is just as messed up as we are.

Social Thursday

Thursday after work I attended Ideas On Tap at the Yaletown Brew Pub. It was very loud and crowded. I’ve become quite the home body myself, opting to spend time in more intimate settings whenever possible. It was decent, though. I met a few nice people and had a chance to chat again with some people I’ve come to know over the last few months. It was interesting hearing what everyone is working on, but I’m still shocked at how many technology folks are developing tools because they can and pitching them to business rather than taking a business problem and solving it first. Their way means they first have to convince the business owner/manager that they have a problem and then show them how they can solve it; the latter just means they present a solution to a problem everyone already recognizes… way easier. But anyway, it was pretty fun. I might not go every month, but I could go again.

TGI Friday

Today at work I had a great day. I had a nice meeting with my rep from Canwest about integrating more online advertising into my TV and print mix; spent a bunch of time working with my other team members on a huge presentation regarding the bottled vs. tap water debate; and reviewed a bunch of ideas for mobile marketing and mobile web development that I’m working on. It was, well, a Friday… and fairly relaxed today. I did, however, get to hear all about my boss’ trip to India to participate in Habitat for Humanity. He just got back yesterday and his stories were pretty mind-blowing. He told of a class system very much alive and well and children playing in sewage. I would have had a very hard time with that, I admit.

I’m glad it’s the weekend. I can get on with some more blogging; I am leading worship at my church this weekend (and, thus, a rehearsal Saturday and 6 hours of church on Sunday) and get to spend time with my family. It seems life keeps getting busier and busier. As it does, it’s important to spend time on the people that matter most.