Time Take 3

So half the hours of my week is taken up with work and sleep. The key is how to make the most of the rest of the available hours. When I spend the other half of my time only on the things that need to get done - the laundry, the running around, the grocery shopping - I feel tired. If however, some of the things I do involve things I love - playing with the kids, writing, reading - I feel rejuvenated. So I took a close look at how I spend the rest of my time.

• 7% Writing. Some weeks it's more, some it's less, but I try to write every morning for at least an hour before the kids wake up. Recently it's been more as I whip a manuscript into shape.
• 7% Reading. I've been terrible in January and haven't properly cracked a book since Christmas which is very odd for me. Usually I read every evening between 8pm and bedtime. It's a family activity - even the dog and cat seem to enjoy sitting around the living room with no sound except the turning of pages.
• 5% Exercise. Yeah, this is more of a should do than an actual do. I do get a 20 min walk/ski with the dog every morning, another 20 min walk most lunchtimes, and Anna has challenged me to run the 10K Terry Fox Run with her in September, so I'm theoretically in training for that in the evenings. (This is more likely to actually happen when it stays light a little bit longer.)
• 15% Together time. We're good at this one. It's everything from our weekly Friday night Movie & Pizza night, to our Saturday Play Day (which has been super easy between snowboarding and snowshoeing).
• 13% Misc. Ok, it can't all be fun. There's carting the kids around to cubs, karate, ski school. Someone still has to grocery shop, and meals must still be made and the dishes put away. It's not all doom and gloom because although weekday meals are pretty basic, I love cooking in general, and the kids are all experts in the kitchen too. Basic cleaning is also in this category, although since hiring someone to come in 4 hours a week, this is no longer the chore it used to be, which frees me up for more of all the fun stuff.

I didn't make any New Year's Resolutions. I never do. But if there's one thing to remind myself of it is this: to do things that bring joy, and to do them as often as possible.