All in a day's fun

The reason I was hoping to pack all my chores and errands to do in the three mornings Ben's in school, was so that I could devote the other two days that Ben has no school, to doing more stuff with him or taking him out. I haven't got round to scheduling any playdates for him, the way Jon gets time with his schoolfriends three times a week after schoolhours, not just with soccer, but recently also chess, chess being a new activity he enjoys that we've added on, all at no stress to him, albeit some cost to us, and more to fit into our schedules.

But it's OK, I've come to realised. Ben and I could just go on doing what we've been doing all along, before he started school. Peppering our days with fun activities to do together, as and when, amidst my never-ending housework.


It doesn't have to be a full day that's chore-free, and besides, cooking and laundry alone are things that can never be neglected, even if those were the only things I had to do.

And like I've always said, it doesn't take much to light up a child's face. It's not so much the quantity, but quality of time we spend with him or her, to do the things he or she likes.


I guess I just need to be more focused, and not try and over-multitask.

A supermom I am not, but I would be crazy enough to try and fit something like this to hopefully do all of it, in under 3 hours:

• go to the supermarket, and then head back home to unload everything, and
• before I have a chance to pack away the meat into my various denominations,
• I would be running off to go sort out our laundry to dump into the washer in the basement first.
• And then, I would turn on my computer to check my mail, and if by some chance, I still
• have time to run back down to the basement, to transfer the clothes into the dryer. That's if the washing cycle's even done, before I have to fly out of the house again to fetch Ben!
• Oh, and better yet, if I can find some time to marinade the meat to cook for the next two meals, somewhere amidst all that.
• And if not the supermarket, then, cleaning the house (vacuum, mop...), and all of the above.

But this week, for the two mornings so far that Ben had school, I decided to do just ONE thing. That photobook, that little project I'd set out for myself to do, like an ad-hoc hobby, to meet the Winkflash deadline!

I reasoned that there was just so much burning the midnight oil and fussing over photos I should do in the dead of the night. Besides my panda eyes, I also need to stay alert to drive in the day.

It helped that I wasn't overly ambitious, unlike that first photobook where I had to sift through thousands of pictures to pick under 200 of them. This time round, I went for our pictures from more than two years ago, that numbered only the hundreds. And just as well too, because otherwise, I would not have got round to sorting them out.

So yes, it was more manageable than that first attempt, not to say it wasn't without any glitches, what with how pretty basic the Winkflash software was. The program would keep hanging on me, just when I'd done up a page, and photos I'd laid out got jumbled up, garbled, several times.

But because I didn't try and fit in too much to do in that short 2+ hours, per session over those two days, my photobook is good to go! Yay! And a little ahead of the deadline for the promotion.

I just have to plan better, and be more realistic, right?

That's all for now, and enough blogging for the day. I'm going to chew on other things... while the night is young, and it's nice that Ben didn't take over an hour to fall asleep tonight! Oh yah! Oh yah! (Yes, yes, that's still Ben's favourite catchphrase)!