Where has the time gone?

So much for my good intentions of keeping everyone updated on my life. Here's a quick snapshot of where my family is at right now: Ashley and Alex are 2 weeks into their senior year of high school. They get up at 5 am for a 6 am class at church, then go to school from 8 to 2. On Mondays they stay after school for student council and get home around 4:45. On Wednesdays they finish their regular classes at 12:10 then stay after school for a community college class which ends at 4:15. Thursdays they have drama club after school, and that will soon extend to most days of the week when rehearsals for the school play start. Ashley is going to be the stage manager, and Alex is not sure if he will be involved in the play or not. Alex is trying out for soccer at the school they would attend if they weren't at the charter school. We don't know yet if it will work with his schedule, but he wants the coach to see him play before he tells him he can't practice on Wednesdays and we have a couple vacations planned during the season.

Rick has been busy, as usual, with work. Business has picked up a little in the past few months. He's gone from 7 am to 5 pm most weekdays.

I sit at home trying to figure out what to do with all the free time I should have. And oh yeah, I'm busy looking for that free time. I'm working (from home) a couple hours a day. I've been burned out on this job for the past year so I let a lot of things slide and I'm finally feeling motivated to catch up. Ok, it's not my dream job, but where else can I set my own schedule, work in my pajamas if I want (I don't, but I could), and get paid very well for my time?

During those other hours of the day I'm trying to get caught up on all the projects I thought my kids would help me with over the summer. Turns out we all just wanted to play. Most of the projects involve cleaning and organizing. I need to conquer the pile of paperwork in my office, which also happens to be my family room. I could move a lot of it to the den, but first I need to clean out the closet in the den. It's full of file boxes that need to be sorted and stored somewhere, maybe the garage? But the garage is full, I can't even park in it. Partly because I have a stack of door trim waiting to be painted. I have to wait for nice weather to paint in the garage - not too hot or too cold. But when the weather is nice I should be doing yard work. We're trying to clear out all the flower beds and start over. See why I can't clean my office?

I'm also looking for some hobbies to fill my time in a year when Alex and Ashley are at college and I really do have some free time (I know, I'm kidding myself). I worked my way through an online photography class and actually learned how to use some of the settings on my simple camera, but I've come to realize that I'm not going to love photography, at least not in the near future. Ashley and I went on a sewing spree this summer, inspired by a blog we ran across called 21 Dresses in 21 Days. We set a smaller goal of 5 skirts in 5 days, and actually only accomplished 2 skirts in 1 day. One more skirt is in progress and should be done in the next couple of days, right after the shorts that I'm almost done with. Ashley is no longer helping me since she's so busy with school, but she said she wouldn't mind if I did her share of the sewing. I think sewing could be a good hobby for me. I keep thinking about learning to do freezer meals, where you cook one day a week or so then every night just pull something out of the freezer. I actually like to cook, but I hate deciding what to have for dinner. Everyone else in my family hates it too. No matter how much I've tried I haven't been able to delegate that chore to anyone.

Well that's about it for my life. Rick is in Reno this weekend with his Dad and brothers, Alex is at soccer conditioning, Ashley is at a friend's house working on a school project, and I'm sitting at home, looking at my messy desk, and wondering if it will ever be clean.