Household CEO Indeed

I'm not sure how we managed before.  I guess there were a lot of things that we just didn't do in the past.  Since we moved to Charlotte I have spend every day managing our house, running errands and generally managing things for everyone else.  If you've been reading this, you know that I am having an identity crisis because I don't have a "job".

So, thinking that I have all this time on my hands, since I don't have to show up at an office at 8am, I decide to take this journey to find out what is missing.  I keep planning to do things every day and at the end of the day they didn't get done.  All of a sudden I was beating myself up because I was letting time slip away from me.  Without a place to go to do my own thing...it just doesn't get done.  I needed structure...I needed to see in black and white (okay green, orange, purple and red) where I spent my time.

I opened the iCal on my Mac (which I've never used) and started time blocking.  An hour in the morning for exercise, two hours for taxes, an hour to take the dogs to the vet, thirty minutes for a kennel evaluation, thirty minutes for the tree guy, an hour to find contractors to fix the other things that are going wrong in the house, four hours to go to the home show and get ideas for the outdoor space we want to build and an hour for the grocery store.  Each day looks something like this and each day is FULL!

Uh oh, though, I didn't put on the schedule the hour it takes to get ready in the morning, or the time that it takes to make the beds, unload the dishwasher and throw in a load of clothes.  Uh oh, I need to call my mother and see how she is doing...she had a little procedure early this week.  That will take an hour because we never have short conversations.  As long as I am at it I should check on Mark's mother.  I haven't talked to her in awhile and I know she is lonely.  Oops, just got an email from our realtor who is trying to help us resolve some issues.  She asked me to call her.  All of those "off calendar" things added up to another 3 hours.

Okay, so it is a 14 hour day to run this household.  That is just an example of one day but they all seem to be going this way.  As you can see, I didn't even put time to eat, breathe or take care of anything else personal!  That adds another hour to my day all together.

Our lives must have been much simpler in the past.  We didn't have 8 hours a week of kid's ballgames.  Mark's job was demanding but nothing like it is today.  I'm working on making our lives run smoother.  But, in the meantime I wonder where I can pencil in "finding myself".  I also, look at this list and wonder if I have started "finding myself" without even realizing it!!