Timing

Maybe it's one of those things I can't change about myself - like my eye color or my height - but I am a terrible estimator of time.

Oh, sure, a girl can get color contacts and high heels, but that doesn't actually change anything for real. I can use clocks and timers and planners and calendars (or my husband's Blackberry), but it won't erase the fact that I am incapable of a) telling how much time has passed b) how much time a given activity will require and c) starting things in enough time to finish at a reasonable hour...meal prep, bed time routine, sewing projects...

However!

My darling and talented husband has an impeccable internal chronometer. And after all these years of hanging around each other, he is starting to rub off on me. Which is not to say I am getting better, but that I am setting up time-usage safeguards as he has (gently) recommended them.

Yesterday, this meant that I started dinner at 4:30.

A little side note: It kills me to devote that much time out of my life to meals (planned, shopped for, prepared, cooked, served, eaten, cleared up), but I love my family, and they need to eat, so I have adjusted.

Starting food prep so early meant that food was actually done and ready to eat before my husband and oldest son had to walk out the door for Young Men's weekly activity at Church.

It has to be the first time in ages. Personal victory. As an added plus, it was food everyone wanted to eat, so there was no whining.

I am grateful for timing, and for the chance to get a little better at having good timing ... as opposed to terrible timing. I am grateful for a husband who is patient with the fact that he may come home after six o'clock in the evening, to find us all on the floor in the living room, playing and totally oblivious to the fact that it's after four. I am grateful for all of my chronological crutches that keep me from offending friends and alienating family, and allowing me to function in a time-sensitive society. I'm also really grateful that everyone ate their dinner. Because I would have been a little irritated if I had worked since 4:30 only to be told it was disgusting.

What are you blessed with today?