Two For Tuesday!

Coffee in whatever damn mug is clean. Looks like New York. I hate our dishwasher! "Jessica" (the long version) by the Allman Brothers on iTunes. And just how long is it? Long enough to go to the bathroom, wash my hands, find a clean mug, pour coffee and two flavors of coffeemate into it, stir it all, get settled back in the chair with the laptop and type this far with lots of typos and corrections necessary because there has been no coffee yet. It's exactly THIS long.

Yesterday's post finally made it to the world this morning so it's a Two For Tuesday! I had another epiphany to add to yesterday's...

Don't you just love life? I am just beginning to write about an epiphany and Dave comes in to tell me that the front pond is almost empty. Now that that crisis has been dealt with I am back and completely derailed. Okay, epiphany. Oh yes, what life and schedules SHOULD be.

In the past when I have taken time out of my "work day" to do something for Jessie, or something around the house--speaking of which, it's Tuesday, garbage day, got to everything out to the curb. BRB...

So where was I? Oh yes, taking time out for things. Whenever I have taken an hour in the work day for something "non-work" I have felt obliged to make up that hour later. Do the math. There are only so many hours in a day and with this kind of ethos you rapidly run out of hours. Stress happens. The problem comes about by thinking of it as "non-work". It isn't non-work, it's just as essential for life as that which is designated as "work". Just because there is no monetary remuneration, no revenue generated by the activity doesn't diminish its worth, necessity, importance and shouldn't mean that it's non-work and needs to be "made up" later.

So I'm going to try something new. In addition to the weekly cycle, I am going to add a daily cycle. There is a portion of the day from, oh say, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm that is designated as work time. Anything I do in that time that is not pure recreation for me (reading a book in the sky chair is a good example) counts as work, and I am allowed to feel good about what I accomplish in a day if I stay on track and "work" all day. No more feeling bad because a load didn't get fired because I drove for a school field trip instead. Life isn't about money--everyone who makes a living in the arts and crafts industry knows that already--and work shouldn't be about it either. Work is that which we do to make our lives and the lives of those around us better. If I needed to associate money with every minute of my day I would have been a lawyer and billed by the minute.

Yesterday, in addition to firing two kiln loads, Work included taking Sophie and Jessie for pre-wedding pedicures and manicures (I got one of each too). Today, Work is another two kiln loads, a lot of pieces cut and ground, the project for my first magazine article cut and fired, tasking Sophie with an evaluation of sales performance over the past four years, taking Sophie, Jessie and Jessie's friend Rachel to Wendy's for lunch at the mall food court before seeing Shrek 3, and then hosting a wading-pool playdate for Jessie and Rachel this afternoon. Even if I don't get all that done, I can count it as a successful day as long as those are the things I am doing all day. And how cool is it that my "job" requires me to see Shrek 3?