The calendar is chocka, and it doesn't even include the regular stuff, or the stuff that I know I should be doing. (Heaven knows where I would find the time to work - but that's another story.)

I know everybody does this daily juggle of prioritising what to do and when. And I'm sure you have, either on paper, or mentally, a list of what you feel you should get through each day. I don't know about you, but every day I never, ever, get through everything that I think I should attempt. (Maybe I'm just unrealistic. Or lazy...?? Probably both.)

Even without a job - or in the case of today, on a weekend - there is always stuff that gets put off. Heck- I'm the master of "Why do today what you can put off till tomorrow." I just prefer to think of it as rescheduling. Or 'flexibility'. Hah.

I probably apply that flexibility mostly to not doing housework. But I was thinking about it specifically today when I realised that late this afternoon I couldn't do all three of the following: take the girls down to the beach; do up the crumbed chicken drumbsticks for dinner; and mow the yard.

What was I doing the rest of the day, you may well ask?

Well.. another bike ride - because doing that is important to what I/we are doing in 3 weeks time. [I got up at 5 o'bloody o'clock to go in to town to the community ride again - very chuffed with myself for doing so. 25km - it all adds up. ]

Then I went up to the netball courts - because I feel obliged to be there because of being on the committee. Alison had to be there for 2 hours for grading and special training. She got a lift there while I was finishing with the bike ride. I actually turned up there late - deliberately - because I put socialising for half an hour after the ride as a greater priority. Given recent events in that arena, I decided that my bike riding could be rated as more important than netball committee "obligations".

The afternoon? I was too stuffed to do anything because I got up so early! I even went and had a sleep! It is very rare for me to do that - though I'm finding it easier to do so after these bouts of getting up in the dark. [Funny how I feel invigorated for a couple of hours after that ride, but then wilt.]

And therefore it came down to the aforementioned dilemma. I also prefer to go to the beach in the late afternoon - it is too hot and 'burny' otherwise. If I was going to mow, I'd rather do it late afternoon as well when it was theoretically a bit cooler. And when it came down to prioritising between skinning and crumbing drumsticks and sleep, of course the sleep won out. Just call me slacko mum.

And of the big three? What would you choose?

The beach! Of course! I was spurred on by the plaintive request delivered earlier by middlest child (and family waterbaby), who, without quite saying so, managed to lay guilt at my feet for them only really getting to go to the beach with Dad, but Dad is away so much, so here it is, they live 200 m from the beach but we don't really go that often because their mother is a wuss about deciding where is the safest part of the (unpatrolled) beach to swim at and likes to leave that responsibility to the much smarter (in that department) Daddy, and that just really sucks, you know. So I chose the beach. Let's call it parent guilt.

We didn't go out far. Without the big brave daddy. But they caught waves with their boogie boards for a good half an hour. My very spoilt girls who don't realise what paradise they live in where they can catch waves with not another soul around them for hundreds of metres - nor how lucky they are to be able to just wander across to the surf for a dip, even if it doesn't happen as much as they'd like. When I was growing up in Sydney, a trip to the beach was a day-long epic - or what you did on your summer camping holiday.

The drumsticks are rescheduled till tomorrow. (I threw together a rather pathetic stir fry with 2 minute noodles.) The mowing is rescheduled till.. um... Monday...

Because tomorrow - Sunday - I have very guiltily farmed out the kids, and I am going on a BUG (Bicycle User Group) ride of about 40 something km, on dirt roads, with hills.. so it's very good training for the Big Ride. Doesn't stop me feeling guilty for asking favours of kids' friends' parents because my husband is away, therefore we can't do what we'd normally do. (ie. bike ride with the kids.) And guilty because I get all the weekdays (school swimming carnivals notwithstanding) as kid-free time, and here I am using these other working parents to get a Sunday off. The only thing that makes me feel ok is that Zoe's friends nan has offered to have her anytime because she is such a delight. And Ali's friend's mum said "absolutely". I will be stressing about returning the favour though. I am just like that.

And of course they think I'm a sandwich short of a picnic for choosing to go and ride a bike 40 odd k's as my child-free activity.

And the mowing, which could have been done on a Sunday, rates lower in the priorities.. so Monday morning it will have to be. But it can't wait till Marc gets home on Friday.. I will need a machete to get to the clothesline, and the front is that long it looks like an unkempt rental property...

It'll probably rain!

Labels: bike riding, daily, introspection, parenting