Remember the ripped jeans incident and my decision to not go back home to change, but rather saved my personal time and bought new clothes instead? I must have been thinking ahead to when I really needed to tap into those two personal hours. I hate to think how I would be handling the taxi schedule, pick-up drop off, push to get dinner, and then out the door schedule I had yesterday, and still get the sleep I desperately craved without cashing in two hours. I left work at 3:15, to get DD#2 picked up at school, home, changed, and then to her violin lesson. These are days when my long commute is not a friend as I still was hitting the front end of rush hour. A quick peruse of things that needed to be signed, paid for, and returned to her, the three of us, including DD#1 grabbed a quick bite, and then headed to the high school to drop her off for her orchestra concert. Then it was to park, and get in line for tickets. Four sections of musicians later, I was gathering her up and heading back home.
DH, my brother and sister-in-law had met us there, but not much time for chatting. By the time we were home, heated water up, had a tea and hot chocolate, it was nearing 9:00. The musician still had homework to do and I had the choice of starting up the computer and working for a couple hours, preserving my personal time, or doing what my body was saying, and go to bed early. I let the Zzzz's have it. I chose wisely, and now am up this morning having had nearly eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. Nearly because for some reason, pup has a 6th sense that tells him that when I go to bed early, I should be woken up with paws to my face for a middle of the night potty outing.
I am salary so technically, I could flex back that time in the next pay period, which starts today, but having had last Friday off, and with next week being a holiday week and DS home, I don't want to work longer. While no one is watching the clock, I have always believed that if employees want their employers to treat them with respect, the same needs to be given in return, so I will tap into the leave. Isn't that what personal hours are for?
Speaking of personal leave, a dear friend, and past coworker of more than twenty years together shared she is going to be a Grandma. She made the decision that she will negotiate with her employer for a reduced schedule, in lieu of other benefits she doesn't feel she needs any longer in order to be there one-two days a week as needed to help her family out. Interesting in that she was actually the manager that hired me for my first managerial job at previous company, but I ended up being her boss a decade later. She had made the decision much sooner than I that when the demands of the job started creeping into her personal life, she was going to slow down the craziness, and chose to stay lateral in her job. Much of my past work has drizzled onto her plate, and she feels she has some good leverage and collateral to negotiate a new more work friendly schedule. I'll keep my fingers crossed for her.
Time to come clean and share my success and fails in this quest for balance, intentionality, and purpose. Moderation is my tool. There are crossovers in some of the categories of time, money, exercise, and food. This post serves no value for you the reader, but it is keeping me honest. My apologies.
Time:
I did a much better job tackling the daily mess of life, and woke up on Saturday morning with no leftover dishes, pots, pans or other clutter from the night before in the kitchen. I balanced a few extra hours in at work due to some aggressive time lines, had to leave early one afternoon to taxi the off spring, but balanced that with a few easy meals to make up the time difference like frozen pizza one night, and a spinach salad with leftover chicken another. DD#2 had two soccer games, practice, and a violin lesson last week, so there was a lot of running, but I timed a few errands with that running. I did binge watch a bit on Sunday night, since it was a rainy evening, and watched back to back movies. They were both Norwegian films, so gave a little homage to my maternal grandfather's homeland. I would recommend both, though Head Hunters was quite dark and violent, a bit far fetched, but an interesting story. The other, which starred the same Norwegian actor, was based on real events that occurred, or may have occurred this way, from the oil boom off the Norwegian coast, titled Pioneers. I can easily get sucked into watching hours of foreign films.
Money:
I passed on buying a full priced dress slip at Target the other day. While I do need a new one, it wasn't quite what I wanted, but the only style they had in my size. I decided to continue to make due with my separate camisole and half slip until I find what I want, or there is a sale, or both. I packed a lunch 3 of 5 days this week, had a working lunch which was provided on Wednesday, and then shared a wrap sandwich with a colleague on Friday. I don't regret the purchased lunch because it was the result of walking with a new coworker over to the local Target deli, and we were able to have a good get to know you conversation. They sell half wraps, but didn't have any left in the case, but did have a full one, so we decided to split, my treat. It was a better deal as a half wrap was $2.50, but full just $4.00. this meant I wasn't tempted to eat both halves.
I caved on Tuesday and not only ate a crappy breakfast sandwich for Burger King, I paid $2.16 for it with a cup of coffee. I also bought a novel at the dollar store when I stopped for envelopes and greeting cards. It looked like a pretty good book, but I probably could have got it from the library. We also passed on paying full price for movie tickets to see the new Jurassic Park movie that opened on Friday. It will be the same movie on Tuesday when tickets are $2 cheaper, and we get free popcorn through our movie rewards card. Someone could argue that it will be cheaper yet when it comes out on video in 6 months-but this is Jurassic Park. No arguments.
Exercise:
I continue to build in more steps into my days, but intentional exercise has been a bust. This is an area that must improve if I am going to shift some of these pounds.
Food:
This was probably my most successful category in embracing moderation. I increased my fresh fruit and vegetable consumption, but still allowed myself some pasta and bread. I made sandwiches with just one piece of bread, and for breakfast kept the cereal bowl to an actual serving, or only one slice of toast or half a bagel. With eating whole fruit, as opposed to drinking juice, I was adequately nourished for the morning. An alfresco pasta dinner on Friday night, accompanied with a few cocktails was my big indulgence, but I ate lighter earlier in the day, and on Saturday morning (other than to taste my onion marmalade) stuck to low fat and sugar yogurt and a banana for breakfast. I indulged in 6 Oreo's on Thursday night, but honestly, after having them, I didn't really feel temptation, until my daughter made some chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. I kept myself to enjoying just one each day on Saturday and Sunday-moderation.
Anyone else out there practicing your own version of moderation? What trade offs have you made in seeking balance?
