Missing in Action in Bond Head

By Belinda

Just in case anyone thinks I've vanished from the earth, no, I am still here. I have just been working hard at things other than writing since I got home from England. And hoping that all of the ideas dancing about in my brain don't vapourize the moment I sit down to write. 

To show for my efforts at non-writing things I have six clean downstairs rooms and only two messy ones (this is a rare occurrence, I'm afraid.) Let's not talk about upstairs; but the ones below that are spotless look so beautiful that I am inspired to conquer the rest of the messy kingdom that is our home with the same zeal that overtook me when taking on the first ones.

What came over me? You might well ask! Well, a couple of things:

One of them was the fact that while we were away, we engaged the services of our daughter-in-law Sue, who is an incredibly good painter, to paint our massive entrance hallway and three of our rooms; more on that tomorrow, I hope. But, coming home to freshly painted rooms meant putting them back in order, hanging pictures etc. etc..

The second thing was that on the way home from England, we encountered one of those airport check-in staff who are sprinkled randomly among the sensible ones, and who think their job is to torture travelers with insanely silly, senseless rules and apply them rigidly. This meant that  our hand luggage which I had been sure was within the allowable weight, had to be rearranged and purged of every ounce over the 5 kilos we were apparently allowed. 

I remained steadfastly pleasant. No good could come of anything else, since I knew that she thought she was being conscientious and that we were really a health and safety hazard. Thank goodness that Paul held back from expressing his feelings; she has no idea what she missed. We were eventually saved by one of her colleagues saying that, "Oh, no, laptops don't count in the weight," and reassuring her that she would be quite okay to allow us on board with what we had left.  

However in the temporary pandemonium that had me shoving whatever I could into the front zippered compartments of the cases going in the cargo hold, I included one of the books that I intended to read on the plane journey.

This meant that when I finished the other book I was reading and discovered that I was out of reading material with four long hours stretching ahead of me, I stood up, retrieved my laptop from the overhead luggage compartment--and made myself a new schedule.

For some reason Brenda found this so hilarious that she said, "Mom, I'm telling my friends at work about this. My mom made herself another schedule. Ha ha ha!" 

"Well," I told her, "Laugh on my daughter, because my new schedule is different to all of my previous ones!" Those who know me well, know that I never give up hope of managing time better.:)

But this time I actually got real. By that I mean that there were no more illusions. I put in my non-negotiables first, including the amount of sleep I need. Then the necessary things--and to my shock when I did it that way for once, rather than trying to cram in everything I want and hope to do; there was no time for those things on a week day. In fact, after sleeping; doing basic hygiene (admittably that takes a long time;) time in prayer; exercise; cooking; eating; traveling, paid work, and writing for one hour for pleasure, there is no time left to clean or study or do anything else.

So I decided that Saturday has to be a work day like the rest, only a housework day--and Sunday, blessed Sunday, is Sabbath and that is when I embrace the gift God gave us in fellowship with friends and family and rest.

So I'm actually doing less, but I'm busier than ever because I now realize how little time I truly have--if that makes any sense. Laugh along with me because I realize how wacky this sounds. But wait until I show you a bit of what I've done tomorrow. Over and out for now--I'm late for bed. :)