In less than two months, I’ve learned a few things about having all this extra time now that both of my daughters are in school five days a week:

• Everyone I talk to thinks about how much time they have, don’t have, how they could use it better, how best to manage it;
• Because I allow myself time for tasks that previously fell much lower down on my priorities list, I’m more busy than before both girls were in school;
• My too-busy is stressful, but it’s at a more mindful pace than when I had at least one kiddo with me most of the time;
• The chronic health issues I’ve dealt with over the years might have been expressions of the physical and emotional stress that came with trying to make a living while single parenting non-school-age children (tbd);
• Having time available to contemplate how to best manage my time is a significant improvement in my life;
• I think about—I’m an introvert in the extreme, so I don’t act on this much—having a personal life beyond the survival level;
• Self-care is rising on my priorities list.

Anxiety over finances has me considering a new no groceries challenge. With 3-5 school lunches x2 each week it would be a much more significant challenge. Perhaps a modified version…
(Just a “checking in” blog post to stop the darned spammers from thinking this site is inactive!)