I have an interesting relationship with time.  It has always been something that I never quite got a handle on.  It is flexible in its concept, in the sense that doing something I don’t like to do seems to take longer then it actually does (for me that would be sorting laundry to put away.  It is a twenty minute job, but I will put it off for days because it seems to take so long to finish), but doing something I love, I lose complete sense of time passing.   Time is not flexible in reality.   I understand time’s inflexibility in my frantic need to be punctual (usually arriving way too early).  When planning things, I always believe there is more time then there truly is.

I don’t think I am alone in underestimating the amount of time there is in a day to the amount that I want/need/expect to accomplish.  I frequently start my day with a list; walk dog, exercise, water garden, baking, feed children at regular intervals…the daily stuff.  Then the weekly stuff goes on the list; library, market, groceries, laundry…as well as the seasonal things; picking fruit, canning, packing/unpacking for camping.  Finally comes the projects.  This year my projects have been this webpage, planning a trip to Scotland, and gutting and redoing my children’s room.  Lots of time to accomplish all these things.  Until there is a deadline.

I want to have everything done in my kids’ room before I go to Scotland.  That is two months away, lots of time.  Then I start thinking about all the parts of the things that have to be done (finish installing the walls and ceiling, filling the nail heads and gaps, buying and installing the trim, plaster repair and finishing, painting, ceiling fixtures, moving the furniture back in…) plus I am still figuring out the details that go into planning a big trip …and then…and then…come the running out of time train wreck.