Funny, I was in a workshop today (to get required continuing education credits for a professional credential) and I ended up working up several "schedule scenarios" to try to fit in all that I want and need to do. No, that was not part of the workshop agenda!

I don't want to come up with some schedule that I can't keep and then feel like a failure for not being able to stick to it. So I'm trying to be realistic in balancing it all. There's work, can't let that drop because I need to eat and pay my bills. Then there's cycling, and I'm trying to do MORE of that and not less...there's my house projects, which I only do on the weekends, and then there's my garden, which is my salvation and my peace, so I'm not going to give that up. Oh, and I do have to take my dog out for two long walks per day or he goes apesh-t. And since he's a border collie, I also should teach him a new trick every week and work on it for 15 minutes per day to keep his mind occupied...how about the trick of making me dinner? But I wouldn't give him up.

There's the cleaning and the cooking and the shopping. I love to cook, and you gotta shop if you're going to cook. I don't particularly like cleaning but I do like having a clean and neat house. A house cleaner is not currently in the budget, so I have to do it myself.

Then there are the things that I want to do: play my music, knit, keep up with my French, learn Spanish, and a few other interests.

My solution is to do what's important every day (work, eat well, exercise, walk the dog) and the rest I fit in during the week. Yes, it would be best for my music if I practiced every day, but it ain't happening and I'm not a pro so that's okay. Same for the languages. Sometimes my house is messy. Sometimes my laundry doesn't get folded.

I've come to realize that I don't have to be perfect at everything. It only took 42 years!