Maximizing Your Minutes

Just to be clear. A day off is not necessarily a vacation day. But, as far as productivity goes, it was a good thing I had the day "off."

My ETD (estimated time of departure) from the house was 11:15 a.m. No, that did not entail sleeping in. That just meant I had things to get done on the homefront while I was, well, home. Then it was go time. I had to maximize my minutes to get everything done.

I did manage to get the sweeping, dusting and vacuuming finished before leaving on my errand run. That involved several stops: dropping hubby off at an establishment for "lunch" with the Armory boys, then delivering an Advent calendar in town, stopping off at school to drop off an envelope Carter forgot on the kitchen table this morning, dropping off a few household items at Goodwill, doing a fact-gathering mission at the cell phone store, then getting milk and pickles for Thanksgiving dinner (my remaining two items!).

By the time I got home, it was time go get hubby, run him home, start on some basement cleaning then go get Carter from school. Let me tell you. By 5:30, I felt no guilt sitting down and watching back-to-back Hallmark movies I'd DVR'd. No ice cream (this time) but they were enjoyable nonetheless. It was good to have a few minutes of down time.

I have to remind myself that maximizing your minutes does not always mean squeezing the most into each one, but making the most of each of them.

Today marks 6 months since my dad passed away. At times it feels like years since I've seen him. Then other times, like this morning when I realized the significance of the date, I feel like it just happened and I shed some tears.

I miss him. Want to see him. Want to hear him talk silly. Want to feel his firm hugs.

I am also saddened by his absence. And by the fact that I did not maximize my time with him. Sure, I saw him at the end. But he was so sick. That was not good quality time. I regret that I didn't see the need to make our relationship more of a priority early on. When there would have been better minutes to maximize.

But we all make mistakes, right? The point is to learn from them.

I am keeping in much better contact with my mom now. I'm not making the 4-hour trek up to see her any more often, but we talk on the phone regularly. Part of it is to check up on her and part of it is to just let her know I care. My whole family does. At the end of each call, she says how much it means to hear from me. I could say the same.

Thankfully, God gives us more minutes to make things right.