Friday, March 29, 2019

Hobby pruning


I promised myself that if I did some paper sorting I could do a new blog post.

Remember hobbies? When I got married I swore I would never let myself forget how busy I was when I was single. And by that I mean look down on unmarried men and women as if they had lots of free time on their hands. We all have plenty to keep us busy. And who made it a virtue to be busy, anyway?

But, I will say that I was SHOCKED to open up all my old notepads and skim through them. Detailed notes from sermons, grammar from studying several languages (mainly Greek, French, and Italian) for FUN as well as formal Russian courses. Notebooks full of Bible passages and questions that I had written down meticulously. A Calligraphy instructional guide along with several pages of my attempts. And of course there were all the notes from lesson planning for teaching English, and different ministry projects I was involved in.

Although looking at the notes made me jealous of my past self as if I had lots of free time, I know that isn't necessarily true. Obviously I had the time to study some subjects on my own, but I might have done that by waking up earlier, or using the time in the late evening. Although there was blogging and Skype, I managed to find time for other pursuits. And I was my own master, setting my own schedule.

It's interesting to think about why people have less time for study when they get married and/or have children. I think for one thing, there is always the possibility of work being interrupted. It may take longer to shut out distractions, and someone could need something at any moment. Our brains also fill up with the tasks that go along with caring for other people in the household. Intellectual (emotional? mental?) fatigue. And while I had plenty of late nights as a single person, sleep deprivation as a parent is just different. I still make foolish choices by staying up too late, but there are plenty of other reasons that parents don't get enough sleep. Just like with concentrating on work, it may take a while to get settled for sleep, and then you could get woken up at any moment by someone who needs something, so I'm not sure how deep the sleep really is.

Okay, that was kind of a tangent. I definitely miss devoting more time to study, but I'm looking forward to doing more activities as a family together as the kids get older. One friend recently posted a comment on FB to the effect of "poor new parents thinking it will get easier." I know each age has its difficulties, but I think the future is bright! I know it will make such a difference (both good and bad?) just having kids know how to read! Lately David has been more into puzzles and we've learned a few card games. And as he gets into school subjects, I'll be able to dive into learning again, too. Might have to sneak some of my favorites in there!

As for the fate of my papers, I threw a lot of them away. Do notes serve a purpose beyond a year or so? My first instinct was to save them because they represented so many hours of dedication, but to be honest, 1) I couldn't understand most of them without the original context, and 2) they had already served their purpose at the moment when I was writing them down-that was part of the actual learning process.

As I was going through my pile of Important Documents, a few actually went missing...including our marriage certificate! Ugh! How does that happen? You might think something could be lost in the piles, but in actuality I normally have a pretty good sense of where things are. So, not sure what to do about that. I feel like I've had many moments lately of missing things that have been purged, but that is a story for another post.




5 comments:

  1. Yes to not getting things done because of the possibility of getting interrupted! For me, it’s hard to start some things if I know I won’t be able to get through it without distraction, and I think that’s a big difference once you have kids. And oh no about your marriage certificate! I can relate to missing things once you’ve purged, I hate it when a few months down the road I’m looking for something specific and realize I might have gotten rid of it!

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    1. Yes, exactly. It just isn't as relaxing/satisfying if someone could pop in at any moment and disturb your peace.

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  2. Well, I realize I've just had a kind of "demo" of this concept. A couple of months ago, Anastasia suddenly is here with a baby, and she had no problem at all allowing me to do 80% of the child care. (The part I don't do is when I am not home.) Thus, suddenly I went from a fairly free adult (sheesh - I wasn't even counting Monica!) to a babushka with a baby. Yipes. And what a baby! Maya wants to be held just about all the time. Put her down when she's sleeping and she usually wakes....unless I am working on the bed, and she is right beside me [she allows that]. So, I suddenly realize how things are never put away, never completed, often never started.....dinner isn't on time because it's based on Maya's moods.... Babies can be VERY HARD. Now, to complete this little illustration, a few days ago Anastasia moved with Maya to Brenden's house. Suddenly - no baby! I miss her awfully. However, the last couple of days were AMAZING. I planted flowers, weeded gardens, cleaned several rooms, made a pie, started a craft project! Wow! Couldn't have done any of it with Maya in tow, I am pretty sure.

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    1. I was thinking you must be busy with childcare all these months. Well, David was probably more like Maya. I still get behind in housework but it's more because the kids undo cleaning jobs, and I have to spend time with them on the playground, etc. Very hard when you can't keep a regular schedule. At least Sophia doesn't nap anymore so I don't have to plan around that.

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    2. I ran across another grandmother in church yesterday who is caring for her grandchildren 3 and 1! That sounds really hard. As of this writing Maya and crew are back. BUT - she is now able to be in her bouncy chair! She can handle enough of that for me to put in a load of wash or get the floor swept! Yeah!

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