Building a summer schedule
Strike a pose. Then hold that pose for 5 minutes. It is likely that some part of your body will become fatigued or uncomfortable before the five minutes are over. Not only that, but you will likely have shifted your position. The hand that was at shoulder height somehow drifted downward and the bent knee is straighter than when you began. This is something like the experience of creating a family schedule out of nothing. I decide exactly when meals will be, when friends are allowed in the house, when work will be done, when kids must go to bed, etc. I lay it all out in a list and it looks great. But as I start to implement it, I find that getting out of bed on time is hard when I know that no one will notice if I let everyone sleep just a few minutes more. In fact they’ll complain if I make them get up, but not if I let them sleep. So breakfast slides later into the day, and sometimes lunch gets missed entirely, and I decide not to interrupt the quiet play to make the kids do work. Bit by bit the schedule falls apart.
I’ve learned a lot about building schedules out of nothing. I’ve learned not to build the equivalent of a pose where you hold a hammer out at arms length. Instead I build a schedule that keeps both feet flat on the floor and if possible involves sturdy props that I can use to support weight and promote balance. This summer my external prop is swim lessons. I’ve scheduled six weeks of them. They run from 11 to noon and provide an immovable break in the middle of the day. The morning is given over to work and the afternoon is much more free-form. To provide additional structure in the mornings, I’ve created a chart and sets of lists so that the kids know exactly what is required of them before they are allowed video games or friends. This schedule is also planned around the fact that Howard generally works at home in the mornings and at Dragon’s Keep in the afternoons. The mornings will be quieter to facilitate him working. The afternoons can be noisier when it will not bother him.
After two days I can already see where the strains of the new schedule will be. Or at least I think I can. It is hard to tell because this week is far from routine. We’ve got the garage full of books and the entire contents of Howard’s office crammed into the family room. Right now the biggest problem with the schedule is a significant lack of uninterrupted time for me. Also, I don’t have much alone space either. This is particularly true with Howard evicted from his office. He wanders about the house at loose ends. I like that he is available to talk more, except when I’m trying to hide from people and recuperate. I think these issues will be much less significant once we get Howard moved back into his space and the books shipped off to customers. Then I’ll have time to figure out how to get me out of the house often enough to keep me from going completely stir crazy.
It helps that our summer is pre-sprinkled with events to keep kids busy. Girls’ camp, scout camp, pioneer trek, space camp, cousin visits, a family reunion, and the trip to Worldcon will provide sufficient interest. Even better, most of these activities are already paid for by fund raising activities that the kids participated in over the last few months. Add in a few day trips and we’ve got the family schedule taken care of. Fortunately most of these activities leave a big empty space in the middle of July, which is right when we expect XDM to arrive. Every thing is lined up to work out fine. I just need to get through this next week of disorganization. Fortunately for me, I’m allowed to shift things around if the pose schedule is getting too tiring.