The 25th Hour

I am constantly searching for it...that magical 25th hour of the day. I always tell myself that if I had that mythical 25th hour, I just know I would be able to get it all done.

Alas, that 25th hour doesn't exist, and even if it did, I'd probably be searching for the 26th hour, and then the 27th hour, and so on and so forth.

It's been a long time since I've gotten 8 hours of sleep at night. Earlier this afternoon, I thought about that fact and decided that I would start making it a point to get 8 hours of sleep a night. This meant that I would need to start going to bed at 10:30. It then occurred to me that this would leave me only 3 hours at night from the time the little one goes to sleep until my own bed time.

Three hours....in which to accomplish the following, in no particular order:

(1) Work a little more on some of the stuff I brought home from the office.
(2) Spend time with my husband.
(3) Return terribly overdue phone calls to friends.
(4) Return terribly overdue emails to friends.
(5) Internet time, which includes posting on my blog, commenting on other blogs, finding new sites, etc.
(6) Making a dent in the vast number of programs I have saved on our DVR.
(7) Making a dent in the vast number of magazines I have stockpiled on my nightstand.
(8) Doing laundry, ironing, running errands, etc.

I could probably add a lot more to this list, but it's kind of depressing reading all of the things I want to accomplish in such a short period of time. It's no wonder I stay up till midnight most nights, just trying to get ahead!

Sigh...

One of these days, I will realize that I cannot get everything done in the 24 hours we have been blessed with each day. I think that all mothers, particularly working mothers, put so much pressure on themselves to get EVERYTHING done and have it done perfectly on the first go around. Or maybe that is just me and my personality. I try to do it all - to be the perfect mom, the perfect employee, the perfect friend, wife, daughter, sister...and it's grueling and oh so tiring. One day, I hope I can finally make peace with the fact that no one expects perfection from me - that's just a silly expectation that I demand of myself. I will realize that the laundry, closet cleaning, magazines, DVR and gossip magazines can wait....and that is okay. It will all be there waiting for me...when I have time.