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A lifestyle change

by Susan

This year I cut back on hours worked and went to a three day work week. I wanted some more time with the girls and some for my own creative energies. Little could I have imagined how all that extra time would fill up.

Tuesdays were for me to pursue quilting and exercise, maybe a little house cleaning and laundry - Jim just does not comprehend the need for weekly attention. Fridays were for the girls school, volunteer time in the library and Brownies.

With needle and thread, I have tried my hand at wall hangings, window coverings, bread baskets and more quilts. I finished a number of projects for family this year, including bug jar quilts for the girl’s beds and a water colour style quilt wall hanging for Jim’s office. Later in the year, my friend Gerri & I started a business, Pizzazz. We are making up high end decorative gift packages. I do the sewing of table runners and baby blankets and she creatively finishes things off and puts them together. We make a great team.

It was a very good year for getting together with my folks - meeting them in BC, Seattle and Portland. They got to try out our new guest room early on. When we moved, the girls had the whole month of August off to enjoy the pleasures of summer, sleeping in, playing in the yard etc. Jim’s mom was here as well to help out. Once school started, there were other changes. Now we stand out in the rain for a yellow schoolbus ride each morning. Two times a week I speed walk for an hour with my friend and neighbour Diane who keeps me going rain or shine.We enjoy the time to chat and exercise. The elementary school is just down the hill and after school care is provided at the Jewish Community Center down the street. The best part is a bus takes them to their after-school activities and for me it is almost ten whole minutes from work to get them after those activities; no more hour commute to the Montessori. So far the girls have chosen swimming (an activity that I continue to do while they take lessons) and gymnastics. You would think our new house was a gym as they do headstands, cartwheels and flips everywhere.

Since I am helping the girls study math, I decided to add up the two hours a day Jim and I save in driving and since we quite often drove separately because of his unpredictable hours, that is four person/hours a day. In other words 80 hours a week or 400 hours a year. If we are awake on average 16 hours a day, then we have an extra 25 days a year to do something with since moving.

Of course, now that we have that free time, the girls need time spent reading with them, homework, choir practice, piano practice, Brownies and numerous other activities which have filled some of those extra 25 days. But they are a fair tradeoff.

Cell phones have really changed our lives. Jim has been on his for years. When he was at his meeting in Denver on September 11th, I reached him immediately and got him to drive home. However, when he left on his Outward Bound trip, it was the first time he was away without a cell phone in years. We really missed the contact. Work continues to be rewarding with several manuscripts published this year by our department and others in press. I stay active in the national society meetings; however, my biggest meeting of the year was cancelled as I headed to the airport on September 11th but before I got on a plane to LA. Our new grant proposal on energy consumption was accepted, so I will be back to working four day weeks in January 2002.