Saturday was Deborah’s birthday, and yes, she was born on Saturday the 14th (she has enjoyed pointing out to me this year it is the same exact day as it was 45 years ago). This was a special birthday for her, since she loves markers in years, 45 years was a small milestone for her, not to mention everything that happened health wise last year and early this year, we all felt blessed to be able to celebrate this birthday with her. We went out to eat and watched The King’s Speech but in general had a nice quiet day at the house. My mom made Deborah a quilt of her very own. I am pretty sure this is the only quilt anyone has ever made for her. Since she makes quilts, and all things knitted, I guess everyone just thought she could just make her own. I know Deborah can’t wait until it’s done so she can use it.
I love the shot of Deb walking home from my parents house to our house around sunset. It was abnormally cold and windy outside and even though the sun looks warm, it’s freezing for May. The lamp is just because I love taking photos of lamps (or light… it’s a my lamp is the light of the world thing).
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Now that the Christmas holiday is over and the gift giving has basically gone back to normal, I have a few observations. As simple as we try to make Christmas, it seems to get more complicated each year. To try and simplify things at our house this year we went back to the German tradition of opening all our gifts (which is basically one each) on Christmas Eve after we got home from our church service, then have a relaxing and calm Christmas Day.
Throughout the several weeks leading up to Christmas I started noticing a common and expected behavior repeated over several people and basically saying the same thing. When they were given a gift there was an expectation of something in return. This is not new of course. Many times when someone gives you something they expect something in return, or when you receive something, you feel obligated to return the gift with something of the same.
I am not sure where this “tradition” got its roots, perhaps it was just customary of the culture or something we have come to expect. Something with strings. If this is the government talking, yes, I would expect strings. Many times close friends or family put strings on things, but not always. To me, there is not much that follows the example Jesus gave us less than giving a gift with an expectation attached to it. God didn’t do this to us did He?
One of the most famous verses in scripture is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son”. If we briefly break apart that sentence, we see that God did what he did out of “love”, and He “gave”. The word gave or give appears in scripture so much that you can’t even get out of Genesis without those two words being mentioned over 50 times. The example God gives us is to give out of love, and expect nothing in return.
So, if you received a gift from us this year, I do not want to receive an obligitory gift in return, and don’t expect one either. If you feel like giving someone something, great, and if someone wants to give you a gift out of love, accept it for what it is and don’t add the obligation or expectation of something in return. Personally I would rather receive nothing that a gift given in expectation rather than love.
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What if you were told you would be given $86,400 at the start of each day. Wow, great huh. You can spend that amount each day, but at the end of the day, what ever you haven’t spent you loose.
You can’t keep any to spend it the next day, you can’t save it, you can’t invest it for later use, you can only spend it today. You get 24 hours to spend $86,400. The good news is, for now, at the start of each day you will be given another $86,400 and then it starts all over again, but, no matter what you do, that is all you get.
Are you thinking about all those things you would buy or places you might go, but, opppps, you actually don’t have time to use the entire amount, or do you? Well it doesn’t really matter because one way or the other it is either going to be spent, or time will spend it for you.
So, where would you spend it?
86,400. That is how many seconds we are given each day. We don’t get any more, and at the end of the day, anything we haven’t used we loose. The next day we get another 86,400 seconds to use at our discretion, but that’s it. You can’t invest it (at least here on earth), you can’t save it, and for now, we get a new 86,400 seconds tomorrow to use. So…….. where do you spend it?
I haven’t had a lot of time to blog here lately for various reasons but it got me started thinking about what steals our time. My wife always says we have time for what we make time for, and I think that is basically true. We prioritize throughout the day even if we don’t realize we are doing it, and it controls what we get accomplished or what gets left for “tomorrow”.
I have several projects going on at the same time, including developing my first true CMS site for a niche market, and that is what is taking a lot of my free time as of late, but I think there are several things that steal our time throughout the day. Some are our own doing, some we can’t control, some we can. I made a quick list of what steals my time as of this writing, in regards to this blog. Steals your time probably isn’t the best way to describe it. A better way it where do we spend our 86,400 seconds we are given each day?
Other Blogs
I do write on other blogs and trying to keep up with each one doesn’t always work. The one that gets the most attention is the one that has the highest priority at the time.
Work or Projects
Yes, I guess we all do have to work at something. This may be a necessity but it does take up a majority of our time (as it should) and it usually takes priority over non-revenue generating projects
Family (and Friends)
This is another good thing, but also one that keeps me from blogging on this blog. Over the Thanksgiving holiday I had planned to have a quiet week and get a good weeks worth of articles written for this blog. What did I do, I spent most of it working outside on our property with my dad. Worth far more to me than getting the articles done I had in mind. I also ate a little turkey and watched a lot of football.
Not Being Well Organized
This is something we can control but being well organized will keep things running smoothly. I started keeping a log book of things I needed to get done or have done. It sits on my desk right by my computer and I jot things down on it all day. When I travel, I have a miniature version I take with me. It does help me stay a little organized.
This is a big one for most of us. I have read 100 blog posts on how you should not check your email every 5 minutes, and it is probably true, but I just can’t do it. I usually spend a good majority of my time each day in email or having something to do with email.
Your Feed Reader
This is probably one of the areas you could spend a ton of time looking at, and writing this blog, I hope you do, but I try to read my feeds at night after the day’s work is complete. This doesn’t always work, but there are so many great articles to read that it can take a huge amount of time.
Watching TV or Other Entertainment
We all watch TV or do some form of entertainment. I am a big sports fan and I can always find a game to watch. Even if there isn’t a game on, ESPN Classics is probably re-playing some great rivalry game from 1982. I don’t usually spend to much time on these items, but they can take up time that you don’t spend doing more productive things (unless you can figure out a way to do both at the same time).
Internet Social Sites, Groups, News, General Surfing
Don’t think I even need to elaborate here. Just try to do the most productive things each day in the order of priority. If you make your living on the social networks, great, if not, look at these areas when you are finished with your work each day.
Where Do You Spend Your 86,400 Seconds Each Day?
So, those are just a few. What areas use up time each day for you? I think each of us can probably look at some areas where we could probably spend our time more wisely, I know I can. Leave a comment below and let me know what those are for you?
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Sarah’s shawl is complete. It was finished a little late, but still appreciated I think. This shawl is from the book Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle and is called the Stora Dimun shawl. It is a Faroese shawl and the first of this type that I have knit. I used “Essential” yarn from Knit Picks. The first picture isn’t that great, but the one of Sarah modeling the shawl is super. Have a look…
