Monday, March 9, 2009

Old Routine + New Hour


The time change always throws our tidy days for a loop. (Loops can be fun . . . or not.) Around here we welcome the longer daylight hours, but find it a struggle to regain our bearings this first week. This morning when I woke Rachel for an earlier-than-usual piano lesson, due to the teacher’s scheduling conflicts, she struggled awake and answered my morning call before I left the room. When I returned 10 minutes later she had fallen back to bed. I implored her to get going and she popped up saying, “I thought I was up!”

Such will be the timbre over the next few days – willing hearts, but dragging bodies. Who would have thought that one hour this way or that could make such a difference? Years ago I decided that the time-change would signal a holiday of sorts. The routine would have to relax and flex while the little bodies (and big ones, too) adjusted.

I find it particularly disconcerting as I use the sun and shadows as my primary timekeeper, having eschewed a watch when I walked away from my corporate days. When the sun peeks just so I delight in the thought of a cup of tea. Another moving shadow warns that dinner must be set about if dining will follow on time. And so my day goes as I gaze out the windows or walk along the garden paths. For today I will sip afternoon tea off schedule and we shall dine a wee bit later, and also snacks will flow freely throughout the day as tummies adjust.

So, I set the bread to rise, put a roast into the oven, simmered the makings for pate (chicken livers, red wine, onions, garlic, and yummy spices) atop the stove, and set about the business of watching for the newness of the times.

Schoolwork and chores flowed as usual. Laundry, vacuuming, and dishes all fit neatly into allotted times. Why this feeling of being behind? It must be due to the fast traveling sun in the blue sky chopped through with weighty rain clouds. My most recent rut of a routine hasn’t adapted to the gift of a longer day, and thus whispers, “Hurry before darkness falls.” It all feels new today in that sense of the unexpected and uncontrollable.

Solution? A pot of tea and a slice of bread spread with sweet butter taken in the sunny sliver breaking forth into my keeping room. I shall thumb through the new coffee-table beauty of a book on Hummingbirds I picked up at the library’s weekend booksale (for $1) along with several other interesting reads from the stack begging to be sorted and shelved according to subject. Even the books fall into limbo this day. In fact, this post feels rather limbo-ish . . .

Hmmmmmm . . . I think I shall take a walk around the gardens for a bit of fresh air as soon as my teacup empties (the bread has been gobbled up long ago). Maybe when I return with pinked cheeks and chilled fingers I will have lost the feeling of limbo.

Any one else feeling a bit off with the change of the hours?

12 comments:

Flea said...

I loved the time change this year. Besides being sick as a dog when it was happening, I was working. Meaning I had a shorter night than usual, but still got paid for the entire time. I worked an extra hour in the fall, but got the same pay, so this weekend was nice. :)

Anonymous said...

I really disliked the clock screaming this morning and it was still dark. The kids weren't too happy about it either. It will take a few days for the inner grouch in me to hide again.

Judith said...

Now I have to get up in the dark again. I want my waking moments to be filled with the rays of the rising sun. I'm not sure why we need Daylight Saving Time anyway.

Karen Deborah said...

lawdy, just a little. I was having enough trouble getting up at 4:30am the loss of another hour took it to 3:30,eeeeeeewwwwwwwww. I was off all day, my brain hurt and we had a hard day. My preceptor said I did a great job but I never feel like I do. I feel just plain dumb. Big changes and time changes were just well to be blunt, not welcome.

Kat said...

Life in your home sounds like heaven. Just lovely.

I'm always thrown for a loop when the time changes set in.

Michelle said...

I just don't understand why we have to continue this time change thing, ya know? I like your solution to everyday life though...a cup of tea and a slice of bread with sweet butter on it..yummm.

dawn klinge said...

Oh yes...it was hard to wake up this morning in the dark again.
I think we have the same routine with the cup of tea while blogging. :) I love to use a cup of tea and some time spent blogging as a little reward to myself for chores accomplished.

Becky said...

I was going to wake the kids at the new 8am but the house was so silent I let them sleep to the old 8am. I cherished that EXTRA hour this morning. ;-)

Werna Gail said...

My first time here...I LOVE YOUR BLOG.Not sure how I found you, I was skipping around. You have such a way with words, and it is evident
that you love Jesus, nature,cats, and so many other things I to love.
I will put you in my favorites and return again to be BLESSED. Gail

Unknown said...

I am totally off with the time change. Springing forward always messes with me, although falling back is much easier. :)

Sit-N-Chat said...

I don't enjoy the hour lost on Saturday night but like the evenings outside. MY mom had hip replacement Mn so I've been in the hospital, unaware of the time the world was on any way. She is in much pain. My sister is with her tonight and I want sleeeeeep. Don't get much when folks keep interrupting for temp/bp and such.
I enjoyed reading about your day.

Jennifer

Unknown said...

Oh yes, stepping out into the fresh air always licks limbo, doesn't it? Especially when for me that FRESH air happens to be 33 degrees below zero *big fat grin*. But the forecast is calling for zero by Friday... yay?