20160507.0743

With my teaching duties done, possibly forever, I decided I would let myself sleep in a bit today. I feel the better for it, actually, even though work continues--and not just the work of packing for the move from Sherwood Cottage to the Texas Hill Country, nor yet the work to prepare for the job interview I have there Monday or the soon-following trip to Kalamazoo for the International Congress on Medieval Studies. For a freelance order, one that requires me to read and summarize a novel (providing commentary) in 5,000 words and a scant few days has come in, and I have both accepted it and read the novel. Today, I write the words, which should not be a problem although I have to have it done today; it is what I will do today...beginning shortly. I need to write my words here, of course, as well as having a cup of coffee or two before I really get into things. But I am happy to have the work; I am happy to have a little bit more money coming into the household, even if the timing is not the most optimal.

I am already finding, as I think I do with every break, that I do less well with regulating my own time than might be hoped. That is, I have come to rely on externally imposed schedules to govern the shapes of my days; I tend not to make them for myself anymore. Were I able to look back through my older journals--they are packed away in anticipation of the move--I might find some such things; I recall making them at times in my life. (I also remember being better about writing in my journals nightly, even if only a few sentences, but that has been something of a struggle, and not only because of Ms. 8, although it is true that the time and effort she demands make journal-writing harder. She is worth it, however.) But this is not one of the times in my life during which I excel at doing so--and I do not think that the weeks in advance of the move, during which matters are necessarily unsettled and further unsettling, is the time to resume the habit. Once my family and I are in place, perhaps, I can start to do the thing again.

It is not the only such thing to which I look forward. In the past few years, I have not been able to pursue my martial arts studies--not that I was the best student in any event, but I did enjoy them, and I benefited from them. In the Hill Country, I will have better access to such things, and, if schedules and finances permit, I will resume them. I have the feeling that my health, physical and mental, will be better for my doing so, and that will help me to be a better provider for my family. It will help me to be able to do more of the kind of work that has popped up for me recently, as well as to do perhaps other kinds of work, entirely, and that will help ensure that work continues--as does my ability to take care of the Mrs. and Ms. 8, with which I am concerned.