Saturdays are BUSY.BUSY.BUSY! Especially in November...

November 1, 2014

First of all - Happy November!  

Impending Sugar Shock

1.  Halloween is over and now we can all ramp up our sugar intake on the left-over candy (or candy our kids collected) so when Christmas comes around we won't go into sugar shock.  Add to that, we have to work on the requisite average 6-8# weight gain that happens between now and the New Year.  #firstworldproblems

Christmas movies?!?

2. Hallmark Channel started their made-for-TV Christmas  movies marathon, which will run through Christmas.  I've also heard several radio stations are now exclusively Christmas music. 

3.  Ten weeks of college football is nearly behind us.  I love my football Saturdays and hate to think that we only have a few more weeks...

     Which leads me to…  Saturdays are killer busy.  When I work full-time, Saturday is my "only" day to get a lot of housework done.  It's my "P-day" (preparation day - it's a carry-over term from my church mission) - it's the day I do most of the laundry, cleaning, straightening, and whatever else I can fit in.  Some may ask why I can't parse out the homemaking tasks so I do a little each night.  Well, I do try to do that, and sometimes it works. But after spending a full 12 hours taking care of things directly related to my job, and sometimes more if I'm studying for something (that includes everything from getting ready in the morning to commute times), I'm beat.  Plus we are very involved in our church and our faith, and I'm the one that does all the office work/business administration for Mr H's business, and that takes a couple hours a week.  All of that zaps this ol' girl. I'm also not one who can work like crazy, then fall into bed and go right to sleep.  It takes me a couple hours of quiet time for me to be able to sleep. So Saturdays have always borne the brunt of housework.  The same goes for Mr H; his home to-do list is concentrated on Saturday.

(photo from saturdaydownsouth.com)

     Additionally, I love college football.  Actually, I love fall, and I think college ball is inextricably linked.  It's part of the whole season.  College ball is also played on Saturdays and not Sundays (it's a "keep the Sabbath holy" thing), AND my favorite part is College Game Day (the football version) on ESPN for three hours each Saturday morning.  Yep, I'm into it that much.  (But don't ask a lot about the technical parts of the games, players, teams, etc. - I'm into it for different reasons.)  So in the fall, this all adds to the equation.  The upside is that I can have the games on and still be able to do stuff around the house, for the most part.

     But in November we have an added {yippee!} "bonus" on Saturdays.  It's our turn to be a part of the small team to clean our church building.  A number of years ago, our church decided it could save (a lot) of money by not hiring cleaning crews to come in each week to clean our many chapels.  We are a volunteer church - nearly all those who do anything for our church are not paid.  (Of course we do have some paid positions for such as area building management, full-time employees in the church office buildings, at the schools, etc.)  Our local leadership, including the bishop, those who provide music, the office staff, seminary teachers, Sunday school teachers, youth leaders - all are unpaid volunteers.  So when the main church leadership decided the buildings would be cleaned by the church members, we did what we always do.  Set up a calendar and assigned about four or five families to each month to weekly clean the building.  We have November.  

google maps street view ©2014

     And so for the month of November we have been at the church building for three-four hours each Saturday morning.  Mr H is awesome as he takes on the four (sometimes nasty) bathrooms.  And there is vacuuming, dusting, emptying trash, setting up chairs, cleaning glass doors and windows (little hands make TONS of handprints on the glass doors!) and otherwise getting the building cleaned and ready for Sunday services.  It is the Lord's house and we want it to be as clean as it can be just in case He shows up!  

     So as much as the "natural man" in me wants to pout and say "if I have to do this, why does it have to be the month of November so I miss my College Game Day, and how in the world am I supposed to get everything else done…?" I do believe it's the right thing to do. I do believe by "sacrificing" this time on my precious Saturdays I'm more blessed than ever, and I know I'm very blessed already.  Most of the time, most team members can't/don't make it for one reason or another, and I'll admit that's frustrating.  But it really doesn't matter what they do; what matters is what *I* do and how *I* answer this assignment.  Can Mr H and I clean the whole building by ourselves?  Not if we also intend to take care of our own home and responsibilities, too {and come out alive}.  So we do what we can and try to make sure the "big stuff" is done.  Each Saturday in November.

Which makes Saturdays BUSY.BUSY.BUSY!!  

Especially in November!