Time Management Problems in June

May becomes June

Seriously, I do not know what happened to the month of June this year! Having an extremely busy May due to a high school graduation, family coming in from out-of-town, applying for an interim seat on our school board, and getting 400+ school children in the school garden to plant, as well as finishing up two graduate courses, I was looking forward to a more quiet June.

It just never materialized. When I look at the calendar for June, it is as messy or more so than May was. As of last night I spent 19.5 hours this month in the garden at school, weeding, mulching, and pruning. It is still somewhat of a mess, unfortunately. With the help of mother nature last night was the first night I had to do any watering. And, thank goodness for that – it was a trick to get the hose and sprinkler in just the right spots.

Travelling Soccer

My youngest is playing tournament soccer which has entailed two trips to the Twin Cities for matches.  Having thought that would be a family activity, in reality we’ve had to split those duties due to other obligations. The third tournament is in mid-July but is already turning out to be very cumbersome, necessitating a four night, mid-week stay, and possibly a fifth night added on for an early morning game the day the tournament opens.  The soccer games, team, traveling, and all it entails could be fodder for many posts just on those topics. But, they might not be the most positive thing to read about. Let’s just say this is a sport, it should be fun, and many people take it way too seriously! Thank goodness he can drive himself to his practices which for some reason ended up being in a town 30 minutes away when no one on the team is from the town itself. Go figure.

Yard Work

Yard work at home always prevails mid-summer as well. My husband has gotten the lawn cutting down to a science on a Friday night after work, and I am just now finishing up the planting of all the annuals and perennials I just cannot seem to help myself from buying.  Our sour cherries are starting to come in but are in much less abundance than last year when we were overflowing in them. But, any fruit harvest entails processing time. So this morning I was already pitting the cherries I picked yesterday so they could be frozen.

Hobbies (besides writing my blog)

Added to my busyness this summer was preparing for an art gallery showing next month. One of my hobbies is to make handcrafted jewelry, which is being featured at a gallery in July. I am one of three guest artists. While I am as proud and pleased as I could be about that, the obligation did entail extra time for making new pieces and labelling each for the gallery. Much of today will be spent on that.

College Orientation

Lastly, we had our new graduate’s college orientation this past week. He is going to a University six hours away, so the visit entailed an overnight stay in a hotel. This was something we pulled our youngest along with us for the trip in an attempt to expose him to another college setting. The orientation went well but two more days away from home prevents anything from getting done here.

Raising Monarchs, Too

This is not to mention I am raising and releasing Monarch butterflies – having already sent five on their way this season, with many more to come. Yesterday, I commented that my common milkweed patch was actually teeming with caterpillars – which is a good thing!

Will July Be Any Better?

So with June finishing up soon, now I am looking towards July for a respite. So far, I do not see any in sight.  While I always thought I was good with time management, lately I seriously am questioning whether I truly possess that strength or not. Time will tell.