Here's a math problem for you. And math is not my strong point.

So I’ve been trying to figure out where all of my time goes every day. Let’s see.

Well, 24 hours in a day, right?

So, 8 hours at work, plus an hour lunch = 9 hours. That leaves 15 hours.

Getting up, showered, dressed and ready in the morning, plus getting the girls up, dressed and fed = 1 hour (give or take). That leaves 14 hours.

Commuting time to and from work, including daycare drop-off and pick up and time spent giving out last hugs and kisses, waving good-bye, gathering up shoes, art projects, backpacks, and other assorted items at daycare, fighting a toddler to put her shoes on, getting a quick update on their day from our daycare provider, putting Becca’s shoes back on her (at least twice), last hugs and kisses to our daycare provider (from the kids, of course!), corralling everyone into the van, buckling a wiggly toddler into her carseat, chasing kids who are not mine out of my van, etc. = 1 hour (although it feels like 20 some days). That leaves 13 hours.

Household chores like getting and sorting the mail, finagling something for dinner, clean up after dinner, scrub down Becca, her chair and the floor underneath for 5 feet in every direction, gather dirty dishes which have migrated to every corner of my house, pick up dirty laundry off the floor (or spend same amount of time attempting to get kids to pick their own up), moving the 18 toys out of my path as I walk through the kitchen, hallway and living room = 1 hour. That leaves 12 hours.

Ah, halfway through.

Play time with my kids after dinner until bedtime = ½ hour. Yes – a half hour. Depressing, isn’t it. That leaves 11 ½ hours.

The kids bedtime, from first asking them to put jammies on, until all 3 are in bed – including books, snuggle time, brushing teeth, crossing today off our calendar, hugs and kisses, drinks of water, more hugs and kisses, reminding Abby 12 times to take her glasses off, hunting down Abby’s blankie and teddy bears, turning on their lullabies, etc. = 1 hour. That leaves 10 ½ hours.

Let’s not forget the extra hour that gets added to my day by either playing with the kids longer (I mean, a half hour??? Let’s be real here. I can hardly say hi and how was your day to them in a half hour, much less get any real quality time), adding in bath time if needed, or by them dragging bedtime out for as long as possible. Or all of the above. That leaves 9 ½ hours.

Now if I went to bed at this point, I could enjoy 9 ½ hours of sleep. Right? Well that doesn’t address the laundry that needs to be washed, switched to the dryer and/or folded. Plus making my lunch for tomorrow, laying out clothes for tomorrow, trying to deal with at least a little of the clutter that is my kitchen, bathroom and oh let’s face it, the rest of my house too. Plus watering my flowers outside (when I remember – hey, dead flowers means no more watering which means an extra 15 minutes I gain back – wow!). So that’s probably another hour or so for all of that. Which leaves 8 ½ hours.

Even 8 ½ hours of sleep would be nice. Not to mention recommended by doctors and all sorts of other professionals. But I can’t go right to sleep at this point. I need at least some time to wind down. And keep up on my favorite tv shows. And there’s extra projects like copying our camcorder tapes to dvd or scanning all of the pictures in my photo albums. And keeping up on my message boards, blog reading (and writing!), trying to keep up with reading the few magazines that I do get and/or any good books that I’m into. All of which generally take anywhere up to 2 to 3 hours, depending on the night. Which leaves me somewhere around 5 or 6 hours to sleep.

I don’t function well on 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night. I know that I really should go to bed earlier so I can get at least close to that 8 ½ hours of shut-eye. I know this but somehow I can’t put it into practice at 11pm when I’m just glad to have at least a little bit of ‘me’ time. And not to mention any kind of time to get in at least a few minutes of conversation with my husband. And if I do go to bed earlier, somehow other things just don't get done and that just adds onto the next day, and the next...

Yawn.