Reading and Other Pastimes by Bonnie Le Hamilton

 

I think I have bitten off more than I handle.

I have plans for crafts to make for Christmas, and I even have the supplies, but when will I have the time to make them? Honestly, I’ve had the supplies for a couple of years now.

I’ve also been trying to practice my clarinet, but there is that time problem again because I also have signed up for a class online that I have to finish by the end of May and let’s not forget that I have a job and two different volunteer jobs, and a sister-in-law who needs rides periodically.

I know for most people this pandemic has meant doing less, staying home (and honestly it did for me at first) but then I needed to find a job and things started to open up again, and now I’m busier than ever! HELP!

There are not enough hours in the day especially since I’ve been doing so much reading since Christmas.

Right after Christmas, I started reading clear through all my Dick and Felix Francis novels, every last one of them, with a short break to read “Crooked Swan” (which I mentioned in an earlier post) but now I’ve finished those novels and, after reading one of my romances, have switched to my HP books.

Okay, not a good idea being as I’m such a slow reader, but clearly, I’m getting a ton of reading done this year.

If you count just before Christmas when I read the first twelve Boxcar Children books (which I also own) then all the Francis novels I own, including the one Konnie gave me for Christmas, that’s another thirty-nine books, and I’m currently on book four of the HP series, so that makes (counting The Crooked Swan and that romance) fifty-seven books in approximately sixteen weeks.

If you want to just count this calendar year, that cuts it down to about forty-three books read, so far, but I’m doing that at the expense of other pursuits.

And I’d really like to get better at playing my clarinet, make those Christmas crafts, and do some other sewing for me, all while working twenty hours a week, volunteering another seven hours a week, doing things like running my own errands and helping my sister-in-law run hers and of course my course work and learning excel.

On top of all that, one of the local stations I get shows Star Trek the original, NextGen, DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise in that order from six until ten Sunday through Friday nights. I don’t stay up to watch Enterprise, sometimes I don’t even watch DS9 and Voyager because I’d rather read, but I do want to watch them.

I’m at a point when I have to choose what is more important.

That’s never an easy task for me, probably because I’m on the spectrum.

I am trying.

For starters, I need to read my scriptures more than fiction.

Second, I need to finish that course and learn excel to get a better job, something that isn’t temporary.

Third, I need to lose weight. I need to exercise, and I have been trying to work on that, promise.

And fourth, I need to write my post.

With so much time on her hands, Konnie has already written her next post and has an idea for the one after that. I can’t say the same. She had to remind me it was my turn to post this week.

Yikes!

Worse still she reminded me right when I remembered I had homework and practice still do and as well as clean the litterbox and feed both me and Patches.

And that meant missing my shows!

Plus, I’m only on the twelfth chapter of Goblet of Fire, and for anyone who knows the HP series, you know that isn’t very far into the book.

And no, I have no intention of reading every book I own before Christmas this year, for one thing, that would impossible. I have too many. Just physical books I have tons; if you add in what’s on my reader and I swear I’m pushing three hundred if not more.

Actually, it’s probably more because I’m certain I have way more books than Nativities and at this point I have well over two hundred Nativities counting tree decorations and my jewelry.

Of course, some of those books are craft, cook, and instructional books. (i.e. my clarinet books.)

And let’s not forget that I'm a writer! I do have several WIP’s. The most urgent of which is my epic sci-fi which I have been trying to work on, occasionally. I really should put more time into it.

I also have some counted cross-stitch designs I’d love to get done, including one which is a Nativity, but who has time?

Something has to give, but what?

Anyway, happy writing everyone.