Not Quite Wonder Woman

I chose this handle because it describes exactly how I feel most times. I try and try and try to do it all but I just don't seem to be able to because I'm not quite Wonder Woman! No one is asking me to do as much as I do and if I am honest with myself I am the one who is putting all of the pressure on me! My days are very very full, although I can't say that I am overly busy, or busy at all during the day at work (that's a whole other matter though). Here's a look at my Monday - Friday:

5:30 a.m. - coax my dear partner out of bed
6:13 a.m. - drag myself out of bed, now in the dark, and get ready for the day ahead. I wish I could say that I bound out of bed excited for the day ahead but I'm not
6:54 a.m. - leave the house for the train station
7:04 a.m. - arrive at the train station
7:06 a.m. - board the train
7:50 a.m. - arrive downtown
8:00 a.m. - arrive at work, just in time (I really don't like rushing but I have no alternatives here)
5:00 p.m. - leave the office (yes, I work a dreaded 9 hour day! What happened to the standard 9 - 5 with 1 hour for lunch??)
5:20 p.m. - catch the train
6:00 p.m. - arrive at my home train station
6:20 p.m. - finally manage to push myself through the traffic and out of the train station parking lot
6:30 p.m. - home sweet home

By no means is the schedule above reflective of what I want for my life. Being out of my house for 11.5 hours min per day does not allow me to have the work-life balance that I desire. And as I am sure you can relate the work does not end when I walk in the door because then there is the matter of figuring out what to have for dinner, making dinner, cleaning up after dinner, tidying up the house (thank God we have a cleaning lady who comes every 2 weeks). Oh and then there's laundry, chores, errands and what about 'me' time? time to work out? time to relax and enjoy life? time to spend time with the ones who I love and care about? And so I say I'm not Quite Wonder Woman, I can't quite do it all yet I desperately want to be able to!

I want to be able to financially contribute to my household, I want to be able to prepare wonderful meals for us, I want to be able to entertain / to host my friends and families at dinner parties, I want to be able to keep the house tidy and I want to have the time and the energy to enjoy it all ~ so how can I manage it all? Where did this big 'to do' list come from? how is it that I used to have so much spare time that I actually had time to be bored? lol

Many people my read my day, my 'complaints', and ask why don't I move closer to work. Well that's an easy question for me to answer ~ I am not married to my job or my work, my commitments are at home, with my family and the ones I love, so my solution is to find work closer to home! I love the area in which I live so why would I sacrifice my time and my happiness to move somewhere to do something that I am not happy doing in the first place?

I came across an article related to this topic of how much time we spend commuting which I find interesting:

America's Killer Commute
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/HomeMortgageSavings/AmericasKillerCommute.aspx

I find it amazing that the guy in the article says that he enjoys spending time on the weekend in the community in which he lives so he sacrifices time with his newborn baby to make a ridiculously long commute into work. Where are his priorities? Like us, he is in his 30's and it doesn't seem as though it has hit him yet that life is too short to spend all of your time on the road away from the ones that you love.

I sometimes think that they way most families lived 50 to 60 years ago was much more balanced than the way that we try to do it today. One person was responsible for making money for the family while the other took care of the house. Both people had their own responsibilities and it sounds as though things ran much smoother and people were much less stressed than we all are today. It seems as though life has become totally obsessed with what kind of car do you drive? how big is your house? where did you go on vacation this year? Priorities seem to be totally out of whack and I have no idea how things came to be that way! I often joke to my partner that we should buy some property up north, grow our own food (which would be much better for us than the stuff we can buy in the store these days), home school our kids to ensure that they are learning the skills that will truly help them through life instead of the trivial information that I was taught when I went to school.

It seems as though my appreciation for life and the meaning of life has come to the forefront of my mind now that I am in my 30's, now I just need to find a way to fit it all in and make it work!