Up before the crack of dawn

Linus and Lizzie say "Good Morning"

In London the sun was up by 5:30 in the morning.  I know that because I would open my eyes, decide to go take a shower before anyone else was up, and by the time I was dressed and ready, it would only be 6:00am.  Now I’m back at Frankora Farm, USA and I opened my eyes to darkness.  Oh no, am I waking up early morning London time?  I looked over at the clock and there it was: 5:30.  Only this time it wasn’t the sun waking me up.  I wonder if this wake-up time will continue into the school year.  If it does and I can get through the day without collapsing that would be GREAT.  I had decided in London that I would love to be one of those people who only needs 3-4 hours of sleep.  Sure, a good sleep is nice but it seems like such a waste of time.  When I went to winter camp many years ago at Deering Conference Center I met a man named Gordon who could do anything - chop wood, fix cars, talk about God stuff without making you feel uncomfortable – and he said that he only slept about 3 hours a night – that’s all he needed.  At the time I thought that sounded kind of lonely or boring to be awake when everybody else is asleep.  Being what my life is now, that sounds completely necessary.  Unfortunately, I am completely exhausted by 9:00pm at night – jet lag and all.  Jason and I took the kids over to their friends’ house last night for a pool party until 8:30pm and I felt horrific on the way home.  When we got here, I asked the kids to put their jammies on, thinking I would read them a story. 

(Side note – Border Collie/Australian Shepherd mixes can hear too well.  Belle is whining because she can hear me typing from three rooms away.)

They didn’t jump to it and I in turn collapsed on the bed.  Jason walked in with panic on his face.  I tried to pre-empt any requests for evening time chores by stating how sick and tired I felt.  “Can you at least do the dogs and cats?” he asked with exasperation.  Nope (I asked Cora to do those chores).  Now I’m up and I’m sure that I will be shouldering a portion of the load in a few minutes.  There is milking the goat, feeding and watering the poultry, taking the dogs out, feeding dogs and cats, cleaning litter boxes, getting breakfast for the kids, and that’s just the stuff to do to make sure everyone stays alive.  Listing off these things emphasizes again to me that there is no way I would have been able to do my multimedia projects for my summer classes if I had done them from home.  As guilty as I felt leaving everybody at home, going to London was absolutely necessary, even with all the distractions of the city itself. Nobody asked me to get or to prepare anything for them.  I only had to worry about my own survival as I pulled coins together to get something to eat and avoided speeding taxis.  I could spend as long as I wanted figuring out how to add songs and voice to a video and cut out the original sound of the track.

So how will I do it all now?  I’m wondering if it is too late to sign the kids up for a week of summer camp since Jason and I both need to work non-stop to get ready for our classes in the fall.  My last multimedia class project will be complete and embedded in this blog by the end of the weekend so I should have a week or two off until my FSU fall class starts.  I still need to catalog all the new books for the library.  I would like to get some seeds planted in the last garden plot I made so we can have fresh veggies this fall.  I have so many books to read and reread so that I’m ready to teach them in the fall.  There are also the fun things that I’ve been looking forward to doing with my family – taking a bike ride, playing a board game, making some cookies, showing visitors around this fun place.

So back to my point – sleep.  I would really rather not and I’ll be trying to figure out a healthy way to get as little as possible.  Here’s to a 5:30am wake-up time!