Tuesdays continue to be our busy night of the week, and honestly probably my least favorite night.
Cross country practice is now out of the mix, but that means Asher’s piano lesson has moved back to Tuesdays. Last night an extra wrench was thrown in there, too, because Asher had a quarterly group piano class instead of his normal lesson.
So Ethan had piano from the usual 3:45-4:30, but then Asher’s was from 5-5:45 instead. Ethan had soccer (and it was our turn to drive the carpool) from 6:30-8 and then Asher had swim from 6-7:20.
busy busy busy.
The GOOD thing is that once Tuesday is over, the rest of the week is comparatively quite light. And in a way, it’s nice to sort of lump things together in order to have more breathing room on other days.
I semi-raced around dropping off/ picking up etc after school while simultaneously throwing together some spaghetti, garlic bread and salad for dinner. Ivan then did the soccer carpool while I got Asher from piano and over to the pool.
But then! After that, I realized something. I had a big chunk of unaccounted for time! Everyone in the family was occupied for at least the next 80 minutes, and I was all alone with nothing to do. 🙂 (Relatively speaking- I’m sure there were some things I “should have” or “could have” done. But nothing pressing.)
I needed to pick up a couple library holds, so I drove over there….and then as I checked out my books, I looked around the quiet library and thought, “I think I’m going to sit down and read!” So I did and it was quite lovely.
One of the books that was on my “2021 Book List” was called The ONE Thing, by Gary Keller. The tag line is “the surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results”. I needed a new non-fiction, so I requested it.
I settled into a chair in the mostly empty “Reading Room”, next to the fireplace. (Minor detail, the fireplace was not on…😆 Oh well. I imagined that it was.)
I sat there and read about 50 pages! (It’s a pretty quick read so far.)
I liked the opening pages:
The basic premise of the book is that to be extraordinarily successful, you need to figure out what the ONE thing is that will make the biggest difference and really focus all your efforts there. The one thing can change as situations evolve with time, but you can’t be “focusing” on multiple things at once. Find that one thing and really concentrate your efforts there, and only there, and become a master of it. (Examples: KFC = chicken. Starbucks= coffee. Google= searching stuff.)
The book is full of little quotes interspersed in the pages, which I always enjoy. 🙂
Since I’ve read other books along these lines, I can’t say for sure that this book will really have any revolutionary information for me, but we’ll see! I still enjoy these types of books, for some reason. Even though I’m pretty sure I’m not on the path to be the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, I still find myself fascinated with people who are extremely successful- be it in business, sports, whatever. SO interesting to me.
I also really liked this image which I think does a GREAT job of illustrating the detriments of distractions and interruptions:
A great visual! On a timeline, look how much longer the primary task takes when you get distracted and have to switch your brain gears back and forth a couple times.
By the time I left the library it was after dark.
What a nice little midweek treat!! 🙂
Are you reading anything good right now? I’m also reading Louise’s Penny’s A Fatal Grace which is great so far.
Daily Gratitude:
I am grateful for my new laptop! Seriously, it’s so amazing to finally have a laptop working how it is SUPPOSED to again.
GRATEFUL KAE 
I just read a middle grade book that I loved called “We Dream of Stars.” I’m reading all the Colorado Children’s Book Award nominees to share with my students, and I found that one really touching.
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Aww that’s nice. I just also picked up a YA book (I think) called They Both Die at the End. Have you read that one? I had heard good things about it but don’t know too much about it.
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The ONE thing book sounds really neat. I might have to check that one out.
I do not know how you manage it with the kids and all their activities! Better than them sitting home like lumps on a log, I suppose, but ooooff. Glad everyone got where they needed to be, when they needed to be there, and that you had some found time for yourself.
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It can be pretty crazy! But then the alternative is a lot of either sitting around or looking at screens…so I guess I’m glad they generally are happy to be involved in activities! But it can be a bit much, sometimes. I try to remember that some days we have practically nothing, so the extra busy days just balance it out. 🙂
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Oof that is a busy night! Glad you were able to find 80 minutes to yourself. Reading at the library sounds really nice, especially since yours looks cozy w/ that fireplace! Ours is not all that aesthetically pleasing so I’ve never sat and read there. I’m always in and out so quickly! But I was there yesterday to drop off books/pick up new ones. I always grab a bunch for Paul and spend very little time deciding if they will be good. I just grab and go and know that probably over half will be meh. I’ve learned how many terrible picture books get published!! But there are of course always gems that we discover.
The Penny series is SO GOOD. And the books just get better and better as the series progresses. I will be picking up the latest one later this week. I clearly go to the library often but it’s about a mile away! Yesterday I walked there since it was so nice outside. Right now I’m reading a light book called “The Sweet Taste of Muscadines.” It is probably classified as women’s fiction – about a family in the south. The mom dies and family secrets are discovered. Next up I’m going to read “Beautiful Country” which is a memoir written by a women who moved here from China, I believe as an illegal immigrant possibly? I’ve heard great things about that book!
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That’s awesome that you can walk to the library! I’m jealous of that- that would be an amazing outing with little kids in the summer. Walk/ stroller to the library, get books, walk home. Or even with older kids- bike to library together. Ours isn’t too far either, but not really walkable. We could bike I suppose but we never have! Our library does have a REALLY nice reading/studying room with the huge fireplace. Pre-covid I would actually go over there now and then to work for a bit to get out of the house. It was wonderful on a snowy day! It’s just a very pretty, brick building too. 🙂
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Grateful for libraries! How I love books, and I love free books even more! Every single I time I visit our local library I get a thrill of gratitude. Our branch is closed for another week while undergoing renovations and I am just so, so happy to think about getting back inside!
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Yes! I know what you mean! Our library was closed extra long during the pandemic (even when everything else was back open, the library remained closed for a looooong time!) I could not WAIT for it to re-open, even if just to walk in to grab my holds off the shelf! I also love when libraries have nice/cozy interiors. Ours has a lot of brick and stone, which I really like.
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