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The plus side of having people over like we did Saturday is that it forces us to quickly do a bunch of cleaning, so we should probably continue that in the future. But having only one day of the weekend to actually relax is very emotionally trying! Wax did make a coffee mousse cake with chocolate cookie base that might be her best cake yet, but most of it got eaten by our guests. Probably not really a bad thing, I guess. The sooner you eat up one cake, the sooner you make the next cake, after all. (Not this week though, because she has to work evening shift Tuesday and Wednesday and then she has to work Saturday.)
Anyway, we slept till noon Saturday but then cleaned intensely for four or five hours and hosted a family dinner with her brother's family of six and then stayed up late and slept till noon again and then stayed up even later trying to squeeze more knitting in Sunday night because we just couldn't believe our weekends were over... even though she had to get up at seven and I had to get up at nine. In consequence, we both fell asleep for several hours this afternoon after our respective shifts ended, but I never stopped feeling tired all evening. I'd like to just sleep for about fourteen hours, perhaps several days in a row. And then a few days where I don't have to go anywhere to finally get a satisfying amount of knitting done. And then maybe another day off for good measure just to chill before I have to go back to work.
I know research supports the idea of a four-day work week and a three-day weekend every week being healthier and more productive. And was it a six-hour work day? My work day is five hours, though. And it isn't an excessive amount of work! It's just the fact that I have to get up at 9 and leave the house and interact with people five days out of the week that wears me down regardless. Fortunately the 'interact with other people' part is only maybe 15 minutes per day. So maybe this is close enough to be able to estimate what that would feel like: I think that 4 days/6 hours arrangement might actually not result in backed-up sleep debts every other weekend (or rather, every weekend where we have to do anything that takes all our energy and attention for half the day or so)! It wouldn't be enough in the middle of winter, though, because in the middle of winter everybody has less energy and needs more sleep, and in Finland when there's no sun coming up to speak of you should probably get about ten hours of sleep and two and a half hours of sitting somewhere cozy doing nothing per day.
We can't even sit somewhere cozy now, because by the time one of us got around to calling the chimney sweep this year it was already the second week of September, and at that point the looming energy crisis had his time fully booked until mid-December. So the first time we can light a fire in our little cast iron stove will be in December, well past my birthday. Fortunately we don't actually have to turn our heat down this year like so many other people have to do, because we have a fixed-price electricity contract and our rate won't go up until next June. So there are two armchairs in front of the stove, but they're turned to face the room instead because there's no benefit to being there yet. Fortunately it has just been very gray and damp so far, not cold. In fact, it has been warmer than average through October and November so far, but meteorologists are predicting an especially cold December. Not snowy (which would be some saving grace because then it's pretty, and it reflects the light): just cold. Probably rainy.
Anyway, we slept till noon Saturday but then cleaned intensely for four or five hours and hosted a family dinner with her brother's family of six and then stayed up late and slept till noon again and then stayed up even later trying to squeeze more knitting in Sunday night because we just couldn't believe our weekends were over... even though she had to get up at seven and I had to get up at nine. In consequence, we both fell asleep for several hours this afternoon after our respective shifts ended, but I never stopped feeling tired all evening. I'd like to just sleep for about fourteen hours, perhaps several days in a row. And then a few days where I don't have to go anywhere to finally get a satisfying amount of knitting done. And then maybe another day off for good measure just to chill before I have to go back to work.
I know research supports the idea of a four-day work week and a three-day weekend every week being healthier and more productive. And was it a six-hour work day? My work day is five hours, though. And it isn't an excessive amount of work! It's just the fact that I have to get up at 9 and leave the house and interact with people five days out of the week that wears me down regardless. Fortunately the 'interact with other people' part is only maybe 15 minutes per day. So maybe this is close enough to be able to estimate what that would feel like: I think that 4 days/6 hours arrangement might actually not result in backed-up sleep debts every other weekend (or rather, every weekend where we have to do anything that takes all our energy and attention for half the day or so)! It wouldn't be enough in the middle of winter, though, because in the middle of winter everybody has less energy and needs more sleep, and in Finland when there's no sun coming up to speak of you should probably get about ten hours of sleep and two and a half hours of sitting somewhere cozy doing nothing per day.
We can't even sit somewhere cozy now, because by the time one of us got around to calling the chimney sweep this year it was already the second week of September, and at that point the looming energy crisis had his time fully booked until mid-December. So the first time we can light a fire in our little cast iron stove will be in December, well past my birthday. Fortunately we don't actually have to turn our heat down this year like so many other people have to do, because we have a fixed-price electricity contract and our rate won't go up until next June. So there are two armchairs in front of the stove, but they're turned to face the room instead because there's no benefit to being there yet. Fortunately it has just been very gray and damp so far, not cold. In fact, it has been warmer than average through October and November so far, but meteorologists are predicting an especially cold December. Not snowy (which would be some saving grace because then it's pretty, and it reflects the light): just cold. Probably rainy.
