...hopefully one filled with lots of good things for the beginning of the fourth quarter of the year, and the big holiday filled one. I watch my calendar start filling with things to do and places to be at this time of year, and marvel at how I manage to get anything done between now and the New Year. Fittingly, the A List today discusses that leftover time...

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The term "disposable income" is commonly used to identify any monies left over after the "essentials" have been taken care of each month. The same idea could be applied to time - what's left over after the essentials: sleep, work, family demands.

So, how do you spend your "disposable time?"

Disposable time. There are days I wished I had more, and days that I don't know what I would do with more. Even still, a lot of days end and I wonder what did I do with the time on my hands. It's those little things that eat up the day - a little something on the computer, a trip to the bathroom, reading the paper, talking to DH about something, letting a Sudoku puzzle take over my mind.

Sometimes it's a nap that eats up the day. Apparently, my disposable time is spent doing a whole lot of nothing.

Planned disposable time usually includes reading or stitching. Or both. Sometimes it just involves more sleep, or cleaning up around the house. Really - I don't have a set time that I spend cleaning or straightening, it's more like as the spirit moves (and it's moving more often these days in terms of cleaning off surfaces, with the exception of my own desk). I'd really love to have enough disposable time (and disposable energy to go with it) to do everything I want - read a book, stitch, and clean up the house, and play some games with the kids, and take a nap...

Friday nights is planned disposable time that's spent with the family. That's when we all connect *together* and do something. It could be a movie out, or in; it could be a game we play, or something we go do together. Whatever happens, there has to be some element of fun involved in it. Weekends are always good for disposable time, but they seem to be filling up with one thing or another - a birthday party here, a Costco trip there, and a whole afternoon could be eaten up with other errands.

There are those who would say retirement is when I get to do all those things because I'll have all that disposable time on my hands, what with work not being a necessary anymore. But unless we strike the lottery I don't know that I'll be retiring anytime before the age of 70.

So, that's what I do with my disposable time - spend it with the family, or read or stitch or straighten up. Maybe some time on the computer with a game or two. Basically, a whole lot of nothing.