Dadmaster: Big rocks, sand, and beer

Years ago, probably freshman year of high school, I went surfing on the web for some good jokes. There's one I read that stuck with me:

A professor brings a large glass jar to his class, and explains, "This is your time." He proceeds to put rocks in it, until they are poking out the top. "These rocks represent what matter most to you. Your family, your work, for a small minority of you, your schoolwork. Now most of you would say that I have filled it."
The class nods, and so the professor brings out a small bag of sand. He then pours the sand into the jar, filling the cracks among the rocks. "The sand represents what you do with your free time, even when you don't think you have any. What you read, what you listen to, what you do at the end of the day when it's only you that you have to answer to. It all works to support what matters in your life."
A student raises his hand, and once he is called on, says, "You missed something, teach." He walks up to the front, reaches into his bag, and cracks open a can of beer, pouring it into the jar, where it is easily absorbed into the sand. "No matter what," he says, taking a swig, "there's always time for a beer."

Now, while the joke is there, I love the jar analogy. Considering it was over a decade ago, and it's still bouncing around in my head, it must resonate with me. And boy, that family rock is a HUGE one. It's horseplay, potty training, reading, warming milk, naming toys, making racetracks, shaking my head, pool noodle swordfighting, and in a nasty-looking offshoot of the "family" rock, it's also spraying off diapers, doing dishes, and doing laundry. It comes with the package.

Another big rock is the friend one. With lots of my friends being from college, thus being spread across the country and world, I've got to work to maintain that friendship. And where the option is often seen as "lots of distant friends vs a few close friends", I think I've got lots of close friends. It's awesome.

But man, sand. I feel like I don't have much room for sand. I wish I had more time to do things just for me. Not even indulgent things. Chelsea asked me today what I'd do with free time if I had some, and I said that I would eat pistachios and write something using story dice. Right now, my free time is either those rare spaces when the boy's naps overlap, which I use to rush my chores, and possibly get a few winks in myself, or the time when I'm feeding Baby Crash, when I'm reading on my Kindle.

All the other free time for me I feel like I have to steal from the bigger stuff. I'm sure I'm losing a few "parent points" because Daniel's watching videos on my phone right now from when we looked at bunnies this morning. But it's nice to be able to sit down and write. Heck, it's nice to be able to sit down. I like sitting down.

Mmmm...