Ten Minutes a Day

There's a Ravelry group called "10 Minutes a Day," where members commit to spinning for (obviously) at least ten minutes each day.

After thinking about it, I figured I could squeeze out ten consecutive minutes to sit at my wheel daily. I so want to finish the lovely stuff on there and get it plied up. A Ravelry member has already offered to knit me something lacy out of it, which amazes me -- I'll have to think hard about whether I want something knitted more than I want to knit it, and of course what I could offer in return.


And then I started thinking. What else can I do in ten minutes? Where are my spare ten minutes? This morning, I made applesauce from fallen apples from down the street -- that only took about ten minutes. Dishes in the washer, probably five. Draining the bathtub on the plants out front? Maybe ten.

We've been talking about mindfulness and the eternal present a lot lately, but I'm still having a great deal of trouble in this arena. Something like sitting to spin for ten minutes helps center me.

And what can my children do in ten minutes? (Well, those of you who know them in real life know that they can wreak almost unimaginable havoc and destruction in ten minutes, but specifically. . .)

Thing 4 helped me make a lemon-poppyseed cake because there's not enough applesauce to take to the homeschool potluck today. That took at least ten minutes longer than it would have if I were doing it alone.

They can practice piano some -- it's really supposed to be a minimum of 15, but when you're young, that can seem a long time.


Trying a duet with your sister can help.


They can join their mother's obsession with skin care and sun protection:


Many of my "spare" minutes lately have gone to cleaning up.