Polyamory for the Practical

No, we don't have more time!

Reality check

Okay guys.

Gets yer heads out yer butts.   Crawl down out of the ivory tower.  

Step into my home.   (Wipe your feet on the matt first).

Okay.   Repeat after me.   "Love is limitless.   Time is not."

I wanna give you a view of life Chez OLQ for one week.   This is not a particularly insanely busy week, nor is it an unusually dull one.   I just picked it because it happens to be the week I am living at the moment.

It's Monday and it's six o'clock in the morning.   The Prince awakes and stumbles to the shower to wake up.   The rest of the house stays in bed another half an hour, getting up at six thirty.   Our clothes have been laid out the night before, so The Beast and I go to different bathrooms to perform morning ablutions, dress and in my case, put on makeup.   On his way to the bathroom, The Beast makes a small detour to the kitchen to turn on the coffeepot.   This, also, had been prepared the night before.   The Goddess of Giggle is up and has thrown on some clothes so she can wait with the kids at the bus stop.

By about ten to seven, the children are up and dressed and are making their breakfast.   Their lunches have also been prepared the night before.   Ten minutes for a touch base while pouring coffee and kisses goodbye, then The Beast, The Prince and I are out the door to work at seven o'clock.  (We have all specifically chosen to work jobs and schedules that permit carpooling to save money on vehicles).

At seven thirty, the kids catch the bus for school.

By eight o'clock, the three of us are at our respective jobs, and The Goddess of Giggle is spending her day managing the family business, doing her study for school, and taking care of the general home things that need taking care of (talking to people on the phone, scheduling doctor's appointments, arranging for car maintenance, coordinating family schedules).  

The kids come home a bit after three.  The Goddess of Giggle greets them, talks to them about their day, supervises Baby Thor's homework and settles The Bird down for a nap, then goes back to her homework.  (She's doing a self-directed study, so is doing a lot more work than one would do for regular classes and homework).

At The Beast, The Prince and I get home around five-thirty.  I go and do a quick run-through of one of the rooms (half-assed cleaning with a duster and dust mop -straighten a little if I am feeling really ambitious), The Prince reboots the laundry, and The Beast does whatever dishes might be in the sink.  We greet the kids and hang out with them a little.  

Because this is a Family Go to School night, The Goddess of Giggle feeds the kids early and it's "fend for yourself" for the adults.  

Once we get the chores done and the kids fed, it's off to the school for an hour and half, learning what the kids have been up to, meeting the teachers and the class, and then getting home in time for the kids to pack their lunches for the next day, clean their rooms and take their showers.   While this is going on, The Beast and I do the family books.

After bedtime stuff (Baby Thor wanted to read to The Beast that night, I think), we hang out for about an hour relaxing from the day and talking about what we're going to do the next day.   By now, we're brain fried, so we do watch "Whose Line is it, Anyway?"

Tuesday is the same until about 4:30 in the afternoon.   The Goddess of Giggle drops Baby Thor off with me so I can take him to Karate.   She goes home with The Bird and our husbands.   The people at home do the household chore thing while I am with Baby Thor at the dojo.   I get home at 6:30, just in time to kiss The Beast goodbye so he can go to his karate class.   I kiss everyone hello, and we actually get to sit down to dinner this night -- (which is a good one, as the Goddess of Giggle tried something new with a vegetable dish for which we've asked for a repeat), though without The Beast.

Wednesday during the day is the same until we get home from work.   The Goddess of Giggle, The Beast and The Prince have a slot at the Open Mic Night at a local venue, which they want me to see.   Since the children will not have school that Thursday, I take the kids there.   We get to hang out for about a half an hour before they go on.   The kids drink orange juice and cover their ears when the guitar gets too loud.   (Most of the music at this venue is folk and my spice play hard rock).   We get home in time for showers and bed.

Thursday, The Goddess of Giggle gets to sleep in a whole extra fifteen minutes.  In spite of the late night, the kids are up early.  Our landlord is over for some long-needed repairs, so she studies between dealing with the landlord and taking care of the kids.  That night, we have some friends over that we have not seen in awhile.  We're lucky there isn't karate for anyone, so we can all see our friends.  The Goddess of Giggle makes dinner for all of us, we hang out and talk, then the women retire to another room to wrap my friend in duct tape.  (I use the duct tape method for making patterns for bodices because it gives a superior pattern to the flat drafting method).  Of course this sends us into giggle fits, and my friend almost faints.  

Friday, same thing, though there is nothing planned for the night as of now.   Me? I wouldn't be surprised if I get a request for gaming because...

Saturday is our usual night to have a role-playing game that we all enjoy.   However, this particular night, we're all going to be about three hours south at an annual Chocolate Party a friend of ours throws.   The day will be spent cleaning up, preparing for the event, and hanging out a bit.   Possibly I will do some sewing on a costume for my father outlaw who needs it by Halloween.

Sunday is our monthly Power Shopping day.   We only do this once a month because we really do not have time to shop every week.   The guys take care of the kids while The Goddess of Giggle and I go out and shop for the month.

I would like to find the nitwit who says that living in a poly family gives you more time.   I think he needs a smack upside da haid.

So love is limitless? Sure.   Time ain't.   This is why we don't date often.   We can barely have lives and still squeeze in enough time to interact and communicate.   And frankly, with this schedule, does anyone really believe that it isn't touch and go sometimes?