The Best Day of the Year!

Ok, maybe not the best day, but certainly one of my favorite days. And this year it snuck up on me! I was on my way to bed after the Halloween revelry, checking the weather channel (as is my practice every evening before bed – gotta make sure I’m dressing the kiddies for the weather!) and it said the sunset for that evening was 6:21pm. For Sunday? 5:20pm. Huh? Seriously? Tonight I get to set the clocks back? Really?

You see, usually, I count down to this day. But I still haven’t adjusted to the new schedule of first Sunday in November. Usually, I look forward to it. I plan for it. I purposely schedule absolutely nothing for the Sunday it falls on so I can savor the day. And drive my family crazy.

Stretching and yawning as I get out of bed, “It’s only 7am? Gosh, it feels like 8am to me.”

“What time is it?” my daughter asks. “It’s 3,” I answer, “Doesn’t it feel later to you? For the life of me I would swear it was 4.”

“Are you hungry? I’m starving! And it’s only 6 o’clock. I’d swear it was at least 7.”

And on and on it goes. Cracking me up every time. I’m typically the only one laughing. But I find this little trick on my internal clock so much fun. And Daylight Savings in the fall feels so satisfyingly delicious.

If I ruled the world – ok, the sun and moon – I would have 36 hour days. Sleep for a good 8 hours every night (I’m one of those who needs a bare minimum of 7 hours of sleep) and then be able to accomplish everything I need to in the left over 28. My husband thinks I would just add that much more to my plate and then start plotting a way to have 48 hour days, and he’s probably right. But I’ll settle for 36 hours in a day. Now…….how to arrange it……hmmmmm…..

One of my least favorite days of the year? Daylight Savings in the spring. I hate it. And when they bumped it up a month earlier in 2005, I hated it even more. Moving it to March is the dumbest idea I’ve ever heard. Right near the end of  flu and cold season. When sleep is precious to a mother with 3 little ones in the house – trying her darndest to keep them all healthy AT THE SAME TIME.  Those of you with more than one child know exactly what I mean. They never get sick all at the same time. Noooooooo. One gets sick. Then the other gets sick. Then YOU start sniffling but never enough to put you to bed but just enough to suck every last bit of energy out of you. And then the last one gets sick. And then you’re all healthy for a week and the cycle repeats. Then, just when you think you’re in the clear, the powers that be declare it Daylight Saving Time – smack dab in the middle of your healthy week and sure enough that lost hour of sleep is just enough to invite Mr. Cold and Mrs. Sniffles back for a visit.

But it’s not spring. It’s fall! And I just got an extra hour this weekend! And I’m going to feel it (and comment on it!) for days! Oh sure, it gets darker a little earlier but that just makes the evening that much more cozy. After supper, light a fire, cozy up with a cup of tea and a book to lose yourself in. Heaven.

And I’m not the only one that loves this time of year. Nancy’s writing about it, too. Seems like I’m not alone. Yawn. I’m feeling so sleepy all of a sudden. It’s only 9:30pm. But I swear it feels more like 10:30pm. Really!