My mother always used to say I burned the candle at both ends. I have been that way for as long I can remember, and I'm pretty sure it won't change for as long as there is breath in my body. I seem to have an inescapable need to cram enough into one lifetime for three (maybe five) people. And now that I'm pushing 60 pretty hard, I'm noticing an increased sense of urgency.

I want to experience as much of what life has to offer as is possible. Right now I want to spend 10 hours a day (okay, maybe 12) blogging here on TPM...arguing, cajoling, supporting, defending, explaining, questioning, and plain old visiting. I want to have enough time to read every blog, every link, every comment, with plenty of time to write lengthy responses to many of them, and still have time left over to banter and get silly. I want to take the time to study and really understand the subject matter, and form an educated viewpoint. Then I want enough time to write my elected officials and give 'em hell or tell them (infrequently) what a good job I think they are doing.

Additionally, I want to spend 10 hours a day watching my grandchildren so that their mothers can work, yet feel confident that their children will be safe, loved,  and well cared for. I want enough time to make each of the three of them feel important, and that I love each of them as if there is only one of them. I want to teach them their ABCs and 123s, and how to paint and make bugs out of play dough. I want to take them for walks and have time to stop and crawl around on the ground following roly poly bugs, or tracing the ant's tiny steps back to their anthill, and checking the low branches of trees for bird's nests (we actually found one yesterday, with a mama dove sitting on her eggs! What an exciting moment that was!) I want to read to them and teach them to read, and sing and dance, and make musical instruments out of mommy's pots and pans. I want to help them imagine they are fairies and teach them to search for buried treasure, and swing to high enough that they think they'll actually touch the clouds with the tips of their toes. I want to lay with them in the grass and find dragons and ducks hiding in the clouds.

I want to have enough time to keep my house clean (not the kind of clean that keeps the health department away, but the kind where no matter you look there are no dust bunnies scurrying around, no spiders weaving their webs in the untouched corners of the ceiling, no crumbs from last night's dinner waiting to be devoured by a baby who has just discovered that those delights can be found if you keep your eyes open as you crawl around.) I want to put a gourmet meal on the table at least 5 nights a week, not only for my husband, but for my kids, too, so that they have more time to spend with their babies when they get home from a hard day's work instead of spending another hour in the kitchen.

I want time to work in my garden, keep up on my scrapbooks, search out new recipes, have a luxurious hour long cup of coffee in the morning. I want to sit on my patio and listen to the birds chirp and watch them eat the seeds I leave out for them, and splash in their bird baths. I want to take walks in the neighborhood. I want to watch the sun set.

I want time to pray, then time to actually listen for the answers. I want to sort through 25 years worth of photos and momentos and get them into albums before I die, so my kids will have a record of their lives to look back on. I want to volunteer at a food bank and a homeless shelter and the hospital. I want to write a book about my crazy life.

I want to travel...one more trip to the UK, one to Alaska, one to Australia. I want to take a trip on a Russian ice breaker to Antartica to see the penguins while they still have ice to live on. I want to go around the country to meet you guys...

I want to finish the quilt I started two years ago, and paint the dresser for the guest bedroom that has been in the garage taunting me for over a year. I want to decorate for the seasons, indoors and out. I want to go to the gym. I want to lose the weight I've been pissy about for 20 years, and practice yoga, and read the 30 books that laugh at me from the bookcase (and the one a friend wrote that I got 10 chapters into and haven't been able to get back to, even though it's killing me to know what comes next!)

I want to learn how to do Irish dancing, and finish my geneology and once and for all get my scrapbook room looking like the ones in the magazines. I want to make up with my sister, and learn how to forgive my father for what he was unable to be for me. I want to make my husband so happy that he'll never even WANT to leave, let alone do it.

I want to learn how to speak Spanish, explore the Constitution, and write an article so moving that it will have conservatives asking what they can do to help the liberals move their agenda forward. And every once in awhile I'd like to take a nap...just a short one. And that's just off the top of my head...there's much , much more I want to do. You know, world peace, the end of hunger, health care for everyone...

I'd better get busy, I don't have a minute to waste.