Some Days You Can Do It All

           

   

           “Let’s play with my new toys Mommy!” These are the last words I hear as the door shuts behind me. In the driveway, the truck looms in the blackness, leaking vapor like the engine from the Hogwarts train in the Harry Potter movies. My skis are packed in the camper cap, I’ve just finished an early Christmas morning opening presents with my family and I’m racing to catch my friends to carpool up to Rocky Mountain National Park for a day of backcountry skiing. It is 6:52 AM.

             Raising children, working a full time teaching job and trying to live an outdoor-oriented lifestyle is hard; mainly because of scheduling. When you try to juggle cooking breakfast, preparing lunch, teaching all day, food shopping, cleaning up the toys from underfoot, cooking dinner, doing dishes, putting your child to bed, grading papers, planning lessons and finding time to play imaginary zoo on the living room floor, you end up being limited either by your own endurance, or the pesky fact that there is only 24 hours in a day.

I had many conversations with my friends over Thanksgiving that focused on solving the problem of creating the time to both be a good father and carve out time for climbing, hiking and skiing.  Don’t forget not getting fired, which comes a close third on that priority list. We talked about carving out scheduled chunks of time to squeeze in a workout or a few laps on the project. Ultimately, it seemed like none of us were totally satisfied with how often we got out, but that we could feel good about getting after it sometimes and focusing on being a good father; at least most days.

Last weekend though, with an impending surgery rapidly approaching, I was given the equivalent of a weekend pass. Two days to play. 48 hours to fill with whatever fills my proverbial bucket. During those two days I managed to:

Take my daughter to the toy store for the first time.

Shop for my wife’s Christmas present.

Get totally worked at the Boulder Rock Club climbing with two beautiful women.

Spend an evening drinking homebrew with friends and family.

Open presents with my daughter and wife after a surprise early visit from Santa.

Go backcountry skiing, spending time and swapping tales with two of my best friends.

Go bowling and hang out with my family at a staff Christmas party.

Get eight good and well-deserved hours of rest.

Some days, it seems, you really can do it all.