Where you invest your love

I am time-tracking by the half-hour again.  I completed the month of January and am now solidly into February.  I enjoy this self-measurement.  It makes me very conscious of how I am spending my time.  As Mumford & Sons sing "where you invest your love, there you invest your life."  (For more inspiration on time-tracking, check out Laura Vanderkam's book, I Know How She Does It.)

How do you invest your love?
Hour by hour...or even minute by minute.

I am investing my love these days in my love-and-wrestle 4 year old boy and my sweet-and-cuddle 2 1/2 month old baby girl.  Last week I put in 43!!  hours in a mix of "family time".  Family time does consist of simple chores--like emptying the dishwasher, making soup or putting away laundry, but only includes tasks that are secondary to my primary work of keeping up with two little ones.  That's a lot of hours being with these two.  I certainly am investing my love and my life.  Lots of cuddling and nursing (SO.MUCH.NURSING!--and pumping, but that's another story) and a fair amount of Mario wii playing with the boy.

I am also investing my love in my work.  I do not usually think about it as love, but love grows in what we work at with all our hearts.  Administrating policies, handling student and personnel crisis, crafting emails and planning programs do not sound like "love", but all of it is the work of creating a community that nurtures and grows students.  This week the work is not easy and I am well aware of my need for advisors and policy to shape responses.  I remind myself that where I am investing my love, I am investing my life, so it is worth being wholehearted in both family and work.

How are you investing your love these days?  Love to hear from you!