Minding The Gap--And Filling It

I get my kids off to school, then head home to do at-home work before heading to work-work. The time gap cannot be squandered, you see. I am up, have been for hours to get everyone out, so if my call is not till 11am, a world of things can get done by then. Right?
 
There are days when I fill all the gaps--it's hard to get everything done otherwise. Places to be, things to prove, homework to check, stories to hear, sleep to be had, so that you have enough energy to do everything else, and yes, more things to prove. Yet, there are days when the gaps refuse to be filled--when the at-home work doesn't work, when the sleep wasn't enough to support the energy of filling every minute, when the mundane tasks of life expand to fill those valuable time gaps. On those days, I wonder--was I cheated? Absolutely. Will my ability to get everything done suffer? Without question. But that's just how life is. Sometimes we get to choose how we fill our time, our plates, our lives. Sometimes, the world decides for us.
 
Today was a day when "minding the gap" didn't quite work the way I'd planned. Here's hoping that there are gaps to mind tomorrow. Because I've got a whole list of things ready and waiting to fill them.