What time is it? Don't ask me.

If you think about it, time is arbitrary. We all agree to synchronize our clocks and decide that this particular time will be noon in the Central Time Zone, or whatever. Just so that we can all be on time to appointments. Or rather, so that everyone else can be on time and I can be five to ten minutes late.

With that in mind, I've decided that our house will remain on Daylight Savings Time. I'm sick of just blindly following along someone elses' rules. I mean, just because some master clock decrees that it is only 8:15 p.m. right now, doesn't mean I have to agree. It sure doesn't feel like 8:15. I'm starting to get a little sleepy, I just got my oldest son off to bed, remarking at how very late he got to stay up tonight, and it's been dark for at least three hours. Sure feels like 9:15 to me. So, 9:15 it is.

This whole mind bending exercise began last night, because Mr. Busy had to get up this morning for a 6:00 a.m. flight. I told him not to forget to change the clocks, and he told me he didn't want to change the clocks because he didn't want to get up at 3:45 a.m. and leave the house at 4:00 a.m. and catch a 6:00 a.m. flight. He said he would much rather get up at 4:45 a.m. and leave the house at 5:00 a.m. and catch a 7:00 flight, so that's what he was going to do. He had a point. Sure, 4:45 a.m. is early, but it's somehow more palatable than 3:45. All he had to do was leave the clocks the same and pretend his flight was at seven.

When one of the kids got up at 5:45 (according to the bedside clock) that clinched it for me. If my children are going to continue to insist on waking up around 6:00 a.m., there's no way I'm going to start calling it 5:00 a.m. That is way too depressing.

Things might get a little tricky somewhere down the road, like when my 8-year-old clues in that the time on the computer and television and everywhere else we go is different than the time on our stove. And I'll need to make a note of the "Ruth Standard Time" for all of our appointments. (I'm already patting myself on the back that next Saturday's 9:00 a.m. soccer game just became a 10:00 RST game.) Evening yoga will now be from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. RST, which is pretty late for the kiddos, but hey, maybe I can make it to morning yoga, now that it won't be quite so early: 10:00 RST rather than the usual 9:00 a.m.

Now, if at some point my kids start sleeping in a little, then hey, I'm willing to make the shift. But until then I'm sticking with my plan. Speaking of which, boy, I sure am getting sleepy. I don't know what time it is wherever you are, but in this house it's 9:40, which means it's getting awfully close to my bedtime. Good night.