Things I think about when I should be sleeping

I'm not a great sleeper. If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, you probably already know that. Maybe you're even tired of hearing about it. If so, just put your hands over your eyes.

I went to bed around 1am. That should be late enough to be tired, right? I think I was tired. But someone forgot to tell my brain that it was time to go to bed. My brain wanted to run and roll and flip over thoughts such as:

1. How much the bedrooms all need to be cleaned in the morning.
2. What we're going to do with the kids while I work this summer. 
3. BINGO - as in Scrabble. I see tiles in my head and with my mind's eye, shuffle through them to try to find a 7-letter word.
4. How tired I'm going to be in the morning because I'm only going to get 5 hours of sleep...4 hours and 53 minutes...4 hours and 47 minutes...
5. How I'm too hot and should go downstairs and check the thermostat.
6. How I should get up and go through coupons for the much needed grocery trip tomorrow.
7. How I wonder if anyone is on Facebook right now.

Eventually, my brain gave up and my body won. Until the dog came in and licked my face. I thought she needed to go out, so I got up and headed downstairs, expecting her to follow. Instead, she took my spot in the bed. Whose idea was it to get this dog?

It turns out I'm not the only one awake at 4:30am. Mike was downstairs watching television. Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Now that's enough to put me to sleep.

Ideas for 3 a.m.

I know it seems hard to believe, but sometimes I find myself awake in the middle of the night. 3ish in the morning seems to be my favorite witching hour. So last night, while I was awake at 3:41am, I started thinking that maybe I should make a list of things that can be done in the wee hours of the morning.

1. Pack lunches.
2. Move the stuff in the washing machine to the dryer.
3. Fold the stuff you just took out of the dryer.
4. Blog.
5. Bake chicken.
6. Catch up on DVR'd episodes of "Chopped" and "Drop Dead Diva."
7. Count how many hours of actual sleep you got and fret about how many more hours are left until you have to wake up -- again.
8. E-mail your co-workers so they can be uber-impressed with the hour at which you were up working.
9. Pray.
10. Hang out on Facebook and see which of your friends are insomniacs, too.
11. Play online Scrabble.
12. Check your work e-mail and calendar to see if you can call in "exhausted."
13. Catch up on your blog reading.
14. Check the kids' backpacks that you forgot to go through before bedtime.
15. Pay bills.
16. Initiate an amorous encounter -- unless the reason why you're awake at 3am is that there are kids sleeping in your bed, which kind of automatically kills the mood.

It seems like I'm forgetting something. I know there is at least one more thing you can do at 3am...

Oh yeah. Sleep.