My New To-Do List

I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating. I love lists. And for good reason, too! Us moms have a lot going on in our lives!

On any given day, my to-do list could include something of the following:

• 
  
  Load/unload the dishwasher
• Wash/fold the laundry
• Prepare three meals
• Send my friend a birthday card
• Mail my other friend a gift for her new baby
• Bake cookies for our family get-together tonight
• Don't eat (more than half of) the above cookies before tonight
• Respond to my other friend's message on Facebook
• Burn bridal shower photos for my cousin onto a CD
• Mail the CD to my cousin
• Download the videos from my digital camera onto the computer so I have more memory to take more!
• Keep two busy toddlers clean, fed, and out of trouble

Honestly, I rarely make these lists anymore. Well, I do, but not exactly like that. I try and only write things down when I'm preparing for an event in which other people are counting on me or when I feel like there are so many extra things floating around inside my head that I need to write them down before I can start thinking rational thoughts about anything different. Phew. That was a really long sentence. I'm going to leave it, though, since I'm not sure I want to make it shorter and I'm pretty sure you understood that anyway.

But here's the thing. How many times do we make these lists and then grow frustrated that we didn't get ANY of it done? There have been numerous times where my husband came home and said, "So, what'd you do today?" Thinking about my huge list with nothing crossed off, I would immediately say, "Nothing." He would laugh, knowing full well that I did A LOT, even if none of it were things I had hoped to do.

So here's my new thing. Rather than making a list of things I know that I won't be able to accomplish, I'm going to fill my to-do lists with things that I DO do during the day. Maybe that way, I'll feel better about how I'm spending my time throughout the day, knowing that I am, in fact, accomplishing a lot.

Here's a sample of my NEW to-do list.

• 
  
  Get up with the boys at 6:30am
• Change at least twelve diapers
• Cook three meals (bonus points if I eat, too)
• Clean the food off their faces, hands, the highchair and the floor beneath them
• Kiss all bumps, bruises and scrapes
• Watch the neighbor kids get on the schoolbus
• Point at the dogs outside the window, saying, "Do you see the doggie?" and then making woofing sounds, much to the amusement of my boys
• Go to the bathroom (bonus points if I do it by myself!)
• Break up a fight. Or two.
• Take the boys for a walk to the park
• Pack their bottles, diapers, hats, bubbles and blanket into the stroller for our walk
• Dress the boys for a trip outside complete with sneakers, sunscreen and perhaps bugspray
• At the park, make sure they keep any foreign objects out of their mouths that Mother Nature did not create (and yes, I have given up retrieving sticks and rocks from my boys' mouths. I just couldn't keep up. It didn't take long for them to learn that these do not taste good and have since, slowed their experimental tasting to only a few an hour. Mostly sticks. That's their favorite.)
• Send my husband a picture of the boys eating sticks
• Chuckle at his reply
• Chant the days of the week or months of the year on the way home to keep my boys awake
• Follow the boys up the stairs, closing the door before they can try walking back down and turn on the air conditioner (if I didn't remember to turn it on before I left)
• Find the matching toy the boys are fighting over
• Explain that biting is not nice and separate the two fighting toddlers
• Go to the window to see the afternoon schoolbusses dropping off the kids
• Wait a while to see people coming home from work, walking their dogs and talking in their yards
• Help Jonathan put the square in and out of the block fifty times
• Assist Benjamin in putting the straw through the hole and then back out at least two dozen times. Maybe more.
• Read at least one book with each boy (bonus points if we can all read one together)
• Put them down for a nap. Sit at my computer for a few minutes and take a breath. Maybe comment on some of my friend's pictures on Facebook.
• Go to the bathroom
• Put the clothes from the washer into the dryer and fold the dry clothes; put them away
• Think about what I'm going to make for dinner (bonus points if I can start it before Andy comes home!)

Ya see? I DO do a lot! All this time, I was writing the wrong things!