Getting things done

One of the realities of being a full-time Mom: there's always more that needs doing than there are hours enough in the day to get it done. If you're gonna be a full time Mom, you might as well know it now and get over it.

I've always (or at least for as long as I can remember) been one of those people who tried to figure things out. I don't know if that's just the way God programmed me, or if it comes from things like my love of puzzles, or if it was inherited from my handy-man Daddy. Maybe it's a mish-mash of all those things, who knows? All I know is that, for a long time now, I've had the "If it's to be it's up to me" approach to most things. If I want something to get done, the easiest way I know of to accomplish that is to do it myself. Of course, this means that there's always too much to get done, because it's almost all on my plate. Sometimes, it feels overwhelming ... exhausting even. But the truth is that it keeps my life from ever having a chance to be "boring", and it gives me a chance to do things for the people I care about.

For instance, my husband rarely, if ever, has the typical "honey-do" list. There's a variety of reasons for that. First of all, I was blessed with a man who is willing to go to work every day and let me stay home with our children, knowing that it will mean we don't have a new car every few years, or cable TV, or the latest gadgets that everyone is talking about. He knows that being a mother is all I really wanted to do, and he's given me the opportunity to follow that dream. That, in itself, makes me want to do whatever I can to ease his burdens where I can. And bless his heart, despite his love of home improvement shows and the like, he just doesn't have the patience to try and figure things out when they aren't working the way they should. It's just not in his makeup, and that's fine. As long as he can mow the yard now and then (which I CAN do, but try to avoid because of my asthma) and takes out the garbage (which I can also do, but would rather not), I'm quite content to just ask for the occasional, "When you get a minute, would you mind ..." and leave it at that.

I'm quite aware of my limitations, though. There's no way I can get everything done all by myself. I make lists a lot so I don't forget things, because sometimes I honestly think that I gave away a lot of my brain cells to my kids while I was carrying them. It's all circumstantial, of course, but they are each brilliant in their own ways, and I don't remember things half as well as I used to ... I'm sorry, where was I?

Oh yeah, getting things done. I know I can't do everything, but oddly enough, it gives me a chance to teach my children about getting things done. They are still at an age where they want to be helpers, especially if they are getting to do something out of the ordinary. And so, at 8, 5, and 3, I have them sort laundry in a corner of the kitchen while I make breakfast. Surprisingly, most of it actually ends up in the right place. I can hand them each a dust rag and turn them loose in the house and 1/2 to 2/3 of a job I loathe will be taken care of before I finish the vacuuming. I look for kid-sized jobs, like having them unload the clothes dryer and learn to fold socks, and I teach them one thing at a time, because I know that one day they'll need to do all these things for themselves. And if I've helped them learn to do it I've shown my love for them without them even knowing it. And as I watch them learn to accomplish new things on their own, I can smile at their success, and mark something else off my list as complete.