My New List

My personality likes to check things off lists.  I like to look at my crossed out grocery list, take a deep sigh, and mentally pat myself on the back for finishing something.  So much of mothering little ones makes a list useless and a bit frustrating.  Why set a list of big goals when you will accomplish none of them but instead will spend the whole day (and I mean the WHOLE DAY) with a 23 lb. baby strapped to your hip because he's having separation anxiety every time he's set down?  Why make a neat list of daily chores when your children follow you in Tasmanian Devil style and throw messes all over the house? I've discovered that giving thanks for those graces helps to capture the moments, slow things down, and make me delight in where I am, but I'm a list girl.  I need a list.  So I've decided to write a new list:

1. Take a picture fun/silly/precious of both children.

2. Tickle both boys til the belly laughs come.

3. Speak something encouraging in each of my men's life.

4. Listen.  Turn down the music.  Turn off the computer.  Just listen to what they are saying.

5. Read Scripture for myself and later share Bible time with Caleb even at unconventional times.

6. Read books with both boys in different places around the house. (We've recently discovered that my bed is the boys favorite place to read with us.)

7. Sleep. Even if it means missing the end of Inspector Lewis.  Sleep.  You'll regret it if you don't.

None of these things will take much time.  All of these things can be done with a baby on the hip.  At the end of the day, I'll know I accomplished something so much more real than getting everything cleaned, put away, disinfected, and done.