Yesterday, my list consisted of going through Sunshine and Monster clothes and get rid of the ones that are too small (which, I did this Sunday with pants for Sunshine, but she freaks out about giving up shirts, skirts and dresses, so those I do when she's not around), changing sheets, washing sheets, washing blankets, washing Husband's work clothes, take things to recycle and vacuuming the computer room. This list did not contain the things like going to volunteer at the school, dishes, dishes, and more dishes, running the coffeemaker through a cleaning cycle, packing lunches, organizing kid paperwork, or finding out my dog is mostly deaf (yeah, that happened yesterday). Before the kids even left for school, I had already packed lunches, done some dishes, run one load of Husband work clothes, had kids strip their beds and went through all of Sunshine's long sleeved shirts with her to see what was too small. As soon as I got home from walking the kids to school, I started on Sunshine's clothes. Even though we had done long sleeved shirts and pants already, it took me over an hour to go through the rest. Why? Because it's never as simple as what the list says. In order to go through the clothes in her closet, I had to first clean out her closet, which was a disaster. Monster's clothes took me all of 20 minutes as his room is much neater than hers! This house is now 8 bags of clothes lighter. Eight. That's a lot. And that's not including the several bags I gave away Monday! One by one yesterday, I checked off all my "to dos" as well as things that weren't on the list.
Husband came home early, which happens about once every 3 months. I was so proud of the clothes that I needed to share that with him. Eight bags of clothes is kind of a big deal. A little after he got home, I got the kids from school. We went about our night. Husband made a comment on how since he'd gotten home, I haven't stopped doing dishes. Then, he said I must just do dishes all day, jokingly. I then made the comment of how I would have done more dishes but I was too busy. Then I asked him if he remembered what I did today. He had no clue. After I made a point of telling him. Then I stopped and looked around. It honestly looked as if I had done nothing all day. Before he and the kids came home, counter tops and table were clean. When I looked, they were piled high with....I don't even know....they were just piled high! I looked at the dish drainer, it was full, even though I had literally been doing dishes all throughout the day! There were pots and pans on the stove from dinner (which Husband made and was fantastic). And in that moment, that long "to do" list I had checked everything off of, didn't matter. What mattered was what wasn't done.
This morning, as I was thinking of all the things I needed to accomplish, I almost started to freak out knowing it wouldn't get done since I spent the day helping out my mom. How sad that I look at my world and see all that I didn't accomplish? I didn't make a list today. I didn't make one since I wasn't going to be home. Of course I had a mental list of things that I was hoping to do, but if it's not written down, it's not real. Know what? That release of knowing that a ton of things weren't going to get done made me actually enjoy my day. I had a great time with my mom. Then, I came home and played ball with Puppy on this beautiful 62 degree February day. After I came inside, I actually got quite a bit done in the 20 minutes I had before picking the kids up from school. When the kids came home, I made them do homework and then kicked their little butts outside to play. I picked up sticks outside while the played. Getting stuff done while enjoying the day.
As night quickly approaches, I am starting to feel the stress of all that needs to get done tomorrow upon me. I already started my list and it already has 5 things on it, including grocery shopping, which takes no less than a hour of my day. I look at my list and then look around my house and I see all that didn't get done today. But, then I see Husband and the kids. They are laughing and playing Just Dance. Kids got to run around and burn off energy on this beautiful day. My house may not be spotless, but I have super happy kids (and Husband). Tomorrow, I'll have my list. I'll notice all the things that weren't done, but I'll also remember to appreciate the things that DID get done!