Funny how long everything takes when the kids are home. When only Anne returned for the holidays, I could keep up with one extra body in the house. But with two kids here, routine tasks – cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, appointments, maintenance, scooping snow – increase exponentially, even though the extra bodies help out. Throw Christmas preparations into the mix and I was sunk before I started.
Apparently, my expectations were way too ambitious, even though I had scaled down my to-do to only two items: finish the Christmas letter and blog. In light of the circumstances and the season, brush teeth and change underwear would have been more realistic.
This week has been a bust according to my to-do list. To combat the atmosphere of failure within my task-driven little heart, I’ve complied retrospective list of items that didn’t make the official one.
- Watched the movies Princess Bride, Master and Commander, Ever After, and Hidalgo, as well as several episodes of the first season of The Muppet Show with the kids.
- Gone to the grocery store at least five times in the past two weeks, up from the normal frequency of one trip every two weeks.
- Helped Allen write a resume.
- Took Anne’s car to a mechanic in Des Moines and then went Christmas shopping with kids and a niece.
- Drove to Des Moines the following day to pick up Anne’s car and exchange some of the presents I’d purchased.
- Baked cookies with my middle school friend, Ashley, so she had Christmas presents for her family.
- Called my mother several times.
- Got most of the Christmas letter written.
- Listened while Anne poured her heart out.
- Listened while Allen poured his heart out.
- Attended a friend’s engagement party.
- Attended a concert put on by some special twenty-somethings we know.
- Dug around in the attic.
- Brushed my teeth and put on clean underwear every day.
Take that, gloomy atmosphere of failure! Get out of here! Vamoose! Scram! Man, do I feel better. This retrospective to-do list thing is incredibly self-validating.
I encourage you to make your own retrospective to-do list, especially if your frustrated by extra holiday duties. Post it as a comment for others to see, so we can cheer you on.
