My "Done" List

I hate "To Do" lists because I inevitably get side-tracked by a kid-related emergency or find something that needs to be "done" more than what I've written on the list. Then, at the end of the day, I see my mostly unfinished list and feel like I've gotten nothing accomplished at all -- the feeling of defeat is a hard one to overcome and it really eats away at my motivations. Today I'm going to make a different sort of list -- a "Done!" list. I'll be adding to it as my day goes on.

• Kids dressed, fed, school lunches made, and boys walked to school
• 1 load of clothes folded and sorted
• 1 load of clothes in dryer
• decided WFD (sweet and sour meatballs on rice) -- beef taken out to thaw
• ate breakfast and had a cup of tea (okay, not a chore -- but still important!)
• new bag of donations for St. Vincent de Paul started (hope to fill it today)
• load of kid laundry tossed in washer (10:15am)
• (dealing with laundry back-log, hence:) folded load of laundry
• folded another load of laundry and spent 15 min trying match socks from the "orphaned sock box"
• spent 30 min sorting through books -- keep vs. donate
• load of laundry into dryer
• ate lunch -- the tabbouleh tasted funny... blech
• folded load of bedsheets, towels, etc.
• finished folding the kids' "put away after school" laundry -- how does a family of 4 generate so much laundry?
• dishwasher unloaded (clean) and reloaded (dirty)
• spent about 45min sorting through stuff upstairs -- keep vs. donate (2:21pm)
• collected boys from school
• spent 20min dealing with tantruming almost-8yr old
• 40min tea break prior to making supper to chill out from adrenaline rush of dealing with the aforementioned tantrum
• make supper
• cuddle with 6yr old for 40min (at his demand, er, request)

On a totally unrelated note, it just occurred to me today that I've been blogging in this journal-style format for almost 6 years! And for a couple years before that in a more article-driven style. How time flies!