The Ozmerican Life

I love lists. I love making them, I love being organized, and even more so...I LOVE crossing things off the list.



And if you're wondering, yes I am one of those who will put things on the list that I've already done, just so I can cross them off. Dorky I know...but I know I am not the only one out there that does that.



But recently as mom of 4, I've learned that I have to be as productive with my time as I can and the time it takes to acutally sit down and write out a list is somewhat wasteful. So I've taken to the talent of mind-listing.



Yep, that's right...mind-listing. In the morning I mentally make a list of all things that have to be done that day, approximately what time I will do them that day, and remember them so I can mentally check them off my list, so even though it's not physical pen and paper...I have still checked them off in some form. I know, talented isn't it?



During the morning hours before the kids get up, I carefully tiptoe all around the house straightening up the leftover out of place things from the day before...all this while mind-listing for the day. So by the time the kids get up (which happens to be really early these days thanks to Day Light Savings...they still haven't figured out that they need to stay in bed for another hour) I am all ready with my plan of action.



So the other day it was about 3:30 in the afternoon. I was frantically scanning my mind-list. There must be a mistake. Did I lose my list? Did it get deleted? My list was empty!! I walked around the house, just walking around scanning everything I saw to see if it would reboot my mind-list operating software. It was 3:30...I still had 3 1/2 business hours left for the day until closing time...and yet there was nothing to do??

Laundry was done, kitchen was clean, dishes were done, kids were schooled, dinner ready to go in the oven. Sure there were a few things around the house that needed to be done...but I knew they were already scheduled on a future mind-list, so they could wait.

I must have looked silly, just wandering around my house...That NEVER happens...I'm always cramming about this time of day to get everything checked off that list by closing time. A mind-list left unfinished is just something that should never be done!!

And then I look and see my precious Ava honing up her mouse skills on the computer. And then it hit me...game time with Ava (she needs it every day...sometimes twice). So I am really excited about this next part.

She is always begging me to play games with her...all day long every day. Which is fine by me...I love to play games too. But there are other things that need to be done. So we set times of the day that we are going to sit down and play games. We had already done that for the day but I thought...a mother with nothing to do...PLAY GAMES!

Me: "Hey Ava!"

A: "Yeah?" (while keeping one eye on the computer screen)

Me: (super excited) "Do you want to play cards with me?!?"

A: "Well I kind of want to finish this."

Me: (drop jawed) "What??? You always want to play games with me!!"

A: "Yeah, but I want to do this more."

I was feeling a bit rejected! Really? Trumped by some computer game!!

(Don't worry, I found something to do...I started a puzzle :)

Fast forward to 5:30. I'm in the kitchen getting dinner from the oven, plates out, forks out, dinner dished up so it could cool, Keira's dinner ready....busy busy busy.

My sweet Ava comes up to me in the midst of this....

"Mom, can you play a game with me now?"

"Ava, not now...I'm getting dinner ready, it's dinner time."

"Yeah but now I want to play!"