{Real Mom Life} To-Do Lists

Ever had one of those days where you didn't get anything accomplished that you'd planned to do?

Yeah, that was my day today.

Mondays are the "stay at home" day for Maylin and me. Usually our weekends are our busiest three days of the week {I'm counting Friday, too}. There's always somewhere to go, or someone to see. And of course Michael is home, so we spend a lot of time with him. Maylin's schedule, needless to say, suffers during the weekends. So, I dubbed Monday as the day we stay home and recuperate. We usually don't go anywhere, and I stick to a strict sleep routine for Maylin to get her body back in the groove. Typically I tend to get a lot of things done around the house on Monday. It's usually wrecked from the weekend so I take the time to get everything back in order.

Today I had a to-do list as long as my arm, full of things that I "needed" to get done.
Laundry.
Floors.
Kitchen/dishes.
Pick up clutter.
And like zero of those things got done.

I like to feel productive with my time at home, so when I don't get things done I feel frustrated.

Frustrated at Maylin for not "sticking to her schedule." Frustrated at myself for not using my time more wisely. Frustrated that I keep getting interrupted from my chores due to one random thing or the other.

By the end of the day I'm so steeped in this emotion of aggravation that I'm short tempered and strung-tight. Not a very pleasant person to be around.

Tonight Maylin didn't go to sleep easily like she normally does and I had to rock her for about thirty minutes past her bedtime. As I was sitting in the dark, I had a few moments to think back on the day and realized that I had missed the point of it all. The purpose of my day is not to complete my to-do list. The purpose of my day is not to have a perfectly clean and tidy home with a gourmet dinner on the table by sunset. Some days that does miraculously happen, but those days are much fewer than I would've ever supposed before I began this journey of motherhood.

Instead, I should be grateful for the time I had with Maylin, watching her crawl around with her newfound freedom on the floor, playing with toys all by herself {yay!}.  Instead of grumbling in my mind and complaining that I should be doing {insert chore here} and inwardly freaking out at the thought that I might not get to cross off everything on my list, I should be relishing the time I get to spend with M when he comes home on his lunch break, and thanking my lucky stars I can have at least one adult conversation between the hours of 9 and 5.

This time in my life is just a season. There will never be another season that is exactly like this one, where I have the freedom and luxury of time to spend with Michael and Maylin. Sooner than I expect, I'm sure, things will change. And I'm pretty confident I will find myself missing this season and the days where I could just sit with my babies and play with them, never minding all the dirty dishes in the sink or the dog hair in the corners of the room, or this deadline or that assignment.

The to-do list doesn't have to be completed today. Or tomorrow. Believe it or not, it's just not that important. Not important enough to affect my attitude. Not important enough to be given priority over my family.

That's a resolution I'm going to stick with all year long.