Getting Things Done

I think all the time that I don't do enough. On some days, I really don't do enough. But on most days, I consider keeping 2 children alive and relatively happy and the household running mostly smoothly to be a lot. The days I do more than that? Bonus! But it's easy on a day like yesterday to look around at toys scattered on the floor, a greasy feeling kitchen floor, and dishes in the sink and feel like I'm not doing a very good job at this whole homemaker thing. Then I took a step back to really assess the situation. Toys were scattered because my child was playing (no easy feat in our house... Felicity struggles to play independently), the floor was greasy because I spilled butter but I tried a new, complicated meal that my family loved and the floor had previously been clean because I had swept and mopped that morning, and the dishes were out because I was rushing to get everyone fed before bedtime. If I look at it in a list, even a small portion of what I did yesterday looks like a lot:

• cleaned up toys after bed time
• swept and mopped kitchen floor and guest bath
• deodorized and vacuumed living room
• made a new recipe for supper 
• 3 loads of laundry
• 2 mile walk with the girls

I did more than that, of course, but the point is that it's easy to look around at what didn't get done and beat myself up over it when, in reality, I've done quite a bit! I was telling my mom the other day how much more frustrating housework is now that I'm a SAHM. When Steven and I were both working and had no children, I'd clean a room or vacuum and it would be done for a week. I would do laundry and be done for 3-4 days. I had a sense of accomplishment because I would get a task done and then have multiple days to enjoy the fruits of my labor until it needed doing again. Now, however, I mop the kitchen and a mess is made an hour later. I do a load of laundry and another one is waiting right behind it. I vacuum the living room and crumbs have accumulated by the next morning. There's no feeling of ever being done with anything, and more of a sense of a vicious cycle of chores. Two + years in and I'm still struggling with that reality!

 I ordered a planner today that I'm really excited about. When I was choosing, one of the options had a "to do list" section that I was drawn to. Then I thought, "that list will be full constantly and I'll never make much of a dent" so, instead, I chose one that has graph paper. I can write anything in that section but I've decided to track what I get done, at least every few days. I think that seeing what I've done, rather than what's left to do, will be way better for my morale!