In Praise of Things Undone

I have decided to stop beating myself up today for everything that did not get done and give myself a pat on the back for not getting it done.  I also plan to cross off all those same things from my list with a nice new Sharpie.  You know why?   Because it feels great to draw a line through things you don’t really want to be doing anyways.  And I love Sharpies, something so powerful and permanent(ha ha!) about them.  I also have come to the realization that my productivity in terms of reproducing children has come back to bite me in the butt.  Somehow the more people I have living in this house, the less productive I am(at least by certain standards).  Much of my day is spent doing things which one of the four minions quickly undo and therefore I must redo.  It is a vicious cycle.  I was out paying bills in the kitchen on the laptop. Sawyer and Bart were snoozing and Jimmy was in his and Josie’s room.  It was perfect…until I went to see what Jimmy was up to and once he unlocked the door, I was overcome by the fumes of Josie’s fruity CVS brand Princess perfume.  Not only was he freshening the room with it, but Jimmy had also tried to clean their mirror with it.  Most likely due to the fact that it is a nice bright clear blue color and he had helped me clean the windows last week with a similar looking liquid- that’s right Windex.   Which reminds me I never did go back and clean that mirror.  I was with the boys later in the basement where most of the toys reside and trying to get the boys to help clean up the many play swords, guns, baseball bats, boxing gloves, etc. (Note to all my fb friends, sorry for the repeat story).  The phrase “boxing gloves and weapons go in the weapons container” actually came out of my mouth.  And I really wasn’t fazed by it.  There were plenty of other weird and random phrases that I yelled today including telling Sawyer not to “vacuum” the baby.  And even the baby adds to the undoing.  Bart or Barf as I sometimes refer to him as, has a penchant for spitting up on the kitchen floor.  Thankfully the dog is often nearby and helps to clean it up.  Sorry to all you PETA peeps out there, but the dog is clearly not allergic to dairy.  Josie’s favorite form of undoing is to take trash and make more trash.  Yes, I am proud of how “green” she is and it is wonderful how her creative little imagination leads her to make little houses for her tiny stuffed animals out of empty diaper boxes.   But the girl may end up needing an intervention on hoarders.  Lord knows she has the pack rat syndrome in her genes.

The real reasons I am proud to be the Queen of the Undone today are things 1, 2, 3, and 4.  I was able to waste time in the best way, with four of my favorite people.  Josie and I played around on my iPhone with Instagram- my new favorite time sucker.  I spent a few awesome moments just watching baby Bart as he layed playing on his mat, grabbing at the toys hanging above him.  Jimmy “styled” my hair while I fed and held Bart.  Sawyer outlasted the other three tonight and was still up chilling on the couch with me when A.J. got home around 9:30.  I am going to adopt a new attitude of pride in the undone.  You should too!