What have you done today?

I have Attention Deficit Disorder. I don't mean that I simply get distracted easily. I mean that I can not listen to the radio and clean at the same time. I can not fold laundry and watch a TV show. I can't make dinner and have a conversation.

Most people in my shoes have coping mechanisms, and my mom taught me a big one; everybody does it: I make lists. I have a list of laundry loads; a list of large projects; a list of small projects; a list of vegetables and fruits I want to grow; a list of all my yarn, projects, and needles; a list of all the yarn, projects and needles I want; a list of things the kids need, things I want, things I want to do.

With all these lists, I feel pretty defeated most of the time. I will never get to do ALL THE THINGS. I will never have the laundry, dishes, dinner and housework all done at the same time, and I honestly start to beat myself up a little bit about it! Now I have a six-week-old baby, a nineteen-month-old baby, a sixteen-year-old baby, and a husband. Where am I supposed to find time and energy to be superwoman AND do yoga daily?

This morning I was chuckling to myself about that thing that we list-o-philes all do: when we complete a task not on the to-do list, we add it to the to-do list just for the sheer joy of crossing it off. And it occurred to me: Why don't I make that my list-habit instead?

I think this is the best idea I've had in at least 72 hours. I hope that by keeping a list of everything I've done instead of everything I wish I could do, I'll actually feel a lot better. I work my tail off; I should feel accomplished at the end of the day, not defeated and hopeless! So here goes. So far today, I have:

1. Fed Ruby, changed her diaper
2. Made my own dang mocha - no Starbucks! That's $4.38 of my husband's hard work I did not waste today
3. Taken my daughter to the airport and gotten her through check-in for an internship IN ANOTHER STATE OHMYGODNOMYCHILDCANNOTBETHISOLD
4. Fed Ruby, changed her diaper
5. Cleaned stuff out of the van
6. Changed Holden's diaper
7. Made scrambled eggs and French toast for breakfast for Holden and I
8. Fed Ruby
9. Changed both babies' diapers
10. Killed several dozen zombies on my cell phone
11. Fed Ruby
12. Changed diapers, but did not re-diaper Holden fast enough
13. Cleaned pee and poop off the floor 
14. Fed Ruby
15. Washed, hulled, quartered and froze a pound of strawberries
16. Made myself a fruit, spinach and yogurt smoothie
17. Made orange juice
18. Folded a clean load of diapers
19. Run a load of diapers through 2 of 3 cycles
20. Gathered dirty diapers from throughout the house for another load of diapers
21. Washed out the blender pitcher and started cleaning breakfast dishes
22. Wrote two journal entries (as of 2:00 PM)
23. Brought the dog in BEFORE it started raining
24. Fed Ruby
25. Cleaned up Holden and Mark's bed in the nursery
26. Folded a load of blankets
27. Started the third cycle on the 2nd load of diapers
28. Put away the diapers I folded earlier (updated at 2:50 PM)
29. Fed Ruby
30. Set up bed in Holden's room
31. Put diapers in the dryer

There, I feel better already.