Honey Do list, Things I Need to Learn list, Cleaning list, Packing list, and Christmas Gift list. Whew! Too many lists to manage right now. As of right now, the only list I've actually written down is the gift list. The others are currently committed to memory only. That could be a problem...
My Honey Do list was short to begin with and after the weekend, is even shorter. JD is leaving in mere days and, while I hated to do it, I had to ask him to do a couple of things for me. We moved in two months ago and our oldest, MD, still didn't have her wall pegs hung in her closet and the shower curtain rod in the kids' bathroom was falling out of the wall. Truly an accident waiting to happen. Both are tasks I could've completed myself, but having them done right (and well) was my goal. There's actually still one item on the list and I doubt it will get done in the next couple of days. Afterall, we have bigger things to worry about right now.
Like my Things I Need to Learn list. Thankfully, it's a short list as well. I need to learn how to light the pilot in our heating unit. It's gone out once already and neither I nor my very helpful neighbor could get it lit. I really wanted to figure it out on my own. It looks simple enough and we followed directions, but to no avail. JD lit it when he got home that day. I hate that I couldn't get it; I love the feeling of independence I get when completing a stereotypically "male" task. The one other thing I need is a lesson in how to open and close the fireplace flue. The kids really like a fire a couple of nights a week and MD actually said to me the other night, "I guess we won't have any fires while Daddy's gone because you probably don't know how to do it." I responded (like any defiant child would), "I know how to do it, I just don't like to." Filling the house with smoke or burning it down are definately not options, so I better make sure I know what I'm doing.
Ohhh... the Cleaning list. The kids and I are heading to Iowa for Christmas this weekend and, inevitably, a vacation means cleaning. I am, admittedly, kind of a neat freak. There's not a lot of cleaning to do, just the basics, but there's nothing worse than being gone for three weeks, driving for two days straight, and coming home to a messy or dirty house. It's a pretty safe bet that the bulk of it will be done Thursday and Friday night. That way it will remain (that being the key word with four kids running around) clean and I can come home to a neat house.
Next is the Packing list. Packing is something that I usually leave until the day or night prior to leaving. I have two friends, who shall remain nameless (they know who they are!), that pack their bags anywhere from 5-7 days prior to any kind of trip. WHAT?! I still don't understand how they do it. I'm usually finishing laundry and packing the last items up until I fall into bed the night before! They even load the suitcases into their vehicles at least two days before hitting the road. I consider myself organized, but I pale in comparison to the both of them.
With Christmas just around the corner - 13 days and counting - my Gift list is stressing me out just a little bit. I am done for the most part, but until packages are actually wrapped I never feel like I'm quite finished.
With so much to do I can get a little overwhelmed, but somehow compartmentalizing everything into lists seems to break it down and make it more manageable for me. And maybe, just maybe, these tasks are helping to take my mind off of my more immediate concern.
I sure am going to miss him....
