lists, notes, boxes, + checkmarks

I love lists. I'm always making new lists, referring to old lists, trying to find lost ones so I can remember what I wrote down so I wouldn't forget...or to prove to my husband that I DID tell him something that he inevitably forgot. Sometimes, lists save my life.

Other times, lists take over a bit.

I have a list for almost everything. Recently we went from one shopping list to two. One is for groceries and the other is for non-food items and sometimes {like right now} the 2nd one has a to-do list on it instead. Every time we run out of something I add it to the shopping list so that when we're at the store next, we won't forget. Except....I usually leave this list on the fridge and sometimes I remember to transfer what's on it to a smaller list.

The newest list is written in sharpie on an old dry erase board. It's a weekly chore list adapted the cleaning plan of another blogger. I like checking things off with my red dry erase pen. Sometimes I get more of a thrill when Ben notices how many of the boxes have red check marks than from actually checking them off..

The list from our move {packing, cleaning, address updates} is still on the wall. Below it is a list of things that need to be done here at the "new" house. Below that is another shopping list of sorts...a reminder for a lot of gifts we had to get or need to get soon for weddings, birthdays, + graduations. This one is very important in avoiding our usual trip to the store just before the event. I HATE doing that!

I also have lists that I make when I read. I jot things down when I'm reading through a magazine; fun ideas, websites to visit later, other things that pop into my head. I'm currently reading through The No-Cry Sleep Solution {more on that in the near future} and am making notes and to-do lists on our plans to implement it's advice.

Often I'll scrawl out quick to-do's in my pocket calendar, trying to keep track of all the events we have going on each day of the week/month/year. I also have a notebook of questions and advice from all of Malakai's pediatrician appointments with a list of things to ask at his next well visit.

Writing all this stuff down is really helpful for my tendency to forget things {that started with the infamous pregnancy brain}. Like I said, sometimes my lists save my life.

However, sometimes I need to stop writing stuff down and just start doing. I like to make lists of what I want done around the house. This is actually really helpful when Ben is also here and working along side me so he knows what to do next {he asks for this kind of help}, but when it's just me I need to forgo the urge to create a list and just get going.

This week- that's what I'm doing! Wish me well...

eaves dropping

Hello all, today's post can also be found as a guest blog over at The Goodson Family Journey. Thanks Mitzi!

{Ben, Shandell, + Malakai}

Recently we were spending some time with my in laws. There were about ten of us gathered in the living room after dinner. My son Malakai was scooting around playing with some new toys and his third cousin, 2-year-old Caleb was listening to a story. The room was all a chatter, but I happened to overhear one particular side conversation that picked up between Malakai's grandma Debbie and Caleb's grandma Dede. I'm fairly certain that were unaware of my listening in. 


Their conversation was sparked Debbie's recent scrap booking fetish. She has been taking all her old photo albums, putting the pictures in chronological order and embellishing them with stickers and captions. The books are super cute and it has been really nice to look through their old photos and pick out my husband Ben at a certain age and compare him to Malakai. They look SO much alike that it's almost like a glimpse into what my son will look like down the road. 


As we were scanning through the photos of Ben, his siblings, and cousins when they were toddlers we kept coming back to how fast childhood goes by. It's the most true of any cliche I've ever heard. 


Dede began to reflect on when her own children were toddlers and how amazed she is that she now has a 2 year old grandson. She lamented about what she wished she would have done differently and I began to listen more intently. 


She said that she would have stopped to watch more. Just let the laundry and  the dishes wait and watch her children as they grew. Chores would always be there, but their childhood will not. 


I smiled to myself at how simple yet valuable her revelation was. A handful of parenting books could have told me this very same thing, but hearing it as a sincere wish from a seasoned parent instead of unsolicited advice really made me take it to heart.  


Starting at that moment I began to watch Malakai more intently. I want to burn his childhood into my memory so I can reflect on each occasion with joy instead of regret. In my life this means putting down the computer whenever Malakai plays independently to just observe him more.  It means not stressing about getting him down for a nap so I can clean, but enjoying this stage while he still lets me rock him to sleep, it means playing with him on the floor before he's running out the door. 


I want to encourage and challenge all you young mom's out there to be sure and take in every moment of your little one's childhood before it's a distant memory. 

Distracted

I'm having a really hard time concentrating these days. It's especially difficult when my little man wants to kick up a storm and I'm in staff meeting or having a conversation about my class load with my Grad school advisor. 

Speaking of...I went to talk to him today about my current class being the last one I'll take in the program before the baby is born. I'm halfway through the program, so I want to take a year off and then go back after that. He's trying to convince me to take one more class after the 8 weeks I'll have in the one that starts on Thursday.

I don't know if I can do 16 more weeks of classes and I don't think I want to be in class during weeks 28-36 of my pregnancy! It's only once a week (from 5pm-8pm after an 8am-5pm work day), but add that to the fact that I'll be working, Ben has worship band practices and we only have one car, and try to fit in getting the house ready, registering, showers, birthing and breast feeding classes...I really don't want my schedule that busy! Yet, I still can't decide if I should take his advice and do one more class. 

On another note- my MIL offered to throw a shower with my SIL in May. She had me talk to my mom and sister to see if they wanted to do a joint one. Sounds like fun! It'll probably only be able to be family though, or it would be too big for one party. I'll have to find out if any of my friends want to throw one that I can invite all my girlfriends to. 

This weekend we are going  up to Portland for a wedding. It's Saturday afternoon and we're staying the night with a friend so we can do some shopping on Sunday. We don't have a BRU in town so we'll check that out. We're also going to take our first trip to the new IKEA and stop at The Container Store and the outlets for Motherhood, Carter's, and Gymboree deals. I'm not much of a shopper, but I am really excited to start looking at baby stuff with daddy-to-be!