The Did List

In spite of being coupled with several other life changes, my transition to two children has been fairly smooth.  Nevertheless, I have been flung deeper into the trenches of the less glamorous side of parenting.  Although Rhett is just a tiny little thing with very few needs, the addition of one more body to our household seemed to multiply every basic domestic task.  Suddenly the piles of laundry and dirty dishes seemed double what they had been before, and a room could go from tidy to a disaster in no time flat.  We quickly realized that as parents of two children there would simply be less wiggle room for letting things slide without our home quickly deteriorating into chaos.  

I had begun to feel the drag of this constant wheel of domestic obligations.  Household work is repetitive business, and it can be depressing to feel like you will be doing laundry and dishes and picking up for the rest of your life.  On top of that, my short to-do list of projects, tasks, and errands was  perpetually undone, leaving me feeling like a failure at the end of each day.  I felt so very busy, and yet there seemed to be nothing to show for it.  

Then I had a vague memory of my friend Katie mentioning that she once kept track of everything she did one day in her role as a stay-at-home mom.  I decided to give it a try, just to give myself a little validation that, yes, I am accomplishing something each day.  Leaving a notepad out on my kitchen counter, I proceeded to write down every little thing I accomplished that day.  Every diaper change.  Every feeding.  Every change of laundry loads.   

 The list was halfway down the page by 10 a.m.!  And I didn't even include all of the baby soothing, toddler helping and playing, and dog letting in-and-out-ing.   

Granted, the list is still mundane.  Lots of dishwasher loading and unloading, laundry folding, meal prepping, naptime and bedtime ritualing, and the like.  I changed nine diapers, nursed six times, and put the baby down for four naps before I stopped keeping track of those things.  But there were some exciting things thrown in for good measure.  I killed a big spider!  I played water beads!  I made zucchini bread!  I cleaned up a big pee pee mess!  Are you jealous yet? ;) 

My life is not going to be selected for a reality show any time soon.  My days are filled with lots of recurring events that I will do again tomorrow and the next day.  But it was enough to remind myself that in spite of the many things that will never get accomplished in this season of life, my days are full and I am doing something important, even if it doesn't always feel that way or look that way on paper.  These boys will be gone before I know it, and someday when my kitchen is clean, my laundry is done, and my house is quiet I will long for these days that often feel so unproductive.  I hope they will fondly remember the home I created for them and the sweet days that we spent together, mundane and repetitive as they may be.