Hi, my name is Brittany and I am a list maker...

I have a problem...

I make lists for EVERYTHING!

You name it chore lists, grocery lists, goal lists, Christmas lists, future home lists, food storage lists, etc...etc... Making these lists helps keep me on track (sometimes) but it also often times makes me feel defeated because I am constantly falling short in accomplishing my "lists". Life as a mom to 4small kids is most of the time just plain craziness. There is always something going on and someone needing something. Like usual I didn't even come close to finishing my to-do list yesterday. This always frustrates me because I really do TRY! I need to work on rolling with the punches more and realizing that I can't be a perfectionist. If you saw my house you wouldn't think that I am a perfectionist because there is always a mess somewhere, but really I am, I expect way too much out of myself. I have realized that part of my problem is that when I do something I like to do it WELL and when you have a busy life sometimes you just have to do things quick! I am going to try and be better about this(try).

Yesterday after feeling really discouraged that I didn't get much done on my to-do list I decided to sit down and write out what I had done throughout the day. So here it is...

1. did the girls hair/got them out the door to school
2. got J-man dressed
3. got the baby dressed/changed her diaper/nursed the baby
4. changed at least 8 more diapers throughout the day
5. nursed the baby every 3 hours throughout the day
6. had personal scripture study
(working towards finishing doctrine & covenants before the end of the year)
7. cleaned J-man's room with him/made his bed/put his clean clothes away
8. made J-man lunch
9. sent some important emails
10. worked on my Christmas surprise for my parents
11. took out the trash
(like walked the bag to the trash outside,yep I am counting every little thing I did)
12. unloaded the dishwasher/then re-loaded it
13. clipped J-man's fingernails (gross I know)
14. paid a medical bill
15. took the girls to gymnastics
16. started the girls on their reading
17. cooked dinner- garlic-lime chicken.rice-a-roni-.corn bread.mandarin oranges
18. planned all of our meals for December & printed a "meal calendar" aka- LIST19. went to the 8pm yoga class at the gym *ME TIME FINALLY*
20. clipped coupons/wrote my grocery LIST21. popped a bag of popcorn and watched 30 rock with Court
22. looked for tile online
(we are getting tile in our kitchen & bathrooms, HALLELUJAH)
23. sorted the dirty laundry into bins in the laundry room
24. blogged (my only form of journaling)
25. got ready for bed and hit the sack around midnight

I'm sure I did more then what is on this list, but this was everything that I could remember. It sure made me feel better at the end of the day to see what I had accomplished. There are SO MANY DAYS when I feel like I have gotten nothing done, but this list proves that even when my to-do lists aren't getting done as quickly as I would like, I am still accomplishing things!

I'm not going to stop making lists, I CAN'T(help me!!! j/k) but I am going to scale down my lists, make them more realistic, and not be so hard on myself!

p.s. J-man told the baby the other day that he wanted to marry her! It was so, so, so cute. He just adores her. He said it in the sweetest little voice too, totally melted my heart!!!