For the Love of Lists

I'm not a huge list person, although I find that my thoughts are much more organized when I have lists to refer to. My problem is that I get a little too "list happy." I'll have my "to-buy" lists (one for each store), my "to-do" lists (usually a separate one for each category - cleaning, MOPS, projects, return phone calls, etc.), my "honey-do" lists (c'mon Gary, I rarely give you those!), "grocery lists" (separate from to-buy lists), etc.

By the end, I have so many lists that I feel overwhelmed, and well, ironically, listless.

I crack myself up.

So the other day, I made what I guess is my nesting list. (For those not "in the know," in the last few weeks of pregnancy, you go into nesting mode where you just have this urge to clean and organize and just get ready. It's this instinct and phenomenon that most women experience and which their husbands wish they'd experience more often.)

I've checked off one thing from the list: I washed out our milk coolers. Because you know, that's CRITICAL.

Now that that's done, I can move onto the other important things on my list like cleaning out the window tracks, organizing the pencil drawer, sorting my recipe file, and plucking my eyebrows. Seriously. Those are all on the list. Because you KNOW I can't bring home a baby unless those are done.

My mom asked me if packing my suitcase for the hospital was on the list. It wasn't, until she added it.

And lest you think this whole nesting thing is a joke, I want you to know that I washed every window on our main floor - inside and out! - the day I went into labor with Addie. It HAD to be done. But this time, one look at my irrational and totally unrealistic list, and I'm automatically tired. I'll be lucky if I have the energy to open the windows the day I go into labor with this one.

But at least I'll have clean milk coolers.

Anyway, Emma loves making lists too, except usually I can't read her lists. The other day she asked if she could write out my grocery list which I gladly dictated from the comfy couch. I figured she was writing strings of nonsensical letters, but I was wrong. I proudly present to you her illustrated grocery list:


Here is it, decoded, for those who can't follow her artistic renderings.


I love how she slipped in a picture of herself in there with a balloon. That was not on my list, but I guess when you're the one writing the list you can do that.

I'm wrapping this up now so that I can go draw a picture of me smiling and a pint of Ben & Jerry's on my list. Afterall, I'M the one writing it.