Lists, Loves, and Lunch...

Not really sure what lunch has to do with anything, other than the fact that I felt like I needed a third "L" word to complete my title. My lunch was a couple of celery sticks (that are probably over a month old - but they've been sitting in the fridge in water, so they're still crunchy and not moldy) dipped in crunchy Jif peanut butter. YUM! Oh, and a couple of glasses of ice water.

Lists. I have found over the past couple of days that if I have a list, I get things accomplished. And, when I don't have a list, I get NOTHING accomplished. No, I don't always finish EVERYTHING on my lists, but having one gives me some direction for my day versus having NO direction sans lists.

Monday, for example, I had a list with 11 (yes eleven) things on it that I needed/wanted to get accomplished. Each of the items was completely accomplish-able during the course of a "normal Monday". By 4:00pm Monday afternoon, I was finishing the final thing on my list (baking zucchini bread/muffins) and starting the dishes (which didn't happen to be on my list, but needed to be added). However, I was wiped out. And then, the fun began - my little girlie got the stomach flu and we were up ALL night.

Thankfully, I didn't have a list for Tuesday. I had a child literally attached to me (she wouldn't let me out of her reach even to nap) the majority of the day. And, I got nothing (other than caring for a sick little girlie) accomplished.

Yesterday was another list day. Although, when I made the list, it was more of a wish list than a to-do list. I knew there was NO WAY I was going to accomplish everything on my list yesterday, and I didn't try to. I simply worked on the things I knew I could get accomplished (laundry, running, kids' baths, updating finances, etc) and then worked on some of the other tasks I wanted to see some headway made on (finishing up Unit 1 lesson plans, reading my library book, starting some of my blog review books, etc). I made good progress on my lesson plans (almost done!!) and am working on the rest of the list even now.

Today doesn't have a list. Thursdays are our "Saturday" around here - first day of the weekend, slow morning, time together. We FINALLY watched Prince Caspian this morning (we DVRed it in HD back in May, plus I got the DVD for Christmas last year) - it was a really good movie! Halfway through, J decided he wanted pancakes for breakfast, so we paused the movie to make some pancakes. (The mix is over two years old, but they tasted better than the last time I used it - over a year ago!) After the movie, Jenny and I colored and worked on practicing "J"s, while J did the dishes. Lunch and naptime followed, and I got on the computer to knock a few more items off my list from yesterday.

Loves. J had a packet of information he needed put together and prepped to be mailed today. After looking it over, he asked me if I could gather the necessary information for him. I looked it over, found the information I needed, made copies, filled out the form, had him sign where he needed, and prepared the packet for mailing. It made me wish I were an administrative assistant. I love doing that type of thing. Putting together information for "the boss", filing paperwork where it belongs, making notes to reference when things were done and how they were done (i.e. "mailed via USPS on 7/30/09, included "x", "y", and "z"), and the like. It makes me feel useful and helpful.

Yesterday, I had a similar feeling of love while planning for the upcoming school year. I was attempting to put together my lesson plans on the computer, but was struggling with trying to flip back and forth between days in my unit. I grabbed some scrap paper and drew myself a unit plan and filled it in with a pen. I love being able to "scratch out" plans and then transfer them to the computer. After I figured out what I wanted my unit to look like, I was able to use an Excel spreadsheet to lay it out on the computer. I love pretty layouts, and I love organization!

Q4U: Do you use lists? Do you feel more productive if you use a list? What do love? What did you have for lunch? I'd love to hear your thoughts on these questions and any other thoughts you might have!!