Chaotic Living

Warning: random post ahead!

Our household and family life has reached a new level of chaos this week and I'm realizing that with each passing year I am getting worse (or "worser" as Sportster would say) at multi-tasking. It really hit me last night as I was trying to finish painting the kitchen while my kids were eating a combination of cereal, chips and guac and leftovers for dinner, looking around to see no clear surfaces anywhere, floor included, and looking at the clock to see that I was supposed to be arriving at a function in one hour and the children still needed to be bathed and put to bed. The real or imagined to-do list for the week looked something like this on Monday.
- shop. shop. shop. for more stuff for the house, I'm not used to so much shopping and it is actually getting old
- paint the kitchen
- make and deliver meals to two families
- uncover the kitchen island which has become the dumping ground for almost everything while I focus on painting and procuring decorative items
- go to Bible study with salad, children and children's lunches in hand and hopefully with a smile on my face
- send out thank you cards (why am I so bad at correspondence?!)
- go to the Y at least once so the childcare workers won't forget the names of my kids by the next time we get around to going
- pack for an upcoming trip for the whole family, I mean pack for the whole family even though children and parents will be enjoying a vacation at separate destinations
- order and wrap some last-minute birthday presents
- gather up and tally receipts and balance the budget
- assemble and send birthday invitations for an upcoming party
- find the floor of my laundry room
- deal with child tantrums without throwing ones myself
- call a friend to wish her happy birthday, two days late
- open the door to a decorator and realtor and try not to feel shame about the aforementioned kitchen island (and many other areas of the house, too)
- show care and compassion to my ill husband
- feed my kids
- clear clutter at large...

...and I'm sure there's more, but I can't think of it in my overloaded, scatter-brained state of being. Thankfully, about half of the items above have seen substantial progress in the last two days. The house is, in some ways, looking better today than it has in the more than 4 years we have lived here. More on that later. Right now I'm just hoping to finish the week strong and sane. And here's hoping I will return from vacation with a new sense of purpose, direction and routine to accomplish the mundane and marvelous in everyday living.