Today I have my parenting group meeting so my list might seem a little “cheater”ish. That’s because I’m going to be out of the house all morning.
- empty the dishwasher and wash any dishes that are out
- pump milk for Joey
- make A a smoothie for her sili squeeze (to take with us)
- make ME a smoothie to take with us
- facilitate/lead natural parenting for non hippies meeting on sleep issues
- pump milk for Joey
- iron small pile of “to iron” things
- finish blanket stitching on my current project
- wash dark laundry
- put away laundry
- pump milk for Joey
- make actual dinner
- bathe Anneliese
- bathe Joey
- take a shower
- pump milk for Joey
- take vitamins
- clean up dinner things
- write a blog post
- pump milk for Joey
See what I mean about the cheater list? They might not be CHORES, but they are to-dos.
Do you like to write lists with obvious small things on them, just so you can cross more things off??
UPDATE – Well, it’s 10pm and I haven’t written my blog post or done laundry, and I still need to clean up the kitchen from dinner. I feel like I did pretty well today though! So I’m going to call it a night after I get the dishes in the dishwasher so I can run it overnight.
Super cute thing … Anneliese just had a few things in her hamper, so I asked her to put them in the hamper in my room, so I could combine our loads of laundry. Well, she took the things out of her hamper and disappeared for a while. I was feeding Joseph in her room, so I stayed put. She came back a couple of minutes later to get the socks that were still in her basket, and she said, “Need help! Door closed.”
So I got up to see if maybe she had accidentally closed the door to my bedroom after she left. Nope, it was still open. And her clothes weren’t in my hamper. Having heard horror stories from friends, I checked the toilet to see if the clothes were in there. Nope. I knew I’d find them eventually so didn’t worry about it too much… I took the socks from her and put them into my hamper, and that was the end of it for the moment.
Later on I found out where she had put the dirty clothes: In the washing machine! What a little smartie! She had closed the door to the washing machine after putting her clothes in, and couldn’t open it again to put in the socks. That’s the door she needed help with.
How can a little toddler be so adorable with the simplest things? I love her so much, and I love being her mom and getting to see all these little moments firsthand.
Hi! I'm Emily. I'm a Navy wife and stay at home mom of two beautiful children. I cook simple, delicious, grain-free recipes, do crafts, decorate my home on a budget, and keep a happy household. I tandem breastfeed, babywear, cloth diaper, practice elimination communication, homebirth, and co-sleep, but I'm not a hippie.
Pump for Joey is on my list too! Hey it takes a while. Plus I feel like its worth writing down as an important thing “to do”. It’s certainly more important than sweeping!
Anneliese is such a sweet, smart girl. You are a lucky momma. And she is a lucky girl.
It IS an important To Do and we appreciate it! Thank for reminding me I haven’t swept in a few days… oh man. I just did it and crumbs galore. Ew. Zora’s slacking on her job.
Anneliese amazes me pretty much daily.
Sometimes I think we add things to the list so at the end of a day filled with lots of thankless little “chores” we can look at it and feel like “THAT’S what I did”. Otherwise you might be tempted to ask what you really did all day beside scoop the cat box.
Definitely. Sometimes “keep baby and toddler and dog alive” doesn’t seem like enough. But truth be told, I ALWAYS do more than just that.
[...] I am again, putting together the list for 20 Chore Tuesday and linking up with Joyful Abode. I actually find myself looking forward to Tuesdays now – to getting stuff done and I guess [...]
You’re definitely not cheating
Lots of things on my to-do list feel like chores! I feel so accomplished after doing a few weeks of doing 20CT and since I am generally more on top of things now, I feel like I can add those fun or easy things that I want to do but feel guilty putting on my list.
I don’t think that’s cheating at all! After all, they are all things that need to get done and take time out of your day, so… to me that totally justifies putting them in the list
I found that there is somewhat of a learning curve with 20 Chore Tuesday, too… At first, I had all these crazy big tasks on there and was frustrated when I didn’t get everything done. Now I tend to split the tasks up into smaller parts, or I add the little things (like EATING!), which are not really a chore but need to get done anyways… and as I said: they take time! so they get to be on the list!
I love adding little things to just cross off of my list. It feels so good when I go to my list at night and a bunch of things are done (even if they are the tiniest things). haha I have gotten so much stuff done since I have started 20 chore Tuesday! It is great!
I always put to do’s on my list as well. If I don’t write things down they don’t get done. Tuesday is my busy day so I usually have more than 20 things but it sets me up for the rest of the week!
Having a weekly list is great too! Whenever you have a few minutes you can look at it and pick something. I agree it DOES help to have things written down.
I almost never have 20 chores to do because my husband and I always have a mass cleaning fest on Saturday mornings so the house is good for the rest of the week. So I always have lot of to do’s or chores that I only do every once and awhile (clean out the silverware drawer).
the once in a while stuff is awesome to knock out though, isn’t it? don’t you feel SUPER ACCOMPLISHED when you get several of those done?
I do get such a feeling of accomplishment! And getting those once awhile chores out of the way really reduces my every day stress. I can stop thinking about all the dust we’re inhaling because I finally took care of the fans!
I do add to-do’s to my chore list. And sometimes I add ridiculously simple things on my list just so I can cross something off and feel productive. Like brushing my teeth or getting out of my jammie pants. :-/
haha i’ve totally had “get dressed” on mine before! Sometimes you need that boost of an extra thing to cross off.
Ha! Maybe I will do that to stretch my list to 20 items this week. Lol
Sometimes it’s necessary.