pieces and ponderings

I like lists.  I’m not an obsessive list-maker, but I do find that lists help me remember things that need to be done.  I keep a running grocery list and Sam’s list.  They are not the same.  There are certain items that our family purchases at our local Sam’s Club and other items we purchase at grocery stores.  The bad thing about these lists is when I return home from a shopping trip only to discover that I need an item that was not on the shopping list and have to begin a new list while I’m still putting away food items that were just purchased from the old list.

I also make lists to remind me what needs my attention for the day…“to do” lists.  Sometimes my memory needs help remembering an errand that needs to be done or a project that needs completing.  I don’t keep these lists every day but occasionally I need a “to do” list to keep me on track.

I have also found that it is helpful to make chore lists for my children.  They just seem to respond better when their task for the day is written down.  They see it…they do it…I’m happy and therefore they are happy.

But my favorite thing about the lists that I make is when my children sabotage my lists and add their own list items without my knowledge.  I like it because it makes me laugh.

There have been times when I’m in the grocery store adding milk and bread and cereal to my cart and I look at the next item on the list and it reads, “Pony.”  I know immediately that child number 2 quietly and sneakily has gotten hold of my list.

There are times when I’m extra-forgetful and a regular list on the counter simply won’t do and I tape a note to my back door so that I won’t forget to do something and then find a note next to my note that says, “Play Monopoly,” and I know that child number 4 has been at work.

Today I came home and found that my children were baking chocolate chip cookies, which I realized as soon as I saw the cookie dough melting into delicious cookies that I NEEDED a chocolate chip cookie.  I asked child number 3 about the cookie-baking and he told me that baking cookies had been right there on the chore list that I had left this morning.  I looked and sure enough…there it was…written in an almost mom-looking-handwriting, “Bake cookies.”  I smiled and laughed and then ate three of those chocolate chip cookies…compliments of the day’s chore list.