4 daily tasks

Everyday there are 4 things that I attempt to do, however i think only once have i gotten all 4 done. I am not short on time, but somehow just as i start doing one task that is the moment Mason needs my undivided attention - and when that moment passes i must start again with the task.

1. Go for a walk: This means Mason must be full, clean, and dressed. I must be dressed. I need to choose which dog gets to go. (With three dogs, i can't take them all - and i don't want just one to feel like the reject so one gets to go. Depending on where we are walking, and what i expect to encounter - horses on a trail, other dogs, loose cows on a hillside, horses behind a fence - i either stick with the rotation or skip around to set myself up for success. Of course if i choose the non-dog friendly dog i will encounter dogs where i never have before!) THen mason must be strapped into the jogging stroller - much easier to push than regular stoller especially on trails! Then we walk for an hour. With my current very out of shape condition this is quite the task!

2. Shower: To decrease the chance of a screaming baby mid shampoo - mason needs to be recently changed and fed. The bouncy chair needs to brought into the bathroom. Then hopefully i will get about 30 minutes to shower and get ready.

3. Eat Lunch: I am lucky enough to have Kurt work only 5 minutes from the house with an incredibly flexible schedule. More often than not he is able to come home and either make lunch for us, or hold mason so i can make lunch. On the rare occasions that he is not here i try to make lunch for myself while mason is asleep around 11:30. ABout half the time i choose to skip lunch during a nap time and check e-mail or do one of the other 4 tasks that need to be done - or i will pay bills or check e-mail and have Hattie time. on those days i eat a yogurt or something that can be picked up easily! If i choose to actually make a sandwich, i must not only make it, but eat it and clean it up before mason wakes up.

4. House chore: I try to pick one task a day to get done: clothes laundry, change the sheets, vacum the house, sweep the hardwood floors, clean a bathroom, baby laundry, put laundry away. More often than not this does not get done. Often i say, when kurt gets home i will do the laundry. Then when kurt gets home i say, i think i will go to the bathroom, or brush my teeth - or something that has also been neglected in that day's list.

Extras: Things that must be fit in some way into this daunting list of 4 tasks include - play time for mason, tummy time for mason, bathroom time for mommy, cooking dinner - i need at least one meal a day.

Now that i am starting to go out the world more - to grocery shop, or go to babies r us, or some of the classes i have signed up for, or church - a shower is a must (darn social standards lol) - but it also means less of the necessary 4 tasks get done. Oh well. I think it is better to have a normal life than a clean house! Thank goodness i have a very patient and understanding husband who after a full and busy day at work comes home to a disaster of a house and takes no notice. He says you have been busy keeping the baby alive. Which is such a big task i do understand....but shouldn't i be able to have clean clothes too? I mean it is just one not very mobile baby. Women manage to care for multiple mobile children and get all this done - plus make their own baby food.

I use to feel successful and fufilled when i was able to make budgets, and develop programs, and help old people learn how to get dressed again, or out of bed, after an injury. Now - just being with mason, even if i don't accomplish half of those tasks makes me feel fufilled. I in some ways do want to go back to work and have that working identity again. However - i really just want to stay at home and raise mason to be a happy, healthy kid!