Not enough hours in the day....

Why are there never enough hours in the day to do everything on my To-Do list? A day has 24 hours. However, as I am sure you parents out there are well aware, we moms have at least 28 hours worth of tasks to accomplish each and every day. So....how do we account for the missing four hours? That's easy, we only sleep 5-6 hours a night! This way, not only are we overworked...we are sleep-deprived, as well. A recipe for disaster at its best!

I am sitting here at work this morning making a list of all of the tasks I need to accomplish today. They are, in no particular order:

-Work until 1pm. Work severely cuts into my available hours to tackle my To-Do list. However, no one has stepped forward yet to pay me for doing the laundry at my house. So....I really have no choice. Then again...if I didn't get paid and my gas was shut off, I wouldn't be able to do the laundry. Perhaps that is one way to check it off my list.

-Speaking of laundry, I have three overflowing baskets (stacked waist-high) of clean clothes sitting in my bedroom that need to be folded and put away. Ruanita and I have an agreement. She washes all of the laundry and I am responsible for folding it and putting it away. It works out well...I don't have to trek up and down the stairs carrying big baskets full of dirty clothes. I have bad knees and stairs can be an issue for me when my arthritis flares up. However, I somehow manage to always get behind on my folding and putting away portion of the laundry chore. By the time I finally get around to doing it, there is enough laundry stacked up that it takes me an entire afternoon to fold it and put it away. Add to that the kids who insist on "helping" me....and by "helping" I mean UN-folding the laundry that I just folded so that I have to RE-fold it.....and the whole experience can be a day-long chore in and of itself. I won't even get into the wrinkles that develop when clothes have sat in a basket for a week. And since I am not a big believer in ironing, we all walk around looking like we just stepped out of some third world refugee camp. Nice.

-Mail the requisite Mother's Day cards to all the mothers/grandmothers/great-grandmothers in my life. This sound simple enough. However, I will no doubt forget to do it today...and likely tomorrow and Wednesday, as well. That means that the out-of-town grandmothers will not receive their Mother's Day cards by Mother's Day....and I will feel guilty. More guilt. Nice.

-Pay the bills. This chore will probably have to wait until the kids are in bed this evening. I am a believer in "old-school" bill paying. I am probably one of the only people left on the planet who does not take advantage on online bill-pay. However, I am a firm believer in writing out a check by hand, putting a return address label on the envelope, adding a stamp, and stacking them up to go out in the mail the following morning. There is a certain amount of satisfaction in this ritual When I am finished and I see the little (OK...actually LARGE) stack of bills that are all paid and ready to be mailed out, I feel a sense of completion...of accomplishment. Of course, a few quick clicks of the mouse could probably make my life a little easier. But that's OK...I apparently enjoy the drudgery.

-Bake two loaves of Amish Friendship bread. A few weeks ago a friend of mine gave me some Amish Friendship bread starter. This is a gift that just keeps on giving....over and over and over. For those of you that have not experienced Amish Friendship bread before, it goes a little something like this: Someone gives you a Ziploc bag with the starter in it. For five days you massage the bag each day. On the 6th day, you add a cup of sugar, a cup of milk, and a cup of flour. Then you massage and burp the bag (let the air out) for four more days. On the 10th day, you add a bunch of ingredients, including huge amounts of sugar and cinnamon. You create four new Ziploc bags of starter...one for yourself and three to inflict upon your unsuspecting friends. Then you bake two loaves of bread. The bread itself is ooey and gooey and cinamony and sugary. It is addictive......yeast-filled crack. I seriously almost ate an entire loaf myself last week. And needless to say...since the Amish are not particularly known for their rockin' hot bods...the bread is not exactly diet-friendly. And, being the true Catholic girl I am, I feel guilty about throwing the starter out. I mean...I can't really do that to the Amish people, right? So every ten days, I dutifully bake this decadently sweet concoction. My kids call it "sugar bread." Not good.

-Run to Target. I was at the SuperTarget for almost three hours yesterday on a HUGE grocery shopping trip. Of course, even after being there that long, I managed to forget a couple of things. Most notably, I forgot to pick up my medication from the pharmacy. Mommy needs her medication, so I get to drag all three kids to Target this afternoon. They will no doubt complain, whine, beg for a toy, and eventually throw themselves on the ground in front of an crowd of onlookers when I refuse. Good times.

There are a few other smaller tasks that I need to complete today, including homework with Lucas. See...there are not enough hours in the day....not even close! Playing with the kids....cuddling and kissing....that will have to wait for another day. Actually...more than likely, the cuddles and kisses will happen today, but the laundry will pile up for another day. One day, I suspect it will topple and bury me. Ruanita will come home to find my partially decomposed body sprawled out under a pile of mismatched socks. Lovely way to go, huh?