Something

I was cleaning out a cabinet and found this list. It made me smile. The list was made in desperation probably about 3 years ago. It was during a time that I had two toddlers. I even had two in school at this time, so it’s not like I was surrounded by a million kids or anything. But it seemed like every time someone asked me what I had done that day I would glaze over, knowing full well that I had never stopped going, but apparently nothing had gotten done. I would always be so shocked that all I could come up with was “Um….nothing?“ So one day I made this list. Maybe to prove to myself that I wasn’t crazy. Maybe in hopes of finding that there was some something in all of my nothing.

So here is my list of what I did one day while my oldest kids were at school.

Fixed breakfast. Packed lunches. Cleaned up spilled juice. Signed notes. Drove kids to school. Fixed breakfast for second set of breakfast eaters. Changed diapers. Dressed kids. Put together casserole for dinner. Cleaned up kitchen mess. Put away party stuff. Played Hi-Ho-Cherrio. Braided Barbie’s hair. Made earrings for Barbie. Fixed lunch. Cleaned up lunch. Changed poopy diaper. Attended a tea party. Washed tea cups. Played Connect Four. Read two books. Changed more diapers. Tightened legs on Riley’s table. Did an Elmo puzzle. Cleaned up spilled milk. Put away basket of toys. Helped Riley spell words. Attended to approximately fifty “watch this” and “will you help me….” Changed more diapers.

Notice you did not see the words shower and get ready anywhere in that list.

So that’s what I had been doing. So not nothing! Sooooooooo something! No, I wasn’t curing cancer, but my list was proof that I wasn’t just sitting on my duff, either. I was right where I was supposed to be, doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing. I can’t believe this was just a few short years ago. My life is so much easier now, as some independence has built in my children. Although the toddler years were often exhausting and my hair was in a perpetual messy ponytail, looking back it was such a joyful time. And so crucial to who those toddlers were becoming. So to all my precious friends with toddlers, hang in there and make yourself a list. And rest assured that all that nothing is very much something.