Motherhood is like Valium for my Achiever Theme

I'm the kind of person who likes to get things DONE. Give me a list and I'll have it accomplished in no time. I need to accomplish things in order to feel like my day has been worth something.

This is just another of the ways motherhood has turned my world upside down. It's like Valium for my desire to Achieve.With motherhood, you don't get much done. At least, not in the way of tangible things. You're extremely busy all day long getting nothing done. Seriously. I know, I know, I'm loving my kids all day and that's what is most important, but I really do need to accomplish some measurable things each day. If you're not like that, consider yourself blessed.

I used to have a to-do list well organized on my computer that I was able to delete things from when they were completed. Ha! Now I have to-do lists on little pieces of paper all over the house because I can't even finish writing a to-do list before my attention is needed elsewhere. Then I can't find the one I started, or it's been colored on or peed on or used as a spit wad.

In some ways, to-do lists are obsolete in motherhood anyways because how often do we actually finish an item on there? On any given day I've started at least 6 items needing done that aren't finished by the end of the day. Letters half-addressed because I couldn't find my address list before the toast burned. Phone calls that had to be concluded before a decision was made because one kid pushed another into the toilet. A blog that's taken 3 days to write because of a kid's repeated refusal to take a nap.

I do feel good when I get the dishes done, the laundry done, dinner in the oven, or some item of cleaning done. But I don't even consider putting those things on a to-do list because --  let's face it -- they'd NEVER get crossed off. They'd be on there every single day for the rest of our lives!!!! And the point, after all, is to cross things off. :)

Although my world feels like a circle of half-done projects jeering at me as I stand in the middle, I'm learning not to let this bother me so much. I can handle it for a day or 2, which is really good for me; but after 2 or 3 days of not actually getting a good chunk of stuff done, I start to get overwhelmed. Buried. Then I pass the kids off to my understanding husband and get to work like a drill sargeant on my list(s). It's amazing what I can get done when I have just 3 hours of focused, uninterrupted time. Ahhhh.

If  you're like me and getting things done is like medicine for your heart and soul, rock on. We need to support each other or else we're going to end up on Valium ourselves.