Plans For Today

• Comfort my kids who ended a four year undefeated streak last night at their swim meet. It hurts all of us to have that one black mark on an otherwise perfect record. The other team was celebrating, talking about how they were making history and were going to break out the champagne while our kids filed out of their pool with heavy hearts. Seriously people. Did you have to say that in front of them? I realize you were happy but geesh!
• Pray for Jon and Kate. Am I the only one who doesn't feel like we should give up here?
• Ponder why nearly 40 year old women can still get acne.
• Go to the grocery store, put gas in the car, and get some more tomatoes at the produce stand. I had a bacon and tomato sandwich for lunch yesterday (my first of this year, always an occasion to celebrate) and it was as good as I remember.
• Make a peach crisp, serve it with ice cream tonight. Find something to serve the people in my house who don't eat peaches but will surely complain if they don't get something. Perhaps this? Naaah, I'll just make the rice krispy treats my son has been begging me for ever since I made some for our local theater to sell. But I will make that chocolate cobbler very soon!
• Listen to a cd on writing a fiction synopsis that I bought back in mid May. As in over a month ago. I still need to make myself sit down and take notes on it so I can learn how to do this.
• Workout for 40 minutes. I have upped my time and my speed recently. It's a little game I play with myself. You know. For kicks. (This is so I can eat peach crisp and not feel as guilty.)
• Actually read aloud some of the books I brought home for my kids from the library.
• Sit with my children while they whine and moan and complain their way through the measly two pages of summer school I ask them to do each day.
• Take my daughter to driver's ed, then pick her back up again.
• Deal with the laundry-- or make the kids deal with it. Enforce the various chores the kids like to pretend they don't have to do because it's summer and we are way off routine.
• Choose a winner for the dvd giveaway. Yes, that was supposed to be announced Friday. I know.
• Make breakfast, lunch and dinner. Breakfast: whole wheat toast, cantaloupe, milk Lunch: Fried bologna sandwiches (don't knock it til you've tried it), wheat thins, popsicles for dessert Dinner: chicken over salad, rolls, peach crisp or Rice Krispy Treats for dessert. Clean it all back up again.
• Take kids to swim practice. Even though they will surely complain that they shouldn't have to go now that they just had their last meet. Remind them that All-Stars is coming up and they just might get chosen to swim in that. Encourage them that they can get revenge on that team that beat us last night at the All-Star meet. But I'm not bitter. Nor do I get overly invested in trivial things like summer swim league records.

Last night some of the moms and I were talking about to-do lists at the swim meet. (It was better than talking about how we were getting beat.) One of the moms said, "Well at least you have the list. I just have the to-do's that never seem to make it on the list."

I live by my to-do list. The satisfaction of crossing things off provides me a little too much happiness. Plus, with all these things swimming around in my brain, having a place to put them just makes sense. Think about it once and write it down. That's my motto-- one I learned years ago. When I get that famous question, "How do you do it?" Well, my to-do list is a big way. When I can see what I have coming up on any given day it makes me feel more capable, more in charge.

Yeah, I know it's an illusion. Just let me dream...