After playing in the front yard for a while last night, we all came inside to eat dinner. As Scout reached the top of the stairs, he dramatically fell to the floor and moaned, "Mommy, I don't want to grow up! I don't want to be 20! And I never never want a wife." Totally random, totally unprompted, totally out of the blue.
What do you tell a 3-year-old who doesn't want to grow up?
"Uh . . . okay," I said, "but you still have to wash your hands before dinner."
He seemed okay with that. It made me think about how overwhelming the big picture can be but it's always manageable if we just focus on the next step. For example, after grocery shopping and running errands with the kids this morning I came home to a horribly messy house that needs to be cleaned before our guests arrive tomorrow. I wanted to fall to the ground dramatically and moan about my messy house. Instead I wandered around the house for about 20 minutes trying to get started but not sure where to start. Finally, I made a very detailed list and was able to get some things done once I had very simple action steps down on paper. "Put away groceries," "unload dishwasher," "sweep" . . . I can wrap my head around those commands much easier than "clean the house."
Of course, blogging was not on my list. Neither was chatting with my cousin on gmail or googling "why can't I keep my house clean" (apparently many other people have the same problem -- I'm not alone!). And I forgot to put "Make the kids some lunch" on the list so it's now 1pm and they're asking for food.
BUT, I did put away the groceries! CHECK!
