In the Genes

You know how you look at your children and see parts of yourself and parts of their other parent? Well, my youngest daughter just wrote a blog about loving to make lists and I realized she's inherited my list loving gene.

When my children were small I was even more disorganized than I am now and I'd start the day by sitting at the kitchen table and writing a list of all I hoped to accomplish that day. By evening there was never much crossed off the list but I'd think, "There's always tomorrow". I look on lists as a good way to organize but also to procrastinate.

Shelley has a much bigger workload than I ever did because she's married to a military man. Granted, she has housekeeping help but her days really are spent at a trot. I'd bet that half her time is spent carting her 3 kids from one place to another and not one of them is going to the same place most of the time.

I love her husband, John, but he also often needs taken care of so Shelley takes up the slack. She performs her duties with gusto and a big smile so it all seems to work for her.

I still make lists. They're usually on little post-it notes all over the house. I just got a new computer with Windows Vista and I have post-it notes all around it explaining how to do various things. There are post-it notes in the kitchen reminding me I need milk and frozen yogurt. There are post-it notes at the telephone reminding me who I need to call. And there are tons of reminders written all over my calendar. It appears I'm a busy woman.

I do have one list sitting on the stove (safe because I rarely cook) that is more like my lists of years past. It is a long list of what needs to be done in my husband's workroom. I have crossed off about a quarter of the chores so far and will get to the rest when I feel like it. When you're retired you can often take all the time you want to get to those tiresome chores.

It's interesting to note that Shelley inherited my love of lists, my love of writing, and my strong teeth. She inherited her father's curly hair, his intelligence, and his get-up-and-go. Not a bad combination.