Living by the Lists

Welcome Company Girls. The tea kettle is on and the cookies are warm out of the oven.

I am a list maker. I love books of lists and lists of lists. Now, I have figured out how to make lists work for me. In the past, I've made extensive lists of must-do items and then dealt with the guilt of not finishing everything on the list. Now I have a list that I can live with. It works like this.

I have a notebook for my lists so they don't get lost or scattered. I have lists for the major grocery stores I shop at where I can write down anything I run out of or realize I need to purchase. I have a list of miscellaneous things I think of that I would like to have for the house. I also have a list of things the kids need.

In the past, I've had kids not tell me when they were starting to run out of something or wear something out until it was a must purchase item. Then I didn't have the luxury of waiting for a sale or finding it in a thrift store or on ebay. Now they tell me and I write it down and start watching for the best opportunity to purchase.

For the house, I have a list of all of my ongoing projects that I can work on when I have time and check off as I go. I also have a list of time sensitive events, such as appointments or obligations. Lists of what bills are due when, what meals I have everything to fix, all the kids' sizes, and one of anniversaries and birthdays round out the book. My book of lists works better for me than any planner I've used so far. Maybe if you're having a hard time finding a planner or system, this could work for you too.

Quirky Quote

Albert Einstein, who discovered that a tiny amount of mass is equal to a huge amount of energy, which explains why, as Einstein himself so eloquently put it in a famous 1939 speech to the Physics Department at Princeton, "You have to exercise for a week to work off the thigh fat from a single Snickers."
--Dave Barry, Dave Barry Turns 50