One of my biggest challenges in life in general is that I am disorganized. Planning is not, usually, my greatest strength. Obviously that is not 100% true because if it was, I would not be done Christmas shopping, but in general, I am not organized enough to do things well even semi-consistently. I keep trying, though!
As much as I seem to naturally rebel at the thought of lists and “obeying” them, I do realize that without a list and a good plan, things just don’t get done the way I’d like. Because of this realization, I am determined to learn to like lists and plans. Or at least accept them as necessary and good. Flying by the seat of my pants doesn’t work out very well in anything ~ not housework or school or celebrating Advent or Christmas or anything else. Because there are so many lovely things that I’d like to do to enrich my family’s experience of Advent and Christmas, I am determined to just make and use lists. Who knows? If they help as I suspect they will, I may get over my resistance to lists and begin to really like having that direction!
So today, on the first Sunday of the Church’s new year, I will start off with my first list. I think this is a good time to do it, not only because it is a new year, but also because this is such a rich time in the liturgical year and there is so much that I don’t want to miss.
TAKE LOTS OF PICTURES BEFORE THE KIDS LEAVE.
(bring camera to Mass to get a pic of the whole family, including mom!)
Dig out the Advent bins from the attic (delegate to Chief)
Chief and SuperSoldier to put up tree this evening
Head out to Michael’s (we didn’t make it shopping yesterday.)
Wooden discs for ornaments
Wooden letters
Paints
Glitter, beads, confetti
Ribbon
Candles for the wreath (the old, used ones are there, but we’re about ready for new ones if we can find them.)
Bring in chocolate Advent Calendars and give them to the kids on Tuesday (yup, we do that.)
Finalize plans for the first week and make a list of those things:
Crafts and activities we’ll do
Books we’ll read
Goodies we’ll bake
Cleaning we’ll tackle
Find all of the Advent songs on my Christmas CD’s and burn a compilation for use this Advent.
I’ll post the specifics of this list when I get it written. The plan for now is to have a list for each day. That may be too much and I may go to a weekly list, but my goal is to have one for each day of this week.
