Yep, I was THAT mom.

If anyone has ever taken a 3 year old shopping then you know what a pain in the butt it can be. Gone are the days where she sits happily buckled in to the cart. Someone (DADDY) introduced her to riding on the end of the cart. Which leads to frequent hopping on and off. And making the shopping trip take twice as long. It also doesn't help that she now knows how to unbuckle herself if I do happen to get her kicking and screaming little butt into the appropriate seat.

Which is what happened last Saturday during a trip to the best place to go if you want to witness bad parenting skills, Walmart. That day I fit right in. I was in the process of picking out some new lamp shades. Grace was settled in to her seat, happily (or so I thought) distracted by a book we grabbed off the shelf. I was facing away from her and suddenly heard a loud crash. She had stood up, grabbed the edge of the shelf, pushed the cart away from the shelf and lost her balance. Well, you know what resulted from all that. The screaming ensued about 2 seconds after she landed face first on the floor. She ended up with a huge fat lip, a goose egg on her forehead, and a pretty bruised nose. Thank God, her teeth were fine and her nose wasn't broken.

So, I apologize to whomever had to take care of my abandoned cart with all the unpurchased items in it. And thank you to those that stood there and stared at me.

What to do?

Do you ever feel so completely overwhelmed with the day to day tasks of life that even thinking about tackling a new household project brings on a meltdown?  When I get the kitchen cleaned, the living room picked up, and the laundry put away I feel accomplished, but then I think about all the other things I'd like to do (organize closets, put away totes of stuff from our old house, redecorate) I wonder where I will find the time and energy.

Ideally, I'd like to assign each day a specific set of tasks and stick to it, but with my work schedule varying every week it's just about impossible.  And who knows how much time I waste on the computer. I'm better than I used to be, but it's still a struggle to yank the thing away from me now and then. It always seems like the days when I'm super motivated to get stuff done end up being the days I have to work in the evening, so my time is cut short. It's one of the times that I am envious of stay at home mothers. (Other times I am so glad for the escape of work. Shhhh, don't tell my kids that.)

Every once in awhile the thought occurs to me that one day all of my kids will be in school all day while I can do whatever I darn well please. Maybe then I'll get my house organized. Or maybe I'll just take a nap.

If anyone has any suggestions on how I can better manage my time and tackle the big things, feel free to share.