But first, a couple notes...
A. Notice I didn't say "Thirteen Things I Don't Have Time For." Because if I switched around my priorities, I'd have time for some of these things--maybe all of these things. But then my priorities would be switched around, and I don't particularly want that. ;)
B. All of these are things I don't do. This is certainly not a list of all the things a mom shouldn't do. And this is me right now, too. Six months from now, I might be doing some of these things once a week--or even adding them into my daily routine. Who knows.
C. Several months ago, I was reading the blog of a mom who seemed to "do it all," and she wrote up a list just like this. It was super encouraging. It gave me ideas of things I didn't necessarily NEED to do, and more than that... it gave me the idea that every mom can't do every thing.
Okay, now for that list.
Thirteen Things I DON'T Do [at least not presently]
1. Garden. As in, work day after day in the hot sun, with the purpose of producing delicious and nutritious vegetables for the family. I've tried, believe me, and veggie gardens and I just don't do well together. Flowers and mulch on the other hand? YES. Count. me. in. I LOVE FLOWERS.
2. Fix my hair daily. I shower and put on make-up every morning, but curling or straightening my hair (a 15-20 minute process) has been pushed to "special" occasion days (like Sundays, holidays, when-I-really-feel-like-it), and so on.
3. Dust. If furniture looks disturbingly dusty, I'll wipe it off, but other than that, I honestly haven't "dusted" for a couple years.
4. Have long phone conversations. Maybe a couple times a week, I'll talk on the phone for more than 5 minutes, but especially since I moved close to my family (and so see them in person, more than talk to them on the phone), I have very few long phone conversations. They're definitely special when I have them!
5. Cook all our meals from scratch. Our meals are very, very simple and easy these days. Our most frequent breakfast recently has been cottage cheese, fresh strawberries, and bagels. Scooping out cottage cheese and cutting strawberries is even quicker (for me) than cooking oatmeal (which I used to do all the time).
6. Make dessert. I haven't taken the time to make desserts for months now, and we're all pretty used to it. Occasionally we'll have ice cream or chocolate.
7. Iron. I pull out the ironing board only when an item of dress clothing is VERY badly wrinkled.
8. Read--other than blogs and children's books. I read several blogs faithfully--their subjects typically being motherhood, [modest] fashion, and house remodeling/decorating. And I read to my kids--something that I absolutely love doing. I've started listening to my Bible instead of reading it. I found that if I read my Bible, I'd probably read a chapter at a time--if that. If I listen, I often hear multiple chapters to even a couple Bible books (if they're short) per day.
9. Make crafts. Spend time on Pinterest. Ain't nobody got time for that. Okay, I mean me... at this point in my life. ;)
10. Leave the house for social get-togethers, mom groups, kid activities, anything like that. Nope. In the summer, I'm hoping to take the kids to a weekly play-date in the park. We'll see. As for now, I leave the house to go to Lowe's, Target, Aldi, Walmart, Old Navy, and that's. about. it. Oh yeah, Kroger's (more grocery shopping). TJ Maxx, on occasion. Michaels, once every few months. You get the idea. ;)
11. Make awesome scrapbooks/photo albums for the kids. I've been printing pictures every six months or so, and each child has a photo album. End of story.
12. Throw themed-birthday parties for the kids. I LOVE looking through pictures of themed-birthday parties. I think those moms are totally cool, and super-duper talented. My hat would be off to them, if I wore hats.
13. Fold the kids' clothes. You wouldn't believe how much time this saves, and when their shirts are that small, they don't stay neatly folded for long anyway. I hang the church dresses, sweat shirts and jackets, and Matthias's dress shirts.
Other than that, each child has a couple drawers--one holds shirts or play dresses (for the girls), and the second drawer holds pants or play skirts. Often the kids put away their own clothes, which helps me immensely. When they're older, I'll teach them how to fold, but right now, I have so much laundry to wash and dry and distribute every day, I don't want to bother with folding the kids' things.
If I could do one thing MORE, it'd be read to the kids MORE, teach them more, tell them stories....
The less time I spend on these non-priorities, these things that don't really matter right now, the more time I have to "love on" my kids, and that is a priority.
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