Saturday, August 01, 2009

Productive Procrastination

We get home from Maine tomorrow. (Sorry for all the secrecy, my husband just wisely requested that I not announce to the world wide web that HELLO, OUR HOUSE WILL BE EMPTY FOR A FEW DAYS.)

I wrote this post Monday, but was asked to refrain from posting it..so here it is:
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I am supposed to be packing today. Yet, as of 2:30pm I haven't packed a thing! Instead, I have been distracted at every turn! I have been productive, but not in the way I intended.

I intended to start packing yesterday. In order to start with a clean slate, I decided to spend 2 hours washing and putting away every stitch of clothing in our home...this led to purging closets...which led to sorting clothes into stacks for donation or hand me down. This led to a quick look around for other things we have 'outgrown.' I started thinking about the rocking horse in the background of the video we recorded last night. They never ride that. Isn't 5 a little old for a rocking horse? They got that when they were only one. Someone else could really enjoy it.

By 10am, I still hadn't packed a thing, but I was on a roll of other productive activities. My children were going a little stir crazy, so we set off for Salvation Army. I had given the kiddos a snack and juice boxes, so I thought they would be appropriately distracted as I unloaded our donations. Wrong! As I hopped back in the car there was a chorus of wails. "WE LOVE THAT HORSE!!"

After a few more moments of impassioned pleas, I got back out of the car and meekly asked the man receiving the donations if I could please have our rocking horse back. There were two cars in line behind me making donations, both driven by mothers, and the expressions on their faces conveyed that they felt my pain.

I returned home ready to make a serious dent in my packing only to remember that the children would need long sleeves and long pants. This led to another round of purging things we have outgrown since Winter. And another trip back to Salvation Army. (How I ever survived as a productive member of the work force is beyond me. I now have the attention span of a child.)

The irony of the fact that I just wrote about 'nostalgia' and holding onto things for posterity's sake is not lost on me.

It is now 8:20. Daddy got home in time to accompany us to a birthday party. We've just tucked in our sugar-high and super excited children...and NOW I am going to get some packing done! (unless I decide to start Christmas shopping!)

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Lots of pictures and stories from Maine tomorrow!

4 comments:

k and c's mom said...

My children's favorite toys were always the ones I was about to give away. Even if they were covered with dust and cobwebs. Hope Maine was great; I'm flying there today. (Posting that because my sister will be in my home!)

Samantha said...

You are truly so very precious--how joyfully submissive! I've missed your famiy this week and look forward to catching up as soon as you post.

Bailey's Leaf said...

My attention span is very similar. Purging thigns from the bedroom to make room for a book shelf led to my purchasing paint to paint our kitchen. Then, that led to purging cookbooks, which led to purging the linen closet (because I got to placemats), then we decided to have a family yard sale and EEEEEKKKK! I'm still not done and painted.

The end.

Sam said...

This reminds me of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." (Do you know that sweet book?)