Friday, May 25, 2007

The Circle

Every day at least once or twice, I find myself beginning one little chore, like, say, returning Addy's shoes to her room, and end up wearing a path around the circular layout of our house, picking up first one thing, then another. Here's how it will happen: "I'm going to bed," I'll say, around ten. I pick up my water glass or empty cereal bowl or whatever I have out and take it to the sink. While there, I'll see that there are just a few other things in the sink as well, so I'll load them in the dishwasher and start it up. Then I'll notice a spot of jelly or something on the counter, so I'll just wipe that up, and then go ahead and wipe the other counters, too, while I'm at it.
Then I'll decide that the washcloth has about had it, so I'll head to the laundry room to throw it in the dirty basket. Whereupon I will realize that I threw a load in the wash three hours ago and never put it in the dryer. So I'll hurry up and get the dryer started before the wet clothes start to reek of mildew. And when I turn around to leave, I'll trip over some random blocks or toys, so I'll gather those up and pile them outside Addy's door.
There I will finally make my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth and get ready for bed, but while there I will notice that at some point Addy has pulled all my lotions out of the drawer for the hundredth time that day and arranged them carefully in the bathtub, so I'll have to stop and put those away before getting down to actual bedtime preparation. At last I head for my bedroom, but when I get there I will realize there is a basket of clean clothes on the bed that needs to be put away. I'll do that, and then return the basket to the laundry room. Then I'll realize I'm thirsty, and decide to head back to the kitchen for a glass of water.
There I will spot an ant on my clean counters and kill it with a napkin. I'll throw the napkin away, and realize that the trash bag is full. I'll tie off the bag, take it to the garage, and then put in a clean bag. Then I'll get the water I came for, and actually go to bed. Maybe. Assuming I don't spot an empty Popsicle wrapper in the living room or a half-full sippy cup lying in the playpen. Then it's back to the gauntlet!

9 comments:

ttsc said...

I KNOW THIS IS IS LONG COMMENT BUT I GOT THIS FORWARD THIS WEEK AND IT SEEMED APPROPRIATE FOR YOUR POST:
If you give a Mom a muffin,
She'll want a strong cup of coffee to go with it.
She'll make herself some.
Her three year old will spill the coffee.
She'll wipe it up.
Wiping the floor, she'll find dirty socks.
She'll remember she has to do laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer, she'll trip over boots and
bump into the box of Goodwill items.
Bumping into the Goodwill items will remind her she has to get
these�boxes in the car and out of her basement.
When she puts the boxes in the car, she'll find a bag of groceries
and this will remind her she has to cook dinner.
She w ill get out the chicken defrosting in the fridge.
She'll look for her cookbook
The cookbook will be sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the Netflix movie she's meant to mail and the preschool bill, which is due tomorrow.
She will look for her checkbook.
The checkbook will be in her purse that is being dumped out by her
one year old.
She'll smell something funny.
She'll change the baby's diaper.
As she finishes up, she'll realize she brought the hand sanitizer
down to the kitchen.
While she is throwing away the diaper and searching for the hand
sanitizer, the phone will ring.
Her three year old will answer and hang up.
She'll remember she wants to phone a friend not for coffee but a
very strong drink.
> Thinking of drinking will remind her that she was going to have a
cup of coffee in order to stay awake for the rest of the day.
> And chances are...
> If she finds her cup of coffee (which she has to reheat by now),
> Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

Sarah said...

Yes, this is very appropriate! It is exactly what I'm talking about- endless cycles of random tasks which will, in an hour or so, lead you back to the unfinished first task.

Swistle said...

Oh, man, I do this same thing. It kind of drives me crazy because it's EXACTLY how my mom is, and she drove me NUTS with it when I was a child. But on the other hand, when I had just one baby and was in some sort of parenting class/group (like a mommy-and-me thing), the instructor was talking about different styles of handling things, and she called that style something like "highly distractable but highly organized" and she said it was good because it means you keep noticing more things but on the other hand it doesn't mean you abandon a task, it's more like you keep going. I wish I could remember this better, but with every kid I lose a chunk of brain, and all I've retained on the subject is that the instructor thought it was a GOOD way to be. It doesn't help much when it's 45 minutes past bedtime and I'm still stuck in the groove, but it helps the next morning when I'm tired but I can see the nice clean counters.

Black Sheeped said...

Am I in trouble, then, if I'm okay ignoring all of those things? I'm probably in trouble.

mamashine said...

YAY Black Sheepd!! I was going to say that too. I go in to get a drink of water, look around at the mess in the kitchen, and think, oh crap, I should do some cleaning tomorrow maybe. And I go to bed.

d e v a n said...

that sounds familiar!it's what causes my husband to say "sren't you coming to bed yet?" after 30 min.

jen said...

I do that all the time. I use it to my advantage.. force myself to put away that little person that I keep stepping on in the kitchen.. before you know it the whole downstairs is clean! And the kids.. oh.. where did I leave those? Wonder what they're doing.. hmm..

Mommy Daisy said...

Oh yes, oh yes...the circle of life, I think. :D I do this constantly. I think it got worse with a kid too. Because there are more things to take care of? I'm not sure. Or maybe it's the only want I can keep up sometimes with all the things he's getting into.

Shauna Loves Chocolate said...

Great post. I think I've worn a circle in the carpet in my house. For sure!