My To-Do list

Everyday I get up, and everyday I think to myself, what is on the to-do list today? Sometimes I wonder just why I have a to-do list. It used to be my way of making sure everything important got done. But 7 kids later, I've learned somethings about the to-do list. Everyday, my children seem to rewrite it for me. The daughter that needs to just talk, the child at school that forgot his homework or is sick,or me just missing my married kids like crazy and needing to catch up, a granddaughter that just doesn't want to be anywhere but in my arms or with me playing with her in the floor, my own illness,etc.It doesn't seem to matter how hard I try, or how good intentioned I am, I never get to the bottom of the to-do list. So this obsession with the to-do list has been going on for a while. I am even good at making them for everyone else in my family. What I have realized is that the list should really be called something like... things I hope to get done, today or sometime in the next week, or even month, maybe...The things I know I can't remove from that list are the things that are not written. Family prayer, scriptures,service and teaching moments that happen everyday are just to name a few. Today my son was outside, doing his usual, working on a motor. This is what he loves and it is important to him because this is where his gift lies (well the only one he is aware of at this time in his life anyway) so I try to put up with the grease, the noise, the expense. When the girls where young it was dance lessons, horses, shopping for the perfect dress for dances, the hair, the makeup, horses, beauty pageant's, and now its just grease. Quite a change from years past of raising children. Aside from a neighbor complaining about the smell of horse poop, there was not too many times anyone complained about my children's extra curricular activities. But this new stage in my life has changed that. So the neighbor comes over and chews out my son for starting the engine on his motorcycle and informs him it is against the HOA rules. I've read those rules, and didn't get that memo, but whatever. The point is as soon as I heard the engine I was on alert already knowing what could be lurking down the street, and the fact that I had a sleeping baby, and he only had it running from the time I left my bathroom to walk across my bedroom to get some clothes. Maybe 2 mins at most. Of course the neighbor came over and chewed him out. A few months ago shortly after we moved in our home, we were cleaning out the garage, and the HOA came and took pictures of our stuff in our driveway while we set up shelves to put things on in the garage. And proceeded to yell at my kids and the neighbor boys who were helping move the stuff. And then there was the time a visitor got a ticket for parking the wrong way on our dead end street because the same neighbor called the sheriff. I could go on forever. So my momma bear instinct set in and I headed down the street to have a chat with the neighbor. It wasn't pleasant and all I did was ask that she talk to me if she had any concerns about my kids. What I heard from her, left me feeling like the biggest scum, failure, you name it, that I ever have been made to feel about myself. My son really didn't do anything that bad, but for the sake of bad feelings, which I was having,I wrote a letter to everyone of my neighbors and told them I was sorry if I had offended them. The kids then went from door to door and knocked and presented each neighbor with a letter. What more could I do? As I have reflected on this, I was reminded of some other times,where I had to stand up for my kids. And each time I felt terrible even though I knew I had done nothing wrong. My role has changed as mother to these older children, now when I hear how someone hurt them, or was unfair, all I can do is pray for them, and offer words of encouragement, maybe that is what I should have done today too. So back to today's to-do list. How much do you think I got done today? Only the things that are not written, and if that is all I got done, then I guess I'm going to have to learn to live with that, but my kids will always come before the to-do list.