Productivity, and other nonsense.

Once a few months ago, I was driving home at 4 in the morning from a girls night gone long. My father thinks such a late night is ridiculous and that no respectable person should be out after midnight. Apparently the frequently quoted adage of my youth, "Nothin' good happens after midnight' applies to adulthood as well. Sorry Dad. I love these girls and have a terrible time saying goodbye. And now back to the story. I arrived back in town around 4 AM and was pulled over by a cop, or two cops, rather. I was not speeding. Okay. Maybe I was going four or five over, but it was not enough to warrant a speeding ticket. But a minivan at 4 in the morning in my very small, very boring, almost completely crime free town was probably big news to the late shift cops, so they pulled me over.

The officer was very friendly, if not a little prone to wasting my time. He immediately told me he was not going to give me a ticket, but felt he ought to write me a warning to remind me to be more careful. Since I'm pretty sure it isn't hugely customary to write warning tickets for going 4 over the speed limit, I took this to mean, "I'm really bored, and you're givin me somethin to do." I thanked him for his kindness and promised to be more careful and thought I could uh, go on home before the birds started chirping. 

Then he started talking about his grandchildren. 

Oh dear. 

Triplets... two girls and a boy, three years old that love to get in to all sorts of trouble and make a mess of his house every time he and his wife keep them, but you know, it's really okay cause when you're a grandpa you get to just hand them back to their parents when you start to get fed up and what not... 

I'm getting sidetracked. The point of this post wasn't actually related to the longwindedness of my officer friend. In the course of our conversation, he asked me if I worked. I responded by saying no, I stay at home with my four children. He looked at me, eyes wide, and said, "Well why are you saying you don't work then? You work harder then anybody else, I imagine!" 

I'm not one to disagree with a police officer. Especially after a day like today. 

In no particular order:

Today, I washed, folded and put away eight loads of laundry. 

A laundry aside: In my house, my laundry pile is always the largest. Because I'm home all day with the kids and kids make me dirty. So dirty, even that I often change two or three times in one day. I always laugh when I see my stack of laundry - five pair of pajama bottoms yoga pants (sounds more respectable doesn't it), sixteen t-shirts and three hoodies next to my husband's pile - two t-shirts, a pair of blue jeans and twenty pairs of socks. TO think he stays so clean at work, and wears the same outfit ALL day! Ok. Moving on.

I unloaded, and then loaded the dishwasher, and then unloaded it again.

I mopped the floors downstairs, and vacuumed the stairs, and the floors upstairs.

I balanced the checkbook and updated our budget.

I put one baby down for a nap.

I woke one baby up from a nap so I could retrieve one child from school.

I took four kids to the rec building to sign one kid up for summer swim team.

I fed four children three times.

I kissed away three hurts.

I put the same baby to bed three times.

I cleaned out the toy closet, and sorted all the random pieces of the game box, placing them all back in their original home. 

I spent twenty minutes training the puppy. 

I gave the puppy a bath.

I gave Josh a haircut.

I helped Jordan with his homework.

I had meaningful conversations with two friends, and one sister.

I planned a seminary lesson.

I spent thirty minutes working on my responsibilities with the church youth group, planning for our activity tomorrow evening and for our week long camp this summer.

I took a shower. 

I cleaned out my closet.

I cleaned my kitchen.

Dude. I do have a hard job!! 

Here's the thing about all that stuff on my list. Today was a particularly productive day. I didn't blog, or read any other blogs, or check on the clay aiken message board one single time. So, I got a lot done around the house. But most of that stuff that I did today, I'll do again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next day. I think that's what makes my job hard - the tediousness of it all. Hard to be excited about accomplishing a task when you know it will only remain accomplished for less than five minutes. Think cleaning the toilet just before three boys come running in the house screaming, "I need to pee!!" 

But then, it's the being here, the being available to kiss away the hurts and help with the homework and rock the baby to sleep that makes my job worth it. (that, and the really comfortable yoga pants) I wouldn't trade THAT for anything.