I am the woman who never wears a watch. I've never regularly carried one except while nursing a newborn. I do have a nickel allergy and the "nail polish trick" has never worked for me. That is my excuse. I am the woman who begged for a planner that she never used. My kids were never on schedule while little. They often fell asleep in the car while I ran errands and then never go back to sleep at home so it wasn't like a schedule would have worked anyway. The other reason for my wayward ways with time is my rebellious nature. There's just something about a schedule that feels unnatural to me and I long to fight it every moment.
My husband is the planner. I should have seen it coming. While dating, he did have a "spur of the moment" side which caused trips to the very tip of the Eastern Shore of Maryland for the day. However, we never stopped anywhere along the way because the goal was to get there...hopefully by a certain time. Thankfully, this has eased....mostly due to necessity of kids needing to stop to eat or use the restroom on long car trips. But to this day, if his pda or phone dies, he is lost. Once he left his daytimer on top of the car and drove away....leaving a trail of paper behind us. We parked on the side of the road and ran around like idiots chasing papers swept up by cars zooming past. I seem to recall it took him months to recover. People ALWAYS ask me about dates and arranging things. I glaze over and try and dream up more and more creative ways to say "Go talk to Ski!!"
Lately, we've been having a consistent problem with chores getting done. There is no sense to it because everyone has the same chores all the time. I decided that perhaps purchasing a dry erase calendar and a bunch of pens might help....and maybe a little variation. After much looking and debating, I found one the other day marked down at Target for the incredible low price of $5. Silly me. I bought it. I put it up late yesterday afternoon. Before I even left the house, I had a child ask me if he could write on it. Ski and I went on a date and came home late.
Before going to bed, I passed the board and made the mistake of asking Ski if he had seen it. It was then that complete madness ensued!! I had assigned colors and pretty soon, Ski and three of the Skibums were writing away on the board. In fact, the girls even called their brother down to write on it. Off I went to bed, shaking my head.
So this morning, I thought the calendar obsession would be over. To my amazement, I came down to find a child who never completes their chores doing a newly assigned chore from the board. I began to feel feverish and wonder if that nasty stomach bug had finally come to rest upon my household. Moments later, one of my children who had not been assigned a chore for the day started having a fit.
"I don't have anything to do!!! It's not fair!"
A voice of reason which was not my own said, "Why don't you just be happy?"
"Weeellll.....EVERYONE else has a chore!!! I waaaaant one!!!!"
My entire household has gone mad.
Calendar and chore obsessed mania has begun!
I can't win.
I think I'm going to procrastinate and go back to bed!
