My list

My high school history teacher had a common saying that he used on numerous occassions when he was lecturing. "Put it on your list," he said. He used this phrase to refer to traveling places, learning skills and various other life aspects. His point was that if we really wanted to do something in life, we needed to commit to it and possibly even physically write it on a list. I have not put most of my list on paper, but there are aspects of the list that are always on my mind.

This week, I read an article with recommendations of 50 things that children should do before they are eight. The article reinterated the idea of "putting in on your list." A sampling of famous people provided the content of ideas for the article. They ranged from learning how to give a proper handshake and writing a handwritten thank you note to making a yarn pom pom and brewing homemade lemonade. It was somewhat embarassing to realize that I'm 26 and have not done some of the things that these people recommended children do before they turn 8. I've never made lemonade from scratch. Maybe I need to "put it on my list."

In honor of Mr. Speer, my HS history teacher, and the diverse group of celebrities who shared their top picks for "must dos", here are 5 things that are on my list - in no particular order and with no specific emphasis. There are probably others more important, etc. What's on your list?

1. Travel to Germany with my family, especially my father
2. Teach my son to find various pictures in the clouds
3. Learn to knit
4. Live in the country with a small herd of beautiful white Charolais grazing on the countryside
5. Earn my master's degree

Bits and pieces

A few quick thoughts:

1. I must be starting to feel like a "local" because I left my car running yesterday morning at the gas station while I ran in to get some breakfast.
2. I'm looking forward to being pretty productive at work this week because it is spring break. My commute home was also 5-10 minutes shorter because traffic around campus was so much lighter.
3. I think I'm getting travel fever. I have no idea where I would want to go but I occassionally get this yearning for a trip. Then, I remember that I have a four-month old.
4. Thanks to a daily indulgence message I get from Ivillage, I've discovered a new website. www.doonenicething.com. The site provides ideas of nice things to do for other people, some that cost no money. The idea is to improve our feelings about Mondays by doing something nice. I think it just might boost my mood in general.
5. Does anyone else actually get/make time for true spring cleaning anymore? I remember my mother taking things out of the rooms, moving them around and deep cleaning. I would love to do this but somehow don't make time. By the time I think about it, it is time for fall cleaning and vise versa. Maybe I'll have to take a day off of work to actually do this. It makes me cringe to think about using a vacation day to clean.

June Cleaver meets Mary Tyler Moore

Sigh...it has taken me all week to "make" the time to write about something that struck me on Monday.

After traveling back home for the weekend, I worked from home on Monday morning. I had planned that because I predicted that we may not be moving at full speed after the time change and traveling. I got Jeremiah off to daycare and then came home to dig in to my work. I really enjoy working from home, because I feel so much more productive. There are much fewer distractions and I really get busy on my projects. In addition to accomplishing more than what I would at my desk at work, I was able to wash two loads of laundry and start a roast in the crockpot. Being able to do these domestic tasks made me feel like I was somehow "managing to balance it all".

I came to the office for the afternoon, but on my drive in I was very contemplative about the role I want to play and the one I must play. I recently read a statistic that more than 50 percent of women who work outside the home do so because they must for financial reasons, not because that is their preference. That's quite the swing from the 1970's women's lib movement, when Mary Tyler Moore was the poster-woman for the working woman and women wanted to escape the June Cleaver stereotype. (On a side note, I love the movie Mona Lisa Smile because it addresses the sociology of the role of women .)

Working from home morphs the two for me. I am able to enjoy what I do professionally but feel like I am doing what I want/need to for my family. Unfortunately I don't think I'm allowed to work from home full time. Darn!

Coming soon - "Why Thursday is becoming one of my favorite days!"

Goals - clarification required

Growing up and since I went to college and started my career, I have participated in more than one (probably more than a dozen) goal setting workshops. Then, why is it that I can't figure out what I want my true goals to be right now? I think I know what I want out of life, but I'm not sure what aspect of that it really is that I want. My husband and I know what kind of life we want for our family. I think we are just a bit cloudy about how we want to make that happen.

We've been talking about making sure we're on the same page with our goals, but lately I feel like I don't even know what book I'm reading, let alone what page I'm on. The next year will bring several events and life experiences that will hopefully help us to work towards the lifestyle that we are yearning for. I hope that we can determine the specifics of our goals so that we can move in the direction we want when those events occur. Maybe we won't have a structured workshop to narrow our goals and work towards them, but I think we both have a desire to build the life we want and that will be our inspiration.