To Do

I'm not sure if there is a member of the Rice family who doesn't make lists.  Perhaps it's genetic.

Mother and Dad were always making lists on those punch cards Pauline gave them ages ago.  There must have been thousands of those cards which they cut neatly in half to last twice as long, and to my knowledge they never used them all up.  There was a little paper/pen holder attached to the kitchen wall where the half-cards and a pen lived. Nik would call that a stationary stationery condo.

Grandma Rice would call me over to her house to show me her grocery list.  She would carefully explain each item to me in extreme detail then tuck the list and her cash inside her little snap purse.  By the time I walked back to our house 50 feet away, she was calling to go over it again to make sure it was right.  I understand why now but at the time, it drove me nuts.  When we brought the groceries to her house after shopping, we had to go through each item to make sure it was exactly as she had ordered it.

At any given time, I have probably four or five lists going.  There is a to do list that breaks down day to day for a week or more plus a category called "other" for upcoming projects.  I have a list going for ideas for lessons to teach every few months at church.  I made up a master list of monthly family activities concentrating on such things as:  recycling, what to do in different emergencies, collecting medical and insurance items, ways to save $, ideas to protect ourselves, staying positive, time saving ideas, homemade cleaning recipes, how to assembly a 72-hr emergency kit, family phone numbers and contact information, fun activities, service projects, getting people registered to vote, investments and having everybody over in Sept. for a day where we clean all the vehicles, make sure everybody checks out the fluid levels and tire pressure.  I make up grocery lists, blog idea lists, things I want to remember if I ever start dating again.

The problem with lists is that you can never keep up with all the stuff listed.  Also, making a list doesn't tell you the steps to preparing for activities.  There's probably a list for listing that list somewhere.

I remember my dad once telling me that a person needs something to look forward to each day, some project that gets you up.  I can't seem to incorporate something that gets me up early, but I do lie in bed in the mornings mind-walking through things I want to do or need to do that day.  A good therapist would say that's "being in the now", not wasting energy on the past or the future.  Not a bad idea, plus it works.

My dad was a wise wise man...