Seeing the Trees for the Forest

Everyone always talks about making sure to see the forest for the trees. I understand the sentiment and have no problem doing just that but sometimes to the detriment of the trees. In order to have a forest the trees need to be cared for too. Big picture thinking is great but if you don't take care of the little details you will never achieve the big picture. This was my little epiphany as I was standing in a cluttered kitchen with a dishwasher to empty, dirty dishes to fill it with and so many papers on the counter I couldn't find the keys that I knew I had just put there two minutes before.

I am a SAHM of 3 (ages 7, 5 and 2). My days like so many other parents are filled with the details of taking care of the kids, and I am a big believer in they are only young once so enjoy this time rather than stressing over the chores and cleaning. But the fact is there's a limit to how much that stuff can be ignored. Sure I'd much rather build a train track for my son than make dinner but the fact is we need to eat. And I could read a story to my daughter but if dirty dishes don't get put in the dishwasher we won't have any clean ones for the next meal. Now that's not to say I don't do those things, I do and enjoy the time with the kids, but sometimes at the expense of an organized house. Like the pile of bills/mail/kid stuff on the kitchen counter mentioned above. It has become a dumping ground and sadly I often know how deep in the pile something is, until the kids start digging through it, or dumping their own stuff. Or my husband starts dumping his stuff. So over the next few weeks I plan to get organized and I'm hoping that my handy new "it can do anything"/"there's an app for that" iPhone will help me in this task.

One of the main things I strive to do is keep better track of kid stuff. I don't mean homework and activities, I've got that covered. I mean writing down the cute things they say or do. The things I want to remember. I used to keep a journal until I got to college and was afraid my snoopy roommate would read it - probably because I was reading hers, until she started writing in Hebrew. I tried keeping one that I would write in at night after the kids were in bed. But it started to feel like a chore. At that point I was to tired, I just wanted to chill with a glass of wine.  So now it'll be more thoughts I need to get down and any random musings about the kids. No particular timetable and really for my purposes only but if anyone feels like reading it, by all means enjoy and comment if you have something to say.