Not to do list
---> April 13th, 2006 by annie
A post I read over at Amy’s Humble Musings weeks ago has stuck in the back of my mind through this whirl wind. In answer to those who ask this mother of now five “How do you do it all?” she wrote,
The answer to, “How do you do it all?” is simple. Nobody does it all. If you bake your own bread and mill your own wheat, then you probably don’t polish your silverware. If you polish your silverware, you probably don’t parse Latin verbs with your kids. If you do Latin with your kids, you probably don’t have a garden. If you have a garden and do all of the above…you probably don’t take a shower. And I’ll bet your garden has weeds.
She is right. Still, there are indeed those who may not “do it all” but do more than me and with much more grace. Molly strikes me as one of these and I have seriously thought about bothering her with an email to say, “How do you do it all?” 
My own thinking about how to manage my time, priorities, responsibilities and needs usually begins by thinking about the things I don’t need to do. To balance that long laundry list of all the things we need to do, it is often necessary to glory in all the things that we can just cross off and not do. Like Amy said, we weren’t made to be domestic goddesses, able to smite Martha Stewart with a wave of our spoon, but grace-filled dependants on Jesus.
So in the midst of my crazy week, I pause to contemplate all the things I feel perfectly wonderful not doing: my “Not to do list” given in random order.
- Do not wear make-up every day
- Do not worry about the weeds in the back yard
- Do not paint any nails
- Do not iron clothes
- Do not wash the car myself
- Do not bathe the children every night
- Do not go to the mall
- Do not shop for clothes
- Do not mop floor every night
- Do not buy more than one gift for kids’ birthday
The list could go on but now it is time to soak my feet with my sister as we watch “The Office”. Link to your own “Not to do list” if you decide to join in!
Posted in Homemaking | 
April 13th, 2006 at 9:57 pm
I remember that post and it was spot-on. the problem with me is that I wish I could/did do more than what I’m doing now. I feel so lazy somedays.
The Office is a scream, isn’t it?
April 14th, 2006 at 2:29 am
I like the ‘do not do ironing’ one! :0)
April 14th, 2006 at 7:19 am
Love the list! I am working on one, but it may be awhile before I get it up. As I go through the day I think of more and more things I will not be doing!
I love Amy’s comments from that post. So true. We can’t do it all and something always does not get done. If it does, than someone in my home lacked some special time with me.
April 14th, 2006 at 8:37 am
Oh I LOVE that list. Good idea. I’ll be working on mine and link it soon on my humble blog.
April 14th, 2006 at 10:01 am
I remember that post. It’s so true, we all make give and takes for the things we do want to do. Maybe I’ll do an “I don’t” list as well.
April 14th, 2006 at 3:57 pm
Let me put your mind at ease…
I DO NOT DO IT ALL.
And I regularly beat myself up about that, too…though I’m getting a lot better about not going down that road…
April 15th, 2006 at 8:00 am
Okay, Painting my nails is so far out of the picture at this point in time that I couldn’t understand why you would paint a nail that you would then just cover with a frame! Maybe I just didn’t sleep enough last night:)
April 19th, 2006 at 7:52 am
My husband does the ironing ;oP