I’m a list maker. Each morning, I sit down with a blank index card and an extra fine Sharpie and map out the day, listing everything I hope to accomplish, from planting nasturtiums to making cheese to scheduling the kids’ dental appointments. I check things off as I go, and savor the evenings when I’ve marked each line–those rare completed cards give me a little lift, even when I find them months later, tucked into cookbooks or used to mark my place in magazines. I’ve learned, since Bea’s birth, that if my list won’t fit on one side of a card, there isn’t a chance I’ll complete it in one day.

This time of year, when the homestead is bustling, the lists keep me sane. I’m still tardy in my email replies and overwhelmed by housework (why must the dog shed so much?), but the act of making a list  helps me prioritize and reminds me what work needs to be done. Very occasionally–not today–I finish it all.

Family lists, work

Beatrice and Charlotte embrace their eye pillows

As Karl mentioned in an earlier post, I spent the end of December and the beginning of January laid low by pneumonia. I’m generally pretty healthy–rarely under the weather, much less incapacitated by fever and racking cough–and the experience was jarring. I’m an active person, and it was strange to be sedentary. Family and friends pitched in so that I could lie in bed, sleeping, drinking tea and reading Batya Gur’s mystery novels. Except for the coughing and sweating and weird, fizzy sound of my breathing, it was kind of a treat at first. After the third day, however, I was frustrated and ready to be productive again. My body had to stay in bed for another week and a half, but my mind wandered, and around the Feast of the Epiphany (January 6), I had one: I’m simply not very good at resting. I’m good at sleeping, but between the humans and the critters and the various projects I take on, sleep is usually just a nightly collapse, not a mindful, restorative pause. I’m determined, in this new year, to change that.

To that end, I’m beginning 2010 with a resolution to make time for more: more rest, more quiet, more of all kinds of things that bring me pleasure and a sense of balance. These aren’t the big things–our family has already made the choice to slow down and nurture each other and our little patch of earth. Rather, these are the small details that are pressed so far into the margins that they often fall off the page.

I’ve been writing down the things that I want to put more energy into, and I welcome suggestions, especially if there’s something that’s helped bring balance to you. Here’s what I have so far:

Margaret’s List of More

Crafts, Family balance, epiphany, lists, resolutions, rest