I think women are the ultimate planners. In most of the households I know, it is the woman who is in charge of meal planning, playdate planning, vacation planning, and anything else that has the word "planning" attached to it. This goes back to my "Mom In Chief" theory, that in modern America, women--not men--are the head of household, regardless of what we might put on our tax forms.
But even so, when it comes to planning, there are certain things I cannot seem to find the time for. There are the "must do's"--stuff like the laundry, cleaning toilets, and feeding G. Then there are the "should do's"; these are the things that I always say I'm going to do, that I really want to do, but never actually get around to doing.
One of my big "should do's" is organizing my old magazines. Although I am the furthest thing from a packrat (spring consignment sales are coming up, and as DH can attest, if we haven't used it in the past six months, it's about to be sold or donated!), I do keep my old issues of Woman's Day, Ladies Home Journal, Redbook and Good Housekeeping (on a side note--what happened to reading Glamour, Elle and Cosmo? I think my magazine selection alone is a sign I'm getting old).
Why keep all these old issues around? Well, it's not because I'm dying to re-read the feature on Patricia Arquette (who I swear is the most boring celebrity alive) or learn about how Celebrity X managed to lose the baby weight in just 10 weeks (personal trainer? personal chef? let me guess...). Nope, it's because of the recipes.
I love magazines because they often offer simple, quick, minimal-ingredient recipes--along with a shopping list. I find these incredibly useful when I'm meal planning for the week. Unfortunately, I have a tough time locating most of these recipes because I've never taken the time to organize them. Instead, they are still trapped inside dog-eared magazines, which themselves are scattered around my closet floor.
Soon... I mean, one day... I mean, eventually... I will get around to locating those recipes, ripping them out of the magazine (which I will then use for an amazing craft project for G... righttttttt), and cataloging them into a three-ring binder.
Someday.
I feel ya on this one. I have literally 8 years of Coastal Living magazines in boxes. I am saving them as inspiration for when we one day get a beach house. I know I could just rip out the pages I want to keep... but I just haven't. One day. One day.
I 'should' really clean out my closet and get some things organized...instead I'm reading blogs and watching Food Inc. Go figure.
I'm in the midst of doing that. I rip them out and store the recipes in a folder. One of these years I'll put them in a binder.
And I have a folder in my email for recipes I find online. I plan to print them out someday...
Filing. I seriously need to file. I need a good three hours (maybe more) because ... (I'm ashamed to admit) ... I haven't filed since before N was born. EEEEEK.
I'm kind of type A compulsive, so if something is at the back of my mind, I generally end up pulling an all nighter & doing it.
I simply cannot help myself.
That said, what I truly cannot find time (read: freedom) for is relaxing. True no responsibilities relaxation.
I realized this during a recent trip when child was left at home. It was amazing to have a few days to not be responsible to anyone but myself.
For many years for me, it was magazines too. You should have seen how many unread magazines I accumulated thinking "someday" I'll get around to reading them. But having those huge stacks around just stressed me out. When was I ever going to find the time in all reality? So one day, I just threw them all away, and let all my subscriptions run out. I miss having them around in some respects, but it's freeing to have one less "should do" on my list!