my brain is a checklist...

Confession: I'm obsessed with making lists.  Whew... feels good to get that out.
Sometimes I have these moments where I start looking around my house and realize all of this stuff that needs to be done.  I start getting this crazy look in my eye {per Caleb's accounts} and start grabbing a pad of paper and a pen... Caleb in the background going "Oh boy... here we go." cause I'm about to make a list of things that need to be done from that moment until the end of time... And then Caleb has this long talk with me about how I resort to lists when I'm stressed out.  Sounds stupid doesn't it??? That's because it's all completely true.
Lists aren't ALL bad or a source of stress for me though.  I do keep organized via my lists and feel like I can usually relax once I have the ideas bouncing in my brain written out. For Christmas, Caleb even got me three, that's right THREE, different notepads for my list obsession.  And it was a perfect gift for me, I love all of them.  They do help me organize my thoughts and all of my "to do" items... but sometimes I can still feel a little overwhelmed by all the possible lists I could make!  I could make grocery lists, a lists of errands to run, a list of home projects to work on, a list to manage all my other lists...

Caleb can get stressed out by my lists too, as mentioned above.  His least favorite are any that fall into the "home projects" category.  Those lists are ones he gets dragged into the most... and by dragged into I mean he gets dragged off of his comfy seat on the couch to somewhere in the house to do something he doesn't really want to do.  Poor guy.  He knew who he was marrying though so... that makes it kinda fair. :)

one of the lists Caleb got me for Christmas

With the start of the new year, it brought up some new lists in my brain!  This year will likely hold lots of changes for us... I started off the year already as a new graduate and I'm currently looking for a job, so that will be a major change.  Caleb continues to be earning his master's in educational administration as well and will graduate at sometime this year {although he won't be looking to change to an administrative position for a while}.  We are also considering selling our house this year, possibly in the spring -- and if that doesn't make me want to make like 20 lists I don't know what will!  Selling our current house also means buying a new {and by new I mean very old} house.  Which guess what buying a "new" old house means... you guessed it, more lists of Caleb's least favorite category!!!  I try not to talk about too much as to not stress him out. :)
Despite all these plans and plans to make more lists... I do need to get better about narrowing my focus from my BIG PICTURE lists that would take months to complete {and these tend to be the list that I make during my "crisis moments"} to making more manageable and smaller lists.
For example, I need to get better at meal planning, because when you don't do it... you aren't very good at it. :)  This is something I've been mulling on for a while but have yet to do anything about it.  It would definitely help in the "grocery list" category and make Caleb and mine's lives easier and less expensive!  So this is something I'm going to try to work on... I'll let you know how it goes!