One of my friends posted a photo album in Facebook with this title last week. She displayed all the amazing things she has been doing to avoid working on her English PhD dissertation. A master procrastinator myself, it made me realise that I left procrastination out of my musings on what people get up to when they are not working. I was in awe of the fabulous and worthy things my friend had been doing in order to avoid what she ‘should’ be doing. Crafty, earthy and really very impressive. All things I would count myself lucky to have achieved in the past six months!
This also made me realise that since having Kazuo, there is really little room for procrastinating about the things that ‘should’ be done for him… which are the things that fill my days… if I don’t wash/sterilise/fill his bottles, he goes hungry and I know all about it… if I don’t get the washing done, well, nappies and clothes and burp cloths et al are daily necessities… and if meals are not on the table, well, we all get hungry and grumpy… and I would be extra exhausted if I had to stay up later to do these things after he went to bed just because I had dillied about during the day in my previous fashion…
As someone who carried about an enormous box and a huge pile of guilt over major marking procrastination (I know… the worst kind of teacher, one who insists on work being handed in on time… and then takes ages to get it back… I hated me too!), there is something quite amazing about not getting to the end of each day and feeling overwhelmed about how much I did NOT get done today. Even when the tasks themselves seem dull and repetitive.
Thus, it seems, that having a baby has cured my insomnia (who has time to lie awake all night when they are already exhausted from getting baby-induced broken sleep?), turned me from a night-owl into someone who sleeps between 10pm-6am, and rises daily with the birds, and re-ordered my priorities so that I have to get the important jobs done every day or I would not hear the end of it from the tiny one. What a feat!
50 things for 50 
So true! I have a list of my recurrent jobs on my fridge. A bit tedious at times, but all small, important things that need to get done each day to keep family life flowing smoothly (e.g., wash and sterilise baby stuff, cook her food, set up bath, check state of groceries, do washing, pack/unpack dishwasheretc etc). Even though it is a little tedious somedays, I feel a strong sense of achievement when I get them done, especially given how little Louisa sleeps without help. My little milestones through the day …