Countdown to our anniversary ~ 13

One quality which has blessed our lives is Alex's natural organizational skills. My "trying to get out of the house" method used to look something like this:

• Announce it's time to get out of the house
• Begin watching 1-4 children of varying ages head to the doorway over a fifteen minute period
• Start collecting items that need to go into some sort of a carrying device
• Check in on children as they dig around through shoes and toys
• Start disappearing into closet in order to find shoes (once in Alaska, dig around for quadruple pairs of gloves, hats, snow outfits, jackets, etc.)
• Finally get children into car. Grab bag. Throw in granola bars (at kids, if bag has already made it into car).
• Turn car back around one or two times after leaving to return home and retrieve forgotten items prior to ever making it out of town
• Etc.

I write "1-4 kids" because sometime in the earlier years of the twins' lives, I started realizing that my husband's way of doing things is almost always better than mine when it comes to tasks involving organization. Organization comes naturally to Alex. I have learned a ton while watching him practice efficiency with situations like the one I have described~~that formidable task of getting kids out the door.

It struck me that my hubby never had the same kind of stress I did when leaving the house when the kids were younger. He would do such revolutionary preparations such as:

• Line up shoes
• Check the backpack and keep it simply packed so that such checking does not resemble the eruption of a small, household volcano each and every time (smile)
• Put things away in the same place, and remind kids to do so, so that he and they can find it the next time
• Pack a snack bag, one that even (get this) includes a travel trashbag
• Repeat the same system; tweak when necessary
• Etc.

Soon, I was lining up shoes and the whole shebang. It worked! I realized, "Hmm, Alex has this way of getting the kids out the door which is so much less creative than mine, but look at how happy they are!" Another thing was how willing he was to do it because it didn't turn into a crazed period of lunacy on either his part or the kids. Ding! (lightbulb turning on)

Since then, the children have all grown older and more self-sufficient and another baby has joined the family. My efficiency feels once more in disarray in many ways but I am reminded of my husband's natural proclivities and wanted to reaffirm them once again.