Fragmenting!

We love the books in the If You Give a Moose a Muffin series by Laura Joffe Numeroff.  The pictures are cute and the characters are dragged off on wild tangents by a cute animal character.  Recently I saw a post on Facebook where the story had been adapted to tell a tale about a Mom.  I chuckled at the story and moved on, but recently I've begun to see a lot of truth in that story!  Some days I become so frustrated that my brain does not retain information like it used to.  Memorizing Scripture or remembering to do something I promised someone I would do is painfully difficult.  My brain is going in so many directions at one time.  It can be difficult to formulate a coherent thought never mind complete a task from start to finish.  I've become a fragmented mess!  I fragment!  Me!  Start to finish, A-Z, ME!  It is rare that I finish things (at least in the order intended to be completed) because I often forget what I started in the first place.  I'll give you an idea of what it looks like by telling you what happened in my brain today during the 30 minutes that I allowed my children to watch a program on PBS.

The kids finished lunch and I got them up and put on their video, returning to the kitchen to clean up the dishes, etc.  While cleaning the dishes I heard some mischief in the video room and looked in to find Grace unfolding a large basket of laundry I had sitting out.  So I sat on the floor and refolded the laundry and took it to our bedroom.  I started putting away the laundry and went into the babies' room.  Entering their room with a hand full of laundry, I saw a mess on the floor.  The mess needed to be picked up.  So I started cleaning.  I found a snack cup on the floor that was dirty and took it to the kitchen.  Oh yeah!  I was cleaning the kitchen and never finished it.  I started putting more dishes away in the dishwasher and wiping off the table.  Joshua came into the kitchen while I was cleaning off the table and he had a dirty diaper.  I took him back to his room to change the diaper.  We're getting low on wipes!  I change the diaper and refill the wipes and while I'm at it I refill the basket of diapers because it is low too.  Now....what was I doing?  Oh!  I was putting away laundry.  I grab another stack and go into Jacob's room.  Oops!  I forgot to make his bed this morning.  I make his bed and in the meantime discover his floor is a mess too and start picking up toys.  Oh my, there are all his clothes from swim class today.  You know what?  I probably ought to start a load of laundry so I don't have to do laundry tomorrow with Bible study and church going on.  Hmmmm...I think there are clothes in my closet and Joshua and Grace's closet to run through a load.  I go about scooping up laundry and take them to the kitchen and start a load.  Oh!  I haven't finished cleaning up the kitchen yet!  Clean, clean, clean.  What next?  Oh the laundry.  I haven't finished putting the laundry away!  I go back to the basket and grab another heap and think, you know, I really need to wash the bathroom towels in the master bathroom.  I better scoop those up.  You know what?  I cannot remember the last time I changed the sheets on Joshua and Grace's cribs.  I better do those, too.  I go about changing sheets.  I bring the pile of dirty sheets and come into...you guessed it...the kitchen!  Oh dear, I forgot to start cooking the chicken for dinner tonight.  Better get that started before I forget!  Oh no!  Video is over?!  Time for naps.  I walk into the bedrooms only to see neatly stacked piles of laundry that I kept bringing into the bedrooms, but never got to put away because I kept getting distracted to do something else.  Better put those away.  Oops!  Kids are running wild.  Yup, it is time for naps!  Better put them down for a nap.  What is that smell?  Oh!  The chicken is on the stove.  It's done.  Go turn that off!  Oh yeah, don't forget to pay the bills today.  Must pay bills....

I could go on and on....this is pretty much how my brain works all day long.  This is why I have such a hard time getting from start to finish on anything I attempt to do!

So if you interact with a mom, or she tells you she'll call or do this or that for you, have patience with her.  She means well and will do her best to do whatever she told you she would do.  It just might take her a little extra time to get all the way from A down to Z.