Unfinished business

There is a card sending love and joy in celebration of George's arrival on my bedside table. Another on the stairs. Another on the bar. They all need putting away.
The plants in my bedroom need watering.
I've successfully ironed around 30 shirts, trousers and tops today but Mark's uniform still needs doing and the ironing board and iron remain in position in the living room. Tomorrow morning they will symbolise optimism. By Friday they will be mocking me.
The dishwasher and washing machine were both loaded and turned on today. They need emptying. As does the tumble drier which has a load in it that was finished on Monday.
The mop has been standing in its bucket at the top of the stairs since Sunday. I finally emptied the bucket of old water yesterday. I was planning on putting it away today but no. By tomorrow we'll have reached the point that it needs to be used again. But I'm making no promises on when that will actually happen.
There are dresses hanging behind the study door intended for eBay. They'll make a lovely summer wardrobe for the lucky bidder but if I don't get move on the leaves are going to start falling from the trees once again and I'll have to put them away until the sun comes back next year by which time they'll be auctioned alongside all our moving house clearance items - get a summer halter neck and a cake stand in just one click!
I'm not going to touch on the rest of the study except to say that it resembles a teenager's bedroom - there is just stuff everywhere. I'm sure all of it has an easily reachable home but follow through is not my strong point these days.

For me this is what life with two trouble monkeys currently looks like. I've never been the best at finishing a job - that's Mark's strong point and I regularly wonder at hoe he doesn't lose it at my failure to complete (wonder and say a prayer of thanks). I'm more of an 80% girl - I'll do the most important part and then move on to something else rather than finishing something off completely. Or at least that's how I used to be. Now I think I'm more at the 50% mark, definitely creating more chaos each day than I'm clearing.
I've spent the last week or so a big confused as I'm sure things weren't like this with Alby. But then it dawned on me that last time I wasn't tidying around a 'fornally one' race or a dragon versus dinosaur war. I wasn't interrupted by questions on why people thought the world was flat (that's a can of worms I'm thrilled at having opened) or how people used to be monkeys and then they were people and next they will be kangaroos/dragons/Concorde jet planes. (Again, I'm equally delighted at having started conversations on evolution with a three year old. Clearly I'm not suited to this whole educating thing.) Three years ago jobs weren't stalled by having to fetch a glass of milk or get a snack, followed by opening every cupboard to reveal the foods we actually do have when asked to magic up a chicken pie or sausages with a moments notice.

And so as we celebrate George making it to nine weeks and doubling in size in the process we pause and give a nod of acknowledgement to all the unfinished business surrounding me (just in case people are starting to think that I hadn't noticed any of it). I know you're there. And I actually do care. A little bit. But you ain't going to get done any quicker any time soon.