I am officially declaring Post-it Notes as one of the greatest inventions of all times.
Let me rephrase that: It is the greatest invention for the trying-so-hard-to-be-fabulous forty-year old moms like me. Sometimes I feel as though I am losing brain cells as rapidly as I am gaining wrinkles!
I swear I was smart at one point. I took honors classes in school and was chosen for a very prestigious internship after college. I could solve a Suduko puzzle in nothing flat and was pretty good at crosswords as well. Next thing I knew, I hit forty and suddenly I couldn’t remember where I put my shoes.
I told my doctor at my last check-up that I thought I was losing my mind. He laughed and said I had “Mom Brain,” which he claims to see frequently with moms. They have so much racing through their minds at all times that it was makes them forgetful. I asked him what the cure was and he said, “a mommy vacation.” I can’t even remember what those are like!
This fall, when I went to work full time, I quickly realized that in order to stay sane, I would really have to keep my calendar organized – since my brain isn’t. With six kids, four schools with different start and ending times, soccer practice, football practice, volleyball practices, games, birthday parties, and my own deadlines for work, writing, and teaching classes, I needed to write it all down so I would remember who had to be where and when. The calendar worked well for a week and then I lost my calendar and couldn’t remember where I had put it. That is when I found out about my love of Post-it Notes. I have each child as a different color Post-it Note. For each day someone has something going on, I put up his or her color Post-it Note to remind me of who has to go where.
Good plan right? Well I thought it was. Who cares if my computer, walls, and refrigerator look like a Post-it Note monster threw up all over them. I had a system and it was working. I was finding myself carrying around a pad of Post-it Notes with me everywhere I went so if I had a brief, fleeting thought, I would be able to jot it down. It’s sort of funny the amount of Post-it Notes that have accumulated around my computer.
Being that nothing is perfect, there is a down side to Post-it Notes. They do not have enough sticky stuff on the back to post them for very long. My once organized system began falling off of the refrigerator, the walls, and the computer. I started finding my “Post-it Notes Brain” on the bottoms of the kid’s shoes.
On one night we had a football game, soccer practice, and two volleyball games. I noticed that a few of my post it notes had fallen down, but it was okay because I had it stored in my brain…right?? I got off work right on time, rushed home to pick up Ellie who had the first game. I ran in the door, grabbed her, and hollered to Moira to be ready in one hour for her game. We raced out the door and made it across town through the 5 o’clock rush hour traffic to get to the game. We made it at the exact moment it started I have to confess I was sort of patting myself on the back for getting her there on time! We walked in and began looking up and down the courts for her team. I quickly stopped patting myself on the back when I realized that yes, I did get to the game on time, but I brought the wrong child with me!
So much for my planning and organizing to help me remember! Maybe my forgetfulness is a part of getting older or maybe it is as my doctor said, just “mommy brain”. Whatever it is, I’m not going to stress too much about it, mainly because within minutes of finishing this column I will have forgotten that I thought I should be stressed about forgetting things!
