Multi-tasking is critical to… wait, is that the phone?

I heard the results of an interesting study yesterday… it basically said that the older you get, the harder it is to multi-task. I have to say I am finding that to be more and more true.

I remember back in the day, (back before I was one clock stroke away from turning FORTY ;) I could cook a healthy dinner of macaroni and cheese, sliced hot dogs, and canned green beans, all while shoving the pile of dirty clothes over on the other side of the couch so that I could nurse the baby, read yet another train book to a two year old, and rewind ‘Baby Galileo’ for my 4 year old.

It was a necessity to be able to multi-task back then, but now? With all the kids in school, and all the extra time (hah!) I have on my hands, I can easily find myself wandering from one task to the next. Some days I feel like I’m living in the book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”.


If you give a mom a cookie, she will remember that she needs to bake 4 dozen more for the bake sale.


When she goes to bake the cookies, she will realize that she needs to find a new recipe that does not include baking soda because the last time she went to Target to buy it, she got distracted by the shiny ‘Clearance ‘signs.


When she tries to look up a recipe on-line, she will remember that she needs to send an email to the class about the teacher’s birthday gift, since in a fit of giddiness about the kids starting back to school last August, she signed up to be room mother.


When she’s checking her email, the buzzer on the dryer will go off. When she takes the clean clothes out of the dryer, she will realize that most of the dish towels have holes in them (sadly, it’s true.)



So she will head to the kitchen to jot down ‘Buy NEW dish towels’ on the to-do list on the refrigerator.


When she is at the refrigerator, gazing at the multitude of school notes, lists, permission slips, and spelling lists stuck underneath brightly colored magnets, she will realize…








That the #$!@* bake sale was last week.





And that she wants another cookie.