An Overworked Mind

I've heard of the movie A Beautiful Mind. Never seen it. But a beautiful mind...it is an interesting concept. Enviable really. As for my mind? If I believed in evolution, I'd say it's devolving (is that a word?). I'm sure there are a lot of grandmas and grandpas who would nod their head in sympathy and understanding, but please do keep in mind that I haven't even quite hit mid-30s yet. So this is how my almost-mid-30s mind works: Things are going well. It's only 8:00 and I've taken a shower, had some quiet time, made pancakes, fed the kids, and am now unloading last night's dishes from the dishwasher. Then I get thrown off. Jacob is clearing his breakfast dishes and drops his cup into the cat's water dish. There wasn't much milk in his glass, but I see the water dish needs to be cleaned anyway. I go to clean it. The last time the kids fed the cat, they must have spilled a bunch because there's food under the dish. I get out the vacuum cleaner to vacuum up the miscellaneous pieces of cat food that have gone astray. While I have the vacuum cleaner out, I may as well vacuum up the dust bunnies in the hall that I walk by everyday and that are driving me crazy. As I'm doing that, I notice how dusty the cabinets are. Today's Tuesday. Dusting day. I wonder how many Tuesdays it's been since I've dusted? I really should get right on that. I go out to the garage to get the Pledge and a rag. The Pledge is in the same cabinet as my cake decorating box. I have to teach a cake decorating class next month at co-op. I really should start planning what I'm going to do to teach that. I start rummaging through the box. I think I should start with a list to send out of what supplies people should bring. I go to the pantry to take stock and make sure I'm not missing anything. I wonder what we'll have for lunch today? I look in the fridge to see what leftovers I can scrounge up. The refrigerator really could be cleaned out. I take out some old leftovers. I'm not sure what they were, but I'm afraid to open the container. I go to the sink to wash out the containers from the fridge. I start to put something in the dishwasher. What?! Why are there still clean dishes in here? I thought I unloaded this thing. And what is the vacuum cleaner doing out? And the Pledge? And how can it already be 10:00 and I haven't started school yet? 10:00 means Snacktime, so I'll go upstairs to find a book to read during Snacktime. (The books always distract me.) I find a few treasures in the bookcase that I should add to my lesson plans. Gotta wait for the computer to boot up. Oh, the baby's stinky. I'll have to go up to her room to get a diaper. Who knows what I'll find in her room to distract me...You see how this works? It's stream of consciousness in action. Sort of like a Wiliam Faulkner novel. Believe it or not, I took an entire class on William Faulkner. Even as an English major, it was painful. I mean, give me The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying, and I'm good to go. Throw in 4 or 5 others and enough is enough. See? I'm very good at this stream of consciousness thing. At least I'm using punctuation. And correctly, which is more than I can say for much of the world. Have you noticed all of the grammatical errors EVERYWHERE? Billboards, books, flyers...aside from the Bible, I have yet to read a book that doesn't at least have one error in it. Of course, if I published a book, I'm sure there would be errors in it too. Actually, I did co-author a book with a gentleman whom I found because I wrote him to point out the errors in one of his books. I'm quite obnoxious, aren't I?! But perhaps it's this obnoxious habit of finding mistakes that allows my mind to preserve at least an ounce of sharpness. Of course, I learn a lot homeschooling too. That doesn't sound like something to brag about considering the oldest grade I teach is second, but I learned two things in World Geography today. I learned that the little itty bitty country of Andorra sits on the border of Spain and France, and the Canary Islands are part of Spain. Well, there I go again--off on another tangent...