Waffles and Spaghetti

I once heard a broadcast on Focus on the Family featuring authors Bill and Pam Ferrel. They wrote a book called Men Are Like Waffles-Women Are Like Spaghetti. Basically men are like waffles because they compartmentalize things in their brains. For a woman, everything touches and runs together like a plate of spaghetti. While hearing the difference between men and women is always entertaining, I usually find it hard to apply because Aaron and I aren't really extremes of either. About two weeks ago, however, I had a breakthrough! I've been struggling with understanding how to "do it all." I guess that's everyone's problem, really. I was feeling overwhelmed by the things that needed to get done around the house and feeling guilty that I wasn't spending enough time with the kids. It seemed I was always neglecting them or the housework.

So I asked Aaron, "What would your day look like if you were a mom?" He said he would bounce all day from chores to kids. Spend 10 minutes or so getting a chore started (make one bed, start one load of laundry, pick up one area) and then bounce over to playing with or taking care of the kids for about 20 minutes or so (feed them, play outside, read to them). Just then I realized that he used his "waffle brain" to come up with that solution. He was saying to bounce from box to box while I was looking at all the things I needed to get done like a huge plate of spaghetti thinking, "How in the world am I going to eat ALL of this spaghetti?" I have tried it his way and it has really worked! I get more done around the house than I have since Mazie was born and I feel great spending time throughout the day with the kids. I guess we really do think like waffles and spaghetti!