We are off down the lake for our annual two weeks of volunteering. First step…

Helena’s first response to writing a list for packing (my idea) was to write the word stuff and show it to me as a joke… The first things written down were the important things, like the bags she had already packed a few days ago for her soft toys, then she wrote down stuff I was packing right before her very eyes and last were her clothes. I have no idea what yntbwtpotpign is! (She says it’s a mnemonic for a particular book and I told her to write it like that and that she told me I’d forget what it meant but hey it’s packed)..

We have however been delayed as Helena was sick – as in sitting in front of TV all day doing nothing but dirtying tissues sick. TV is what she likes about being sick. She slightly wants to be sick to get TV.

Two negative Covid tests later and she is feeling better, better enough that when I said she could watch TV after she had done a few things she didn’t object. I think after a day of being a TV zombie, and being less sick, her creative urges were calling.

I had to write in any order at the top otherwise she would have started at the top and not eaten. She was so into the list. She even put more on it and it took her all day and she had no TV until just before dinner! Every time she crossed stuff off she was pleased with herself. The stuff which is crossed out to the point it can’t be read was some optional stuff she changed her mind over. It was essential it was fully crossed out!! I am sure that that list could have been achieved before lunch except for everything on the list morphed into some kind of activity.

I think a list gives you “something to hang your hat on” and acts as a safety net if none of the things you start leads to something else. I have seen Helena add to the shopping list and get the reward of what ever it was being remembered Helena even writes lists of her own design.

Ooooo I do love a good list, and they can be excellent for doodling on…. I even keep some of my lists and when I look on them years later they are like a glimpse into a secret forgotten past.