The Joys of Being Anal

So, it occurred to me in bed last night that my first post didn't really expose my "real" self very much. Before I get into the letters, I need to let you get to know me a little better. This post could be titled, "Confessions of a Control Freak," and I've always been orally fixated (I was a thumb sucker and I often have gum in my mouth if I'm not eating), so I'm not sure how it is that I became anal. My parents refuse to take responsibility for my strange behaviors...

As much as my parents deny raising me to be this way, I can remember being anal even as a child. My books were in alphabetical order on my bookshelves and I was a list-maker at an early age. Now, I definitely went through a crazy messy phase when my dad couldn't stand to even look in the disaster that was my room. However, I still had many anal tendencies (sadly, I see my oldest going through this organized chaos phase right now). As a teenager, I was an excellent note taker in school (I also excelled at note writing, a skill that has been lost to today's youth as they only know how to text). My cassette tapes and books at home were alphabetized. Yes, cassette tapes. I finally got a CD player my senior year, and of course, I promptly organized my CDs in the "correct" order.

I like to believe that my husband has mellowed me out some over the years. He's known me since I was 14, so he fell in love with me in all my anal glory. In our home, I'd really like to have our spices alphabetized. In fact, I do organize them this way once a year. They stay that way until the next time he uses one of the spices. It's all downhill from there. I do refrain from reorganizing every time I open the cabinet, though. That would be a little too OCD, even for me.

Truly, though, it has been my children that have made me relax a bit. Not my firstborn... He was just as organized as I am until approximately 1st grade when he became a borderline hoarder. When he was an only child, he would put his books and toys right back where they belonged as soon as he finished with them. I knew exactly how many pieces had come with each toy and they could all be accounted for. Number two (our daughter) was a whirling dervish as soon as she could crawl. This girl could pull off everything she could reach from any shelf in a matter of mere seconds. I actually bought one of those big, folding, expandable gates to put up in front of our family library to keep her out until she was old enough to understand that every book and toy had a "proper" place in the room.

It was #3 that God used to get in my face and yell, "You are not in control of everything, Nikki!" I'd felt out of control as we went through fertility treatments to conceive our first two children. Then they were born healthy and were easy babies, and I thought I had everything under control. When #2 was a little over two years old, after much discussion, I made the executive decision that our family was officially complete. I sold most of our baby items at a friend's garage sale in June that year and I told everyone we knew that we were done. On July 20th, I found out that I was six weeks pregnant. Yep. God was reminding me that executive decisions were not in my job description. Once #3 was born and moving around, I gave up keeping track of toys in the house. Sometimes these days I find a toy that I didn't even know we owned!

Here are a few ways that I am still a nut job (for your pure enjoyment - feel free to laugh with me)...

1.  All of our children have names that are places, two syllables, and end with  "n."
2.  I'm a freak about numbers. Every important date in our family is related to  10, 13, or 16. Don't believe me? Check it out: 

• My husband's birthday is 3/7 (3+7=10)
• My birthday is 6/10 (not only the 10th, but also 6+10=16)
• We began dating on the 16th of December
• Our wedding anniversary the 16th of August (the only of these dates that we chose)
• #1 was due on the 13th, and born on the 16th of September (not the same year we married, for those that were curious)
• #2 was born on 3/13 (not only the 13th, but also 3+13=16)
• #3 was due on his dad's birthday, but born on 3/10 (not only the 10th like his mom, but also 3+10=13)

     3.     I created a cleaning schedule that I follow (certain chores each day, 

             more of a focus on certain rooms each month)

          4.     I love any kind of routine or schedule. This is why I felt like a mad 

                  woman every time we had a newborn. 

          5.     I've always kept a list of books I've read and movies I've seen. Now I 

                  use goodreads.com to keep track of my book list and netflix for the 

                  movies I want to see. Need numbers? I have 187 books on my to-read 

                  shelf and 229 movies on my to-see list. 

          6.     Other random lists I have... plays/musicals I've seen, places I've traveled, 

                  places I want to visit in the future, birthday themes for my children's 

                  birthdays, ideas for gifts to give my children for Christmas or 

                  birthdays, etc. I could go on and on. Really. 

There you have it. This should give you a small idea of how I go all out during the big ABC summers in this household. I may be crazy, but I love this sort of thing. :) Stay tuned for a post about how I scrap book the ABC summers to preserve our memories. I promise to get to the letters one day soon!

P.S. Speaking of being anal, the formatting on this post is driving me nuts. I can't get it to look just the way I want... But since I've been letting my 2-1/2 year old play Candyland by himself for the last hour, I'd better leave well enough alone!

*For those new to my blog, check out the beginnings of ABC Summers here.*