On top of "IT"

I was thinking this morning, as I was folding a small load of laundry and putting the sheets in the wash about the expression staying "on top of it." As a mom/homemaker, that's the ever-present issue. If I don't stay "on top of" the laundry, then I find myself washing a mountain of it. If I don't stay "on top of" the groceries and meal planning, I see the rising cost of convenience meals. If I don't stay "on top of" the dusting, I think we actually get sick more often with chest colds and sinus issues. If I don't stay "on top of" organizing this or that thing around the house, things spin out of control and piles and messes and cluttered closets start to take over.

Therefore, each day I do a bit of the overall work and that's how I stay "on top of it." Now, truth be told, this is a fairly new revelation for me. As little as one year ago, I was most certainly not "on top of it" - just ask Thom or our friend who was staying with us and you will find out all the hidden secrets of how not "on top of it" I really was. A mountain of laundry seemed normal to me at the time. And years earlier a mountain of dishes seemed ordinary, but not anymore. Staying on top of it is the new me. Dividing the work throughout the work-week breaks the routine needs down into manageable pieces and leaves space for the incidental projects - like painting Caleb's furniture or Kara's bedroom or keeping up with scrapbooking. In the past, this was done instead of staying "on top of it." Projects have always been fun for me - sort of playing hard rather than working hard. Or maybe, playing hard rather than working smart. But now, the new me, the mother-of-two with a husband who loves his job and whose parents live across town... this new me, I stay "on top of it."

But as I was thinking this morning about the little load of laundry I was folding and the specifics of my day today... I got to wondering what "it" I was staying on top of. Out there beyond motherhood and housework or even the daily-grind at a desk job - where does this staying "on top of it" expression come from. The two thoughts that came to mind were surfing and rodeos.

So, with that in mind -- some days life's a wave, others it's a bucking bronco!