Priorities

Since having M and D going back to work, our lives have been a little more crazy than usual. The kids have been having a hard time adjusting to D being gone so much and we've had to start a new baby on breathing treatments, which causes a lot of additional craziness as well. Through this all I have been feeling very overwhelmed by the amount of things that need to get done in a day. I feel like I am constantly playing catch up and nothing is ever clean enough. I've long ago given up the hope of having a spotless house, but I do like having my house clean enough so I'm not disgusted by how dirty it is, or frustrated when I'm having to walk around piles of laundry, etc. Everyone constantly tells me, "You've just had a baby...  D just went back to work... give yourself time!" The thing is, I would LOVE to just give myself time, but when I can't even make lunch or dinner because there's too much clutter on the countertops, that's not helping me relax... it's stressing me out more. So what I've finally come to the conclusion is that I need to sit down and write down my priorities for my day to day life. What things would I like to accomplish every day? What things can be done every other day? What things can I put off doing once a week and not get stressed about them not being done every day? With four kids I think organization is key... but I feel as though I don't even have time to do the organizing! So if I can give myself maybe one organizing project a week, I will feel like I will get it done and slowly, things will get more organized. I just need to stop having the expectations of getting EVERYTHING organized RIGHT NOW. Of course, the things that are on the top of my priority list are things that can't be seen. For example, making sure that I spend time exclusively with each child every day. A lot of days go by where I will spend time with the kids, but not individually. I think that they need that time with mom to connect and talk with me... so whether it's playing with them, or reading to them, I need to have that time with them every day. I need to stop putting a clean house in front of quality time with the kiddos. In the long run, the kids will look back on their younger years and not remember a clean house, but remember a loving home where they always had access to their mommy when they needed her. THAT'S important. So that would be on my UNSEEN priority list. There's other things on that list too, like singing to the kids every night, doing our nightly devotionals, and having prayer time. Then there's the list of SEEN priorities. The seen priorities are the ones that you can see... cleaning, organizing, dinners... Dishes, dinner and laundry... those are things that need to be done every day at our house. Then of course there's other boring stuff that I'm sure no one is interested in reading about. :) So now that I have my lists started, what's on your seen and unseen lists? Do you have any pointers in organizing that have been a life saver to you?