NOTE TO SELF: Try harder next time.

I could be a better person. I realize this.

It would start with me actually remembering the vows I take daily at 4:00 pm, when I begin detailing my checklist of all the things I will accomplish when I get home:

I will start dinner ASAP!
I will clean the kitchen!
I will start packing for our move!
I WILL BE ORGANIZED BY BEDTIME.

Fast forward to 6:30, glass of wine in hand, as I sit at the kitchen table talking to the hubs. We laugh and chat about our day as dishes sit idly in the sink, collecting flies. Laundry lies in crumbled heaps in baskets in front of the TV. The sounds of iCarly fill the background as the 7-year-old approaches to ask what's for dinner?

The stove has yet to be turned on.

By 9:00 I'm perched on the couch, watching Chef Ramsay verbally eviscerate some young hopeful. One hand dangles over the couch, gently petting Lucy's velvet ears; the other rubs the 7-year-old's back. The 11-year-old dozes next to me; the teenagers are upstairs keeping the world safe for democracy on the Xbox.

And the boxes we ordered online to aid in our household packing remain unassembled in the front room.

By 10:00 pm we crawl into bed, snuggling down with books and magazines and iPod apps and drift toward slumber.

Another night spent. Another day of delaying my 4:00 pm checklist.

Tomorrow, I vow. Tomorrow for sure.