Jars on the counter. Count every one.

Summer of 2011. Jay and I took an entire day and canned 37 jars of salsa, plum jam, cherry jam and strawberry jam.  

When I would talk to my mimi on the phone - she lived in Mississippi and I lived in Oklahoma/California/Texas, and she would always tell me what she accomplished that day.  She kept track of how many pages she had read, how many bags of leaves she had raked and how many flowers she had distributed to the nursing homes. During the summer months, I loved hearing that she put up two dozen quarts of green beans or a dozen jars of muscadine jelly.

I am not sure if I inherited my mimi's production tendencies or if I learned them from her, but there is something to what I call the 'jars on the counter' philosophy.  I think some of us really like to get something done and we like to be able to count what we have done.  We want to measure -- to quantify our accomplishments.  (Be honest -- have you ever written something on your list that you have already done just so you could mark it out?!)  There is something in me that wants to be productive.