When you are moving through life in what seems like the speed of light, a multitude of things that would only take a moment to get done remain untouched. Here are a few things I'm just too busy to accomplish.

1. Removing a piece of paper tucked under the windshield wiper. Someone put a little green slip of paper under my windshield wiper while it was parked in my office parking lot downtown. I didn't see it until I was driving. As I zipped from place to place, picking kids up and dropping them off, I kept forgetting about the thing until I was in gear and it was flapping in the wind. This went on for two days.

2. Watering the hanging plant outside. I always think of it after I've left the house in the morning. I actually wasn't sure why the thing looked like crap at one point this summer. "It's not doing very well," I lemented to my mother-in-law, who had come to visit. "Um, I think it just needs water," she said, as nicely as possible to avoid making me feel like an idiot. She was right. And I tended to it enough to bring it back from near-death. However, I've only given it sporadic attention recently, and I can tell it's getting angry again.

3. Painting my fingernails. Flipping through the channels the other night, I paused on "Kate Plus 8" and noticed how glamourized Kate has become — the manicure, the hair, the whole works. (I know it's TV, but who takes their kids school shopping in high heels and a skirt?) Perhaps I should take the time to take care of myself in these ways, but in my world, nailpolish sinks to the bottom of the priority list. The only way I have time to touch up my toenails is to drive barefoot to work so they can dry.

4. Making a deposit at the bank. It's a good thing I can transfer funds from savings to checking with the click of a mouse so we can pay bills, gas up or go to the grocery store. I've been carrying a check I need to deposit in my purse for more than a week. This is why I believe direct deposit is the best thing since sliced bread.

5. Donating clothes the kids have outgrown. I've probably passed a dozen of those clothing donation boxes in my travels during the past couple weeks, but every time, I don't even have a minute to stop to open the trunk and stuff the garbage bag of too-small clothes we cleaned out from my daughter's drawers a while ago. So, in the trunk the bag will sit. At least it has the bags of bottles and cans I've been carting around for the past month in there to keep it company.