joy in doing "to do" with "ta-da"

Yesterday I was told about a stress buster concept of never doing "to do's" without doing "ta- da". Of course I intuitively knew what it meant, and enjoyed a day of getting through the drudgery of some of my to do's by interspersing them or surrounding them with ta-da's, whatever I might conceive them to be. Sometimes it was taking time out for some more creative work in the waiting period while the freezer defrosted, at other times it was playing a favourite song and singing it myself. It helped so much to be given permission, to be encouraged to do ta- da!! So of course I decided I must blog about it today, as I prepared for a day of to do's and ta- da's. I mused upon the effectiveness of this way of task management and found it superior to the tips in the S.H.E. manual I read years ago. Did you see that? The acronym stands for "Sidetracked Home Executives", meaning people like me who like to multi task and need to ta- da all over the place to stay sane in the midst of drugdging jobs. The negative cast it put on creativity was a bit crippling and needless to say I never instituted its systematic procedures. Not that I don't like organization and systems. I really do. But they have to have enough ta- da in them, I now realize, having this new word for it, for them to be human, enjoyable and creative, and do - able. Like the biblical concept "Without a vision the people perish".

I decided to do some homework on all this ta-da for you and me. Google of course was my first stop, and I was not disappointed. First of all there is a To Do list company called Ta Da!! How do you like that? And of course there is the very important information for all of those who like legitmacy and orthodoxy that "ta-da" is one of the more than 2,000 new words in The New Oxford Dictionary of English. I find it isn't in my big one that was new in 2001. And the definition:

Ta-da (Exclamation) - An imitation of a fanfare (typically used to indicate an impressive entrance or dramatic announcement).

So there we are. But this way of ta-da-ing that I am proposing and I think the stress- busting speaker intended is about doing things with flair, with creativity, spontaneity, and confidence in all those. Kind of a cousin of chutzpah, which made its way into a recent blog post I wrote. That word is definitely in the dictionary, handed down from Yiddish mamas!! Ta-da for them!!!

May you and I both find joy today and every day in our to-do's and our ta-da's!!!

What a to do!! As I write this I hear some animal character from a child's book echoing this back to me - was it an owl?? Anyone who can remember please tell me, and ta-da- to you if you do!!Twit - twoo!!