I don’t feel like I can get anything accomplished in my house. “To-do” lists go untouched because I need to keep a pretty constant eye on Courtney.

Back in the day, if you took your eye off her for more than a minute or two, you’d find her climbing a railing to dangerous heights. Then there was the “poop” phase—I won’t go into details on that one…it was AWFUL.

Even now, at 12 years old, if I leave her unattended for more than five minutes, you might find her playing with soap, getting into Alyssa’s room and destroying a squishy ball, digging into a basement closet and playing with styrofoam, or adding ingredients to putty that definitely shouldn’t be added. Oh…and the non-edible things that she has eaten over the years!

I (or Joe or Alyssa) literally have to check on her every five minutet…and even that isn’t enough. You’ll hear this question often in our house: “When was the last time Courtney was checked on?”

Remember those toddler years? I feel like we are stuck there for life.

So why start a project when I have to pause every five minutes to check on Courtney, and still worry about what I’ll find since the last time I looked?

I’ve said for years that I need to get cameras for the rooms she spends the most time in, just so I can cook dinner without constantly worrying about what she’s getting into. Years have passed, and I still didn’t have cameras…until today.

I have the first one hooked up, and wow, I can already tell this is going to be a game changer. Though I may need to find a way to replace the insane number of steps I used to get from going up and down the stairs all day…hmmm.

Some people might ask, “Isn’t that an invasion of her privacy? She’s a pre-teen, doesn’t she want privacy?”

I wish I could give her more than five minutes of privacy. Rugs in our house have been destroyed because we left her alone for just a minute.

For us, this is just one more way to make our home work a little better. A little more peace of mind, a little more ability to get through the day, and maybe even finish a task from start to end. And honestly, that feels like a pretty big win right now.