A few weeks ago, my daughter came home in some odd-fitting uniform slacks.

Honestly, though, as a not-so-terribly-observant-about-such-things mother, it didn’t really register until she handed me a plastic shopping bag full of clothes to wash.

Then she proceeded to tell me how there had been an unfortunate accident at school.  I knew that (thankfully) it wasn’t that kind of accident since this is my child who was potty-trained more than five years ago after ONE accident. Seriously. She couldn’t/can’t handle even slightly damp clothes.

No, she had fallen/sat/swished by a puddle or something.

Anyway, my rule-following girl proceeded to tell me the nurse’s instructions about how we needed to bring back the borrowed clothes the following Monday after we washed them.

And I said, “Tell ‘em Mama does laundry on Mondays.”  Maybe not with quite the twang I hear in my head when writing it, but that’s what I said.

And I wasn’t even lying.

Or procrastinating.

Or hoping.

I do.  I do laundry on Mondays.  It was a strange/nice/odd feeling to say it with such confidence, knowing that on Monday, those clothes would get washed along with every other item of clothing in the house.

Now remembering to return the clothes?  That’s a different story.

And once again . . . cue the promotion of the Ultimate E-book Bundle that’s available (only) this week. I know some of you LOOOOVE lists.

I like them, I just generally lose them . . .

Anyway, I thought this post would be a good transition into talking about some e-books in the bundle that include awesome lists.

Look at this one by List Planit:

It made me giggle.  I’m not laughing AT it.  I’m actually laughing at myself.  I . . . ahem . . . struggle with getting things returned.

Though I’m proud to say that by Thursday of the next week, those borrowed clothes were back to the nurse!

But really, if you’re a list lover, you’ll LOVE List Planit’s eplanner that’s included in the sale, AND one of the “freebies” is from them as well. Organizing Life as Mom also has tons of lists as well.  The printable lists in both of those e-books are editable, meaning you can type into them.  Very cool.

And, even though the lists aren’t editable in Getting it Together: Your Guide to Setting Up a Home Management System that Works, I love how she has pre-made pages you can fill out and use for a Home Management Binder, which many people swear by.

Not me of course, as I would lose the entire binder, but other people.

By the way, the value of just those three e-books is 17.99, which makes the 29.97-for-all-97-e-books a little more justifiable.

Oh, and this post most DEFINITELY contains affiliate links. Definitely. 

As I was cleaning up the kitchen this morning, I realized how much this area has been driving me crazy.

We’ve had a lot of coughing and allergies and fever going on around here, so it just makes no sense to my brain to put this stuff away in the cabinet above this counter.  Especially since I have a few who are old enough to get their own medicine when reminded.

But who might never find it if it was actually put away. 

Of course, as happens to people with Slob Vision, the Target bags and dirty dishcloths were invisible to me.

So I took the entire three minutes necessary to simply remove the OBVIOUSLY removable stuff and push the stuff that was staying into one slightly-less-random arrangement, and I got this:

And that included making the (not that hard) decision to throw away this smashed/cracked leadless and eraserless pencil and the plug cover that I haven’t used in several years.

And it even included transferring these allergy pills back to their container.  AFTER throwing the bag away because I thought it was a ziploc with a little leftover rice in the bottom . . .

(Explanation/Excuse: When my 10yo went to camp LAST SUMMER I sent the bottle, but didn’t want to send everything in it for fear it would never return.)

What have you done in three minutes today?

January first?

Schmanuary schmirst!

Every mother knows that the beginning of a new school year is the real New Year.

While I prefer to have my kids home for the routine-free joys of summer, I also try to make the best of whatever stage/season/month of life I’m in.

And yes, I’ve given that speech three times in the last 24 hours to my Still Grieving for Summer Kids.

So today began a more predictable routine.  I am fairly proud of myself already today, and it’s only 10:22 a.m. as I’m writing this.

I exercised, did my Bible study, cleaned the kitchen, swept the kitchen, checked bathrooms for clutter and did a 5-minute pick up.

Five minutes wasn’t anywhere near long enough to make up for the Post Summer Conditions around here, but it did make a difference. 

As I was cleaning the kitchen, I realized that today is my 3rd Blogiversary.  Technically, August 24, 2009 was the day I wrote my first post.  But the symbolism of this first day of school makes today my real Blogiversary.

Three years ago, in a moment of total desperation, I started this journey in an attempt to figure out how to get my house under control.  I wanted to solve this problem I’d struggled with for my ENTIRE life.

I had no idea where to start, so I just started.  I stopped making excuses and started doing the dishes.

What difference has three years made?

1. I’m no longer clueless.
2. I no longer assume that I’m the only woman in the world with these struggles.
3. I understand that my brain is different (not less than) women who don’t have these struggles.
4. I get that the part of my brain which I love (the creative part) is directly related to the part I don’t love (the slob part).
5. I have accepted the relationship between those two parts of my brain.
6. I have eliminated the equivalent of 3 Normal-People‘s-homes’ worth of stuff from my home, so I’m ever-so-much LESS overwhelmed at the thought of getting it back into shape.
7. I have accepted that this will likely be a struggle for me for the rest of my life.
8. I have learned ways of coping with this struggle that make me okay with the truth of #7.
9. I have a WHOLE LOT of new friends who accept me for who I am.  (I’m talking about YOU!)
10. I now know exactly what to do to get my house back in shape after summer, which means . . . I have hope.

(OK.  I had no idea that was going to turn into a list of ten things.)

Really, #10 is the biggest.  “Hope is a great thing to have!” says the woman who truly had none three years ago. 

Soooo, since I know exactly how it feels to not have a clue where to start when you’re desperate to get started, I’m offering my e-book, 28 Days to Hope for Your Home for $3 in honor of the 3rd  anniversary of this blog.  The e-book is based upon what I’ve learned in my own deslobification process, and will guide you through the development of four basic habits that will give you hope for your home.

Just use the code REALNEWYEAR

Please consider sharing this with people you know.  Someone out there may be hurting behind the closed-and-locked doors of her messy home, and she may need this hope.   You can even be an affiliate and earn 50% of the purchase price.  You do NOT have to have a blog to be an affiliate, just go here to find out how.