Crisis cleaning blues

I am so tired of the need to crisis clean/organize every time we invite someone over. And the anxiety and headache that comes with it. (Every time!) And the mood my daughter then picks up from me and begins her day with. Ohhhhh. And I love having people over. I'm a people person. But it is a simple fact. The only way things are gonna change around here so that preparing for people is a less stressful proposition is to get rid of stuff. So there is my motivation to keep moving with my plan for the year. And I've had a good start. I'm keeping track of my progress, and honestly, that helps. Blogging about it all helps, too. I like to be able to go back and remind myself of what I've accomplished. I also notice that the less clutter there is around me, the less I stress it if the kids make a mess. It feels like no big deal to handle their mess if the surrounding around is neat and clean. Hm. Seems as if it's a no-brainer. So what the ... has taken me so long? Anyhow, it's easy to write about, time to try to walk the walk. (siiiighhhhs) Perhaps I need to keep a record of my DAILY accomplishments for a few days....boring for you, maybe, but helpful for me. Ok....so here's today: (to be updated throughout the day if and when I accomplish something....)

Feeling really down. First of all, I don't know how to stop this from underlining. What a pain. Secondly, but really firstly, I have been picking up around here since my son fell asleep, about an hour ago. The place still looks like crap. It's so frustrating. Makes me hate myself. =( I hope our visitors this afternoon are forgiving. ......... Well, our guests were great, and the house was ....ok.... One of my books on Amazon.com sold today, so that's nice. I'm plugging along. :/