Where to start???

Here?

Here?Project started earlier this week that I still haven't finished?
(Can I tell you how much I despise switching clothes out for the season??)How 'bout here?
(those are supposed to be laundry piles)

Playroom anyone?????!!!!

One word --- EMBARRASSED!!!

Another word? OVERWHELMED!!!!!

If anyone were to burst into my house for inspection right now, this is what they would find.

You see, I'm really good at getting my house "presentable" for guests, but I find it nearly impossible to keep up day-to-day. I try to power through washing, folding and putting away laundry one day and meanwhile, the rest of the house gets thrashed. Leaving the house for grocery shopping, driving carpool, dance, baseball games and practices, karate, etc. just means less time to work on the cleaning. On a miraculous day that it IS clean, I'd love to be able to just enjoy it.... but we all know how that goes.

I have a toddler that is busy creating new messes faster than I can clean up after him. Older kids that just move from thing to thing to thing, never mind the mess they leave in their wake. A husband that wants down-time after work. A mom that is exhausted by the time 8:00pm rolls around and the LAST thing she wants to do is get hopping on the house.

Towels and dirty laundry left on the floors. Bits of trash EVERYWHERE!!! Four dirty bathrooms. Crumbs and sticky messes on the kitchen tile. Toys strewn up and down the stairs. Bedsheets that should've been washed 3 weeks ago. Back lawn looking scraggly. Office looking like a bomb exploded and can't even walk thru without stepping on something.

I'm in serious need of help. I hate constantly following the kids and hubs around, nagging. Nobody responds well to it and sometimes, it just seems like it would be easier to do it myself, not having to listen to the kids whine when I tell them they need to clean the playroom; the mess THEY made, all on their own. No one seems to see the messes as they walk past. Obviously I've failed miserably at teaching them how to work and clean up after themselves. Something has got to change.

What husband wants to come home to a disaster every day? I get so overwhelmed when the house is like this, I just want to sit down and cry. I don't even know where to start. It's hard to do everything on my own, just to turn around and see my hard work destroyed in 5 minutes. What's the point?

See? I'm human too. I'm out of the closet. I've recently been labeled an OVERACHIEVER by multiple people and every time they say that, it makes me sad inside. It hurts, actually. So what if I want to MAKE a baseball treat at home for a fraction of the cost instead of dragging 4 kids to WalMart to buy prepackaged, over-priced junk? So what if I bring a meal into a ward member's home and everything is made from scratch? So what if I love doing fun projects while it's my week to teach preschool? So what if I try 4 or 5 new recipes in one week? THIS is my reality. Does having a house that looks like this make me an overachiever? I think not. Maybe I'm good at putting up a false front, I don't know. Everyone wants to look like they have it all together, but clearly, I do not.

I don't know why I feel the need to do this, I just do. So go ahead and gasp in horror. I guess I'd better get started. The kids have the day off school so they're gonna be put to work. I'd like to do a fun project later today so maybe that'll be motivation enough? I just hope that my head is still attached by the end of the day.