I'm sorry if my mess of a house is all I talk about. It's ever present on my mind. The progress I've made isn't enough to get the house beyond barely livable, let alone up to parr. Meanwhile, my daughter is developing very bad habits.

I've been trying to get after her about tossing everything wherever she happens to be. I have a hard time with not being the 'nice person'. I'm also not very consistent about nagging, or even about caring. It's so much easier to turn on the TV or computer instead of doing whatever it takes.



This is her space AFTER I'd already picked up this morning!

Here's the deal, though. If I'm not taking the responsibility by doing stuff, I'm taking the blame for other people not doing stuff... for not teaching her better, not nagging her, not forcing her. Whether I do something or not, I still feel responsible.

Here's my chip. There is a little voice in my head that whispers ever so softly 'why is it my job? Why can't someone else see the things that need to be done and deal with it for once? Why do I always have to do all the work or see that someone else does it? Why is it my responsibility to fix everything?'

My husband was here for six months without me. Did he do anything? Not that I can tell. He's now at one of our other houses that I spent the last seven months fixing. (I managed the fix-up of two houses while I was away.) The list of things left to do is relatively short. I ran out of time. School was starting. I didn't think my daughter would ever forgive me for if I stayed away any longer so Hubby and I traded places.

Is he doing anything? I don't know. If I ask, it will sound like nagging, and if I nag, I'm making it my responsibility. I think I have enough on my shoulders already, especially with this big giant chip.