I am not a neat person. I look at instinctively neat people, like my husband, who, after taking his clothes off, will spend 30 seconds folding everything with hospital corners and putting it away, and it's like a magic trick to me: "My GOD, how did you just do that?" The will is there, but I'm convinced I just lack the physical wiring to return things to their proper places immediately after use. I know some people will read this and think that I was simply Not Trained Properly, but my mother will tell you that she fought this battle with me for 18 years, and that I had the full-on Montessori practical/home arts training since I was 2 1/2, and NONE OF IT STUCK.
Yesterday morning, I looked up from whatever I was doing at one of my desks (yes, I have two desks in my home office; Mik has long abandoned his claim to one of them and instead sits at the dining table when he has to work at home), and, like an addict having a moment of clarity, saw what it had come to (see photos above). I spent the whole day cleaning and putting things away, and still only have managed to roll the level of chaos back to pre-Olympics levels. Still, though, it's a start.
When Bella is playing with a toy, and something else catches her attention, she often will just let the toy fall out of her hand-- it's not a willful gesture, not like she's chucking it or throwing it-- she simply forgets about it, forgets to keep holding on to it, and it falls to the floor. I know I have 30-odd years on her, but when she does this, it's a familiar sensation to me. Like the carsickness and talking to imaginary friends, yet another thing to hope she grows out of before I do.
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