Adding to my frustration: we are moving, which is ALWAYS a chaotic situation. My daughter is taking ownership of the home we are vacating, and her heart wants to help me, but her brain suffers from the same distractibility and easy visual overstimulation that mine does. Furthermore, she thinks that having things left out on the counter top is OK, even if it's hair ornaments, packaging tape, a plastic produce bag full of mixed nuts, a bus schedule, and a Reader's Digest all in one place, as long as it's piled neatly. She hasn't quite learned those organization skills yet, and I didn't learn them soon enough to teach her. (My other daughter has a much easier time with neatness and organization coming naturally to her, but she is hardly in a position to help because of school, a job, and two small children of which she is a single mother.)

Mike doesn't care whether these things get done or not; as long as the dishes and laundry aren't behind, there are places to sit, enough paths through the room, and nothing is drawing flies, he doesn't see a problem. He thinks we don't even need to pack, since we're only moving a mile away. He says when the time comes, we should just throw things in the car and start hauling them over there. But from my viewpoint, that's just going to create further chaos on the other end. I don't want anything leaving this house that hasn't been dusted if necessary, then clearly marked for where it's going to go in the new house. And I DON'T want to be drowning in piles of random clutter for weeks.

This is going to have me totally on edge for a while.