Organizational challenge update: day 16

Wow. Day 16 already. Just over the halfway point. Wow.

It's been a week since I updated on this challenge, primarily because I've been busy organizing and cleaning! I've also been having the most fascinating conversations with my inner brat, but haven't had the time (or energy) to post them.

The details of those past (inner) dialogues with my inner brat will have to wait until another day, I'm afraid. Today is a broody moody sort of day for me. The past few days have been pretty stressful... but that's a tale for another time, suffice it to say that I'm not 100% at the moment. Among other things, I am tired (had to get up early to take A. to the airport after being up way too late last night having a rather heated discussion about finances) and cranky. My inner brat is tired, whiny and a little sulky. We want honey lavender ice cream to savor and a hammock in which to sprawl while we read. We have neither.

So, progress. Yes, there has been progress made. Visible progress, no less. Today, however, I look around me and hear my inner brat whispering with her little nose all crinkled up. "Yeesh. Only fourteen more days? Never going to make it. Let's call it a day and do something fun for a while."

I'm tempted to give in. It couldn't hurt to take a break, right? Just for a little while. Just long enough to take K. to Dairy Queen for a Blizzard (this month's Blizzard of the Month is Kit Kat!!) then to the zoo, or maybe the park. Being outside in the sunshine and fresh air would be energizing. Not to mention that A. just left town this morning so we're on our own for ten days and a little fun always helps soothe the sulkiness of him being gone. I can clean tomorrow. I can clean Friday. I have ten whole days without him here to get in the way at night. I can...

But then I look at the calendar and shake my head. No, I don't have ten whole days in which to clean. There are two different events at school during that time frame. And there are other things planned, too. No, I have to clean now. There will be time for emails, blogging, reading, crafting, and playing after the challenge is over, after the cleaning is done. It'll be much better then, too, because there will be so much less clutter getting in the way and so much more space in which to actually DO different activities, not to mention the whole lack of stress surely to be involved because there will be rooooooom to  s  t  r  e  t  c  h  o  u  t   and no worries about balancing things in laps while felines try to "help". No, no playing now. I have to clean.

I hear the whine of my inner brat again as my resolve to clean strengthens. It's a low keen that every mother on the face of this planet knows all too well. It's the sound of a child who isn't getting her way and is gearing up for a Hail Mary play. She is determined to win this fight.

But I am more determined to have the peace of my haven, my sanctuary, back. I want it, I crave it, I need it. And I will have it. So despite the howls and whining of my inner brat I resume my cleaning, knowing full well that it's for the best. I can play later. Right now I have to clean.