Because my photography business has been overtaking my life recently (in a good way), my house has been overrun with dishes to be put away, laundry to be folded, junk mail to be sorted through amongst the other more important things like playing with my kids in our backyard, while enjoying this gorgeous weather and spending more quality alone time with the hubs.

So, yesterday, after picked up the kids (and played with them a bit outside before heading home), I quickly made homemade mac n cheese (yes, quickly..I make ahead a lot of pasta - just plain - to easily throw something together when I get home) fed the kiddos and then started to clean the kitchen. I didn't finish till about 9 pm or so, but boy did I feel good about it.

Did I finish the other items on my to do list? Of course not. Did I get to spend some time with my kiddos - yep, sure did. Is my house less of a disaster than a few days ago? Just a little bit. Because everyday, it starts all over again - at least this is how it feels. One minute it's visitor worthy, the next minute I'm stressing out about it again. So, I decided to try a little thing I read somewhere - I can't remember if it was from a blog or from Real Simple (I think it was from a Real Simple reader who wrote in actually).

I wrote all the chores that need to happen so that this house is nice and comfortable and presentable. I made sure to leave a space in between the chores so I can cut them up into strips, fold them up and plop em into a jar. Each day I pick one of those little pieces of paper and do that chore and that chore only. Having done the kitchen already and picked up the rest of the rooms before I started to do this, helped me start off on an even playing field.

Yesterday was the first day, and today I still continued to do it. So hopefully, I'll be able to keep it up.

Oh and here are some pictures

click on images for larger view