My mom is coming up from SC tomorrow, to visit various friends and relatives for a month. She’ll be with me initially, but I’m not sure how long she’ll actually be here.
In preparation for her visit, I’ve been slowly trying to put my house back together again for the first time since JL came home from camp last fall. In the process, I’ve damn near had an asthma attack with all the cat hair and dust I’ve managed to kick up. Mom is no more of a housekeeping genius than I am, so I’m not terribly worried about her reaction when she gets here. This is, quite frankly, more for me than for her.
I miss the days of chat challenges. I used to be on this discussion group (still am, but I never visit the website anymore) where occasionally, a couple of us would get on AIM and set timers for 15 minutes, then go off and see what we could get accomplished in the meantime. When we came back, we’d tell each other what we managed to get done. Some people scoffed at the idea, wondering aloud how I knew the other person was actually doing anything. Clearly, they didn’t grasp the concept. The only purpose the other person had was to provide the “Atta girl” feedback that was sometimes needed to keep going. The main focus was keeping myself accountable. And sure, I could have provided a fake list of things I’d done. But talk about a waste of time! I can certainly think of better things to say while IM’ing than, “I did a load of laundry, swept the kitchen floor and unloaded the dishwasher.”
I have two minutes left of my 15 minute break before I move on to the next group of tasks. It’s not a chat challenge, but it’s the best I can do for now. 
ATTA GIRL!!!!!!!!!!! Hey to Mommy!