Hey, Marla.

I’m definitely not a B.O. When my mom visited me in college in the spring of my sophomore year, she about cried when she found out I hadn’t washed my sheets since putting them on the bed in the fall. And I can’t even count the number of science projects I’ve had to wash first OUTSIDE because I was concerned about mold in the house…but not concerned enough to, you know, stay caught up on the mountains of dishes in the sink, on the counter, on the table, and on the floor. I battle depression, so sometimes, I just can’t face a situation–or so I think.

I’ve gotten the emails for years and have had some false starts, but I’ve been doing pretty well for the last few months with some routines, daily tasks, and (slow) decluttering. I’ve benefited most from reminding myself to “do it now,” and combating the perfectionism.

One indicator as to how much this has helped me is that I had a physical and emotional tragedy almost two months ago, and I didn’t fall apart. I found out in April that I was pregnant with a long-awaited second child, and part of what had motivated me to keep up my routines was that I wanted the house to be in better shape for a little one to learn to walk in. Well, in mid-June, I miscarried and was in the E.R. for several hours as the medical staff addressed the hemorrhaging. I was bedridden for almost a week from the blood loss, so I couldn’t just be busy to get out of my grief. We reached out to our few close friends, and they pulled in a few more friends, and we were enveloped in love and acts of service for a few days. They did a lot of reorganizing, throwing trash away, and catching up on dishes that I had gotten about 50% done already.

Now, two months later, the house looks better now that it did when they left. I did not descend into despair; instead, after those first few days of I reminded myself that “I can do anything for 15 minutes” (not IN 15 minutes!) I am still not 100% consistent on everything, and I still worry that I’ve built on too fast, but as a teacher I feel much better heading into the coming school year than I did last year.

Thank you so much for your contributions to my life.

LeAnna