I’m not sorry that my house is clean. I just need time to adjust to a life where chaos isn’t conducting the orchestra.

My current organizational journey has been a rewarding, growth-inducing, inspiring endeavor—one that I’m proud of, one that has improved the lives in my household almost immeasurably, one that has made our home more welcoming and comfortable. At the moment, though, it’s triggering anxiety for me in a big way. Doesn’t make sense, right? Here I am organizing my life, and organizing is the gold standard for winning in...
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I store loads of stuff in bags, forget what’s in there, only to be surprised when I finally look inside.

If you are anything like me, you have bags—bags of stuff, bags of everything. Bags of things you didn’t remember you owned. Bags of things you used for a hike last year. Bags of food containers that may or may not have mold inside. Bags with random, assorted life accessories scattered along the bottom of them. As I go through my house lately, cleaning up clutter piles,...
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My family and home are my number one priorities now, so I have eradicated every other obligation that isn’t necessary from my life.

I have been a bit quiet on the blogging front, because I am undergoing a bit of a personal revolution. I guess that’s a slightly dramatic statement, but periods of personal growth are significant and necessary. Part of this process of personal growth has been making my life smaller. Much smaller. I decided that taking care of my home, my household, and my family is my number...
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How I got out from under its deep, dark grip this time.

How deep and dark is depression? There’s a line from the Kate Bush song, Love and Anger, that sums up my last bout of depression perfectly: “…It's so deep you don't think that you can speak about it, to anyone….” I’ve been quiet again on the writing front, for a little while, because I was recovering from a depression that was almost too deep to speak about...
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Don’t waste your time and energy trying to make your life perfect.

It’s easy for us adults with ADHD to get on our own nerves by leaving certain kinds of tasks until the last minute, or by not doing them at all. Sometimes these oversights and avoidances drive the people around us crazy, too. But I would argue that an important key to living well with ADHD is prioritization. You have to learn to tell the difference between...
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It’s simple: Get up early and wait.

Can we discuss the fact that it’s taken me about six years to learn to be on time? Since I’m the one writing, I guess you don’t have a choice. But if you’re reading this, I know that either you or someone you know has ADHD too. So it’s a relevant topic. This morning, I was out of my ADHD meds (I take Vyvanse). Today is payday...
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The downside of ADHD meds is that they wear off. That’s when the drama begins.

“When my ADHD meds wear off........” I’m sure all of us with ADHD can come up with hilarious and heartbreaking ways to complete that sentence. I sure can. In fact, the other day I had a public-ish meltdown that left me embarrassed. Reactivity can be a challenge for me sometimes, after the ol’ meds stop working their magic. I can’t eat gluten. If I do, the resulting issues...
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Ping your memory with notes, Post-its, and visual cues galore. Hey, it works beautifully for me.

One of my Twitter followers recently asked a great question: “How do you remember to take your meds?” A lot of us struggle with this, and I’ve had my own mishaps. Overall, though, I’m pretty good at remembering to take my meds, thanks to a strategy that I’ve been working on for years: visual cues. This isn’t something I do just to remember to take pills...
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I was so stressed that my handwriting was illegible. I needed help, and thankfully I found it.

I haven’t been prolific in keeping this blog updated. Sometimes life happens. Sometimes mental health happens. Sometimes “lack of mental health” happens. My mental health needed a tune-up last year. My sleeping patterns became odder than usual – I had a hard time getting to sleep and staying asleep. I felt my moods flickering in a depression-ward direction…and then in an anxious direction…and then in a...
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