Janet Jackson's got nothing on me.

For all those who have remarked how impressed they are at my workload/level of motivation so soon after baby's birth, I should point out that I'm feeling a little in need of a control fix right now, along the lines of what Liesl mentions in this post. It was nice to read her post and realize I'm not the only one who frequently works out my control-freak urges on the closets and shelves and cabinets. (You should see me rearrange the whole kitchen after my relatives empty the dishwasher--whoa.) I felt a kindred sense, and a deep need to polish other people's silver...

At the moment, though, I've been letting things go. New baby--yes, that's true, but when one finds oneself shoving blankets in the laundry room and juuuust getting that hand back before slamming the door shut so nothing escapes out of it from the piles and piles of other things that have had the same sanitorium-like treatment the blanket is receiving, one has allowed too many tasks slide for too long. Feel free to come over and marvel at how disheveled my closets are, and then nod knowingly as you slowly come to the realization that I will be less and less able to work as the winter goes on unless I address this issue immediately. The linen closets?? A disaster. Under the bathroom sink. Dude. That's all I'm saying.

As a good friend of mine once taught me, "You have to nest before you can lay an egg." I have some BIG eggs percolating (do eggs percolate? incubate?), and I am seeing now that it will require BIG nesting to get them all out of the harbor (if you'll pardon the butchered and mixed metaphors). It's exciting and scary and exhilirating and enervating, all at the same time, and puts me in a panicked need to CONTROL things.

If you need me, I'll be with the folding board, or using my paint chips to color code the sweater shelf.

How do you respond to stress? And will it help ME??