I'm having the hardest time getting anything accomplished since returning from the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. It isn't that I'm not moving quickly or attempting to do 9,000 things at once. Au contraire, I'm doing lots of things, really fast and it has the net effect of trying to use a leaf blower during a windstorm.

That's okay, though. I'm all hopeful and stuff. A good part of this optimism is due to the fact that my mom recommended a possible teenaged mother's helper for me, and I'm totally counting my chickens before I've even gathered the eggs here, but seriously, I've needed backup for over a year, and I haven't been able to coordinate it. The plan is to have her come over after school for a couple of hours so I can work in relative peace while the kids play and do their homework and master Wii games that I'm not interested in.

Here's the thing. I know other parents have help - but I've marooned myself on an island since my kids were tiny. I told myself that I could and should do it all without help. Even working full-time, a decision that should have made hiring childcare assistance a no-brainer didn't motivate me. I couldn't ever get the house company-ready clean enough to hire help for the kids or the house, or couldn't justify the expense of hiring a sitter, or didn't know where to start looking. I told myself that the occasional break provided by my parents would have to do, and continued to wallow in a lonely swamp of my own making.

And now, I've got the phone number for a possible mother's helper. (And the number of a professional organizer, too, but dude, just had expensive car repairs and property taxes. That is going to have to wait.) And even if this isn't the right mother's helper for my family, that torch has been lit. There will be help. Once again, my mom has delivered a well-timed boot in the butt.