Over the last few weeks, I’ve gotten a series of lovely emails from various people I work with about different work-related projects, all saying essentially the same thing: “You are so organized! I don’t know how you do it.”

Smoke and mirrors, people. Smoke and mirrors.

Right now every single surface in my living room is covered with laundry — clean laundry, yes, but unfolded and just heaped on the furniture because I don’t have time to fold but I have to get it out of the dryer to put the next load in. The folded laundry, on the other hand, is on the floor in my bedroom, in neat piles. Unfortunately, those piles are arranged by color, not by size or owner, so the kids have to come in and poke around every morning to find pants or socks or underwear or whatever it is they’re looking for.

I’m telling myself that I’m fostering their independence by not putting the laundry away.

I spent all day Wednesday essentially in my pajamas, because I had two articles due at the exact same moment (or something like that). Every time I thought I might get fifteen minutes to shower and get dressed, another thing would come up that needed to be finished right now, please, and I wound up taking the boys to baseball practice (two kids, two practices, two different fields, yee haw) in the yoga pants I slept in.

Sexay.

By Thursday, I had completely lost track of what day it was, which meant that I came this close to letting the kids go to school in their regular uniforms, rather than their dress uniforms (Thursday is Mass day; they have to wear a tie). Fortunately, Charlie remembered, although I have no idea how. Today I forgot that it was Spirit Day, the one day each month when the kids aren’t required to wear their uniform shirts, and sent the boys to school in their regular white polos.

But they also forgot, or at least forgot to remind me, so there’s that.

This afternoon we have track practice AND soccer practice, which of course are not at the same time or place, so this morning Wade and I had to have a long conversation about how everyone was going to get where he needed to go and who was going to take what kid where. I think I know what the plan is, but really, I’m not sure.

But I just got another you’re-so-organized email, as I was writing this, so I guess I sort of have things under control. The bottom line is: Virtual office, FTW! Seriously.