My kitchen is still clean

This is huge. I have been able to keep my kitchen tidy for more than 2 weeks now. In the past, it was with great struggles that I'd clean, only to have a small setback (getting sick, incredibly busy day, small dinner party) and things would grind to a crashing halt, resulting in an enormous pile of dirty dishes and very negative feelings of self-worth....

My attitude is different this time. I'm much more calmly noticing that the dishes in the dishwasher are dirty, so I can just plop this fork/plate/whatever into it and not have anything on the counter. Or I notice they're clean and just start putting them away, rather than wallow in my hatred of emptying the dishwasher (oh yes, those 3 minutes of torture, so hard to bear).

I'm also not killing myself when I notice a speck of cheese on the stove as I'm leaving in the morning. I know I'll get it when I wipe it down tonight, no harm, no foul.

And in the end? I am LOVING this. Loving that I am creating a non-chaotic environment for myself and for my son, loving that it's not fraught with tension and doubt and temporary enthusiasm that just turns into despair.

Yup, this works for me.