Mary Poppins strikes fear into the heart of merely mortals

I am in supercalifragilistic organisational mode. I think this is something that all mothers hit once or twice a year. It's too late the week before school starts! Everything must be applied for and co-ordinated before December or you miss out.

There have been parallels with my whole life what with partners being overseas, parents downsizing, jobs being chucked, etc. etc.

insert chart here...

I am now officially OCD. I am color coding everything. I was pleased to find out that I"m not the only person who likes to have same color pegs grouped on the clothes line! Or sometimes I like different color combinations, like only orange and green in the front with blue and yellow at the back. Or blue is for me, yellow is for undies, etc. Ditto with push pins. If I'm in a yellow is for personal and blue is for school mood then DON'T jam a green pin on the board! I now offically hate blue and yellow. I have moved on.

When this gets too much for me, my answer is to give up hanging the washing out and revert to the drier. I've tried chucking tantrums and/or calling a strike and/or having a family meeting resulting in the Treaty of Versailles.

Previous result? Two lots of cleaners reducing me to nervous breakdown by their aggressive use of bleach and sugarsoap and scourers, scratching the surface off all of our stainless steel appliances and the bathroom cabinets and the glass doors. Even after I pointed this out, then left out paper towel and proper cleaning products. They still used their own whenever I wasn't there. They even carried them in brand name cleaning product canisters, but I checked - sugar soap and bleach.

Latest result? Sensitive new age partner (SNAP) reduced me to nervous breakdown by scratching the surface off all the new (ish) lino demonstrating his willingness to help and his complete inability to be instructed. My fault for talking wrong.

Agreement reached at the latest Yalta Conference? Clear color coded delineation of all roles in the family corporation. Regular meetings to report to the bored. Sackings are definitely on the cards if we don't meet our targets. Acknowledgement that HOUSEWORK IS THE HEAT DEATH OF THE UNIVERSE. There is no defeating entropy!

Second Law of Thermodynamics btw. as quoted below by Dr James Kranz

The heart of your question concerns the equilibrium state of the universe, and how the one of the laws of thermodynamics, that “entropy always increases”, seems to be defied by the buildup of a net charge difference between materials that shows up as static electricity. I need to spend a little time on thermodynamics. At its essence, the thermodynamics of a system really describes an energy balance; like balancing a checkbook, the energy going into a system or flowing out of a system is in balance with the rest of the world. (Money is a VERY good analogy to energy in a thermodynamic sense). Here is my favorite description of the laws of thermodynamics in a colloquial sense:

1) You can’t break even (i.e. entropy always increases).
2) You can break even, but only when hell freezes over (i.e. you can stop entropy from changing/increasing at absolute zero temperature).
3) Hell isn’t going to freeze over (i.e. though you can get close, you can’t get to absolute zero).

All changes of energy are in balance on the scale of the universe; locally
we can change the balance of energy in apparent defiance of the first law of thermodynamics. It takes substantial effort to roll a large rock up a hill; perched on the top of the hill, it retains potential energy that would be released if the boulder rolls back down the hill under the force of gravity. Static electricity is a lot like the energetic state achieved when the builder is perched at the top of a hill but has not begun rolling down.