Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Day 17

Definitely an "up kind of day" as the Dutsons came over and Emily commented on how clean my house is. Not sure if that's just because she read my blog and knew that I'm working on it and made it a point to notice.

Also, things are a bit cleaner than they would have been had we not had the Chipmans over for dinner last night and James clean the bathroom before they came. What a difference a good mopping makes!

Tonight is setting a specific bedtime and sticking to it. I think I'm going to start shooting for 9:30. Especially if the kids are going to keep waking me up in the middle of the night. I've slept with a little person at some point every night for the past 3 nights. (Alas, no it wasn't Trevy last night. I had each of the twins for a while and Trevy ended up wetting the bed.)

But my sink is still shining, I'm already showered and ready for bed and I have a load of laundry going. Also got our master bathroom and all my little patches textured today so we're ready to sand and prime!

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Day 15

Well, I haven't done a very good job keeping track of the days. I have checked each day what the sticky says for the day and tried to do it.

My sink is still shining throughout the day and it has made a huge difference just getting things cleaned up (sink included) after every meal and the floor swept every night. I've only mopped once in the past 2 weeks, but it's still so much better than saving it all up!

I'm also still showering at night so I can get up and get dressed first thing in the morning. I was already making my bed, although this wasn't supposed to start until today. I think I'm just remembering some of the things that I used to do the last time I attempted to FLY and throwing them in.

Getting a little discouraged, though, as I haven't had a lot of time to declutter. I'm also trying to figure out how to get my projects all squeezed in. Working on a house at the same time you're trying to live in, clean and declutter it is not a lot of fun. What I have decided to do is add pages to my control journal that list the projects I would like to accomplish in each room and what I will need to purchase. I'm thinking that as I make my way through each zone, I will create a page for it with the projects for that room as I work at cleaning and decluttering it. Then each day, along with performing Kelly's missions, I will work on one of my projects for the current zone.

Right now, I think my SHE-brain is on over drive and I'm starting to feel very overwhelmed. We bought a fixer-upper and, although we've done A LOT of work already, there is still so much to be done. Not to mention that I'm no longer happy with the original paint colors in the bedrooms or the color scheme my DH has started in our master bath to use up some extra paint. I'm also wondering how much is worth doing as we're hoping to find James a practice soon and, hopefully, get into a bigger house along with that. One day at a time, huh? Or, should I say, 15 minutes at a time.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Day 5

Today's "sticky" is to write down all the negative voices you hear and then tell yourself positives to negate them.

My negatives have been: I just get so busy, I'll get to it later, there's too much to do, I'll be ignoring my kids, I have too many projects, I keep going in circles, I've fallen off the FLYwagon before...

My positives are: I'm a get-it-done person. I know how to do all the projects I have planned, I'm even more committed this time and I'm already seeing results and I LOVE the way I'm feeling about myself and my house.

This time I have actually shined my sink and I'm even showering at night so I can get up in the morning and get dressed, complete with hair and makeup (trouble with the shoes as I don't have any black lace-ups). I've also completed every mission for the zone of this week: the kitchen. And the great thing is that I've actually done them all on my own fairly recently - no trouble decluttering the Tupperware - I really don't have any left that I don't use. I've already gotten rid of those. And, thanks to the leak under the sink the night I was making the twin's first birthday cakes, the area under my sink was already pretty well organized and minimized as well. Just need to get rid of more plastic bags. My countertops have also been scrubbed and I've purged my pantry cupboard. It looks fabulous! I'm feeling so proud of myself. I think James is thinking I'm a little crazy, but he's still supporting me because it's something I want to do.

In my readings today, I found a couple of paragraphs that totally made me feel great as well. I'm not the only one feeling like I'm not lazy, I just can't seem to make the final step to figuring out how to get my house really clean and organized. And it also helped me just to hear that going to bed early really isn't cutting into "my time to get stuff done without helping hands", it's helping me get the rest I need to work faster and more efficiently with a clear mind and a happy personality!

"3. Go to bed at a decent hour. This is the most important part of abefore bed routine; start thinking about it long before your actualbedtime. Mine starts right after dinner with a bath. Now don't tell meyou have to help the children with homework because I am going to giveyou some tips for homework in another routine. Establish a bedtime foreveryone in the house and this includes you. You may not need as muchsleep as your babies but my guess is you are getting enough as it as.We tend to want to play till the wee hours of the morning and then tryto drag ourselves out of bed with only a few short hours of sleep.This has got to stop. You are like a little baby that has gotten hisdays and nights mixed up and you are trying to function on no sleep.This ineffective habit is killing you and telling your children thatit is fine to not take care of yourself. You have to go to bed to setthe example for your children. When you start getting the sleep youdeserve you will find it easier to get up in the morning. Here is thereward to you and your babies; a parent that is not grouchy in themorning. It will happen if you will quit making excuses for staying uplate. This is not the only time you can be alone.

A timer is a valuable tool for keeping us focused. We have never been lazy. We just want to have fun. Using a timer allows us to focus onwhat we have to do and celebrate when it goes off with a littleenjoyment; the best of both worlds. Routines are not the straight jackets we have always thought that theywere. They free us up to have fun and keep chaos from hurting us andour children. Use them and you will learn how to be organized. Takebabysteps in establishing your routines and let your timer help tokeep you and your babies focused on the fun things in life."

Right now, I'm sort of breaking that rule of going to bed at a decent hour. I had told myself that I would be in the shower at 9:30 and in bed at 10. It's now 10:06. But it took a little longer to scrub out my pantry cupboard (45 minutes, but I had to bust out with an SOS pad on the lower spinner) and I also needed to get my menu planned for this next week so I can FLY in that category also.

However, right now I am only holding myself to the baby steps that I have covered. The missions and other additions to routines are just bonuses as I have a little time to do them so I'm not going to let myself feel guilty if I don't get to them. FlyLady says to start with the basics and not try to do it all at once, so I'm not, unless I happen to be able to that day.

The last thing that I am doing is picking one of my projects - they all feel urgent! - and I just do a little part of it. The other night I cut and pinned the fabric for my shower curtain. Yesterday I laid out the lines and connected all the exterior lights. Today I buried some of the wires. It really feels great just to see progress all around me. And a shiny sink every night before I go to bed and every morning when I wake up!