Bathroom Update

Back in our one bedroom basement apartment days, IronFish and I used to decide on Friday after work to invite people over.  We'd scurry around and get the whole place picked up and completely cleaned in about an hour.

Flash forward a few kids and we now live in a 3 bedroom townhouse.  With more space comes more things (more kids also bring more things) so I'd be doing some serious stashing to get the house in tip top shape in an hour.  We aren't planning a party, but we are expecting grandparents next weekend.  Truth be told, if you're family, you know how my house is.... however, when you add two people to the space for a few days, things feel even tighter, so I do really try to get a handle on things before people arrive.

I have a lot of work ahead of me but needed a feeling of accomplishment.  So I tackled the downstairs bathroom.  Within the past few months, IronFish has tiled the floor, painted the walls and put in new trim.  It looks great!  The problem?  Everything that was in there on the walls, cabinet, etc is stashed over the house.  As it was needed in there, it got brought back in with no place to put it away.  As usual, I was avoiding it.  Big surprise to me, it only took me about a half hour to get it into shape... that's a feeling of accomplishment!

Wanna see?

This cabinet is over the toilet.  It still looks a little cluttered, but it pretty organized.  Pull-up and things necessary to get O-man potty trained (which will hopefully be sooner than later, then I'll have another half of the cabinet freed up!).  I shouldn't have to buy hand soap or lotion for at least a year, not sure how I ended up with so many bottles.  I stuck the one random towel on top for now.  I like the little bottles, they came from my grandma and her sister.  Rolling up the hand towels in the basket made them look nice and within reach of the girls if they need a clean one, without them opening the cabinet.

Here is what my counter top was looking like at first.

Putting things in the correct home helped.

I finally got the picture hung as well as the towel hook.  Previously we had two towel rings and the girls never hung the towel back up.  They told me if I used a hook this time, they would be able to hang the towel up... I hung it at a level that all 3 kids can reach... I'm holding them to it!

 I love Command Strips, they make it so easy to hang the picture quickly!

I re-hung the hot/cold knobs on the side of the medicine cabinet.  I'm not sure what I'm going to hang on the other side yet.  I guess this will have to go on my project to-do list!

So why am I showing you this corner of my bathroom?  Well, the white column on the right holds tissues and 4 rolls of toilet paper in a pretty slim space... the $15 I spent on this 7 years ago was well worth it!

 Open up that little door on the left and you'll find:

I love it!  It is recessed into the wall, painted to match and holds cleaning supplies.  So worth it.  I really want to put one in each of the bathrooms... that might take some convincing for IronFish.

Here's the secret, under the sink has looked like this for 7+ years and now....

Well, it still looks like that, it's just not a priority yet.  Sorry to disappoint.  Well, I'm on to cleaning up my kitchen which went against my Flylady rules and did not get a shined sink last night...

Peace be with you,

"It's about time you made us chore charts, Mom!"

Yup, JuneBug actually said that when I showed her my new, nice, neat chore charts.  Tasha's response was "oooohhhhh, pretty!" And O-man wanted to know where his was too!  This obviously made me happy (big grin).

We've been slammed by several more inches of snow and during my insomnia last night, I looked for ideas on how I wanted to do these chore charts we've been talking about for a while.  Pre O-man, we had a simple chart on the fridge listing things that needed to be done by day.  This actually worked really well for us, but we thought we had it memorized and stopped printing it out (I would write the meals on it each week) and soon, not only was it forgotten about, so were the chores.

My girls are pretty helpful, but they don't like to be nagged (yeah, like anyone actually likes to be nagged by their mother...).   JuneBug does very well with a schedule and a timer is something that is quite helpful for keeping Tasha on track.  Now they each have their own timer (re:flylady on the awesome use of timers) and what they are supposed to do each day is written and is color coded for morning, after school and before bed.

I know the picture is hard to see, but weekdays are on the left, weekends on the right.  The red box is reminders (like taking meds, if necessary) and the green is a little reminder of how we've agreed their allowance will be divided up (savings, spending and donations).

O-man's is a little more simplified for a not quite 3-year old.  I was quite pleased that he was able to tell me what each picture represented without me telling him first.

The girls have picking up toys on their list, but the fact is, most of the toys are strewn about by O-man, and we have been working with him to be even a little part of that clean-up time.

One site I used for my inspiration was Organizing Made Fun, Becky has a great series on how to fake a clean house.  Ironically, her section on cleaning 15 minutes a day, is basically how we had our old chart.  While I'm still trying to do the whole flylady thing, I feel like I get a room in shape and the rest of the house falls apart.  I have my very own chore chart just like the girls' now too with the goal of ultimately getting everything cleaned once a week and doing flylady's daily missions so I don't have to do major cleaning ever again.

Yes, I probably spent way, way, way toooooooo long making these chore charts up for each of us.  My goal now is to motivate myself to get off the couch and work on my 52-weeks of organizing list, so I'm going to show off the few places in my house that I've gotten really organized and have stayed that way.  Don't worry, it's a pretty short list:

Probably my prettiest organized spot with everything labeled and almost all the spice containers have matching red lids

Inside one of the cabinets in my craft area.  Yes, we had to eat a lot of Chinese take-out to get enough containers!  The other ones are pencil boxes I picked up at Staples for 50cents, but obviously not enough.

My linen closet.  I think it looks great and very neat and orderly, but when I take a picture, it doesn't come across as nice, but trust me, it looks great!

Here is a close up of the linen closet.  I love my label maker, can you tell?

Yep, that's it.  Now you know why I have the 52-week list, only 3 spots in my house are truly functionally organized.  Guess I should make the most of being snowed in...

Peace be with you,

Craft Organization... part duex!

I'm not fond of 7-11's new marketing plan.... dropping slushies from the sky until we go buy them... that is the yuck that is outside today.  So after the 90-minute school delay, I got out and did my errands as fast as I could so I could stay inside for the rest of it.

I've got several projects underway, but not much finished to show for it yet, and part of that is due to the current state of my craft area!  After all the great work I did to get it in shape, I'm struggling to keep it neat so when I'm ready to work, I don't have to wade through a sea of clutter to get to it...

While I am trying to maintain my flylady routines, no school days are throwing me off, part of why I haven't added anymore baby steps yet.  I get so easily sidetracked, especially when I sit down to check out some of my favorite blogs.  I really am trying to use my timer, but sometimes I stop it and litterally forget I'm supposed to move on to something else!  I know several things happened in between these thoughts, but I'm just going to save you the babble.... I ended up checking out my friend Debie's blog and seeing how she organized her recipes which led me to another blog hosting a year long plan of getting organized, 52 weeks of Organizing.  Since I aspire to be organized, I had to check this out.  Now, I actually like the process of putting things away neatly and organized, it's just the time it takes and I struggle with actually getting rid of things... but I digress... From http://www.orgjunkie.com/ I printed off this handy tool to list out the places I would like to organize and I broke it down to specific drawers to help me stay motivated (not, Organize Kitchen, but organize utencil drawer, etc).

... again, skipping some sidetracked babble...

Back to today, I stood in my craft area with an awesome bag of goodies from the thrift store, not what I went for, but they were having fill a bag for $7 sale today, and I snagged some great things to upcycle.  I was dying to finish up a few projects, so I could start some new ones, but alas, my space that looked like this earlier in the month:

didn't exactly have room for me to work.  Enter that nice orgjunkie list of 52 places I need to organize (ok, I don't have 52 on it yet, but I'm sure I will soon enough).  I admitted earlier that I wasn't 100% complete in my organizing of this space, those two middle drawers weren't touched, and I had still have my "other crafts" bin to sort through.  I always feel like I don't have enough drawers in my craft area or kitchen so I recently ordered a few of these add on drawers.  I'm itching to put them together and install them, but really felt I needed to clean out those center drawers so I knew what should go into these new drawers.

So, my list has the drawers as seperate items, and since yesterday I opened the right one and couldn't close it, it was the lucky winner of today's clean out!  Here is what I started with:

I emptied the whole thing out and even used a tooth pick to clean in the gross crevices:

And after only 20 minutes (probably would have been less but I was trying to do this with O-man at my feet), I had found several things I didn't need, a small pile of trash, a big pile of recyclables, some things that belonged in other areas and I actually ended up with an empty drawer!  Nothing that was in there before needed to be there, AT ALL!  I took a short break to really think about what should go in that drawer.

Truth be told, I know why I can't keep my craft area in good shape, I still have too much stuff!  So too much stuff ends up in piles on top of the work space.  I opted for relocating two of scrapbooking storage bins from the surface (far right corner of the counter) into the now empty drawer.  One of those bins has left the counter completely, and another one was filled in by a small basket of stuff that never found a home before.  This is my end result:

My scrapbooking punches (with a smidge of room to grow), crochet hooks and knitting needles each have a seperate space.  Plus, I actually had all those little connecting drawer containers that I hadn't decided if I should keep or get rid of yet, so getting this drawer in shape didn't cost me a dime!

Now, I know that was quite a long rambling post, but can you imagine how long it would have been if I didn't cut out the extra babble!?!?!?!?!?

The Power of Sleep

Yesterday I was happy to have maintained a minimum.  O-man has recently decided sleeping normal hours was not for him, which meant I wasn't getting much sleep.  Well, hopefully the tides have turned, I got 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep!  I never get that much uninterrupted.  I'm a napper, when I try to sleep at night I'm up about every 2 hours on average, not always due to kids.  I've been that way as long as I can remember.

So when I woke up this morning at 6 when O-man crawled under my sheets, I realized I woke up feeling pretty good and decided to get up and get the day started.  IronFish was struggling not to laugh at me as I did a 10-minute workout video (he averages 1 1/2 hours of working out a day), I took a leisurely crocheting stroll around my house for 15 minutes and followed it up with a hot shower.  Then I woke up the girls and practiced my short order cooking skills (they need work....) and sent them off to school after a hot breakfast of scrambled eggs and whole wheat pancakes.  I feel very accomplished and it is only 9 am.

But yesterday wasn't a complete loss, my flylady baby step #12 was to delete all her emails, that was easy!  Ironically I ended up doing babystep #13 which was to do one of Kelly's missions.  I had already read an email before deleting the rest and it went perfectly with Kojodesign's I Heart New Years challenge of scrubbing something.... I scrubbed O-man's "artwork" off my dining room walls. 

So, today I will continue my babysteps, with one of Kelly's missions and for I Hear New Years, I get to create something, anything!

Inspiration - Love the space you are in!

Well, day 11 of the flylady baby steps is to add a page to my control journal to write down inspirational quotes.  I've decided my favorite inspirational quote it "Love the space you are in!"  I'm not sure where I read that one, but it has really stuck with me lately.

Inspiration seems to be the theme for the day.  Over at one of my favorite blogs kojodesigns, where "I Heart New Years" is going on, today's task is to find/make some creative inspiration.  I'm trying to participate in their events each day this week too, even if it is only in 15 minute increments.

What inspires me?  My family!  Yes, seems a bit corny and maybe too simple, but here is how it comes together for me. 

• I have these darling tall skinny girls who like to express their own fashion style.  I enjoy encouraging this by making clothes for them.  Since most store bought clothes need to be altered in some way for them, I've been inspired to re purpose hand-me downs and thrift store finds to better accommodate their "more inches than pounds" bodies.  I love when they draw their ideas for me!
• I have a goofy little guy who is always looking outside the box (or playing inside one).  Many imaginative kids play with toys other than they are intended, my girls definitely did, but there is just something about how he creates new games like "plunger basketball" that make me laugh and think happy thoughts.  Happy thoughts tend to inspire creativity in me and he inspires me to think outside the box.
• Originally my husbands obsession with triathlons inspired sleep (I was exhausted thinking about his work outs), but now that he has successfully lost and kept off weight and is maintaining a healthier lifestyle, I'm inspired to find and prepare healthy meals the whole family will enjoy.
• I am also inspired to get the chaos of my home under control so that my home becomes a calmer and happier home so we can spend more quality time together - Love the space you are in!

I'm proud of my creativity and happy to share my inspirations with all from the minute you enter my home.  Recently the left side of my house became a gallery, showing off all of our inspirations.  Starting at the bottom of the stairs, candid and professional pictures, and some important memorabilia has begun to grow and like ivy climbing a wall, will be aloud to fill the space (as long as it is in a black frame, that is!). 

I did a bit of rearranging of this today to get the mirror in (got used to having a mirror by the front door so it needed to come back).  The obvious blank spots will be filled when the paint dries.

If you pass the stairs and head down the hallway you will find the gallery of kids art.  In an attempt to get stuff off my fridge, the kids and I designed a gallery wall.  Using mainly thrift store frames, foam core and burlap, we now display their best work.  They take it upon themselves to decide what work is worth "framing" and I have a lot less doodles on lined spiral notebook paper.

Since they select their best work, they then ask if we should save it or send it to a family member when they are ready to take it down

At the end of the hallway is my craft space, aka the other side of the kitchen.  I have a red kitchen, therefor a red craft room (don't really know what color I would paint a craft room if it was it's own room....).  The "back splash" wall was painted with several layers of magnetic paint before several coats of Dare Devil Red.  Originally I was bummed because I was expecting it to be as magnetic as my fridge.  Apparently over time, it became more magnetic and I now use it to put up pictures, sketches, and ideas. 

 Since my space was so nice and neat, I was inspired to work on a few things.  I'm so happy to say I worked on three different projects and put everything back (with the exception of things that need to be left out to dry)!  It was so great to be able to just do something without having to find the space, in only an hour I was able to make something the girls have been asking me to make for a while.

Introducing: Sock Extensions (not to be confused with leg warmers).  The girls don't like tights, they prefer to wear leggings and won't give up the Capri length ones from their closet.  I crocheted them some leg warmers (ala the awesome '80s!) but what they wanted was me to make their existing socks longer (um, OK...?).  So together this is what we came up with:

I think I might link these up to a few parties this week.  So, what inspires you?

Domestic Deadline Declaration

This is my personal Declaration of Independence and Constitution

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all moms are creative, that they are [super] endowed by their creator [children] with certain unalienable right, that among these are faith, family, friends and the pursuit of Craftiness!

In 2011 I declare freedom from CHAOS (Can't have anyone over syndrome) and live a calmer, happier life with my whole family.

I, the domestically lazy, in order to form a more harmonious home, establish personal goals, insure domestic tranquility, provide for happy children, promote general healthiness, and secure blessings of organization to myself and family, do ordain and establish this constitution for the Domestic Deadline.

Article One: Learn to [really] FLY!

• Starting by building up the baby steps, making a control journal, using my calendar and establishing regular routines
• This will enable me to better manage my time allowing for more guilt-free crafty free time
• A calmer home will lead to a happier family, Love the space you are in

Article Two: Improve Family Health

• Follow the basics of Lessmeatarian to reduce processed foods, refined sugars and excess sodium.
• Develop a meal plan focusing on simple, fresh, natural ingredients
• Make positive food choices that also responsibly effect the environment (IE buy local, less or recyclable packaging)
• Exercise even if it is only walking while crocheting! 

Article Three: Financial Peace

• Develop and follow a realistic budget for my family
• Apply the Total Money Makeover principals that best benefit my family (we don't have major debt, so many of Dave's baby step are already underway)
• Design an "envelope" system [wallet?] to control the aspects of the family's expenses I am responsible for (IE, groceries, clothing, entertainment)

Article Four: Education

• Teach my children the skills I am trying to [re]learn now to benefit them now and in the future
• Read more than just magazines
• Learn some new skills
• Perfect some existing skills
• Erase some old skills (aka, bad habits...)

Article Five: Express my Creativity

• Get some of the ideas out of my head, off my to-do list and put into use
• Handmade Holidays: make gifts, decorations, yummy treats, etc for birthdays and special occasions instead of purchasing something mass produced in a factory (unless it is made in [North] America or environmentally responsible!)
• Make, Up-cycle, Thrift or Hand-me-down rehab at least 75% of the children and my clothing and accessories
• Destash Challenge: Don't buy more craft supplies unless necessary to complete an existing project for all of 2011 or until I've used up 75% of my inventory
• Etsy!  Regularly add inventory and hopefully fund my crafty addictions (once I've accomplished the Destash Challenge that is)
• Complete projects taking up space...

Sincerely,
John Hancock  Emily

Well, there ends my US History sarcasm.  My New Year officially starts tomorrow when the big kids go back to school.  My sink is shined and I'm fairly certain a Bill of Rights will eventually need to be drafted, no constitution would be complete without amendments!

Sitting on the Flylady runway - updated

After a short delay in my baby steps, I'm getting back on track.  Over the kids winter break, I have maintained a minimum I am happy with.  Today the girls and I will be putting the holiday decorations away and reinforcing the first 10 baby steps, granted it is noon and I haven't gotten dressed to my shoes as I write this.  So here is a recap of my what I have in my Control Journal so far:

Morning Routine

• Get up and dressed with make-up and shoes
• Look at my post-it note reminders (I have them by different sinks for different times)
• Read at least 1 testimonial or message emailed by Flylady or her crew
• Recognize the negative voices and change them to positive thoughts
• Put out 1 Hot Spot (I have post it notes saying "Hot Spot - It only takes 2 minutes)
• 5 minute room rescue!

Before Bed Routine

• Shine kitchen sink
• Put out a Hot Spot
• Lay out clothes for tomorrow

I've just finished my breakfast of homemade granola with hormone free milk, Junebug and I soaked beans overnight, so tonight's dinner is already in process.  While I finish watching Julie & Julia, I'm going to try to send some motivational vibes to my Sister Baby Gretchen (aka SBG) over at Domestic Procrastinator and then jump in the shower to start my Morning Routine, in the early afternoon.

Since I can do anything for 15 minutes, we will be working in 15 minute increments today.  My timer is ready, my cycles are as planned:

1. 15 minute Room Rescue (starting at the front door and moving to the back of the house room by room)
2. 15 minutes of helping my girls finish re-arranging/cleaning their room (new furniture, new toys, new year!)
3. 15 minutes of working on my first project of the year: Doll Bunk Beds if I can pry my husband away from his new tools to let use them (he's already insisted on doing all the cuts just to play with his new miter saw) update: hubs (aka IronFish, kids said he needed a nickname) sent me to Home Depot for a counter sink bit between showering and starting my cycles.  He has taken over the building of this project so I've granted myself 15 minutes of computer time to replace this spot)
4. 15 minutes of walking and knitting (I'm making a cowl for myself now!).  This is also my time to drink my water, my rest time, even though I'm not sitting, but a little music, knitting and walking is a great mental rest for me update: "walking" chain stich isn't easy, I'm much better at croheting and walking, might have to leave knitting to sitting down...

I'm taking off..... after I chase down my son and make him put some clothes on!  At least he left the diaper on....... update: he's got clothes on and is still adamently protesting potty training any time I go near him to change clothing or diapers......

Nothing like a new toy to inspire organization

Christmas was quite the happy occasion in our household, especially for me!  I was blessed to receive the two top items on my wish list, a new surger and a bias tape maker.  Since I felt it necessary to give them a good home, the quest to conquer the craft pit of dispare became priority numero uno.

So, against Flylady's advice, I decided to go at it until it was done (OK, with some good nights sleeps and naps in between).  I did however have a give-a-way, throw-a-way and several put-a-way bins (good Flylady advice).  I started by dividing up everything by category: Sewing, scrapbooking, jewelry and other crafts.

I took everything off the floor and counter tops and put it into the correct bin.  This enabled me to look at  the stuff that was already in the cabinets, something I knew needed to be done, but had been avoiding.  Filling the bins was the fastest part of the process:

The original bins really are under there, it always looks worse before it looks better

Since there was a lot that came out of the cabinets, and wasn't going back, I worked one craft at a time and put stuff back in it's new home, labeling as I went, seriously thinking about if I would ever use it before putting it away.  After two days of my ipod constantly running, I had a huge black bag of trash, a kitchen bag full of plastic bags to drop off to be recycled, 4 large boxes full of cardboard also to be recycled and 2 large bags of give away (already picked up by the VETS!). 

I do still have a large basket of items to be passed on to other people, a lamp to decide what to do with and the two big drawers still haven't been touched.  The picture really doesn't do it justice but I took it with the cabinets doors open to show that nothing is stuffed in, it is all grouped together and labeled, maybe this helps:

I knew all that Chinese take out would benefit me later!

So, my new toys have a clean home and hopefully, I will be using them regularly very soon.  We have a few days left of Winter Break and a few projects I want to do with the kids before then, so my toys may have to wait, but at least they won't be claustrophobic while they wait. 

The rest of the house on the other hand required some Flylady crisis cleaning to be ready for my parents delayed visit.

The Wrong Kind of OCD

I have a chronic disease I like to refer to as Hereditary Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.  Trust me, it runs in the family (any family members reading, feel free to compulsively deny and then obsessively ponder for a few days).  The problem is, it's the wrong kind of OCD according to my husband.  While there are some things in the germ/dirty category that completely freak me out (birds for example), I don't spend hours a day cleaning like crazy (hence, the wrong kind of OCD), which is why I'm trying to fly!

My kind of OCD involves suddenly getting an idea in my head and obsessing over it until it is done (or I start obsessing over something else....).  Here's how it all unfolded:

Friday: Flylady had me add a hot spot cleaning to my babysteps.  I successfully did two or three of these actually and the girls helped!  Well, with a few living room spots cleaned up, I decided it was time to get out the rest of the Christmas decorations.  I'd been procrastinating the tree for one reason:


I can't figure out how to rotate the picture! trOble with a capital O!  O-man hasn't left the tree alone since we put it up, he doesn't leave the tree at church alone either, so I knew it was bound to be a problem...

While getting out the decorations, I opened a few boxes in the basement, found a few things I had been wondering where they'd been lost to and quite a few things I was ready to let go of.  The end result?????

That is 4 large boxes/bins, two stuffed bags and a few outdoor decorations!

A pretty successful obsession in my mind, all picked up by the VETS the very next morning.  Baby step day 7, I woke up feeling pretty accomplished and was quite happy to add "Pick out your clothes" to my nightly routine.  Enter obsession #2 for the weekend....  One of the things I found the night before was a box of my missing sweaters, which got me back to thinking of my Clothing New Years resolution (more on this later), made me think of great Kohl's bargains with my friend Amy, brought me back to trying to figure out what to make her for her birthday, and with a few more mental jumps brought me to a weekend knitting obsession.

One little problem with the weekend knitting obsession... I didn't know how to knit!  So why would I obsess over knitting?  It's quite simple actually, I entered to win a free pattern while on one of my favorite blogs From An Igloo and I won!  Since I know how to crochet and have made up my own patterns, I had to challenge myself.  This was supposed to be a post Christmas challenge, but a best friend's birthday trumps that, right?  Of course once I started I had to finish.  I'm actually very pleased with the end result (just needs buttons): 

Tiny Sky Cowl by LaBoutiquedeJosefina

It's a really good thing day 8's baby step was to find a 3-ring binder and put paper in it.  Today is day 9, Decluttering a few minutes at a time, oh boy, this could be trouble.....

I'm linking up to
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Shoeless Em and Hot Spots

I got up yesterday and got dressed to the shoes.  Then before I knew it, I was standing in my socks looking at the dishes in my sink trying to decide if I should wash them or just deal with it in the morning!  I ended up getting busy and forgetting to write things down on my post it notes.  But, I'm happy to say, I did do the dishes and shine my sink.  I don't have a clue when I lost my shoes the first time, I was in and out of the house so I'm pretty sure I kept to my habit of removing shoes when I entered the house, but haven't successfully built up the habit of wearing my indoor shoes yet.  But, that's why these are Baby Steps!

I'm also supposed to be writing down any negative thoughts I have and turning it around into a positive.  This is something I've done for years and am currently trying to teach my daughter.  Actually, we've been working on using this method for comebacks.  I'm trying to teach her whenever someone says something mean or negative to her, to say thank you and give them a compliment and a smile.  For example, Junebug came home from school the other day upset because a boy in her class called her "Tomato head."  She was wearing her favorite strawberry hat Ya Ya Tracy made her.  Next time her response should be something like "Thank you, I really like your hat too," followed by her toothy grin.  We discussed how not everyone knows how to give compliments, so if we respond to negative remarks with a compliment and a smile, maybe they will be more likely to give someone else a compliment or at least not make a negative remark.

Which leads us to Hot Spots (OK, not really, I'm just saving you the babble).  Today in our Flylady Baby Steps we are learning about Hot Spots.  Time to find the timer and practice two minutes of dealing with a "fire" in our house.  Junebug and Tasha are going to be learning about this when they get home since they want to finish decorating for Christmas today (yes, we are very behind).  We'll see how O-man and I do today, I'm hopeful that I can teach the 2 year-old to clean up for 2 minutes.  Maybe in between "Sticky House Mug Mouse" since he is totally zoned out to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse right now.....

Lace Up Shoes, Seriously?!?!?!

OK, I'm familiar with Flylady, and one of the things I have always protested is the lace up shoes.  Day 2 baby step is to get dressed to lace up shoes when you first get up.  I understand the concept, if I tie the shoes, I have to untie them to lounge on the couch.  I have two problems with this. 

1. I've grown up taking my shoes off when I enter the house.  If I need to wear shoes in the house then the floor better be amazingly disgusting!!!  I'm so used to asking people to take off their shoes when they come in my house and a major pet peeve of mine is people tracking dirt into the house.  It makes me want to scream at them like a banshee and I start to obsess over it.

2. I love shoes, but I can't stand shoes that tie, never could!  The past few months I have gone out of my way to find supportive shoes that don't tie, something that gives me support and doesn't look like a sneaker. 

So, my compromise, I have a pair of Crocs that are amazingly comfortable, fit my custom insoles and have that supposed benefit of toning your legs while wearing them (not sure I really believe that, but like to think I do).  I cleaned off the bottoms and they are going to be my indoor shoes.

Day 2 added dressed to shoes to shining my sink. Check!  Day 3 is "Do what we've already done" and read some of the messages, something I usually do when I need motivation. Check, check and che... (OK, have to go put the last two dishes in the sink.. ck).

Day 4, "Write these things down."  So tomorrow, my Control Journal will officially begin to evolve.  I'll be looking for some post-it notes, in my indoor shoes, tomorrow morning.

Now Boarding

Well, I have made a bit of progress in the craft area but I've also decided it is time to really truly learn to fly.  I've been fluttering around with the Fly Lady for a few years, but I've never truly learned to fly and I've decided I think part of this is my lack of interest in actually making a control journal.

I guess you are probably wondering what on earth I am talking about.  Flylady.net is a great site where an amazingly encouraging woman named Marla teaches baby steps to getting your home in order.  Fly stands for finally loving yourself.  This is a great site when you live in c.h.a.o.s or can't have anyone over syndrome.  The first thing she tells you is to go shine your sink, sounds like nothing, but I can attest that it is great to walk into the kitchen in the morning and not find it overflowing with dishes.  The system is "all about establishing little habits that string together into simple routines to help your day run on automatic pilot."  I know I need this, that is why I signed up for her emails, but I never built the control journal, so I'm going back to day one. TODAY!

So, I'm off to "Shine my sink" and tomorrow, day 2, I will "Get dressed to lace up shoes" when I first get up in the morning and shine my sink before going to bed.  I can do this, I know I can and I know when I do this, my house will be on auto-pilot, and I will have more time to work on my constantly growing craft list.