FlyLady Update

It's been a while since I've done a FlyLady update and let me just say that the relaxing...oh wait crazy days of summer have not helped keep me on a schedule. I admit it...I have fallen off the FlyLady bandwagon...not completely, but still I have fallen!

I still swish and swipe....sometimes. I was trying to get a new routine going, but I haven't quite gotten in the habit of it yet. I had gotten to the point where I thought it was a little excessive to clean the master bathroom EVERYDAY. Also I was trying to figure out when to clean the other 2 bathrooms. So I figured out a schedule that I thought would work...Sunday - Master / Monday - Half / Tuesday Hallway / Wednesday - None / Thursday - Master / Friday - Half / Saturday - Hallway. But I have found that if I don't do it first thing in the morning it doesn't get done.

I still shine my sink...sometimes. I have found that at night our schedule for our dish washing loads have been off. With that I mean that before dinner the dishwasher won't be full enough to run, but after dinner there are too many dishes to fit. So when it comes time to shine my sink there are dishes in it and the dishwasher is running. That happens to me all the time. I'm trying to get back in the groove though.

I still make my bed...most of the time! This last week with me and the kids being down for the count with illnesses I was sleeping in a lot. I might not have made the bed the second I got out, but it would definitely get made.

I still do a load a day...sometimes more! I have decided that I don't really like doing laundry on the weekends so in an effort to take those days off I try to do two loads twice a week. This just works out for me and doesn't really matter one way or another. With all the puking that's been going on lately we've been up to our armpits in laundry though!

In regards to the Missions that FlyLady sends out I haven't been keeping up with those at all. This summer has been super crazy with our busy schedule, illnesses (kids have had the stomach flu twice and it always spans 2 weeks each time) and with all my sanity issues that doesn't lend for keeping up with new things. With that being said I'm supposed to do a presentation on FlyLady this Fall/Winter at MOPS so I'm getting my Control Journal out on Monday and I'm hopping back on!

FlyLady - Day 31

Day 31 - I Am SO Proud Of You!!!

I did it! I'm done with my Beginner BabySteps! That by no means means I can not slack off, but I do feel that the habits and routines that have been formed during this journey are sticking. Do I still have things to learn? You bet! I don't check my Control Journal as often as I should, but I don't really feel like I have too. My routines are pretty much stuck in my head now. I do still need to figure out more about the detailed cleaning and the Weekly Blessing Hour and I know that will come. With time...baby steps! I'm sure I'll keep updating about FlyLady every now and then. It's nice to see the before and after and feel that sense of accomplishment! Here's to FLYing!

FlyLady - Day 30

Day 30 - Check Your Calendar For Next Months Events!

About a week ago while the kids were napping I spent the afternoon uploading all our events for the rest of the year into my Cozi Calendar. I seriously love it. I love that each family member is assigned their own color. I love that when it involves Michael a reminder will be sent to his computer. I love that I can have my shopping and 'to do' lists all in the same place. However, this morning at 5:30am I remembered that we are having a play date at Chuck E Cheese's today that was not input on the calendar. So moral of the story...you have to remember to put EVERYTHING in there...especially the new things that get added along the way.

FlyLady - Day 29

Day 29 - Set Time To Enjoy The Weekly Pamper Mission!

Okay this was something I knew nothing about. At the bottom of the main page of FlyLady is a Weekly Pamper Mission. So not only does FlyLady want us to take good care of our house she wants us to pamper ourselves too. Isn't that was FLYing (Finally Loving Yourself) is really all about anyway!!

This weeks mission is to tenderly love your nails. Take off old yucky looking polish - push up your cuticles - repaint them - moisturize. I have some awesome cuticle cream that I use from Bath & Body Works and a manicure set so once I'm done on the computer tonight (I don't want to get the keyboard all greasy) I'll go ahead and pamper myself!

Can you believe it...only 2 more days of daily FlyLady posts!

FlyLady - Day 28

Day 28 - Eat Good Food, Drink Your Water, And Get Your Rest!

So this is something I struggle with too...not the eat good food. I feel like I eat good...not the best, but good. I love fruits and veggies and meat. I do love snacks...popcorn is my biggest weakness. I could literally eat it everyday! The thing I struggle with most about eating is trying not to snack after the kids go to bed. It's horrible to eat that late at night and I know it, but still around 9:30 - 10:30 I just get the munchies! I am trying though!

Water...I don't drink water! I mean I do, but it's been changed into Iced Tea. I LOVE iced tea. We go through a 3qt pitcher of Iced Tea in a day. I'm not a coffee person I'm a tea person. I do like Diet Coke and Root Beer, but we don't buy pop. I will only drink pop if we are eating out at fast food and it comes with the meal or we are at someone elses house and they have it. If we eat at a restaurant and have to order a drink I just get water with lemon...it's too expensive!

Rest is something I cherish, but I also cherish my time at the end of the day with no kids. So it's a fine line between getting enough rest and getting enough 'Me/ Me & Michael' time. We do not stay up later than 11pm, but sometimes I am still SO tired in the morning. That is partially because of the meds I'm on, but I know it's also because my body is exhausted and I need more rest. I think we are going to try to go to bed around 10pm a few days a week to help because 6am always comes too soon!

FlyLady - Day 27

Day 27 - What's For Dinner?

This is something that I've struggled with. I LOVE having a menu planned...it makes things so much easier, but I hate being the one to plan every meal. With that being said...for the month of July (and I hope every month after that) Michael and I are planning the meals together. We've been sitting down in bed looking at Allrecipes, Rachael Ray cookbooks or Rachael Ray magazines to get ideas. I've been using my Cozi Calendar to input all my grocery lists and I'm also writing out all the dinners we are going to have and where to find the recipe. Everything I need is going to be in ONE place! Yahoo! You might be wondering why I plan for a month worth of meals and that is basically because we get our EBT money at the beginning of the month and I'd really like to make as few trips to the grocery store as possible!  

FlyLady - Day 26

Day 26 - Look At The Bottom Of Any FlyLady Email!

When FlyLady sends out Testimonials or Missions there is the same statement at the end of each email. I've mentioned it before at the beginning of my FlyLady journey...

"You are not behind! I don't want you to try to catch up; I just want you to jump in where we are. O.K.?"

This statement has really helped me through this whole process. FlyLady isn't meant to change your life and your routines overnight. This is a slow change...habit by habit. This whole process is supposed to take months! Months before you have gotten completely in the swing of working in Zones and doing your Missions everyday. Months of decluttering your house. One of the things I've noticed is once you get your house declutter and an area working in its peak performance it's easier to clean...partially because you aren't really cleaning it your maintaining it!

So onto my messy shower! Because of the above statement I hadn't worried about my frig and then it came up as a Mission so I cleaned it. I was waiting to do that with my shower as well. That and the shower is the one thing I delegate to Michael to clean. First I'm as blind as a bat...seriously you'd have to stand 5 inches away from my face to not be blurry with my glasses off. So when I take a shower...sans glasses...I don't see all the yuckies until it's really yucky! Right before I started FlyLady I has asked Michael to clean the shower, but then I told him to hold off since we would get around to it and I was focused on so many new things during those first weeks. Long story short....please don't judge me by my yucky dirty shower! :)

Told you....Icky!!!

So in come the Purple Rags and Rubba Scrubba! On Friday morning Michael and I got up a little bit earlier than normal so we could shower and clean the shower at the same time. I gave Michael the Purple Rag and I used the Rubba Scrubba. We had no expectation that we were going to be able to clean it in one shower. We figured we would clean half of the shower one day and the other half the next. Let me tell you those products have totally lived up to their reputation. Even Michael was very skeptical about the Purple Rags and after he had used them for a few minutes he said, "Wow this rag really is good!" So have you guessed...we cleaned the whole shower in about 20 minutes! Seriously! No products...no fumes...just a little elbow grease and I do mean a little. The tools did most of the work.

All Done!!! Oh my word....I have a clean shower! And now I'm not going to loath cleaning it the next time....granted it won't be that icky the next time! I promise!

FlyLady - Day 25

Day 25 - Learn How The Routines Developed!

So this is about reminding you to check your Control Journal. I have only been doing my routines for 25 days...in reality a little longer since I did take that break. It takes a while to make a routine a habit so it's important to have reminders like the sticky notes and my Control Journal to keep me on task. Plus a huge thing for me to keep my routines in place is to not vary from them. I LOVE order and when I find the order that fits for me I stick to it and very rarly do things differently. Call me OCD, but when it works it works.

I don't have enough time right now to upload pictures, but I did use the Purple Rags and the Rubba Scruba to clean my shower and lets just say that definitely lived up to the reviews I had been reading. Now I just have to gear myself up for posting pictures of shower....Ewww!

FlyLady - Day 23 & 24

Day 23 - Set Your Afternoon Routine

Time to get back to the Days of FlyLady! Since I've been catching up on my Control Journal this one just fell right into place. In doing the Steps of setting up my Control Journal I had already done this one. I really feel like the Afternoon Routine is more geared towards working woman or moms with kids that go to school. Other than getting the kids a snack and getting dinner ready that's my afternoon routine. With the kids napping I try not to make a lot of noise and I can't really do any decluttering upstairs since there are children sleeping in almost every room. I have done most of the decluttering downstairs that I need to do so now I need to mainly work upstairs. I have been trying to do that later on in the evening when Michael is home so he can keep the kids entertained for me and have some alone time with them.

Now with all this decluttering I'm trying to figure out if I should donate all the stuff I'm getting rid of or have a garage sale. FlyLady wants you to just get rid of it so it's out of your house and not cluttering up your garage, but it would be nice to make a few bucks. Although having a garage sale with 3 kids doesn't exactly sound like fun! We'll see!

Day 24 - Swish & Swipe

So again I got ahead of myself. I have been doing this for weeks. Like I've said before I Swish & Swipe the master bathroom every morning. Even though sometimes I just want to be done in the bathroom it really does make it worth it and it really does only take 2 minutes! Done! As for the half bath downstairs and the hall bath upstairs I take care of those two every Wednesday and Sunday.

FlyLady Update

It feels so foreign not doing a FlyLady post everyday so I figured I'd update what I've been up to just to keep myself accountable.

Today while the kids napped I took the calendar from the kitchen and put every appointment, party, etc in my Cozi Calendar. I feel like I have that part under control.

Speaking of control...my Control Journal is another story. I tried reading through the steps and I found myself feeling that tightness in my chest when I get all anxious so I decided to put that one off until tomorrow. No need to rush remember...baby steps!

Today was gorgeous and you'd think we've have spent the whole day outside...we did a little, but poor Owen is pretty sick. He threw up early this morning and then again after we got up and then again at naptime. My 1 load a day keeps the CHAOS away turned into 4! Poor kid actually fell asleep on the couch watching cartoons....SO not like him! I'm hoping that after a good night sleep he'll be back to his normal self!

PS. I got my purple rags and Rubba Scruba in the mail the other day! I've just started using them and I LOVE the rags! The Rubba Scruba I haven't really put to use yet, but I know I will soon.

FlyLady Pause!

This weekend was really busy and I wanted to go ahead with Day 23 yesterday, but then I realized that a while back I said that I wanted to look into the Cozi Calendar and just the other day I said I really wanted to go through all the steps for making a Control Journal and guess what...I haven't! I don't want to rush through this and I don't want to miss out learning something when it's fresh in my mind to learn it. I'm thinking that right now would be a good chance for me to pause going further in the days and get those two things well established in my routines before moving forward. So I'm still going to do my Bedtime and Morning Routines and keep up with everything I've learned, but I'm just not going to add anything new until I figured out those two things a little more in-depth!

FlyLady - Day 22

Day 22 - Where Is Your Control Journal!

Remember this...

I've been updating it and refining it fit me better and I know I will make many more updates along the way. That's why you're supposed to write things in in pencil. The main things I do everyday I've just typed up on the computer and printed them out, but then I've left spaces for me to fill in things in pencil. My friend Jen also gave me page protectors so I can check things off with a dry eraser marker and then wipe it clean at the end of the day. I don't know about your, but I love checking things off a list....such an accomplishment!

I'm still learning how to build my Control Journal and I don't think it's the same for every person. FlyLady does have a step by step instructions on how to build it so I will be reading over that. Right now I'm on Step 4.

We are staying at my parents house today so I'm not going to do Day 23 until tomorrow.

FlyLady - Day 21

Day 21 - Check Out Ask FlyLady

Yay something I actually hadn't done! This was something I didn't even know about and I'm sure I'll use it more now that I know. FlyLady is linked with Google so you can ask FlyLady questions and get the answers. Like I'm been a little confused about the Zones and how those work so I typed in What are Zones? and got the answer.

My friend Jen who introduced me to FlyLady helped me get my Control Journal all in order and now I feel better about that aspect. I kept feeling like I was forgetting things. Ever since I went to bed after Jack's party and left my sink dirty just that once I've felt like doing it again. I know that if I did I would just resort back to old ways so I've been really pushing myself to do my Bedtime Routine and let me tell you that Bedtime Routine is a make it or break it thing. I know without a doubt my mornings would be MUCH worse if I didn't do it. It's totally worth those 10 - 15 minutes of work at the end of the day.

FlyLady - Day 20

Day 20 - Include Laundry In Your Routines!

Okay so I guess I have really gone ahead and done a bunch of stuff before I was supposed to, but I didn't feel rushed or anything...it felt natural! I've been doing my one load of laundry a day for a little over a week and I love it! It really is nice to not have to worry about doing ALL the laundry in one day. I hate it when you get busy and then forget to switch loads or forget to take the clothes out of the dryer in time and they get all wrinkled. One load a day is just so much more manageable. I always pick out what load I'm going to do the night before so there isn't any added time to my morning routine. Then in the morning when I leave the bathroom I bring it out and set it on my bed so I don't forget to take it downstairs. Another plus is anything that's in my room that needs to go downstairs such as dishes or my laptop can just go in the laundry basket too and I can make one trip. I put the clothes in before breakfast and then usually right after breakfast they are ready to be put into the dryer. Then when Logan and Ella are taking their first nap I fold them and put them away and I'M DONE! That's it...no more remembering to switch loads or having to plan putting clothes away around kids nap schedules I'm just done for the day!

FlyLady - Day 19

Day 19 - Read The Testimonials

All sorts of testimonials come into my email box so I've been reading these for a long time too. In fact it's partially because of those and my friend Jen's positive reviews that I decided to order products from FlyLady. I really can't wait to get my Rubba Scruba and my Purple Rags. I've also decided I want to get the Detail Duster and the Dish Brushes, but I'm going to wait a little while to buy those. It's true it's much easier and faster to get the job done when you have the right tools.

FlyLady - Day 18

Day 18 - Read FlyLady's Eleven Commandments!

If you'd like to read the Eleven Commandments...click here! I'm trying not to put too many FlyLady quotes on my blog since it is copyrighted. Right now I am struggling with #6...I just want to do all the decluttering NOW! This 15 minutes a day is killing me! I want to just keep decluttering and organizing. I could seriously do that all day...but then the kids come in the kitchen and let me know they need to eat so that stops that! Speaking of kitchen....yesterday I decided to declutter the outside of my frig. Jack got these cool artwork frames from Aunt Michelle and I wanted to put them up. They are so cool! I let Jack pick the color that he wanted and then Owen got the other color for his artwork. Jack picked blue!

After this I got that bug in me to keep going and 3 of the 4 kids were napping and Owen was busy watching The Lion King 2 so I thought why not! I have really wanted to move my spices out of my pantry since they were always falling over and I finally had the opportunity since I had decluttered one of my cupboards on Saturday while I was baking Jack's cake. After moving the spices around I remember the fact that we had this over the door shoe rack that I used when Owen's nursery was in what is the office now. We only have two possible doors that the shoe rack can go over since all the other closet doors are bi-fold doors. So I decided to copy my friend Jen (the one who introduced me to FlyLady) and I put the shoe rack in my pantry.

Ta da! I love it! I took all the Carnation Instant Breakfast out of it's box and put it in there. As well as all my food coloring and icing stuff. There is also chocolate chips, nuts, rice and bean and sauce packages in there. All things that don't really stack well on a shelf and end up either falling over or taking up a bunch of space. So functional!

This gets me curious is there any product that you've bought for another purpose that you now use in an unconventional way???

FlyLady - Day 17

Day 17 - Set A Specific Bedtime And Stick To It!

This is pretty easy for me. I'm not really a night owl. I think I have become a little bit more of one since having kids just because it's the only alone time I get. I'm by no means a person that can stay up until 2am on a regular basis...heck I usually don't even make it to midnight on New Year's Eve!

Most nights Michael and I are awake until 11pm. After the kids go to bed we usually have an hour of separate time (like right now when I'm blogging and he's playing on the computer in the other room) and then he comes into the bedroom and we watch a show together or read a book together. Sometimes we'll go to bed at 10pm if we are really tired, but most of the time it's 11pm.

Last night was Jack's 3rd Birthday party so unfortunately after 17 days of FlyLady this is the first time my sink looked like this...

This morning I will tackle these dishes and then get back on the wagon!

FlyLady - Day 16

Day 16 - Read An Email From FlyLady!

Okay so I really did just jump right in! I have been reading emails from FlyLady since Day 1! This just proves to me that when you first start you shouldn't read anything in the beginning. I can get overwhelmed easily, but thankfully I just read what I could and deleted what I didn't want to read. But if you get overwhelmed super easy it's good to know you don't have to jump right in to read all those emails.

In other FlyLady news I've made my first couple of purchases...after reading about all the testimonies and one IRL friend telling me I decided to go ahead and get myself some Purple Rags. I also got the Rumba Scruba and am hoping it will make tackling my shower a bit easier! I can't wait for both of these tools to arrive...I keep you updated on how I like them.

Oh and I've also been meaning to blog about the homemade dish soap I made a while back. So far I LOVE it...but I'm not only using my homemade dish soap. I still have about a half a container of those Cascade Action Packs left and I just finished adding the last of my Jet Dry into the dishwasher. So I only put the homemade dish soap into the outside soap area. Once I finish the Cascade Action Packs I'll start using 2 tsps of it during each wash...one inside and one outside. Also once the Jet Dry is all used up I'll be add plain white vinegar instead. It will be interesting to see if it still meets my expectations then.

FlyLady - Day 15

Day 15 - Make Your Bed!

So obviously I have already started to adapt more FlyLady routines than I should have been. I can't even remember when I first heard about the making your bed every morning part, but it was early on and I just started doing it. I'm kind of thinging that when you go through the Getting Started part of FlyLady you should probably just ignore the emails all together. It would definitely help you stick to the Baby Steps concept a little bit better.

Like I said yesterday, making my bed is the first thing I do every morning. Literally I roll out of bed turn around and pull the sheet and comforter over and then walk around to Michael's side of the bed and do the same thing. Thankfully we aren't crazy sleepers so our bed is really pretty neat in the morning so it's easy to make. This picture was my bed on Friday morning and you can see my load of laundry for the day. I set it on the bed so when I get up from my chair I walk to the bed pick it up and take it downstairs. Oh yeah and the weather has gotten a bit better since you can see we don't have our Afghan on the bed anymore.

Friday was a crazy day at our house with a WIC Appt in the morning, then grocery shopping, and then my counseling appt in the afternoon and we watched my friend Erin's kids...so I didn't get a chance to declutter anything and I'm bummed about it. That is probably my favorite of all the FlyLady tasks since you can see such big results. I also didn't get to complete my mission which was to sweep and mop my kitchen floor. We are having Jack's party on Sunday so I will probably take some time later today to sweep the downstairs and mop the whole floor since our downstairs is all laminate floors.

FlyLady - Day 14

Day 14 - Read An Essay That Kelly Wrote!

Today I read about the advantages of using a calendar...not that I didn't already know that, but FlyLady also has another free service called Cozi Calendar that helps you keep all your appointments for your whole family in one place. You can even use it on your phone if you have one of those fancy phones...which I do not! I still haven't really looked into the Cozi Calendar that much, but I think that will be one of the next things I do.

Just to recap (mainly for myself) what I do everyday so far here is a list of both my Morning Routine and my Bedtime Routine.

Morning Routine:

Make The Bed (This is literally the first thing I do after shutting the alarm off)

Shower/Get Dressed To Lace Up Shoes

Swish & Swipe

Computer Time

Put A Load In The Washing Machine

Get Kids Up

Breakfast

Do Dishes

Move Clothes to Dryer

Get Kids Dressed & Teeth Brushed

Hot Spots 2 Minutes (Sometimes I do don't have to do this)

Room Rescue 5 Minutes

Declutter 15 Minutes (Today I went through the dresser in my dining room and now I have a whole drawer that's empty)

Fold & Hang Up Laundry

What's My Mission For The Day?

I know that looks like a lot, but the first 5 are done before the kids are even up and sometimes I do the Hot Spots, Room Rescue and Declutter before I get them up. It just depends on the day.

Bedtime Routine:

Dishes & Shine My Sink

Set Out Clean Towels

Pick Up The House (No more than 20 mins)

Brush & Whiten Teeth

So there you have it....this is what I'm up to so far and most of it I do without even having to check my Control Journal. It's getting to be more and more of a routine. One thing that I've noticed the last couple mornings when I'm Swishing & Swiping is that it's getting faster to do. Plus since I'm cleaning the mirror, sink and toilet everyday they aren't nearly as dirty. So I've been branching out a bit more and noticing things that might need wiped down...a picture frame, switch plate or baseboard heater. All things that are close to the sink so I'm not really going very far, but heck if I have a paper towel with Windex on it I might as well use it!