Day 4 - ?

It is sometimes hard to update because of my current computer situation.  Please be forgiving!


Thursday was Day 4 for me.  I did good!  Went to bed with a shiny sink and woke up Friday morning to a shiny sink.  It is a great feeling to wake up to a shiny sink, even if the rest of the kitchen (and apartment) is a mess.  


Friday was Day 5 and I did good until.... I decided to make a cheesecake.  I have a dear friend who has a birthday today and there was a gathering at her house last night.  I made a cheesecake for her birthday on Friday because I was afraid I wouldn't have time to do it on Saturday.  The cheesecake turned out great but not without giving me its fair share of hardship (lol).  You can read about that on my other blog at www.clothdiaperadventurer.com


Anyway, after all the catastrophes that were making the cheesecake and then finally being DONE with it all sometime after midnight I had no energy to clean up.  I still haven't quite learned to clean as I go and the dishwasher was in the process of cleaning what was in it.  I'm not trying to make excuses here.  The fact of the matter is I was just to tired to deal with it so I didn't.  


Saturday started off okay.  I was taking it as Day 6 but due to another gathering for said birthday girl, and feeling a profound need to take some real rest (a sabbath, which, as a Christian, I've been hearing a lot about lately.  I took my cue from the Holy Spirit to just leave everything for the time being and I don't think FLYlady would have a problem with me doing that) I didn't end up getting the sink shined before bed.  


Oh well.  It really isn't that bad.  I feel a bit behind though.  But then I remember a favorite quote of FLYlady, "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.?" That is at the bottom of every email she sends out.  But again I find myself wondering what it means in this case to  "jump in where we are".  Do I reclaim Day 6?  Do I pick up on Day 8?  Is perfectionism leading me to try to pick up on the perfect day?


I think I'm going to do what I did before and pick up on Day 6.  That is where I kind of left off.  Rather than leaving Day 6 and 7 undone I will pick up there.  So today is Day 6 and I am on my way.  I'm already dressed (except for shoes) and I will go shine my sink as soon as I put my shoes on!


Blessings to all of my readers!

Day 3 - Finally!

After my last post I thought the worst of my illness was over.  I was wrong.  I took a turn for the worse the next day but did eventually get well.  It's just hard sometimes to get back in the swing of things when you've been out of it for so long.  I ran into that problem.  Everything else seemed too important.  A friend would call and want to spend time together or I would feel like I needed to do something OTHER than work on housework.  And to be fair, to some degree I was just avoiding it.  

Housework has always been something that is horrible for me.  Yeah, you get a great feeling when it's done, but even as a pre-teen I can remember spending HOURS cleaning my room, because I couldn't just go in there and pick up the stuff on the floor and clean off the dresser.  I had to pull all of my furniture away from the wall and vacuum under and behind it.  I had to change the sheets on my bed, dust the furniture, organize the closet and the dresser drawers, etc.  And honestly, who wants to spend that long to clean a bedroom?  Who wants to spend that much time to clean a kitchen, living room, bathroom, etc.?

So now FLYlady comes along and says "You don't have to clean the whole kitchen!  Just shine your sink!" It's a wonderful thought, but harder to practice.  You have to see each accomplishment as a victory and stop obsessing over making it all perfect!  My sink is shiny!  The countertops are messy, the floor feels grainy under my (oops!) bare feet and dishes are piled up on the counters and the stove... but I have shined my sink and I need to think of that as a victory!  

Yesterday was officially Day 3 for me.  I didn't do it perfectly, but that's okay.  I woke up to a shiny sink this morning and I did, in fact, smile. :-)

Day 2 and sidetracked!

So I made it through Day 2!  Yay!  I got dressed to my shoes ( I don't own lace ups, but they are sneakers so they don't just slide off!) and shined the sink before bed.  Then, I had a day when I was barely home at all, so there wasn't much to do to make things messy OR clean things up.  Then, my two year old got sick.

When I say my two year old got sick I mean that he woke up suddenly at about 12:30am, with a cough that sounded like a barking seal.  He was having trouble breathing and it scared him so he was crying.  I knew he'd be okay if he would just calm down.  He was getting enough air to scream so calm was the only thing we needed.  I called my mother-in-law (a RN) who drove an hour to get here with her stethoscope.  He had to sleep sitting up that night but I didn't get much sleep which means I lazed and napped and napped and lazed all the next day and didn't get anything done (I didn't get dressed OR shine my sink).  And today, I'm quite miserable dealing with whatever illness he had for myself.  Needless to say, while I have accomplished quite a lot today, I did not move forward on my FLYbaby venture.

At any rate, now I'm behind a couple of days.  I can give up or I can move forward.  I'm opting to move forward.  There are a couple of ways to move forward and I'm not sure that I know the "right" way to do it.  But I'm not going to let perfectionism keep me from moving on!  Not this time!

My options are to count the days I was sidetracked as days 3 and 4 and 5 and pick up on day 6, OR to pick up where I left off and count tomorrow as day 3.  I have decided to go with the latter.  Tomorrow I will be picking up on Day 3!

I will catch up with you tomorrow or the next day depending on how cooperative my hubby and my computer are! (See my other blog for details on THAT situation!)

Day 1 - Done!

I did it!  I did my first day of the beginner babysteps!  I shined my sink yesterday!  I had to do a bit of other housework too because I had company coming over yesterday evening, but I put my focus on getting the sink shining!  I felt so good after it was done I couldn't help but wipe down my stove too!  You know, even though I ended up doing the dishes too it didn't take that long to do.  I had a shiny sink to greet me this morning and it was great!

Skepticism is still creeping in. I find myself still thinking that just because I was successful today doesn't mean I will be tomorrow.  We'll see how that plays out over the next 30 days.

When does "The Beginning" Begin?

Wow!  I wrote my first and last entry more than three months ago.  I pray this doesn't set the standard for this blog.  No!  It can't!

I've been somewhat - paralyzed when it comes to starting this.  It's almost like when you know you need to diet and you just keep saying, no, I'll wait until Monday (or January, or next week after our out-of-town guests leave).  Excuse after excuse keeps rolling through your mind.  Fear of failure and a not-so-driving perfectionism keep us stuck right down in the mud of our own unhappiness (unhealthiness?).  That's where I've been for three months, friends.  Down in the mud.  Wishing that this place were cleaner, more organized, less cluttered.  That I were a better housekeeper.  If ever I felt like getting up out of the mud, I'd get so overwhelmed by all the mud around me that I'd give up hope and push myself right back down in the mud again.  After all, when you're already that muddy, what's a little more mud going to hurt?

Last night I was inspired.  I got in the bed and picked up some reading material.  This time it was the notebook that contained the print out of FLYlady's 31 beginner baby steps.  The thing I'd always looked at and scoffed.  For some reason last night I looked at it and it all seemed so easy.  Sure, at first it may take a while.  When you haven't cleaned your bedroom in a year it's going to take a while to clean it!  But when you take baby steps and clean a little at a time, by the time it's clean all you have to do is maintain.  You're already used to the little at a time approach at that point and if you just stick to it you never have to "clean" your room again.

All of that to say - It begins TODAY!  No looking back!  I may not be perfect.  I may miss a day here and there, but I'm going to do this.  Starting with a shiny sink.

The Beginning. A Very Good Place to Start.

Hello!  My name is Kayla and I'm a messy person!

My husband and I got married nearly seven years ago now.

We moved into a tiny little apartment and began "playing house," as they say.

We learned quickly that we weren't very good at it.

We both grew up in messy houses.  

We love our parents dearly but an example wasn't set for us very well and we just didn't know how to keep a clean living space.

Ah, but see, there comes a point when you can't blame things on your parents anymore.

There comes a point where personal responsibility has to kick in.  

Now, after repeated tries, I am committed to trying this again.

For Real.

I am going to conquer clutter and stop living in CHAOS.

Enter FLYlady.

I've "met" her before.

I've tried her methods...

halfheartedly.

Now I try again.

This time, I'm committed.

This time will be different.

And if I mess it up?

Oh. Well.

I just try that much harder the next day.

It will still be better than it was before.

Much better.

Join me in this journey, will you?

We can encourage each other!