Aidan started school on Wednesday. I've had 3 days where I've only had one child home, and that's SO much easier than two. Yes, I had errands and things to do all of those days, but I still have had many hours at home with nothing scheduled. It would have been a perfect time to do a little cleaning.

So what have I been doing? Playing on the computer and stuffing myself full of food.

All summer, as I've watched the house slowly go back to the horrible state it was in 8 months ago, I've told myself that when the kids go to school and I get back in a routine everything will be much better. Well, three days of taking child #1 to the bus stop have not really helped anything. Yeah, I've gotten more laundry done, which is something, but this house is still a disaster area and I've done NOTHING to fix it.

When given the choice of cracking open a Dr. Pepper and adding some new functionality to my store's website or doing a 15-minute cleanup, I will inevitably geek-out and pork-up rather than getting 15 minutes of exercise and helping the household situation improve. I'm telling myself that I'll really jump into gear on Wednesday when Eamonn can go to school without me and I'll have 2 hours of alone time 3 days a week. But will I?



I need to break out of this funk and fast. Living like this is depressing. You know what? I think I'm going to go give the kitchen 15 minutes of my attention. Now. Without checking my email first, or getting a handful of pretzels first, or any of the myriad stall tactics I have.

I reeeeeeeeeeeeeealy don't want to, though!

Lisa

Lisa Clarke My Store: Polka Dot Creations My Blog: Dancing the Polymer Polka My Message Board: The Polka Dot Cottage My Silly Boys <------

My house had gotten bad too. What "kicked" me this week was planning a candle party for last night. & I started w/ my bedroom - the room I always leave for last cause no one sees it anyway, right? But this time I did it first and loved the results! so that inspired me to do some of the other disaster rooms.

I need to start FLYing - the way flylady says to, not just doing it "my" way. Let's get going together, k?



Kelly

mom to Caroline Macy (3/10/00) & Wyatt Thomas (1/6/02)

I actually did about 30 minutes. 15 didn't make enough of a dent, and I was in the mood by then, so I kept going.

I haven't done another 15 minutes anywhere since, though

I'm not sure I can handle Flying the FlyLady way, LOL! I was thinking some reasonable goals for me would be to do stick to some morning and evening routines, and then during the day do 15 minutes upstairs (bedrooms & bathroom), 15 minutes on the main floor (lr, dr & kitchen) and then 15 minutes downstairs (family room & half bath). That would be 45 minutes of cleaning - I was doing it for a while, and after the first week you could really see the difference. I want to get back to doing that, and I'm going to try to start tomorrow.

Having a party is a great strategy... I should do that, too.

Lisa

I work every day but I'm home early enough to get a lot accomplished. I had gotten in to a rut of ordering out a lot over the summer & everyone eating either at the computers or in front of the TV. (Once I sit down in front of that TV forget it-I don't care what needs to be done...it ain't happenin'.) The other day I made a meatloaf & had dinner at the table & my 15 yo ds wanted to know why we had to eat at the table!!! When my DH(who was at his computer playing his game) came out to get his plate he was shocked that the table was set & I was expecting him to eat with us at the table!!LOL!!He had to go back to his game & let the people he was playing with know that he would be a while. I have my 23 yo dd living here with her 3yo dd & it gets to me sometimes. I just get very discouraged at the mess everyone leaves behind that I go straight to my room & hang out there reading. I also spend a lot of time on the computer, like right now. I have a kitchen to clean, floors to mop(haven't been done in weeks & are quite sticky at this point), stashes & dashes to clean out of my bedroom(which is not a graveyard!!)laundry to do, though not so much, I keep up with laundry pretty well. I also have hostas to replant as I want to pave the area where they are right now. And what am I doing on this beautifully gorgeous day??? Well, I guess I better stop whining get off my franny & get moving. I actually feel a little better right now & I might just get something done today!!!

God Bless You Always & in All Ways

Every since I was expecting my 2nd (who is now nearly 3 and 1/2 years old ) we have been watching TV while we had supper. I bring a tray downstairs with all of our food on it, and we all watch an episode of something together - usually sci-fi, and usually something we rented from Netflix. We've gone through all of the seasons of Stargate: SG1, Farscape, and Babylon 5 and have been watching plenty of others, too. It was nice at first - my older son was only 3 at the time, and DH and I would sit on the couch with him in between us, and we'd be nice and cozy together. It felt like a nice bonding thing. As the boys get older, though, and we're spread out across the family room, often watching reruns just to have something to watch, I'm thinking maybe we should be eating at the table and actually having a conversation, LOL!

When we first started this, DH was out of work and DS wasn't in school yet, so we'd been around each other all day and had nothing to catch up on. Now DH and DS are both gone a good portion of the day, and DS #2 is starting preschool, so we should have plenty to talk about... Still, it's so much easier to me to bring a tray downstairs and kick back on the couch for an hour than it is to set the table and make it all nice, LOL! I really just want to take the easy way out most of the time...

Lisa