Nirvana!

I'm getting there! I'm beginning to see how small habits build up to make a clean house!!!!! Every day, I get out of bed and right away I make it. My bed looks so nice, I never leave anything on the floor. My room has been clean for 2 weeks now. Sarah's room is easy, I just make sure anytime I go upstairs I check her room for things that don't belong there and put them back where they go. I've been keeping up with laundry, so there aren't mounds of clothes everywhere. I fold everything straight out of the drier and put it away as soon as possible, so I don't have clean clothes sitting all over either. I never go a whole day without doing all the dishes that are in the sink at the time I do dishes. I have left some in the sink overnight, but they never sit there for 24 hours. Usually, not even 12 hours! I haven't done any 2 hour dish washing marathons for quite a while now! Sarah's toy room is clean, and she put all her toys that she'd brought to the living room back in the toy room before dinner. I did my swish and swipe today, so my bathroom is clean. My whole house is almost clean, and I can honestly say it was with hardly any effort on my part. All I did was get off my franny for a few 15 minute cleaning sessions! I even got to spend more time with Sarah today than usual. We snuggled on the couch and watched The Secret of NIMH, did puzzles, and colored a little! My house is cleaner than it's ever been AND I have the most time I've ever had to spend with my family! I didn't think those two things went together! My extra room is still a disaster, but I really need to just set the timer for 15 minutes and get it done! I can't believe that this has happened since the week after Valentine's Day, when I more fully committed to the FLYlady program AND a regular scripture study and prayer program! I have to add that. I feel the one would not be possible without the other. Thanks, Anbo, for your encouragement. Your great success has inspired me!

Small Setback

Yesterday I let my perfectionism get in the way of my 5 minute room rescues. I did clean in each of the 4 rooms, but in the extra room, instead of picking up all the stuff all over I scrubbed a place on the carpet where Sarah spilled something that dried into a crusty stain. It took me 10 minutes to do something insignificant compared to the 5 minutes it would have taken me to pick up the whole room. *sigh* I did clean all the books up in Sarah's room and mostly cleaned up the living room. I did a 30 second room rescue in the toy room :) My kitchen was a mess, but right before I went to bed I decided to shine my sink which led me to clean the counter! It's still better than it was a few months ago, but I'm a long way from FLYing. One good thing that has happened with Flylady, though, is that all my bills have been on time for 3 months (Tyler used to pay the bills and it took me a while to get in the groove, especially when I was sick) and I never have any late fees at the library. Our routines and schedules have helped! One little thing at a time until my house is a well-oiled machine!

Fluttering

Us FLYbabies call it fluttering when we're striving to keep up our routines, however imperfectly! I think that's pretty accurate for what I'm accomplishing. My dishes are done. My kitchen is (mostly) clean, I took out the trash and cleaned the bathroom. I dressed to my shoes. I made my bed. I took out everything that didn't belong in my bedroom. I'm fluttering, alright, but I'm not giving up! My living room, extra room, and Sarah's toy room are all disasters and Sarah threw all her books out of her bookcase in her bedroom. I guess three out of four rooms isn't too bad. And it's certainly an improvement from just 3 weeks ago. I'll keep fluttering as long as it takes until I'm FLYing! I want to establish a "house of order" for my family. That phrase comes to my mind often as I pray and study. Heavenly Father wants us to have the peace and ease of living in an orderly environment. I want to work on the 5 minute "room rescues" that Flylady suggests. Five minutes at a time is most certainly doable! That's my goal for tomorrow. Five minute room rescues in all the 4 rooms that are not in order. I'll report back tomorrow evening.

Ppbbbbtttt

Today was not a good day for Lent resolutions :) I woke up around 6:15 with Sarah to several inches of snow outside and it was still coming down. I knew we would not be driving to Fort Morgan to do our grocery shopping! I stayed in my pajamas til around 1 pm, didn't do my dishes or make my bed. I guess it wasn't a total loss. I DID put away the dishes I did last night, swept the snow off the front porch, got dressed to my shoes (even if it was a liiiiitle late), and washed some of Sarah's stuffed animals I was afraid of catching the plague from. Some of my habits were not broken. I think I need to give myself a little leeway on some things. Being pregnant means that no matter how well I treat my body, there will be days when I am sick or exhausted and pushing myself to do everything I planned will only make it worse. I'm beginning to realize this a little late in the pregnancy. "But, Sybil," you might ask, "weren't you pregnant once already? Didn't you know this?" Answer: No. With Sarah I was able to lay around all day without worrying about a two year old destroying the house. I could nap all day if I wanted. It's quite different this time around. I am glad for the challenge, though, because I'm also learning that I can always do SOME things, even if it's only 5 minutes at a time.

Flylady

I wrote about giving up procrastination in my last post. For the past two weeks I've been striving to keep my house clean. I try to keep my bathroom counters cleared and wiped down. I try to keep my dishes done and my kitchen sink shiny. I make my bed every day and try to get dressed to my shoes so I'm ready for any errands or emergencies that might come up. I've been doing my laundry consistently, even throwing in a load NOT on my "laundry day" and I can't believe the difference this makes! I love Flylady.net! Best program ever. It has taught me that I can do anything for 15 minutes and that small changes can make a big difference. I am going to try to keep adding routines and stick with the ones I've already established for the entire 40 days of Lent. I've been reading my scriptures and saying my prayers every day and that helps with ALL my other resolutions! Including being more patient with Sarah. I hope that I can keep up all the hard work!

Well, I might be dieting after all...

My doctor's office called today. I have to go in for a 3 hour blood glucose level test. Apparently, my numbers were a little high with the one hour test. If I have gestational diabetes I'll have to go on a diet! No sugar! We'll see. I am really hoping I don't have it. Wish me luck!