Years ago, my sister in law introduced me to the flylady. This lil' southern lady's site is all about helping us creative folks to get your life organized. So I read all this stuff about getting your house organized and clean, and I remember reading some essay saying- do this, then that, clean, clean, clean! Now take a minute to love on your babies, now back to work, doing this and that, - like some kind of white tornado. I remember thinking, -What is this lady raising, Chia Pets? My kids don't just sit there waiting for me to give them a love 1 minute out of 30. They are busy destroying in my wake. I cannot divert my attention from them long enough to accomplish anything that takes more that 5 minutes or so to complete.
All that said, there were some good ideas on the site. So I tried to sign up for e-mails that get you doing things on her system, but I never got them. I didn't realize I created a yahoo account and now somewhere out there is a mailbox with about 9 years or so of junk in it.
This last year I went back to visit the flylady and figured out what I was doing so now I get e-mails. I'm trying to put more of this stuff into practice. (Except of course the junk about wearing shoes. Sorry, comfort comes first!) I kind of adjust it to my needs. She seems to be raising more than Chia Pets now because it's all about baby steps and 15 minute increments of tasks. I started out slow. I tried to just follow the message. GO TO BED. Well, I get to bed by midnight more often now than I used to. I got sick of the failure though so I'm working on honing my evening and morning routine. I've got a long way to go. I am still a SHE (sidetracked home executive): I am a flybaby flunkie. But the important thing is I just keep plugging along. FLY stands for Finally Loving Yourself. I think I already love myself, I just happen to love myself in all my disorganized, scatterbrained glory. I keep working on this program because I could live with a little less chaos and frustration in my life. Wanna join me?
12 comments:
I've been trying to get off the ground for a whole now. I was introduced to Flylady several years ago, and I (my house) still struggle, but I have to say, I have made progress! I loved the motto for 2007 - which was "progress, not perfection, in 2007." I'm giving myself until February to recup from my C-section, then I'm going to start up with the daily missions again. (That's the plan anyway)
BTW - I have the FLY Cd and the dusters - and I love them both! Good luck FLYING - I'm totally with YA!
I'm pretty organized - it's one thing I'm pretty consumed with. Good luck getting the chaos under control - and if not - be happy anyways. Take care. Kellan
Hey lady! Good post. Like I said earlier, I spent my holiday cleaning and organizing, and you know I'm just like you. J said I reminded him of grandmother and he thinks I'm getting OCD (obsessive compulsive?). I assured him I'm not. But, we now put our shoes in the coat closet (along with backpack) when we come in the door and are working on putting away what we take out (except for my art corner of the living room floor, and 1/2 of the space on my desk next to the computer (did I mention the bookshelves)? Well, I really have gotten a lot done, but it takes a while to sieve through so many years of, shall we say, stuff? It does feel good to be able to look around and see several uncluttered expanses of carpet and furniture with nothing lying on it (but me!). Keep it up, I think you'll like the results, then teach those boys to pick up after themselves, that'll take til they leave on their missions. I'm thinking this way, they will have grown up in a combination of chaos and order and will be comfortable with a wife who tends toward either! Love you. M
Ok, Jeri thanks for flying with me, Kellan, you are amazing; can I be you when I grow up? (well, a me version, I guess);) My, check out the site and join me; us SHE's need to help each other out, like Weight Watchers, AA, etc, etc. :)
Chia pets, tee hee... I've heard about flylady for forever, but I just can't bring myself to look. It's like I can't handle ONE MORE THING to feel pressured about. I know that is not what flylady is about, it's just me. Being mental.
Sue there is a lot of happy positive stuff in the emails and good reminders I need like Where is your laundry? I could use a few more like Where are your kids? but that's OK. You just have to be thick skinned enough to ignore the stuff you can't handle and use what you can. NO GUILT!
I'm a flybaby flunkie too!
When I first started out I got superorganized - with my binder. Yep. I printed off all the info, got tabs to divide up my sections, had calendars and lists and you name it...
And then I was so overwhelmed and exhausted I went and had a nap.
But I can't bring myself to remove myself from the list. I think she does have some kind of magic.
And I agree with you about the shoes.
And frankly, I don't see the point of all that work to shiney my sink when I have piles of dishes waiting to be washed.
I am an organization freak, so I ignore people like Flylady. I long ago accepted that I will never win the war and must be content with my little battles here and there. The kitchen counter is always spotless (hell hath no fury like a woman with crap on her counter), but the cabinet in the hall will always collect my husband's crap.
Hi, Thanks so much for your comment on my blog. As you saw, i am very new in this world of bloggers, and don’t get much comments on my posts. So you can imagine my excitement when i saw your comment.
I have so much to read on your blog. But from the little i read, i can make out that you have a busy and wonderful life.
take care, and see you soon
Anna Maria, I'm so glad you've returned to blogland, and I agree about the sink thing too. Burgh Baby, maybe organization freaks need another site to help them live amongst the rest of us. Parenting is an extra nightmare if you live for spotless.
I have heard of flylady, but because my sister-in-law told me about it, I assumed it was some kind of younger generation website about a cool lady who uses words like "fly" to describe herself. Hmmm...maybe I need to check it out.
Okay, since you bookmarked her site, I'll take a look. But only because it's you...
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