currently loving (08-20-07)

After M left, things got way out of control, as I've written about before. I was complaining about it one day and my friend Andrea reintroduced me to the lifesaving Fly Lady website. I had seen it before, right after W was born, but I never actually incorporated the ideas and methods into my life. Now, though, I have, and life is so much easier and cleaner.

At first, some of the steps seem downright insane but once you start to follow the steps and to build the habits, you see why they are necessary and you start to like it. Each week, you focus on one area of the house and deep clean it. Then once a week, you do the general maintenance cleaning and everyday, you pick up the clutter and put it away. I like this system because I don't spend 9 straight hours trying to clean the house anymore. Instead, I do a little each day and the house magically gets, and stays, clean. Well, until W pulls everything out of the cupboards and shelves.

The only drawback is that it seems to be geared more towards parents with older children or people who don't have children. Sticking to a routine is really important but with 2 babies under 2, that is sometimes really hard. Especially on days like today, when your son wakes up an hour earlier than normal and you go to his room to get him, only to find that he has completely soaked through his diaper. So you strip his bed down to throw his sheets in the washer and it's then you remember that the washer stopped working yesterday, right after you had thrown all the dirty clothes into it as it was filling with water. So now you have an aquarium but instead of being filled with fish, it's filled with dirty clothes.

Then you go strip your son down to throw him in the bath but as you are running the bath, the baby wakes up so you run to the room to get her and come back to the bathroom just in time to see your son throwing a freshly folded stack of towels into the bathtub. While making a big deal about that, you try to wring them out and throw them in the sink as he's playing in the tub. Once he's clean, you go downstairs to make your coffee (full strength this morning) and you proceed to try to do your morning routine, only to be met with screams of disapproval from both children.

Finally, you break down and put in a movie so you can make breakfast but you are soon told you put in the wrong movie and should have put in the "moona moona" movie (Madagascar, for those who don't understand Wspeak. Moona moona is for the "Move it, Move it" song)So you put in the moona moona movie and try to eat your breakfast. But soon after, your little monster decides it's time for his nap but the baby monster decides it's not time for her nap.

After you put the monster down for his nap, you spend 90 minutes trying to rock and feed the baby monster to sleep. Finally, you say screw it and go downstairs to make your lunch. And it's then you realize you can't make the lunch you want because the only bread you have left is the nasty heels of the loaf. So you throw a frozen dinner in the microwave, sit down at the computer to check your email and eat your lunch. Then you happen glance at the box while you have gotten up to get a drink and see that not only does this dinner contain 72% of your daily sodium intake, but it also expired last month. So you pitch that into the garbage, grab a box of Triscuts and a Coke and call it lunch.

But as you start to eat, your baby monster decides it's time for her nap. Once you have put her down, you jump in the shower, because it's noon and not only have you not gotten dressed but you have also not even had a chance to brush your teeth. As your in the shower you discover that the reason your neck, shoulders and back are killing you and you can't hold your head straight is probably because there's a golf ball size knot in your neck. So you spend 20 minutes trying to work it out with the hot water, and come out with a hot, sore neck.

Once you get out of the shower, you hear your monster crying, signaling the end of his nap, which stinks because you just need 15 more minutes to get dressed and dry your hair. But you suck it up and resign yourself to the fact that your hair is going to have to air dry because no matter how many times you tell your monster the hair dryer isn't going to eat him, he's still terrified of it. As your hair is air drying and you are trying to eat some sour gummy worms without the monster noticing and wanting some too, you see that it's already 1:23 and you haven't gotten anything accomplished.

There's no contingency plan for days like this. But tomorrow is another day and I will try to get back on track. It helps that once you join the mailing list, you get tons of emails everyday with encouraging reminders and stories from the leaders to keep you going. I guess it's kind of like being a member of a cult; a very clean and organized cult.

Even if you don't incorporate the information into your life, I guarantee that after looking at the site, you will be inspired to go clean something.

Have fun!
http://www.flylady.net/