x-posted to mission101 and flylady

mission101 [25. FLY consistently for 28 Days] Started – again – September 22, 2008. If I can do it this time, I will have cultivated my habit by October 20. (Hm, that's our next court date. Is there some unconscious symbolism/drive at work here getting my house in order by then?)

What is the deal with the shiny sink?

"When you first come to FlyLady.net you are shocked to hear what your initial habit is! "Go shine my sink??? How is that going to help me get my whole house in order? ... That shiny sink is contagious to the rest of the kitchen; just like your happiness and sadness is infectious to your family."
-- Fly Lady

The kitchen is the heart of the home, and the sink is the heart of the kitchen. Sticking with one habit at a time is the way to conquer the CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome). As Fly Lady reminds me, Your house did not get messy in a day, and it won't get clean in a day! I just need to work consistently in babysteps, 15 minutes at a time.

It is 8:00 am. I saw my Dear Hubby off to work and checked my calendar. I'm enjoying my coffee while I catch up emails. Last night I rejoined the FlyLady mailing list in anticipation of my fresh start today. I also rejoined Flying in Asheville, both with an email addy I'm reserving for Fly Lady stuff. I'm working my way through the beginner's emails. Side one of my sink is soaking in bleach water, it's hour nearly finished. I dusted off a Fly Lady cling and now she's smiling at me from the cabinet above the sink The critters and Dear Daughter2 (the early bird) have been fed. I've worked a decent bit on this post.

I'm trying to build a FLYing support system. I also joined flylady and sent out a rather in depth intro. I've talked to other 101-ers who are FLYing. I'm checking out Fly Lady's blogtalk radio message boards, but I just discovered blogtalk yesterday so I'm still just kind of feeling it out. Oh, and I also downloaded Flylady's tool bar to use with Firefox and I'm feeling that out. It's nice to have everything fairly accessible, and nice eye-catching purple reminders of what I should be doing instead of playing on the internet.

It's now 9:00 am. I've fed DD1, made the bed, got dressed to the shoes. I almost know what's for dinner. (Something with hamburger meat.) I wrote out a basic morning routine for my control journal. I stuck it on the fridge though, with our Sept. habit of the evening routine (that I'm still not quite doing). I cleaned up what I strongly suspect was pee. Ivy blamed the cat, but the cat hasn't peed in the floor in about a month so I'm not so sure. There was no yelling, no martyrdom - though I pointed the spot out to both of them, just in case. I've caught up emails, listened to Fly Lady's show on blogtalk radio, and watched some Emmy stuff on YouTube. My coffee's almost done, and side two of the sink is nearly done soaking.

I was in such a very dark place lately. Fly Lady's email about her depression really struck a chord with me. Her system has really been a godsend on those days when I just don't want to get out of bed, when I'd prefer to be whining and crying. And my biggest house rule is the same as Fly Lady's – No Whining Allowed! But on those days when I forget myself, when I look at the house and the expectant kids and just don't know what to do, having those auto-pilot routines as a place to start helps. And as I go through the motions, I usually start to come back to myself. At least Fly Lady's reminders not to snap at our babies stays more consciously in my mind, and my little fly babies love helping mom. They seem to enjoy blog talk radio, too. I remember that I need to set a good example, and keep house blessing fun so they don't cringe and feel punished like I do when it's cleaning time.

It's 12:30. I've done a few good rounds with my timer. I'm not a big fan of the FLY CD, so I found my motivational music by hopping through Grateful Dead videos on YouTube. I scrubbed and shined my sink while the flybabies made their beds. I got them ready for the day and sent them outside. I did a 5 Minute Room Rescue, wrote out my Ta-Da List, caught up the homeschool log (note to self: catch-up included the entire weekend since getting the internet. This will need to be made part of my am or pm routine), caught up LJ, made a Fly Lady icon, made lunch.

My first day is half over, my sink is shiny, and I think I'm doing a fairly good job! Now if you'll pardon me for another 45 minutes, I think I'll find a good live show on Archive.org and start on those dishes. Maybe see if I can knock out half the Home Blessing Hour with my kidlets.