An Apology and a Confession

I have to apologize for not being present on this blog in the past few weeks! While it's true that life has been busy, it's also true that I have been lazy. And when I'm lazy I don't like to post on this blog, because I don't have anything to tell you.

I haven't done a lot of extra housework in the past few weeks. All I've done are the essentials like making the bed, doing laundry, and cooking. This past weekend my husband was out of town, and I really let things go. I was right back to my old habits of leaving dishes all over the counters, letting trash pile up, and putting things off. I was playing - crafting and reading and surfing. And I was miserable with the way things were going in my house.

So last night I started getting things back in order, using my timer. It was late - the kids and I had watched a movie and had pizza - but I knew I didn't want to face a trashed kitchen this morning. I set the timer for 15 minutes and loaded the dishwasher, wiped the counters, and swept the floor. Another 10 minutes in the living and dining room had them straightened up, but definitely not completely cleaned up.

This morning I cleaned out my fridge. It's been smelling bad, but I didn't think there was anything spoiled in it. I decided to clean it all out and wipe everything down. I didn't find anything growing in there, so I don't know what was/is causing the smell. We've had trouble with this fridge leaking water out the bottom, but the repairman can't find anything wrong with it. The last time he was here he said we'd just have to wipe up the water and live with it. I can wipe up water, but this smell is awful!

I'm still feeling lazy and unmotivated, and I haven't reached the point of spiritual maturity yet that makes me motivate myself much beyond what has to be done. I'm still working on it, though. I hope you'll stick around, and maybe we can help each other! Thanks for reading!

It Never Fails!

This morning I had a doctor's appointment, so I took a few minutes to clean my small appliances and canisters on the kitchen counter. It was a small job, one I could easily finish before I had to leave. Everything looked so good when I left, so shiny and clean!

It stayed that way till I cooked supper. I am diabetic, so I decided to try the Dinner Diva's recipe for FauxTayToes. You steam cauliflower till it's soft, then mix in cream cheese, butter, salt and pepper till it's the consistency of mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes without the carbs! So I steamed the cauliflower in the microwave in one of those steaming bags. I forgot that those steam the veggies to just crisp/tender. I needed them soft, remember. I got the cauliflower out of the microwave, put it in a bowl, and lowered the mixer into the veggies. Cauliflower flew everywhere. In the toaster. Under the toaster. All over the counter. All over the stand mixer. On the stove. On the coffee maker. On the floor. Everywhere.

I was not happy. The veggies wouldn't mash, but at least they tasted good - very good. Lesson learned, and the cleanup wasn't too bad, since everything had been clean to start with. Just be careful when you think everything is perfect. Because it won't be for long.

Keepin' It Real

Here are a few pics of how our home looks today, after a week of being away and a weekend of ministry work. Just keepin' it real for ya!

The bed is made, but there's laundry from Friday still waiting to be put away and baskets bought at the Dollar Store this morning waiting to be filled.

Our chest of drawers, or dresser, as my husband calls it, holding my tangled mass of necklaces that I hurriedly pawed through before church Sunday morning, plus various items of my husband's. That deodorant ran out on me this morning.

My sewing area, right outside my bedroom door. This area is on the stair landing; everyone has to pass by this mess to get to their bedrooms and the bathroom.

Last but not least is my desk. It is almost always like this. Can you say "hot spot?" This is one of those areas that I have to consciously pay attention to, or it gets like this. Yes, that is a pregnancy book on top of my desk. No, it is not for me.

So there you have it. FlyBaby for eight years, still flappin' around trying to get it all together. Just keepin' it real.

It's now late on Wednesday night. I didn't get a lot of housework done today, just the basic routines and laundry, but I did get quite a bit of desk work done. I made a month's worth of menus, a shopping list for those menus, a pantry and freezer inventory, and a master cleaning list for the bathrooms. I also changed this blog template and added some helpful links and favorite homemaking blogs to the sidebar, as well as write on my other blog, ByGrace. I talked to my husband, who is away this week, and to both my sons, who are away for the summer, answered several e-mails, and put in a phone consult with my doctor. Not a lot of physical work, but busy nonetheless.

This week has been a bust so far concerning missions, decluttering, and zones. The only day left for those things now is Friday, as I'll be out again most of the day tomorrow. I allowed distractions to rule my time this week, which I regret, but I won't let that knock me off the FlyLady wagon. I feel like I'm behind, but one of the beauties of the FlyLady system is that you can jump back in where you are. So that's what I'm going to do. I don't have it all down yet, and that's one reason I keep this blog - to keep it real. If you've had an unproductive day or week or month, why don't you join me in jumping back in where you are? See you tomorrow!

Long Monday

Today was a play day for my daughter and myself. We spent all day shopping! Now we're home and relaxing. I am not as young as I used to be. I used to be able to spend all day out and then come home full of energy, but not anymore. So here are my plans for this evening: take a nice relaxing bath, put on my jammies, and finish reading my latest book.

Obviously, I wasn't home today to do my Home Blessing Hour, so I will do it tomorrow morning, along with a mission or two. I have a busy week, with another all-day outing on Thursday, so I will have to plan wisely and work my plan in order to stay on top of things here at home.

I'm off to my bath . . .

Home Blessing Hour

I'm reopening this blog after more than a year! I just didn't have the motivation to blog to this one and my everyday blog, ByGrace, so I dropped this one until I felt that urge to write about homemaking again. That urge has hit. My home has gotten into somewhat of a mess again, although not nearly as bad as before FlyLady, and I felt the need to get back into the groove again, using FlyLady's system. It worked for me before, and I have no doubt it will again.

Having said that, today I began with my morning routine and my weekly Home Blessing Hour. I'm a bit rusty at the HBH, not having done it consistently for quite a while, but I did get quite a bit done:

• Cleaned our ensuite tub, sink, toilet, and mirror
• Mopped ensuite and main bath floors
• Picked up weekend clutter in our bedroom and put away some clothes
  
• Dusted all the furniture in the house with my Swiffer Duster
• Straightened my sewing area
• Picked up weekend clutter from the dining room and living room
• Swept and mopped kitchen, front entry, and back hall
• Watered plants on the back porch
• Swept front porch
  

I went over by an extra ten minutes because I didn't want to stop with just sweeping the downstairs floors; I wanted to get them mopped too. I'm still amazed at how much work can be accomplished in a short amount of time when I stay focused on the work at hand.

Now I'm ready to do my Zone work for the day: Kelly's mission of cleaning the counters. I also plan to declutter cabinets for 15 minutes. That will be a grand total of about two hours of housework for the day, outside of the normal cooking and cleaning up that is part of everyday life. Then I'll be finished with housework, having done a reasonable amount and made our home neat and ready for the week ahead. I hope your day is productive as well!

Saturday

Today will be spent getting ready for tomorrow - Sunday! As a pastor's family, Sunday is our busiest day of the week. By Sunday night, I'm ready to just sit back on the couch and relax! Because our Sunday evening service is over at 6:30, we are home and getting supper ready by 7:00, which gives us a nice quiet evening after a day of hard work.

Today I'm getting my Sunday School lesson preparations wrapped up. I try to get everything together on Saturday and pack it up on Saturday evening so I don't have to worry about it on Sunday morning (been there done that!). I have flannelgraph pieces for the story, the memory verse printed out to use as a visual aid, memory verse tokens for the kids to take home with them, the flannelboard, my Bible and the lesson book to take with me, in addition to pencils and markers and a Valentine's Bingo game to play tomorrow. And song visuals. I made a checklist for these things which has helped a lot.

This afternoon, we'll be doing some visiting, hoping to have someone new come to our services tomorrow. This takes a couple of hours out of our day, so I try to have something ready to cook when we get home. Today that will be burgers. That's a departure from my menu, because I "departed" from it earlier in the week by not getting that roast in the crockpot on time. Said roast is on the menu for tomorrow now. See, when I have a menu, I can do the switcheroo thing; there's always room to move things around when you have the ingredients you need for the week in the house!

Tonight I'm going to make this recipe for Chocolate Trifle that I found on Heart and Home. As soon as I saw it I knew my family would love it! I'll also pop that roast in the crockpot on low right before bed, so it will be tender and torturing us with its heavenly aroma when we wake up tomorrow morning. It'll continue cooking all through church and be ready for us to eat when we come in the door.

So that's our weekend. I hope you have a pleasant weekend!