The first day of S-215 at Spanish Peaks is almost over, and it went off without a hitch! Yay!
Larry and I got there at 7, and two of our aux members were already there setting up breakfast. Well, I take that back, there was one hitch, the big coffee pot that Larry thought he fixed blew the fuse in the outlet it was plugged into. But we improvised, and used the two little coffee pots to make two coffee pots at a time to fill the huge carafe. Breakfast went well, class started, and I left to come home with the kiddoes.
I did a bit of crisis cleaning, because, well, that is a long story. But it went really well and achieved what I needed it to, and my sink is shiny and will be easy to shine after dinner. I do still need to write down my reminders for today's baby steps assignment.
Then I went back to the station to serve lunch. That also went off without a hitch. I was just getting ready to make my food and Larry comes in with a report of an unauthorized controlled burn in town. So we took care of that, and I made my food in between status checks while they made sure the fire was out. Didn't take too long before they were clear of scene.
I'm sitting down eating, and they get ready to start again, so I get up to move into the kitchen (I'd been chatting with the firefighters while I was eating) and one of the instructors requested that I stay. I stayed for awhile, helping make copies and taking a lot of notes (about pre incident and arrival size up, very useful things for me to know as dispatcher, because it helps me to help them get the resources they need). But then I had to go cause I needed to come back home and check on everyone, and relieve Aimee, who graciously agreed to babysit with them, but hadn't agreed to an extended period of time! I feel kind of bad about leaving, but I had to. I did ask Larry to see if I could have a book, though, cause it seems there's some useful info in there, and we ordered more than we had people show up.
I'll go back after dinner to clean up in the kitchen, and set out the non perishables for breakfast, because I'm not sure who all is coming in to help tomorrow for breakfast. This way I can concentrate on getting coffee ready and stuff like that. I will still have to actually put everything on trays and stuff, but at least it will be out and ready, saving me a few steps.
Today I'm going to do a few sessions of decluttering. I actually enjoy that. This morning while we were crisis cleaning the kids each did two, 15 minute sessions in their rooms. You can't see much of a difference in the boy's room yet, but the girls' room looks great. Of course, Aimee has been working on it for several days prior. But they didn't feel pressured and neither did I, even though we were doing crisis cleaning. Oh and one more session in the kitchen, so I can clean the counters. Then the whole kitchen will be shiny. That's it. Three, maybe four more sessions of cleaning and I'm calling it a day. I'll have plenty of time to study for my FEMA class. Yay me!
Hope you're having a blessed day!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Happy Saturday Morning!
Well it's 5:18 and I'm about to get in the shower to start my day.
Today, tomorrow, and next Saturday and Sunday our department is hosting a class that will have participants from Las Animas and Huerfano counties. The class is S-215, Wildland Firefighting and the Urban Interface (or something similar to that). We have a lot of "urban interface", where communities go right up against wildland areas. So when a wildland fire starts, the firefighters have to use their resources to protect any nearby homes, as well as contain the fire.
From the logistical standpoint, putting together this class has been interesting. It was not a smooth process, but since this is my first time, I'm sure next time will go much better. We even had to find places for two firefighters to stay overnight because they are commuting from such a great distance. Yesterday we had a truck washing party-our trucks looks so pretty and shiny when they're clean, and with our weather being so up and down, there hasn't been a big opportunity to make them pretty and shiny, but now they are. We got lots of great pictures, including several from our upstairs storage area down into the bay which, I think, look great! Anyway, I digress. I'm glad the class is starting, because that means one more project complete. Now I can move on to others. We have several other projects going, so I'm happy to have one to shelve.
I haven't looked outside yet, but I know it was snowing up the mountain last night. Not sure how much they got, but I'm hoping it's not much, because the breakfast we're serving today is coming form up the mountain. But, we have a backup plan, cause I'm big on back up plans. So if there's a lot of snow and our breakfast gets stranded up the mountain, the firefighters will still get fed. Gotta love backup plans.
Of course, it's supposed to be 50 degrees today, so the snow won't last. Which is good, because the lunch for the firefighters today is coming from Bon Carbo Fire Department's Auxiliary. They are about an hour's drive away. But there's a back up plan for that, too! Since our weather is so unpredictable, we have to have back up plans for that sort of thing.
OK, off to go get Larry up so I can take a shower. Aria has been sitting here patiently next to me as I've been writing but she won't be so self amusing while I'm in the shower.
Have a blessed day!
Today, tomorrow, and next Saturday and Sunday our department is hosting a class that will have participants from Las Animas and Huerfano counties. The class is S-215, Wildland Firefighting and the Urban Interface (or something similar to that). We have a lot of "urban interface", where communities go right up against wildland areas. So when a wildland fire starts, the firefighters have to use their resources to protect any nearby homes, as well as contain the fire.
From the logistical standpoint, putting together this class has been interesting. It was not a smooth process, but since this is my first time, I'm sure next time will go much better. We even had to find places for two firefighters to stay overnight because they are commuting from such a great distance. Yesterday we had a truck washing party-our trucks looks so pretty and shiny when they're clean, and with our weather being so up and down, there hasn't been a big opportunity to make them pretty and shiny, but now they are. We got lots of great pictures, including several from our upstairs storage area down into the bay which, I think, look great! Anyway, I digress. I'm glad the class is starting, because that means one more project complete. Now I can move on to others. We have several other projects going, so I'm happy to have one to shelve.
I haven't looked outside yet, but I know it was snowing up the mountain last night. Not sure how much they got, but I'm hoping it's not much, because the breakfast we're serving today is coming form up the mountain. But, we have a backup plan, cause I'm big on back up plans. So if there's a lot of snow and our breakfast gets stranded up the mountain, the firefighters will still get fed. Gotta love backup plans.
Of course, it's supposed to be 50 degrees today, so the snow won't last. Which is good, because the lunch for the firefighters today is coming from Bon Carbo Fire Department's Auxiliary. They are about an hour's drive away. But there's a back up plan for that, too! Since our weather is so unpredictable, we have to have back up plans for that sort of thing.
OK, off to go get Larry up so I can take a shower. Aria has been sitting here patiently next to me as I've been writing but she won't be so self amusing while I'm in the shower.
Have a blessed day!
Friday, February 27, 2009
FLYing
Well I started doing flylady this week.
I had heard about flylady a long time ago, and tried it, but didn't "get" it. First of all, I don't think I ever found the babysteps last time. So I'm jumping right in with the emails. Maybe I found her on yahoo instead of through the site, I don't know. But it didn't work.
So I'm doing the baby steps. I'm on day three. Last night didn't go so well, no shiny sink. But, one of the things that FLYlady teaches is to get rid of your guilt over having a messy house. So I didn't feel guilty that I didn't have a shiny sink last night. Tonight, my sink, it could be shinier, but it's empty and decently clean and some dishes are in the washer as I type.
I also can't do the "get dressed to lace up shoes" thing before I start my routine in the mornings. For one, I wear big fat clunky boots for work. Baby toes and big fat clunky boots don't work. For two, I only own the one pair of aforementioned big fat clunky boots, unless they are dress shoes. And I'm not swishing and swiping in suede heels. Well, fake suede, but still. For three, almost all of my work jeans are too big. I have lost weight since I started working (yeah walking to work!) and haven't had the opportunity to buy more jeans. I will wear them to work where I'm sitting a lot, and alone most of the time, so if they slip down and show my not so delicate undies, well, there's no one there to see it. But I'm not going to do the morning get the kids ready for school, throw a load of laundry in to wash, get some dishes in to soak, battle the littles and answer two work phone calls before I walk out the door routine in jeans I have to pull up every two minutes. So, I'm in sweats or leggins that I slept in, barefooted. I'm also not getting dressed twice, so, there ya go.
So my concession to that, is to get up and take a shower, and then do my hair. Even that is a change, because often Aria wakes up to my alarm, even though she's behind a closed door and shouldn't be able to hear it. Often I can just leave her and she'll go back to sleep, but occasionally she's up for good. So I had been taking showers after Larry got back from taking the middles to school. So I told Larry that he needs to get up with her if I'm in the shower. Normally he sleeps until 6:30. I get up at 5. If I'm not taking a shower for whatever reason, I do get up and brush my hair. Brushing my hair was normally one of the last things I did before walking out the door.
So you may be reading this and wondering what in the world I'm talking about. Flylady? Babysteps? Swishing and Swiping? OK, let me explain. Flylady is all about you-the busy, sometimes overwhelmed, chronically tired, not having enough hours in the day between littles and middles and bigs and school and activities and God and husband and dinner and lunch and breakfast and laundry, ohhhhhhhh the laundry! Now, you may be reading this and thinking "all about me? Oh, no, things aren't all about me, I have a servant attitude." And you're right. Most things that are "all about me" run completely counter to the servant attitude that traditional wives strive (struggle?) to maintain. But, and I want you to think about this. God never intended you to servant yourselves into the grave because you neglected your own basic needs-your health, your sanity, your emotional well being. And that, dear sisters, is what flylady is about. It's about letting go of the need for perfectionism. Bottom line, baseline issue. Almost every woman in the world has struggled with this issue, in some aspect of their lives. Refer back to my "You'll never be a perfect Mother" post for some examples. I'm also not advocating the "I deserve it" attitude, as in "I deserve a night out away from my children because I (insert whatever excuse)", and neither is flylady. It's not that type of "all about me" thing. It's the realization, which comes quicker to some people than others, that "good enough is OK." Because it is. Because perfection only came in one form, right? Only Christ was perfect. And no matter how well we emulate Him, we will only ever be "good enough." We will slip and we may fall, and even occasionally waver, and, in God's eyes, that is "good enough". In our walk to imitate Christ, we are always trying for perfection and falling short. You can accept that in your walk because the bible tells us we can't be perfect. You must continue to try, and move forward in your faith and relationships, but another part of our relationship with God is forgiving ourselves and letting go of guilt, because we should HAVE NO GUILT ONCE WE'VE ASKED FORGIVENESS FOR FALLING SHORT. Now, I'm not going to say that's always how it works, because, let me tell you, I can't count the times I've had to ask forgiveness for guilt. A key part of faith is letting go of that guilt that we screwed up, whether intentionally or not, because if God can forgive us (and forgiveness is there for the asking), then why on earth can we not forgive ourselves?
Flylady is all about letting go of guilt. I mean, let's look at the facts here. You have children. You have neither a maid nor a nanny, though you may have a great day care lady. If you work, you're gone for part of the time (although, to be fair, so, usually, are the mess makers), and if you're home, you're finding yourself doing a juggling act and coming pretty close to failing. If you're not the type of woman who struggles to balance everything in your life, well, you're probably not reading this blog. And you should write a book. Anyway, I digress (no, me???). The house gets messy because you're sick and couldn't clean, or the baby is teething, or you have morning sickness so bad you didn't see the outside of the bathroom for 13 weeks, or you had a busy week with lots of stuff going on, or for whatever reason. When you finally try to get back on track, you don't even know where to start. And while you're trying to fix it you're trying to keep the kids from climbing the bookcase, or you're using blanket training and not worrying about the kids (we never could manage that) and the phone rings, or the dryer decides to stop working, or whatever. And it doesn't get fixed. And then it's time to fix lunch. And then you get the kids down for naps and start again and someone won't take a nap or has a bad dream or the dryer repairman shows up with the wrong part. And it doesn't get fixed. And then it's time for dinner and that's a whole other set of issues-bath times and home work and bed times and books to read to sleepy littles and babies that need to cuddle and middles that need to cuddle and bigs that need to talk about their day and... And it doesn't get fixed.
And then you feel guilty.
And you wake up in the morning and the kitchen is a disaster and that starts the entire thing over again.
And then you feel guilty.
Flylady teaches us to let go of our guilt and learn a new attitude about cleaning. That every little thing you do, blesses your family.
Let me type that again.
Every little thing you do, blesses your family.
Why?
Because a lot of little things add up to a big thing. A cleaner house, and less chaos.
So, when you start doing flylady, you are a flybaby. You start with the baby steps. Day one is this simple: Go shine your sink.
That's it. Go shine your sink. Don't do all the dishes first, if you're just too darn tired to tackle that. Just shine your sink. Then, when you wake up in the morning, you'll see that shiny sink, which flylady says is like a great big hug for yourself. And it will be that much easier to put the dishes you didn't get done in to soak. Because you have one clean place to start.
Now, on the first few days, you will probably get a few other things done. Shining the sink does, indeed, lead to doing the dishes. Yay, more clean, less chaos! Tiny little baby steps. Day two, you shine your sink AND get dressed.
So, you didn't get any laundry done? So what? If no one is naked, it's not a crisis. If there is imminent danger of someone being naked, you may need to add a load or two in. Then you have a shiny sink, clean dishes, and clean clothes. Yay you! Don't feel guilty because dinner was spaghetti again or that you didn't get the soccer uniforms washed-they're just going to get sweaty again so let them wear them in dirty this one time. No one will be scarred for life.
You should join the mailing list (FLYing lessons on the site), but don't DO them yet. This is just to get used to the flow of things. As the babysteps progress, you will add more things in. The urge is to jump in and do it all, but that's what continues that cycle of being overwhelmed and then feeling guilty. And you will, indeed, feel like it's going slow. And I'm not telling you to ONLY shine your sink. Because, let's face it, you can't, in the long run, ignore dishes and laundry. But chances are you were doing the basics for a long time and letting the other cleaning go, right? So do the basics and ADD in shining your sink. As you progress with flylady, you will see benefits.
The largest is decluttering. February's habit is to declutter 15 minutes a day. Think you don't have clutter? Go look on your nightstand. Look at the table next to your favorite chair. Look on the top of the refrigerator. Look next to the front and back doors. Look in your junk drawers. Really, do you need all that stuff in those places? If you need it, is that it's permanent home? A lamp, book, a few pictures on your nightstand? All good. Three used tissues, a stack of books you've already read, two half full glasses of water and the eyeglasses you haven't worn for two years because you got a new prescription, on the nightstand? All clutter. Now, next month's habit will be different, but all of flylady's lessons work on decluttering. We all have clutter. In addition to regular decluttering sessions, flylady has what she calls "27 fling boogie" where you get rid of 27 things in a particular area of your home. These aren't necessarily thrown away, but could be donated or given away, but they are definitely moved out of your home. Looking on the table next to my chair, I can see 27 things right there that I could just throw away, not to mention stuff that could benefit from a general decluttering. We collect stuff, it's just human nature. But we don't need everything we have.
She also heavily advocates the use of a timer, which I love. If you've been plugging away in the kitchen for an hour, you're exhausted by the time you come out of there-and if you come out to find that the crayons you used to occupy the kidlets were used on the tile floor instead of the coloring book, well that just ruins your entire day. Most flylady tasks are built around 15 minute time lengths-either doing something for 15 minutes, or breaking larger tasks into 15 minute intervals. The kids probably won't get bored in 15 minutes, but you can get a lot done in just 15 minutes. And at the end of that 15 minutes, you can sit down and play with the kids. 15 minutes later occupy them with something else, and do another block of 15 minutes. If you structure your day that way, you're still being productive, yet you're not robbing your kidlets of precious mom time-or you of precious kid cuddle/play/read time.
She also divides the home into zones. The first time I did flylady the zones really threw me off. But somewhere along the way that first time, I missed an important beginning to zone cleaning: decluttering. Flylady says not to do the cleaning in the zone areas until you've completely decluttered it. Because you can't clean around stuff you don't need, can't use, or need to put in it's home. She even goes further, saying that if your home is cluttered enough, this process can take a few months-because you're only concentrating on one zone per week. But then once you finish decluttering, you move on to the deeper cleaning. Again, this will take awhile in the beginning, but once you get established it will get better. In other words, the first time you, for example, clean off that nightstand, it will take awhile to get it done, because you haven't cleaned it off in how long? But the next time you do it, it will only have been done a few weeks ago, so it won't take so long. So even when you start the deeper cleaning assignments (called "missions"), you may not even get all of those done, but that's OK-because what you did get done was better than what you were getting done before!
So, I'm off to bed, with my sort of shiny sink, knowing that even though I worked a loooooooooooooong day today, I got more done in my house than last time I pulled this kind of schedule. Yay me. And because the house is just that tiny amount cleaner, I have blessed my home, my family, my husband, myself, and God. Because I'm taking better care of my home, better care of my family, better care of my husband, better care of myself, and better care of my relationship with God, because I was able to do more to follow through on my desired servant attitude.
So, take a chance and do some flying! Link in the title of the blog!
I had heard about flylady a long time ago, and tried it, but didn't "get" it. First of all, I don't think I ever found the babysteps last time. So I'm jumping right in with the emails. Maybe I found her on yahoo instead of through the site, I don't know. But it didn't work.
So I'm doing the baby steps. I'm on day three. Last night didn't go so well, no shiny sink. But, one of the things that FLYlady teaches is to get rid of your guilt over having a messy house. So I didn't feel guilty that I didn't have a shiny sink last night. Tonight, my sink, it could be shinier, but it's empty and decently clean and some dishes are in the washer as I type.
I also can't do the "get dressed to lace up shoes" thing before I start my routine in the mornings. For one, I wear big fat clunky boots for work. Baby toes and big fat clunky boots don't work. For two, I only own the one pair of aforementioned big fat clunky boots, unless they are dress shoes. And I'm not swishing and swiping in suede heels. Well, fake suede, but still. For three, almost all of my work jeans are too big. I have lost weight since I started working (yeah walking to work!) and haven't had the opportunity to buy more jeans. I will wear them to work where I'm sitting a lot, and alone most of the time, so if they slip down and show my not so delicate undies, well, there's no one there to see it. But I'm not going to do the morning get the kids ready for school, throw a load of laundry in to wash, get some dishes in to soak, battle the littles and answer two work phone calls before I walk out the door routine in jeans I have to pull up every two minutes. So, I'm in sweats or leggins that I slept in, barefooted. I'm also not getting dressed twice, so, there ya go.
So my concession to that, is to get up and take a shower, and then do my hair. Even that is a change, because often Aria wakes up to my alarm, even though she's behind a closed door and shouldn't be able to hear it. Often I can just leave her and she'll go back to sleep, but occasionally she's up for good. So I had been taking showers after Larry got back from taking the middles to school. So I told Larry that he needs to get up with her if I'm in the shower. Normally he sleeps until 6:30. I get up at 5. If I'm not taking a shower for whatever reason, I do get up and brush my hair. Brushing my hair was normally one of the last things I did before walking out the door.
So you may be reading this and wondering what in the world I'm talking about. Flylady? Babysteps? Swishing and Swiping? OK, let me explain. Flylady is all about you-the busy, sometimes overwhelmed, chronically tired, not having enough hours in the day between littles and middles and bigs and school and activities and God and husband and dinner and lunch and breakfast and laundry, ohhhhhhhh the laundry! Now, you may be reading this and thinking "all about me? Oh, no, things aren't all about me, I have a servant attitude." And you're right. Most things that are "all about me" run completely counter to the servant attitude that traditional wives strive (struggle?) to maintain. But, and I want you to think about this. God never intended you to servant yourselves into the grave because you neglected your own basic needs-your health, your sanity, your emotional well being. And that, dear sisters, is what flylady is about. It's about letting go of the need for perfectionism. Bottom line, baseline issue. Almost every woman in the world has struggled with this issue, in some aspect of their lives. Refer back to my "You'll never be a perfect Mother" post for some examples. I'm also not advocating the "I deserve it" attitude, as in "I deserve a night out away from my children because I (insert whatever excuse)", and neither is flylady. It's not that type of "all about me" thing. It's the realization, which comes quicker to some people than others, that "good enough is OK." Because it is. Because perfection only came in one form, right? Only Christ was perfect. And no matter how well we emulate Him, we will only ever be "good enough." We will slip and we may fall, and even occasionally waver, and, in God's eyes, that is "good enough". In our walk to imitate Christ, we are always trying for perfection and falling short. You can accept that in your walk because the bible tells us we can't be perfect. You must continue to try, and move forward in your faith and relationships, but another part of our relationship with God is forgiving ourselves and letting go of guilt, because we should HAVE NO GUILT ONCE WE'VE ASKED FORGIVENESS FOR FALLING SHORT. Now, I'm not going to say that's always how it works, because, let me tell you, I can't count the times I've had to ask forgiveness for guilt. A key part of faith is letting go of that guilt that we screwed up, whether intentionally or not, because if God can forgive us (and forgiveness is there for the asking), then why on earth can we not forgive ourselves?
Flylady is all about letting go of guilt. I mean, let's look at the facts here. You have children. You have neither a maid nor a nanny, though you may have a great day care lady. If you work, you're gone for part of the time (although, to be fair, so, usually, are the mess makers), and if you're home, you're finding yourself doing a juggling act and coming pretty close to failing. If you're not the type of woman who struggles to balance everything in your life, well, you're probably not reading this blog. And you should write a book. Anyway, I digress (no, me???). The house gets messy because you're sick and couldn't clean, or the baby is teething, or you have morning sickness so bad you didn't see the outside of the bathroom for 13 weeks, or you had a busy week with lots of stuff going on, or for whatever reason. When you finally try to get back on track, you don't even know where to start. And while you're trying to fix it you're trying to keep the kids from climbing the bookcase, or you're using blanket training and not worrying about the kids (we never could manage that) and the phone rings, or the dryer decides to stop working, or whatever. And it doesn't get fixed. And then it's time to fix lunch. And then you get the kids down for naps and start again and someone won't take a nap or has a bad dream or the dryer repairman shows up with the wrong part. And it doesn't get fixed. And then it's time for dinner and that's a whole other set of issues-bath times and home work and bed times and books to read to sleepy littles and babies that need to cuddle and middles that need to cuddle and bigs that need to talk about their day and... And it doesn't get fixed.
And then you feel guilty.
And you wake up in the morning and the kitchen is a disaster and that starts the entire thing over again.
And then you feel guilty.
Flylady teaches us to let go of our guilt and learn a new attitude about cleaning. That every little thing you do, blesses your family.
Let me type that again.
Every little thing you do, blesses your family.
Why?
Because a lot of little things add up to a big thing. A cleaner house, and less chaos.
So, when you start doing flylady, you are a flybaby. You start with the baby steps. Day one is this simple: Go shine your sink.
That's it. Go shine your sink. Don't do all the dishes first, if you're just too darn tired to tackle that. Just shine your sink. Then, when you wake up in the morning, you'll see that shiny sink, which flylady says is like a great big hug for yourself. And it will be that much easier to put the dishes you didn't get done in to soak. Because you have one clean place to start.
Now, on the first few days, you will probably get a few other things done. Shining the sink does, indeed, lead to doing the dishes. Yay, more clean, less chaos! Tiny little baby steps. Day two, you shine your sink AND get dressed.
So, you didn't get any laundry done? So what? If no one is naked, it's not a crisis. If there is imminent danger of someone being naked, you may need to add a load or two in. Then you have a shiny sink, clean dishes, and clean clothes. Yay you! Don't feel guilty because dinner was spaghetti again or that you didn't get the soccer uniforms washed-they're just going to get sweaty again so let them wear them in dirty this one time. No one will be scarred for life.
You should join the mailing list (FLYing lessons on the site), but don't DO them yet. This is just to get used to the flow of things. As the babysteps progress, you will add more things in. The urge is to jump in and do it all, but that's what continues that cycle of being overwhelmed and then feeling guilty. And you will, indeed, feel like it's going slow. And I'm not telling you to ONLY shine your sink. Because, let's face it, you can't, in the long run, ignore dishes and laundry. But chances are you were doing the basics for a long time and letting the other cleaning go, right? So do the basics and ADD in shining your sink. As you progress with flylady, you will see benefits.
The largest is decluttering. February's habit is to declutter 15 minutes a day. Think you don't have clutter? Go look on your nightstand. Look at the table next to your favorite chair. Look on the top of the refrigerator. Look next to the front and back doors. Look in your junk drawers. Really, do you need all that stuff in those places? If you need it, is that it's permanent home? A lamp, book, a few pictures on your nightstand? All good. Three used tissues, a stack of books you've already read, two half full glasses of water and the eyeglasses you haven't worn for two years because you got a new prescription, on the nightstand? All clutter. Now, next month's habit will be different, but all of flylady's lessons work on decluttering. We all have clutter. In addition to regular decluttering sessions, flylady has what she calls "27 fling boogie" where you get rid of 27 things in a particular area of your home. These aren't necessarily thrown away, but could be donated or given away, but they are definitely moved out of your home. Looking on the table next to my chair, I can see 27 things right there that I could just throw away, not to mention stuff that could benefit from a general decluttering. We collect stuff, it's just human nature. But we don't need everything we have.
She also heavily advocates the use of a timer, which I love. If you've been plugging away in the kitchen for an hour, you're exhausted by the time you come out of there-and if you come out to find that the crayons you used to occupy the kidlets were used on the tile floor instead of the coloring book, well that just ruins your entire day. Most flylady tasks are built around 15 minute time lengths-either doing something for 15 minutes, or breaking larger tasks into 15 minute intervals. The kids probably won't get bored in 15 minutes, but you can get a lot done in just 15 minutes. And at the end of that 15 minutes, you can sit down and play with the kids. 15 minutes later occupy them with something else, and do another block of 15 minutes. If you structure your day that way, you're still being productive, yet you're not robbing your kidlets of precious mom time-or you of precious kid cuddle/play/read time.
She also divides the home into zones. The first time I did flylady the zones really threw me off. But somewhere along the way that first time, I missed an important beginning to zone cleaning: decluttering. Flylady says not to do the cleaning in the zone areas until you've completely decluttered it. Because you can't clean around stuff you don't need, can't use, or need to put in it's home. She even goes further, saying that if your home is cluttered enough, this process can take a few months-because you're only concentrating on one zone per week. But then once you finish decluttering, you move on to the deeper cleaning. Again, this will take awhile in the beginning, but once you get established it will get better. In other words, the first time you, for example, clean off that nightstand, it will take awhile to get it done, because you haven't cleaned it off in how long? But the next time you do it, it will only have been done a few weeks ago, so it won't take so long. So even when you start the deeper cleaning assignments (called "missions"), you may not even get all of those done, but that's OK-because what you did get done was better than what you were getting done before!
So, I'm off to bed, with my sort of shiny sink, knowing that even though I worked a loooooooooooooong day today, I got more done in my house than last time I pulled this kind of schedule. Yay me. And because the house is just that tiny amount cleaner, I have blessed my home, my family, my husband, myself, and God. Because I'm taking better care of my home, better care of my family, better care of my husband, better care of myself, and better care of my relationship with God, because I was able to do more to follow through on my desired servant attitude.
So, take a chance and do some flying! Link in the title of the blog!
Monday, February 23, 2009
It's 8:35....
and almost everyone shorter than me is in bed. Ahh, life is good.
Today went smoother than I thought it would. It only took us a little while to get the District's shopping done at Walmart, then we had to go run a few other District errands, and we went to lunch and then did our own shopping.
I changed my perspective on a meat shopping today. I decided I needed to base what I considered a "good" price on meat on the price of hamburger (ground beef as Roan kept calling it in the store, "There's ground beef!" Not sure where that came from). After all, it's what I buy the most of. And with meat prices going up, it's necessary to change my perceptions on "good" prices. So today, keeping that perception in mind, I bought a turkey ($1.18/lb), 2 whole chickens ($.93/lb, I think), 5 lbs of hamburger (OK, OK, ground beef, if you wish) ($2.00/lb) and a package of pork chops (enough for one meal) for $1.65/lb on clearance. Having a different perspective means I got more variety with my limited grocery budget instead of what I had planned on purchasing to last us until March 9-5 lbs of hamburger and 4 chickens. This means we will have more nutritious, more varied choice of meals, which will make everyone happy. I'll get to pull out some older recipes I haven't used in awhile, including my recipe for stuffing to go with the turkey. Also means less beans and rice, which will make mama happy when she climbs into bed with a not so stinky daddy. For the record, I spent $100 today on the above mentioned meat, 10 lbs of potatoes, 10 lbs of sugar, a box of diapers and a few other grocery items. We'll have to buy more potatoes, probably, and milk, and maybe some pasta if I can.
I worked on my quarterly menu today. I got all of the breakfasts done. Working on lunches now. I expanded my rotating breakfast menu with some of the recipes I'd searched for on allrecipes.com for using the ingredients I had on hand. Our favorite new addition has been "dutch babies" which sounds morbid, but is actually very good.
I also did some thinking about increasing my food budget. For several years now my food budget has been $15 per person, per week, plus $15 misc food spending for $120/wk. Yes, I do manage to feed seven on this. I actually feed seven on far less than this right now. I have decided to increase my misc food spending (unannounced sale, clearance items, etc) to $25 per week, but nothing else will change. When I go shopping in March for my quarterly shopping, I will actually be shopping for 16 weeks, to take us through the end of June, in case something interferes with our ability to go to Pueblo to do the quarterly thing again right when we get paid. I'm budgeting $70 per week for the quarterly grocery shopping, so that I will have $25, plus the misc $25, to spend weekly on perishables and sale items. That means I'll have $1120 to spend on quarterly food. Right now I'm not sure this is logistically possible, because we are behind on some bills and my W2s still have not arrived so we haven't filed our taxes yet. We'll have my monthly paycheck, my incentive check, and Larry's incentive check, but we have to get caught up on bills first. We also have to get the kids' birth certificates. With Larry not working, we need to apply for medicaid, and we have to have birth certificates for that. But if we can't do quarterly grocery shopping, we will at least do monthly grocery shopping.
I'm wondering what other families of similar size realistically spend on food. I know most larger families have more frugal budgets, but I'm really curious.
Today went smoother than I thought it would. It only took us a little while to get the District's shopping done at Walmart, then we had to go run a few other District errands, and we went to lunch and then did our own shopping.
I changed my perspective on a meat shopping today. I decided I needed to base what I considered a "good" price on meat on the price of hamburger (ground beef as Roan kept calling it in the store, "There's ground beef!" Not sure where that came from). After all, it's what I buy the most of. And with meat prices going up, it's necessary to change my perceptions on "good" prices. So today, keeping that perception in mind, I bought a turkey ($1.18/lb), 2 whole chickens ($.93/lb, I think), 5 lbs of hamburger (OK, OK, ground beef, if you wish) ($2.00/lb) and a package of pork chops (enough for one meal) for $1.65/lb on clearance. Having a different perspective means I got more variety with my limited grocery budget instead of what I had planned on purchasing to last us until March 9-5 lbs of hamburger and 4 chickens. This means we will have more nutritious, more varied choice of meals, which will make everyone happy. I'll get to pull out some older recipes I haven't used in awhile, including my recipe for stuffing to go with the turkey. Also means less beans and rice, which will make mama happy when she climbs into bed with a not so stinky daddy. For the record, I spent $100 today on the above mentioned meat, 10 lbs of potatoes, 10 lbs of sugar, a box of diapers and a few other grocery items. We'll have to buy more potatoes, probably, and milk, and maybe some pasta if I can.
I worked on my quarterly menu today. I got all of the breakfasts done. Working on lunches now. I expanded my rotating breakfast menu with some of the recipes I'd searched for on allrecipes.com for using the ingredients I had on hand. Our favorite new addition has been "dutch babies" which sounds morbid, but is actually very good.
I also did some thinking about increasing my food budget. For several years now my food budget has been $15 per person, per week, plus $15 misc food spending for $120/wk. Yes, I do manage to feed seven on this. I actually feed seven on far less than this right now. I have decided to increase my misc food spending (unannounced sale, clearance items, etc) to $25 per week, but nothing else will change. When I go shopping in March for my quarterly shopping, I will actually be shopping for 16 weeks, to take us through the end of June, in case something interferes with our ability to go to Pueblo to do the quarterly thing again right when we get paid. I'm budgeting $70 per week for the quarterly grocery shopping, so that I will have $25, plus the misc $25, to spend weekly on perishables and sale items. That means I'll have $1120 to spend on quarterly food. Right now I'm not sure this is logistically possible, because we are behind on some bills and my W2s still have not arrived so we haven't filed our taxes yet. We'll have my monthly paycheck, my incentive check, and Larry's incentive check, but we have to get caught up on bills first. We also have to get the kids' birth certificates. With Larry not working, we need to apply for medicaid, and we have to have birth certificates for that. But if we can't do quarterly grocery shopping, we will at least do monthly grocery shopping.
I'm wondering what other families of similar size realistically spend on food. I know most larger families have more frugal budgets, but I'm really curious.
Another Monday
Thus begins another crazy week.
Today we have to go to Walmart for the Fire Department. One of my projects at work is organizing the upstairs storage area, and we need some stuff for that: shelving, hanging racks, hangers, sturdy storage crates, etc. Organization seems to be one of those necessary evils that no one likes to do. So right now, due to the lack of organization, we can't find stuff we know is up there, and we need stuff we thought we had. We also need batteries for the flashlights that the auxiliary bought us, additional batteries for PASS devices, and a locking filing cabinet. We also need to exchange the battery for the suburban. When we get home, Larry will be dropping us off, then going to the station to get some stuff done. He has EMT class tonight, too.
Tomorrow I work at the station, and then we have a meeting at 6:00 for some "stuff". Aimee has a backetball game, either in Sierra Grande or Crested Butte. Crested Butte is a twelve hour round trip event for them. Why they'd schedule a game like that during the week is beyond me. It's their last game of the season, though.
Wednesday I work at the station, and then Larry has EMT class. He's supposed to be working at the station that day.
Thursday is relatively tame; I work at the station, then everyone will be at home.
Friday, Lisa from the Aux and I will be going shopping to get more snacks and do it yourself breakfast stuff for the S-215-Wildland Firefighting in the Urban Interface class that Spanish Peaks Fire Department is hosting this weekend and next. We will then go stock the stuff we bought.
Saturday marks the start of S-215-Wildland Firefighting in the Urban Interface. I will be there at 7:00 to do breakfast set up, and help administratively as needed. I will also be going back around 11:30 to do lunch service, then checking in at 2:30 to see if they need anything and clean up a bit in the kitchen. I will lather, rinse, and repeat on Sunday.
We're doing all of this without daycare this week. Poor Megan's kids have the same stomach virus that my kids were fighting week before last. So she's out of service while her kids recover. From experience, she will need some rest after this-and some serious laundry time. I did 32 loads of laundry the weekend that everyone was finally better.
So last night we had a big fun family dinner. We did breakfast, with biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, dill potatoes, bacon and sausage. Jessica and Jamie came over, and we all had a good time. I meant to take pictures but I forgot. Through the rest of the week things will be much less relaxed, so last night was a really good night.
I didn't get much laundry done over the weekend, though. Saturday we were just lazy and Sunday I was working on some writing stuff and cleaning the kitchen. And the kids were doing some deep cleaning in bedrooms so there is "extra" laundry.
My home project this week will be doing the quarterly menu that I need to do so we can shop quarterly. As fire season continues to gear up, I will be planning an extra meal each week, a "convenience" meal. This is either a double up of an existing meal that will freeze well, or something that I can cook quickly, like chili mac. Like when I make lasagne, I will make three pans of it, and freeze the other two. I probably won't use them all, but they will be rolled over to next quarter. Lunches often work this way, as well, when I plan ahead like this, because often we will do leftovers for lunch. Once I get that quarterly shopping done, I will be able to bake more, too. We're getting a microwave, too, finally. Don't know where I'm going to put it, but we're getting it. I will be using the revolving breakfast menu and the revolving lunch menu for this, to simplify things, but I will need to plug them into actual dates so I know how much to buy. Because the kids go to school, we will buy more on the days they are home. I will also be making some changes to those.
OK, breakfast should be done by now.
Today we have to go to Walmart for the Fire Department. One of my projects at work is organizing the upstairs storage area, and we need some stuff for that: shelving, hanging racks, hangers, sturdy storage crates, etc. Organization seems to be one of those necessary evils that no one likes to do. So right now, due to the lack of organization, we can't find stuff we know is up there, and we need stuff we thought we had. We also need batteries for the flashlights that the auxiliary bought us, additional batteries for PASS devices, and a locking filing cabinet. We also need to exchange the battery for the suburban. When we get home, Larry will be dropping us off, then going to the station to get some stuff done. He has EMT class tonight, too.
Tomorrow I work at the station, and then we have a meeting at 6:00 for some "stuff". Aimee has a backetball game, either in Sierra Grande or Crested Butte. Crested Butte is a twelve hour round trip event for them. Why they'd schedule a game like that during the week is beyond me. It's their last game of the season, though.
Wednesday I work at the station, and then Larry has EMT class. He's supposed to be working at the station that day.
Thursday is relatively tame; I work at the station, then everyone will be at home.
Friday, Lisa from the Aux and I will be going shopping to get more snacks and do it yourself breakfast stuff for the S-215-Wildland Firefighting in the Urban Interface class that Spanish Peaks Fire Department is hosting this weekend and next. We will then go stock the stuff we bought.
Saturday marks the start of S-215-Wildland Firefighting in the Urban Interface. I will be there at 7:00 to do breakfast set up, and help administratively as needed. I will also be going back around 11:30 to do lunch service, then checking in at 2:30 to see if they need anything and clean up a bit in the kitchen. I will lather, rinse, and repeat on Sunday.
We're doing all of this without daycare this week. Poor Megan's kids have the same stomach virus that my kids were fighting week before last. So she's out of service while her kids recover. From experience, she will need some rest after this-and some serious laundry time. I did 32 loads of laundry the weekend that everyone was finally better.
So last night we had a big fun family dinner. We did breakfast, with biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, dill potatoes, bacon and sausage. Jessica and Jamie came over, and we all had a good time. I meant to take pictures but I forgot. Through the rest of the week things will be much less relaxed, so last night was a really good night.
I didn't get much laundry done over the weekend, though. Saturday we were just lazy and Sunday I was working on some writing stuff and cleaning the kitchen. And the kids were doing some deep cleaning in bedrooms so there is "extra" laundry.
My home project this week will be doing the quarterly menu that I need to do so we can shop quarterly. As fire season continues to gear up, I will be planning an extra meal each week, a "convenience" meal. This is either a double up of an existing meal that will freeze well, or something that I can cook quickly, like chili mac. Like when I make lasagne, I will make three pans of it, and freeze the other two. I probably won't use them all, but they will be rolled over to next quarter. Lunches often work this way, as well, when I plan ahead like this, because often we will do leftovers for lunch. Once I get that quarterly shopping done, I will be able to bake more, too. We're getting a microwave, too, finally. Don't know where I'm going to put it, but we're getting it. I will be using the revolving breakfast menu and the revolving lunch menu for this, to simplify things, but I will need to plug them into actual dates so I know how much to buy. Because the kids go to school, we will buy more on the days they are home. I will also be making some changes to those.
OK, breakfast should be done by now.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
I'm back....and life is different
I had been doing my blog over on myspace for awhile, but I like this format better.
So, am I still the Modern Traditional Wife?
Yes, I think I still am, despite currently being the only wage earner in our family.
I think one can be traditional and still work-because my beliefs haven't changed. I still believe women should stay home, and I never said anything was wrong with moms who HAVE to work. I believe it's wrong to work to support a lifestyle of convenience or excess, but if you have to work to pay the bills, well then so be it. I struggled a lot with that, including my own need to work but finally came to terms with it.
So I'm back to writing here. This way. I love it more and I hope I keep up with it.
So what's going on in our lives now?
Larry has been laid off, with job attached, since mid December. He's looking for a new job, but about 1200 people got laid off in Las Animas County when the laws regarding gas mining changed (more about that later). So you can imagine how the job search is going. He got denied unemployment because he quit working for the post office to go to school. The post office was a temp job, and would have ended just a few weeks later anyway, and they sat him down and told him they were going to have to cut his hours to almost nothing during those few weeks, and school started soon, so he quit. Everything was amicable and he has glowing references, but...Unemployment doesn't care that you quit a job to go to school, all they see is that you quit a viable job.
I'm working 25 hours a week as the Administrative Assistant for the Fire Department, 3 days a week at the station and the rest of the hours as needed. I'm also trying to write more for Associated Content.
Aimee will be 17 and Aria will be 2 next month. Aimee has grown up a lot in the last several months. A friend of hers, Holly Ringo, died in a traffic accident in October, and it affected everyone in our tiny town deeply.
Saren is growing like crazy.
Nikki is still freckle faced, and becoming less shy.
Roan is full of piss and vinegar.
Aria is still sweet.
So, that's what you missed in the several months I was blogging at myspace. Not a whole lot, as you can see!
So, am I still the Modern Traditional Wife?
Yes, I think I still am, despite currently being the only wage earner in our family.
I think one can be traditional and still work-because my beliefs haven't changed. I still believe women should stay home, and I never said anything was wrong with moms who HAVE to work. I believe it's wrong to work to support a lifestyle of convenience or excess, but if you have to work to pay the bills, well then so be it. I struggled a lot with that, including my own need to work but finally came to terms with it.
So I'm back to writing here. This way. I love it more and I hope I keep up with it.
So what's going on in our lives now?
Larry has been laid off, with job attached, since mid December. He's looking for a new job, but about 1200 people got laid off in Las Animas County when the laws regarding gas mining changed (more about that later). So you can imagine how the job search is going. He got denied unemployment because he quit working for the post office to go to school. The post office was a temp job, and would have ended just a few weeks later anyway, and they sat him down and told him they were going to have to cut his hours to almost nothing during those few weeks, and school started soon, so he quit. Everything was amicable and he has glowing references, but...Unemployment doesn't care that you quit a job to go to school, all they see is that you quit a viable job.
I'm working 25 hours a week as the Administrative Assistant for the Fire Department, 3 days a week at the station and the rest of the hours as needed. I'm also trying to write more for Associated Content.
Aimee will be 17 and Aria will be 2 next month. Aimee has grown up a lot in the last several months. A friend of hers, Holly Ringo, died in a traffic accident in October, and it affected everyone in our tiny town deeply.
Saren is growing like crazy.
Nikki is still freckle faced, and becoming less shy.
Roan is full of piss and vinegar.
Aria is still sweet.
So, that's what you missed in the several months I was blogging at myspace. Not a whole lot, as you can see!
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