FLYin by the seat of my pants!

I joined Fly Lady 8 weeks ago. I had finally hit rock bottom on my housekeeping, tired of the STUFF being shuffled around because nobody knew what to do with it. i have been meaning to post about it, but have been PRO-crastinating big time.

I caved and actually checked out the Fly Lady website, signed up for her Big Tent site and daily digest email, and clicked the 'Getting Started' link in one of the big purple boxes. I read through the page and curiosly clicked the "Beginner Babysteps" link

GO SHINE YOUR SINK appeared on an image of a sticky note. Intrigued by this, i went into the kitchen and reluctantly took all the dirty dishes out of the sink and scrubbed it with some Soft Scrub (anyone with white enamel knows how stained they get). It was SOOOO pretty! I didn't want to put the dirty dishes back in, but in order to deal with those i actually had to UNLOAD my dishwasher.

By day 4 i had been shining my sink for FOUR days and getting ALL the way dressed to the shoes i hated so much (yeah, i am a barefoot girl--but the shoes do have an affect on the attitude), and i began my Control Journal just like Fly Lady suggests. Amazingly the journal seemed to help keep me on task better than any other 'tool' i had tried to use. By Day 15 i had a whole routine for morning and night, my Mt. Washmore was more under control, I was dressing to shoes every morning, and my sink was almost always empty. On top of that i had been following the 15 minutes of decluttering every day and had literally gotten rid of an entire room full of stuff just chipping away for 15 minutes each day. By day 31 i was FLYing high after realizing that Zach and I had moved over 250# of un-used stuff from our home to the thrift stores in town. I still have another load to drop off that is un-accounted for, which i need to do soon as my pickup bed looks like a travelling yard sale!

I still have a long way to go, but i now have the tools to keep FLYing high!

Sigh...the Holidays.

This year the family is mostly getting hand made gifts. You heard me! Hand made! I have tons of yarn just sitting there so i may as well put some of it to use!

Its not because we are poor...or that i am cheap (some of my yarn, I confess, was not cheap) but rather i love giving gifts that people will use and love and not let sit and gather dust in some random box.

So there. Deal with it. :)

People make me grumpy...

I hate when i delegate tasks to discover it would have been quicker and less painful to just do it myself. And now the clock is ticking and i have to get stuff done NOW on the double no help. By. My. Self. Gr.

Sometimes new is OK

We bought metal folding chairs instead of regular dining chairs because they are just more practical for our lifestyle right now in the fact that i can fold them up out of sight if the two climbers get too frisky, and i can take em out and hose them down if they get too nasty...which is only practical in the summer of course. I am dead tired of scrubbing crap off my folding chairs. I decided that slipcovers were a necessary evil since i can pull them off and wash them when they get dirty rather than scrubbing snot, pudding, and spaghetti sauce off daily...especially with as much entertaining as we do.

I began researching the most cost-effective and time-effective way to meet my need. New fabric is increasingly expensive, and with estimating about 3 yds/chair and 5 chairs to cover...YIKES! The thrift stores around here have very little in regards to fabric, most of it is remnants from other people's projects and really isn't much good for more than quilting, and seem to be very short on sheets i could recycle. (I found one with Barney...and i REFUSE to recycle a Barney the Dinosaur sheet for my dining chairs. I do have standards you know!)

I started looking online for slipcovers for folding chairs and they were either as much as making my own or i had to order 100!! I finally found a site, YaYa Creations, that offered them in singles, for $2.50 each!! and Flat rate shipping!! Hey I can deal with that! They are polyester, so i can't dye them, but i can wash them and bleach them as needed!! And if i get the whim i can take some fabric paint and stencil them (or get some iron on transfers to paint) with something 1950's since that is the 'theme' i seem to be following.

They may not be a fluffy expensive dining chair, but they work for us and work with my 'bohemian' style of "this and that" and look way nicer than the crusty black folding chairs i bought on sale at the kwalget store.

foot in mouth

sometimes keeping ones mouth shut is worth a thousand words.

Occupation: Home Management Executive

As i was playing with the Profile stuff here on Blogger, i noticed there is a spot where i can put my occupation and industry. Isn't it just a cowinkydink that one of the industries available is "Government"? That is exactly what i do as a mom that doesn't work outside the home...i am the full time Governing Resource and Manager of my home and family. Of course, there are no choices for SAHM, WAHM, Home maker (what an oxymoron)...because being the SAHM mom is so much more than sitting on the couch and eating bon-bons and watching trashy soaps while the house magically takes care of itself.

Lala Land

I have been off in Lala land lately trying to get my house under control now that the girl is in school.

One of my MANY projects has been working on making less of an impact on our landfills. My biggest way i have been doing this is by not using very many disposable products such as napkins, paper towels, and disposable diapers because they not only cost me money to buy, but i have to PAY for their disposal (imagine that loophole in the system, buy the product, use it, pay to get rid of it). I have replaced all those items with their old fashioned counterparts: The cloth napkin, box o rags (old worn out prefolds/flat diapers, teeshirts, and towels), and of course the cloth diaper...and my newest find the cloth toilet wipe (made from recycled flannel sheets and shirts) to replace the YARDs of toilet paper my family seems to clog the toilet with rather than wiping their beehinds. The impact of the water used to wash these items is much less noticeable than the piles and piles of trash in the landfills, go look if you don't believe me.

I was looking for more ways i could lesson my impact and started of course with composting my grass clippings that i didn't need for my garden, which turned into a heaping pile over in the 'back 40' of my yard and while its awesome for the most part, i don't want to have to cart stuff back there when its -40 (I don't even like hauling my trash to the dumpster on the other side of the fence over there when its cold out). I was inspired by a friend who made a 'scrap eater' outside her kitchen door because she has a more huger lot than myself and the 'back 40' is further for her. I of course wanted to use items i already had on hand if i could because i think its silly to go out and purchase items if you don't NEED to. So i googled "Composter DIY" and found the following link:

http://video.about.com/greenliving/Homemade-Compost-Bin.htm

I thought to myself, "Hey, i already have all that except for the lid for the trash can (it blew away in a storm this last summer)!"

So i headed out to the hardware store where they let me purchase a replacement lid for $5.

List of items required:

"Rubbermaid" garbage can (or i guess a metal one if you prefer)

A large nail and hammer

(we used a drill because the nail method is useless on plastic when you want it NOW)

2 Cinder blocks (to help keep unwanted pests out i guess, and to keep the bottom of a metal bin from rotting out)

Watering can or hose (because it won't decompose if its too dry)

and here is my finished product!

Its not pretty by any means, but it functions well so far since we started filling it with our odds and ends kitchen scraps, newspaper shreds, and Josephine's 'take home' papers (of which you don't realize how much gets sent home until you have a kid in school oy!)