I've been wanting to celebrate my brand new 'empty nest' for a few days now, but haven't figured out how besides watch a lot of movies. That was fun, but I just got inspired to do Flylady's 31 babysteps.

Here's the link:
http://flylady.net/pages/begin_babysteps.asp

I thought that some of us might want to do them together and post here how it's going? Feel free to PM me if it's too scary to admit this publicly. I'm almost too scared myself!

This evening, I shine my sink!

Love and More Love,
Grinity

I have been wanting to do this site myself!! :-)

We moved 3 months ago and I am having such a hard time getting our new place "organized". Half our stuff is still laying around :-(. I did get the kid rooms put together and the living room (so anyone coming to the door sees a nice room ;-) ) but the rest of the house is still a work in progress!

Oh yes -
DS14 got dropped off at boarding school earlier in August, and classes have started and he seems to be making a good transition. He'll be doing 9th grade again, as will many of his classmates, which I hope will buy him more time to mature and figure out how to manage himself, PG, ADD and personality too. Class size varies from 4 to 10 kids/class. Each class is 90 minutes long. DH observed that the teachers are like: 'Half teacher, Half Mentor.' Yummy. His Houseparent says he is participating in everything. So for now, 'it's all good.'

Grinity

That's great to hear, Grinity!

I might be up for flylady... certainly need the site, but think I should focus more energy on finding satisfying work for myself...

((hugs))kcab!

If it were either/or then sure, focus on work, but if you are like me, I was wasting about 2 hours a week looking for lost items, or distracting myself with computer/sleep/who knows what because I was so low energy from how guilty I felt about the messiness of my house.

I'm really not planning to spend more than 10 minutes a day on this project - not counting the minijobs that almost do themselves while I'm waiting for the water to boil, the computer to boot up, waiting for DH to 'be right there.' (will probably spend more time posting and reading about it than doing it - LOL)

The funny thing is that even with my feminist consiousness, I still feel dragged down and like I want to hide if the house is a mess, and a bounce in my step if the house looks inviting. So the energy I spend on loving the home gets paid back two fold, at least. Not to mention the extra time I have not that 'hunting for car keys' isn't a daily activity.

And when I do lose things, I know that after the 2nd place I look, if they aren't there, they are 'really gone.' That cuts the hunt short and is a big timesaver. Plus I no longer have the experience that every place I look is such a mess that it takes forever to check there and I feel more and more hopeless and out of control over how stuffed those drawers are.

I don't know if this sounds familiar, Kcab, but seriously, if there is anything that you feel like you really should be putting more energy into, but aren't then there is a pretty good chance that your energy is being drained away somewhere. An out of control physical environment is a pretty common energy drian.

Hugs and More Hugs,
Grinity

I'm in.

I've tried Flylady before (maybe 4 years ago??? DD was still nursing, now she's starting first grade. Ack!).

Things in my house got noticeably better, then I slacked off or distracted... ooh! Shiny!

I should be using the routines that I'm trying to teach too!

Maryann

Welcome aboard Maryann1! I always get a big grin when I see DS14, who mocks Flylady, doing something that he's seen me do 'forever' thanks to Flylady. Recently DS14 analysed my personality and judged me to be a 'neatness and organization' fanatic. I just took it as a compliment. When I checked with DH, I was reminded of just how bad things used to be, a mear 7 years ago, pre-Flylady.

I heard about Flylady on a YSP list, and of all that amazing and wonderful things we have gotten from the YSP, this might actually be the one that has made the biggest difference. OK, that and CTY. Ok, that and CTY, and the DIGs, and gradeskip, and the deceleration, and....well, you get the idea.

grins

I missed your post before Jolene - Welcome aboard! Progress is what it's all about!

I'm in! I've tried before, but somehow I always get side-tracked. I have trouble with the baby steps, and want to do it all NOW (which Fly Lady advises against, and I never listen to...), so then I end up going back to my old ways of doing nothing (well, not nothing, but certainly not enough). I've heard so many people say how her system works for them. I'd love to have a house that wasn't controlled by CHAOS (for those who don't know, that stands for Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome).

Okay, so tonight I shine the sink!

Thanks for starting this, Grinity!

DD has a bed time routine, morning routine and a matrix for picking lunch foods. They're in page protectors and she crosses everything off with a wet erase marker daily.

Am I allowed to start with Day 4?

Maryann