So, yeah... I'm not a great blogger. I always have the best of intentions, and write amazing, genius, Pulitzer-worthy blogs in my head, but somehow they never get posted so I am still awaiting my Pulitzer. But anyway, here I am, giving it another shot. You may not hear from me for another 6 months after this, but I'll try to do better from here on out. And I just wanted to add that, since it's been so long, forgive me if I ramble. My mind is going a million miles a minute, but it's filled with good stuff and I want to spread the love (or at least make a record of it so that I can re-read this when my mind's filled with not-so-good stuff).
The fact that my blog has been completely inactive, though, certainly doesn't mean that I have been. I'm skipping the My One Word journal that was given this month (and continuing to skip the ones that I've already skipped) so that I can get some other stuff out. I am still working on my homeward-ness, and do plan on catching up on those at some point. But today is not that point.
I guess the biggest news since my last post is that my sweet man and I are expecting another baby. Currently nicknamed Blueberry, the baby is due on November 5. No, we don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet. I'm not sure if we plan on finding out, but I'll say that we probably will because Eric wants to know and I'm sure as heck not letting him know if I don't. I'm not that bothered about the whole surprise thing. You either get surprised when you still have time to buy blue or pink clothing or you get surprised when you've already had to stock up on green and yellow stuff. We'll likely opt for the earlier, prep-time surprise. At first, Blueberry had me quite sick. Thankfully, that only lasted for a few weeks. Now my appetite is back in full force and I'm starting to get a bit of a bump (more than the fat roll I had a few weeks ago). I need to get a picture, but I need a competent camera operator to do that. Logan doesn't count.
The second bit of big news is that Logan has finished 1st grade! I am so incredibly proud of him. We actually finished up early this year because we were both starting to get twitterpated; him with the beautiful weather outside, and me with the beautiful dirt in the garden. So we went over the standards for 1st grade, found out we'd already surpassed them, and called this boring, boring curriculum quits. He took his test and got a 92%, so the government is satisfied. He got a National Award in PE (yes, I bore my musician husband a jock!). And I have seen him learn and grow so much this year that I am tickled pink! He is a really amazing little boy, and I am super proud of him. Next year we are planning to homeschool again, although we'll start in early August this time so we can take the amount of time off that we need to in November when Blueberry arrives. I'm super excited to get away from CLE, which was educationally very good, but also very boring, and get back to My Father's World, which we did in Kindergarten and both really loved. We're also supplementing that with Professor B math, which I'm also massively excited about. Logan is not a lover of math (wonder where he got that from....), and from the research I've done, this is a GREAT curriculum for kids like him. And I'm sure we'll be supplementing with plenty of visits to the library and any other cool field trips we can afford and with some cool lapbooks again too (we did several this year and had a lot of fun with them.) Homeschooling rocks and I am so proud and happy that we can call ourselves a homeschool family!
Well. Now that I have the big announcements out of the way, I guess I can actually get to the point here. This does have something to do with that special little word I've chosen, so if you were hoping for an update on that, you can count this, because it's as close as you're going to get right now.
I'm sure that anyone who reads this knows that I have been attempting to FLY for almost two years now. Those attempts have been largely comprised of tiny flutters followed by severe crashing and burning. I am out to change that once and for all. So I started with my bed. I know, I know... FlyLady says start with the kitchen sink. But hear me out!
The kitchen sink thing just didn't work for me. I shined my kitchen sink fifty-eleven times. Usually at least once a month, I would "get back on the wagon" and shine my sink. After doing all the massive pile-up of dishes, and shining said sink, I was so exhausted that I couldn't possibly do another thing. Shining the sink is the first step right? Yeah, only if you keep it that way every day. Not if you clean the dishes, shine the sink, then let the dishes (and disgusting bits that go along with them) pile up in the shiny sink until it is dull and gross again. That's what we call a vicious cycle. But I know in the depths of my soul that FlyLady is a system that works miracles for people like me. I know that it works and I know that I'm not THAT flawed that FlyLady can't possibly work for me. So I made up a new sink. It's called my bed.
My whole house was a wreck. Clutter everywhere, dirt piled up. Disgusting. I would manage to crisis clean it decently any time I was expecting company, but God forbid someone drop by unannounced! I started reading FlyLady's book, Sink Reflections and she said something that hit me like a ton of bricks. She was talking about getting our houses "company ready" and then reflected that she hated that term because we should be treating our families even better than we treat our company. Ouch. And I knew something had to change. I decided that since that sink thing wasn't working for me, I needed a new focus. And I somehow fell into it being my bed. Making my bed is way easier than keeping all my dishes done. It takes only a few minutes and it looks gorgeous when it's all tucked in neat. And it feels delicious to climb into a clean, neat bed at the end of a long day. So I made the bed. And even though my room was disastardly (my own word, and I love it too much to let the spell-checker fix it), I smiled every time I walked in the room or walked past the room because I could see that nice neat bed. And from there I got started. I made my bed every day. The next week I actually washed the sheets (and I can't tell you how long it had been. Yuck.) And I still kept making the bed. Then I decided that I wanted the room to look decent around that beautiful bed, so I figured I'd better start doing laundry. And suddenly (okay, actually like a week later) all the laundry was done. I'm doing one load each day now and putting it away as soon as it's dry. There's no more clean laundry pile-up. No more dirty laundry pile-up. No more wondering if something in or near a pile is clean or dirty. All the clothes are put away. Baby step 2 complete.
The following Monday (which was yesterday) I washed the sheets again. I hung them on the line and started to remake the bed with sheets from the closet. Then I stopped myself. I'm doing all this work to make things pretty... I deserve to have sheets that smell like sunshine on my bed! So for the first time in 2 weeks, I didn't make my bed right away yesterday. I waited until the sheets on the line were dry and then made it. Now my bed smells like sunshine and it makes me even happier. So this is what that "finally loving yourself" thing is all about...
So fast forward to today and I am working on baby step number 3. I'm still following the FlyLady philosophy - FlyLady gave me my pixie dust to get me off the ground! - but I'm making it work for me, like she always says to do! My baby step number 3 is to get the dishes done and keep them done. If I do a small sink-full every day, it'll be just like the laundry, done and done with very minimal effort. And that's the kind of doing I like.
So wish me luck as I flutter off to work on some more dishes. My bed is made. The laundry is done, folded and put away. Baby step number three is half-way completed. Give me a couple of weeks and I think my house will be not just company-ready, but home.
"I began by shining my sink. It was a simple task that did not overpower me. When I finished the sink that shiny sink gave me hope. It was also faith in myself. I accomplished something and I was keeping it shining and not falling back into my old ways." ~FlyLady
