Flying With Fly Lady

I admit that I struggle with housework. It seems that every time I start something, I get interrupted by a kid, a dog or a husband. Feeling like I never really get to finish anything can be pretty discouraging but I struggled to find a way to fix it. Then I joined Fly Lady. The premise behind Fly Lady is genious, the encouragement is wonderful as is the non judgemental approach. And it works! Essentially the premise is to take things one step at a time, start with something small and work your way up and not to spend so much time on something that you get overwhelmed and give up.

I know to some people that sounds really simple and obvious. Other people will be wondering how that really helps you. Well, let's use my experience as an example. The first thing Fly Lady says to do is shine your sink. I know what you're thinking, but stay with me. So, even though I doubted shining my sink would really make a big difference I set out to do it anyway. In order to shine the sink, I had to empty it. So, the dishes got done. Then I shined the sink. And looking at my sparkling clean sink I realized that I couldn't have a shining sink and not as shiney counter tops. So, my counters got cleaned off and scrubbed as well. And you can't have sparkling counters and a sink without making your floors sparkle as well right? It's a chain reaction. And once I deep cleaned it all and got into a routine the upkeep is much faster and easier. So, I carried the same chain reaction concept into the master bedroom. I made the bed and went from there.

When you start with Fly Lady, there's a guide that tells you a new thing to do for the first 30 days. As you read it, you're going to have doubts about whether it really makes a difference. Stick with it anyway. It does help. There's lots of helpful information, tips, advice etc on the Fly Lady websie as well. To sign up visit  http://www.flylady.net/.

My Life Lately

Hello readers. I know one of my resolutions was to get better at this blogging thing and I know I've kinda sucked at it so far. Not that I'm making excuses, but I do have some excuses. I caught the flu. Seriously. And it sucked. It essentially put me out of commission for nearly a week. Once I recovered, my house needed some serious recovery as well.

Then, my three year old needed some serious dental work. Apparently he has soft enamel which makes him very susceptible to cavities. Also, at 18 months he fell and damaged his front teeth. A previous dentist told us she had fixed them. She hadn't. Upon x-ray his new, and wonderful, dentist announced the teeth were abscessed and shot. So, my baby boy had to have his front teeth taken out. The dentist will be putting in false teeth so he won't be without front teeth for years, thankfully. I'm proud to say that my boy handled it all like a champ.  I have to brag that his new dentist said he's one of the best patients she has ever seen. I have to brag because his old dentist swore up and down he wouldn't hold still for a procedure and wanted to put him under general anesthesia. I'm so so so glad we switched dentists.

My daughter was diagnosed with a heart murmur this past week. Apparently they are very common in children but it's still scary for a parent to hear. We took her to a cardiologist but will be getting a second opinion as neither my husband or I were impressed with or confident in the doctor she saw or his staff. And our daughter hated them and screamed, flailed and fought the entire time leaving us to doubt the dr's office really got an accurate assessment of her at all. At this point it's believed to be an innocent murmur, thankfully, but as I said we'll be getting  a second opinion to make sure. Some people might think we're being too picky or too critical or whatever. But they can shove it. I'm not going to blindly trust a doctor that I don't feel confident in, especially not when it comes to my kid and a vital organ. Plus, with a strong family history of heart problems, it's just smart to make sure.

My 4 year old is healthy, growing and will soon be turning 5. Eek! He's excitedly planning his birthday party and is already excited about going to school this fall. He's been working hard to learn the ABC's and numbers and loves to show off his newly discovered knowledge. He has started asking  me how to spell everything. There's the end of  me spelling things I don't want him to understand. *sigh* They grow too fast.

We also got a new dog. The boys decided her name should be Jesse like the cowgirl from Toy Story. She's 4 months old and is an AKC registered German Shepherd, my dream dog. I had planned to go through a rescue or animal shelter and was under the impression that we were indeed on our way to the shelter when my husband made a detour and returned to the car with Jesse. He's a sneaky one and had the whole thing planned for days. But I must say it feels like Jesse is made for us. She's super sweet and smart and follows me everywhere. And she and the kids are head over heels for each other. The baby quickly learned the pup's name and now runs through the house calling 'Je-tee! Je-tee!'. German Shepherds are big active dogs so we were obviously concerned that she get enough exercise. We shouldn't have worried. She and the kids love to chase each other through the house and Jesse is almost always the first one to need a nap. Exercise will not be a problem for this pup. :-) 

On My Own

Guest post written by Jeramy Sparks

What’s better than getting your first job? Getting your first place by yourself! And what makes getting your first place better; having your landlord include all of the utilities in your rent, even direct TV. Now to understand my excitement, you must know where I’m moving from and what my other options were. Because my parents are divorced and neither one of them could afford to send me to college, I had to take out student loans and do it all on my own. To be able to get my degree as cheap as possible, I was forced to live on campus all 4 years of college. That’s right, I was 1 of maybe 5 seniors still living on campus. That wouldn’t have been so bad, but I was also a RA, which means I get to answer all the questions that the clueless freshmen could possibly think of and break up more parties than I can even count. After graduation, I could either find my own place, move in with my mom or move in with my dad. Seeing as how my mom is dating an extremely overbearing, arrogant man whom she just so happened to have moved into her house 2 weeks ago, I decided that living with her was not going to work. And after breaking up all those parties, moving in with an alcoholic father seemed less than ideal too. So, here I am, all out on my own!