As you know, I have returned to my quasi fly lady, semi made up totally by me household planning system. I have to say, I am loving it, and I am loving the fact that my husband loves how clean and pulled together the house has been lately. I do have to say though, if you miss a day of zone cleaning/organizing the work really starts to pile up. So you can imagine how backed up I was after missing, say, six days straight. Last week was the first week of my new part time stay at home mom gig, and I'm not going to lie to you, the week sort of got away from me.
I'm back on track now though. Yesterday I cleaned the master bedroom and both boys rooms, which included running the sweeper. I have to run the sweeper when Alex isn't around because he totally freaks out every time it is turned on. I am not sure where this fear is coming from; he was present in our hotel room daily when housekeeping was cleaning, so it's not like he has never seen, or heard, a sweeper before. He was even OK with it here at home, at first. But now, suddenly, he acts like a dog, screaming and running around while simultaneously trying to climb up my leg.
Today I cleaned both the master bathroom and the boys' bathroom, with Alex's help. Staying on track is a little harder with my tiny toddler around. Today he ran around the upstairs wielding the broom and hitting it on all the closed doors while I both cleaned the bathrooms and prayed that he didn't:
A. knock everything off the top of the dressers with the broom handle.
B. knock the shelf off the wall in the hallway. (the shelf was hung by me, so I'm not all that sure how secure it is up there.)
C. use the broom handle as a high jump pole as he catapults himself over the gate and down the stairs.
Bottom line: may not be perfect, but it's done, and it's getting done again next week so it's all good.
Here's the really cool part though. Every night before I hang out with my husband the toys are picked up, mostly, the kitchen is clean and the laundry is folded. (usually not put away, but that's a goal for another day.) It is really becoming second nature. And it is rubbing off on my family. Yesterday I had to pick up the boys early from daycare, (because one was sick, only he wasn't sick and the teacher didn't even know I had been called. that's right. stay tuned for that story.) The living room was covered from one end to the other with toys, sofa pillows, blankets, sippy cups... the mess had started to creep into the kitchen and I was tripping over mini electric pianos and tiny matchbox cars while trying to cook dinner. I started to sing the "toys away" song and before I knew it my big four and a half year old was on his feet, picking up the toys. I didn't even have to ask him!
After dinner I took my older son to Starbucks for "Mommy and Matthew" time and when we got back there were a few toys back out, from the two year old's play time with Daddy. After bedtime TV show, bath time, (which involved a trash bag to keep the big four and a half year old's splint dry and lots of shushing to keep the two year asleep down the hall), and cleaning up dinner I just left the living room. And this morning my amazing four and a half year old walked into the living room, stated "This room is a mess!" and began picking up the toys! Score!
So I am loving my new system. I have finished my family "control" journal, complete with a our family mission statement, weekly menu's, shopping lists, daily and weekly tasks and zone cleaning. I have also added babysitter notes for the boys and emergency contact information, including medical teams and such. (my older son sees at least five different doctors, so it's not so easy to keep them all straight.) And it is all in a binder with a picture of my boys slid into the front window, so that when it stands up on my kitchen counter it doubles as a picture frame. Some may think it's silly, but it's the little victories that make our days special, right? For me, it's all about control, and with my control journal at the ready I feel completely in control.
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