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[10:38am March the 15th, 2006] |
I just managed to get my bathroom as clean as it's going to get for today.
I know the bathroom is the zone that we're supposed to be working on for this week, but I've kind of ignored it. I have been keeping up with things, just not like I was last week. I'll get back in the saddle.
So far I've
°Wiped down the counter, sink and toilet.
°Scrubbed the bathroom door.
°Halfassed scrubbed the cabinet doors.
°Ran my hand along the floor and picked up any loose dog hair and q-tips (ew)
°Straightened the rug.
°Lit a candle.
I've also
°Stripped my bed.
°Ran the water for my dishes.
°Started a load of laundry.
°Pulled the laundry in from outside, folded, and put it away.
I still need to
°Put clean dishes away and wash dishes.
°Vacuum.
°Dust.
°Mop.
°Polish mirrors and windows.
°Change the sheets and make the bed.
°Empty the trash.
I waited too long to eat this morning and did a buttload of chores, so I got shaky, really sick to my stomach, and felt like I was going to spew everywhere. That would've been fun...more to clean up!
I'm just feeling...crappy today. It's a kick in the face when I spend my days cleaning my ass off, creating healthy, beautiful dinners, and trying to make plans to keep us happy and busy and I don't feel like I get any respect for it.
Paul does notice a difference and I'm pretty sure he appreciates it. He doesn't go overboard asking if I'd like help, but he does pitch in every now and again. Jennifer on the other hand, does nothing. She doesn't clean, she doesn't even clean up after herself! She says "Oh, I was going to pick that up" but there've been times I've purposely not touched her cup/plate, whatever and it's been sitting on the fucking coffee table the next day. I don't care if she keeps her room in a constant state of filth, but it'd be nice if I didn't have to ask her for help. I'm not her mother and I don't feel that I should have to ask a grown woman to pick up after herself or help around the house from time to time. If she didn't spend the entire day sleeping, she might actually be motivated to do something other than go to work and vegetate. I don't expect her to start doing as much as I do by any means, but doesn't she ever sit there and think "Hmmm...Christine is working her ass off, she cooks for me, she cleans up after me, and I don't even ever buy groceries to contribute...I should do something nice like wash some dishes or dust!" It never even occurs to her. I don't care if you're self proclaimed lazy, that doesn't help me and all it does is piss me off because you're admitting you're a lazy ass which means that you're TELLING me that you're not going to do a damned thing unless I TELL you to. That's bullshit.
I'm sorry to come so unglued...I'm trying to stay positive about this whole cleaning thing because it's something I want to do to better Paul and I, but it's frustrating when I'm working my ass off and I see someone that only works part-time out of the house sitting on her ass while I clean up after everyone.
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| Slow start |
[10:38am March the 14th, 2006] |
I've been battling a horrid ear infection for the past week, so I haven't been completely keeping up with my housework. I've managed to keep the kitchen clean and keep the clutter to a dull roar, but it's not where I want it to be.
I made oatmeal raisin muffins for Paul's breakfasts for this week. They're not at all sweet, except for the burst of sweetness from the raisins, and I'm really happy that I can provide something healthy for him to eat for breakfast. It's not the easiest thing to do, considering we're both horrible about snacking.
I'm making General Tso chicken for dinner tonight. It's one of our absolute favorite things to get when we go to our favorite chinese restaurant and I'm hoping that the recipe is close to what we get when we go out. I'll serve it over white rice and since Paul is completely against any type of stir fry veggie, I might make a green salad to go with it.
This week is the bathroom and another room and I haven't done anything yet. I need to get off my butt and get to work!
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| To do |
[6:51am March the 6th, 2006] |
1. Get out of bed and hit the ground FLYing!
2. Make the bed.
3. Get dressed.
4. Swish and swipe while in the bathroom.
5. Empty the dish drainer.
6. Check the calendar for appointments.
7. Wash dishes.
8. Prepare dinner items in advance.
9. Wash and hang laundry.
From my detailed cleaning list for this zone, today I'm going to scrub some of the cabinet fronts.
Today's Mission is to thoroughly clean the countertops.
I'm making Mandarin Glazed Pork Chops for dinner tonight, over rice. It sounds really good, so I'm hoping that it turns out well.
I've changed my baking day from Monday to Sunday. Since Paul needs muffins for breakfast on Mondays, it only makes sense. As long as I don't wait until the last minute to go shopping on Sundays, it shouldn't be too hard.
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| Weekends are my downfall |
[6:39am March the 4th, 2006] |
When I was a teenager, I used to clean my room on the weekends. I'd go out Friday night, party, and then spend Saturday afternoon nursing a headache and cleaning my room. I'd rearrange everything, vacuum, dust, wash my laundry. It wasn't every single weekend, but enough that an old friend of mine remembered me doing it pretty regularly.
I've been with my husband for almost ten years now, and things have changed. Now, I do all of my housecleaning during the week, and on the weekends we don't do a single solitary thing. We go shopping on Sundays usually, but other than that, Saturday and Sunday are days to loaf around the house and not do anything at all. We eat fast food, leave the wrappers lying around. I don't do the dishes, and laundry doesn't get done unless it's an emergency late Sunday night.
I doubt that's going to change much, even with me being back on Flylady, but I'd like to change it a little. Since we hardly ever eat homemade stuff on the weekends, I'd like to run in and swish the dishes clean so I'm not faced with them on Monday. It's mainly just soda and water glasses, no biggie. I'd also like to make sure that before I go to bed at night that the living room is at least picked up a little bit. I think it will make things much easier to face come Monday.
Since I've been back on a schedule, my body is getting used to it. I haven't woken to the alarm all week, instead, I wake up around 5 or 5:30 every morning. No matter what time I go to bed. To a point, I'm enjoying it. It's nice to not wake up groggy from being in bed too long, or going to bed at 3am and waking up shortly before my husband gets home from work. Now, I'm usually up when he gets up to get ready for work, and when he gets home. It's nice.
I just thought I'd take a few minutes to write since I'm almost never online long enough to during the weekends. I'm also thinking I need to get more active in some communities and meet some new friends. I like comments. I know that there probably isn't that many people that would be interested in my lj since I rarely talk about anything but cleaning, but it feels good to have friends. I'm only a member of two communities right now, and though one of them is warm and supportive, the other one is cold and quiet.
I'm just rambling now.
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| Ugh. |
[1:11pm March the 3rd, 2006] |
I managed to get most of my dailies done, but I didn't get the laundry folded yet, and I didn't manage to get to any of my craft room. *sigh* That sucks.
I've spent nearly the whole day trying to figure out css for my other blog. Why does it have to seem like Greek to me? I can understand simple html, but the more intricate stuff is completely beyond me.
Hopefully I'll get to the rest of the stuff I wanted to do today, but if not, I'll do what I can to take care of it over the weekend.
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| An early start |
[12:38pm March the 3rd, 2006] |
Getting an early start always feels great to me. I've already done a few of my steps and the hubbin' isn't even up quite yet!
1. Get out of bed and hit the ground FLYing!
2. Make the bed.
3. Get dressed.
4. Swish and swipe the bathroom.
5. Empty the dish drainer.
6. Check calendar for appointments.
7. Wash dishes.
8. Prepare dinner items in advance. (Friday is our date night, out to eat!)
9. Fold laundry and put away.
Today's Mission is to clean any smudges or fingerprints from the dining room area. Since I don't have a dining room, I'll be working on getting my craft room in order.
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| To-do |
[10:54am March the 2nd, 2006] |
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I'm a little late with my post today, but I've been up since 5! On the upside, it's given me a chance to get a lot of my work done already!
1. Get out of bed and hit the ground FLYing!
2. Make the bed.
3. Get dressed.
4. Swish and swipe while in the bathroom.
5. Empty the dish drainer.
6. Check calendar for appointments.
7. Wash dishes.
8. Prepare dinner items in advance.
9. Fold yesterday's laundry.
10. Wash a load of laundry.
11. Hang laundry.
12. Make grocery list.
13. Plan next week menu.
14. Clean fridge.
Today's mission is to work on the hot spots on the front porch, entryway and dining room.
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| Yay! |
[10:03pm March the 1st, 2006] |
I just finished my list for the day, and although there's still things to do (like finish making dinner, wash the dinner dishes, nighttime routine) I can't believe I finished it all! I'm so proud of myself for not only finishing my list, but for getting myself back on track. It feels good!
I'm exhausted right now, and I spent way more than 15 minutes on several of the chores, but I think it's worth it. The only thing mucking up the look of the house now is my craft room. It's gotta be next, it's a disaster zone!
I found some nifty tips that I thought I'd share:
( Uses for Vinegar )
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| To-do |
[7:48am March the 1st, 2006] |
1. Get out of bed and hit the ground FLYing!
2. Make the bed.
3. Get dressed to shoes
4. Swish and swipe the toilet and counters while in the bathroom
5. Empty the dish drainer
6. Check calendar for appointments.
7. Wash dishes.
8. Prepare dinner items in advance.
9. Start load of laundry.
10. Hang laundry.
It's Wednesday, which means it's time for my first Weekly home blessing hour. That will include:
1. Vacuum/sweep middle of rooms.
2. Dust.
3. Mop kitchen/bathroom.
4. Clean glass and mirrors.
5. Purge magazines/papers.
6. Straighten books/movies/games.
7. Empty all trash cans.
8. Change sheets on bed.
In addition, Today's Mission is fifteen minutes on the entry of your home. I think it's going to be a busy morning!
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| New(er) |
[12:15am March the 1st, 2006] |
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I just started this journal yesterday, and I'm already changing everything around. The first layout I put up was really pretty, but it just wasn't easy to read. I like to be able to scroll and I couldn't with that layout. The designer says that this one is best used in Firefox, which is what I use, but I'll have to check it out in IE just to see what it looks like.
Dinner was a little bit of a hit. Paul liked it, but he didn't love it. Jen liked it a lot though so I put it in a container for her to take to work with her. She was going to take some of the chicken I made last night, but I actually have plans to use the leftovers for Thursdays meal. I felt uncomfortable telling her she couldn't have it...we pay for the groceries, so I shouldn't, but it still made me feel bad. At least we share at all...I know a lot of roommates that wouldn't think twice about telling their roomie they couldn't eat their food. We're not like that. She can eat it, she just has to wait until the next meal is made with it :-/
I took a nap earlier because I wasn't feeling well. I'd woken up at one in the morning yesterday and didn't get back to sleep. I was so tired that when I asked Paul to wake me up at 6 pm, I didn't realize I'd ignore it and sleep for another hour and a half! Dinner was late, but at least I feel accomplished knowing that it was made at all. Since I'd prepared the pasta salad in advance, all that was left to do was make the breadsticks and that only took about 20 minutes. I'll have to remember next time not to substitute biscuit dough for pizza dough. I'll have to try to find a recipe online that I can freeze and then use later. That way when I do all my baking on Monday I can just make it up and use it through the week.
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| Dinner |
[3:05pm February the 28th, 2006] |
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I decided to go ahead and make dinner early so it could marinate in the dressing. Here's a nice delectible picture for whomever's viewing pleasure:
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| Dinner recipe at lunchtime |
[12:01pm February the 28th, 2006] |
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I thought I'd post the recipes for what I'm making for dinner tonight. It's the first time I've tried the entree recipe, but it sounds interesting, and it'll be a change from what we normally have at dinner time.
( Pepperoni pasta salad )
I'll be making these to go with it.
( Copycat Crazybread )
I really hope that it turns out to be a good meal. My hubbin' is a notoriously picky eater. No mushrooms, no onion, he doesn't care for pasta very much (which worries me with this meal!). He likes fried foods, junk food, fast food. I'm hoping the pepperoni in this dish paired with his love for just about any type of bread will be the savior of this meal.
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| To-do |
[9:37am February the 28th, 2006] |
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Morning Routine
1. Get out of bed and hit the ground FLYing! CHECK
2. Make the bed. CHECK
3. Get dressed to shoes (Having a hard time wanting to put shoes on just to clean house :()
4. Swish & swipe toilet and sink while in the bathroom CHECK
5. Empty the dish drainer CHECK
6. Check calendar for appointments CHECK
7. Wash dishes CHECK
8. Prepare dinner items in advance (not quite yet...still too early)
9. Laundry (It's raining and I hang my clothes on a line)
10. Fold laundry CHECK
Today's mission is to do a quick 5 minute dust in the living room. Considering I haven't dusted in about (ack!) two months, I don't think I'll get it all done in 5 minutes. But since I've done a good portion of my morning routine, I'll go ahead and take a little more time. I also need to do yesterdays, which was clean the hot spots in the livingroom. (for me, that's my computer desk and coffee table)
So much needs to be done, but I've gotta keep taking baby steps. It didn't get this way overnight, I'm not going to be able to clean it all up in one day!
One of my next steps is decluttering. I have a feeling the thrift stores in town will be getting a lot of donations in the following months!
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| The first of many entries |
[9:07am February the 28th, 2006] |
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This is my first entry here and the circumstances couldn't be better. I've just started back on FlyLady, we're getting some perfect rain right now, and my kitchen is clean.
Currently I'm a stay at home wife. I have been for most of the ten years I've been married. I've always had that "Ideal housewife" image in my head, you know the one. Where you get up every morning, serve breakfast to your husband, and send him off to work. The one where you clean house all day, with a smile, and have dinner on the table when your man gets home. It's terribly cliché, and most women probably think that I'm throwing feminism back a hundred years, but it's how I feel. I'm not against working women, single women, I'm not against any women...it's just how I'd like to be.
It doesn't really work out that way though. Luckily, we don't have children, so that's not a factor. But between late nights and early mornings, lack of motivation, and just being out and out lazy sometimes, our home resembles an earthquake hot spot instead of House Beautiful.
I'm trying to change that. I want to bake our bread, have clean sheets every week, not have to step over laundry in the hallway to get to the grungy bathroom. I have the time, I have the desire, now I just have to get on the right track and stay there.
This journal is specifically for this purpose. I have another lj for normal everyday stuff. I hope to record recipes, cleaning tips, my control journal, and my progress.
I'm very open to having new friends, and I plan on joining some cleaning communities. I've perused some and noticed that they're not very active. If anyone has a few communities they frequent that are actually active, please leave a comment and let me know!
I'm sure I come off slightly (or more than slightly) obsessed. I am a little, but it doesn't make me a bad person. So what if I want to be Suzy Homemaker? I still cuss like a sailor and smoke, and tattoo my husband. I knit and listen to Rammstein. I feel I'm pretty well rounded, despite using too many commas.
I hope to meet some new people soon! I'm trying to stay away from too much drama though, so please, no rude comments.
Can't wait to get started!
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