FlyLady How I Love Thee!

I stumbled on an article in Woman's day in October of 2002. It was written by a woman who called herself the FlyLady. At the time I was a brand new housewife with a full time job. I was struggling to find a way to keep up with everything I thought I was supposed to as a new wife.

It caught my eye because FlyLady mentioned her inspiration came from a book. The Side Tracked Home Executives. As a young girl I remember my mother reading the book, and I too read the book just after I got married. It was funny, true to my life, and had a good system. I however got lost in the many pieces of paper associated with this system.

FlyLady's plan was simple. 15 minutes a day! I could do that right? Yep I sure could! She would even send out reminder emails. I could do that!

I also loved that she started preparing for the holidays in October. By preparing I mean cleaning the house well, gathering supplies, and making things ready...so on December 1st I would be ready to do the fun party of Christmas. This appealed to me the one who would celebrate Christmas year round if I could!

It turned out to be a great Christmas. I had found a great routine, I had found great friends who also were working on her routines. Over the years I have gone though good time and not so great times in my quest to be a domestic goddess! I have read many books on organization and effeciency in keeping the home. I always end up back with FlyLady.

This year is the same. I struggled after having Andrew to find a good routine, so at the begining of the year I jumped back into getting the house organized and running well. I had let it slip pretty badly Andrew's first year of life (which is completely understandable).

Stephanie a friend of mine who should be FlyLady's poster child has been such a great source of support and encouragement. We chat each week about our goals, and projects. She has helped me completely flip a few rooms back in the summer. Recently she sponsored a great FlyLady BootCamp to get our butts in gear again. It was a great 9 weeks!

So this Christmas looks vastly different from last December. My house is clean and ready for company, I finished my shopping a month ago and came in under budget, my Christmas cards are addressed and ready to go. All I have to do is maintain everything and do the fun stuff now!

FlyLady may not be for everyone... but if there is a moral to this Blog Post, it would be, find what works for you and don't stop trying. Love yourself and your family enough to keep trying!

For those who do not know who FlyLady is check out her website: www.flylady.net. She is on Facebook too! When I joined her site it was very small and growing. It has grown SO much and there are SO many resources for all areas of life. It really is great!