When Momma is Sick-Part 2--Preparation

Whenever we make new friends and invite them to our house for lunch, there is a perception that I’m organized with our schedule and getting things done.  What they don’t know is that the schedules and checklists they see are 11 years worth of tweaking.  If it has taken me 11 years to do, what did it look like before?  Please allow me to share with you exactly what things use to be like, before I decided to take charge of my home—when it had charge over me. 

If you walked up to our front door, knocked and wanted to visit suddenly, we wouldn’t have been able to let you in because we were always, constantly, consistently in a disheveled mess.  There were always papers on the dining room table that had to be gone through, organized and filed because, well, I hate filing—a theme that I have yet to conquer.  There was always dishes in the sink and on the counters to do.  There were toys everywhere.  Mount washmore decided to grow in to what seemed to be a looming giant willing and able to slay me at a moment’s notice.  The walls were closing in on me and it certainly wasn’t a place of peaceful rest for anyone, including my husband. 

After giving it lots of prayer for help, I kept getting encouragement from a friend of mine here and there about this fabulous website that helped her to shine her sink every day.  I thought, “How ridiculous is this?  I can shine my sink, but what difference does it make when the whole house needs such drastic attention?”  I decided after looking at Mount Washmore again, that something, even the seemingly most ridiculous, had to be done.   

I went to flylady.net and started reading about this lady who, with military like zeal, had managed to gain a hundred thousand followers.  I thought, “Wow!  People can sure fall for stuff, can’t they?!”  LOL  But, I kept reading.  I came upon the part where I was supposed to simply start by shining my sink.  She dared me to shine my sink every day and make sure it was shining before I went to bed every night for 21 days.  I thought, “Uhm, this is really weird, but I guess I could do this.”  I began right then.  I took all the dirty dishes out of my sink and shined it.  It looked so pretty!  I hadn’t seen it that clean in a long time.  I thought as I stood there looking at it, “I could do up all these dishes, but what does she say about that?”  So, as you could guess, I went to the computer to read about how she attacked massive amounts of things.  To my shock and utter amazement, she didn’t finish them right away!  She didn’t spend hours in the kitchen finishing the dishes and cleaning!  She only spent 15 minute increments, setting a timer, doing what she could as quickly as she could and when the timer went off, she moved on to another area that needed attention in the house.  *gasp*  I was in SHOCK!  I thought, “Oh my gosh!  She gives herself permission to walk away from unfinished dishes and work on something else for 15 minutes!  And if that doesn’t take the cake, she does it AGAIN!  Holy cow!  Then she goes and puts her feet up and gets a drink!”  I was dumbfounded to say the least.  Shaking my head in disbelief, I began the same thing she elaborated on.  You know, no one would be able to fully comprehend the amazing transformation of events that unfolded when all I did was rotate through my house in 15 minute increments, resting the final ¼ of an hour, every hour until my work was done and my house was picked up.  It took me a full week, if not more for more troubled areas, to completely get things under control.  But, as she said on her website, “Your house didn’t get messed up over night, so it isn’t going to get clean and decluttered overnight.”  I kept working, seeing more and more improvement.  It was contagious too!  My kids got in to it!  We had the whole house dusted in an hour!  But, that wasn’t my goal.  My goal was how could I tweek this system, keep using its basic premise, and make it work beyond how she organized her own system?  Besides, I was home schooling and she wasn’t.  That was a dimension that she hadn’t broached yet, so I needed to.  I went back to my knees and asked God for help.  I didn’t get help right away, but honestly, that was probably a good thing.  LOL  I needed to keep moving with the flylady system and get more decluttered and packed away for our move and sale of our house.  We were putting finishing touches on our house to sell in 2005, so it really was a help with everything packed in boxes in the garage so that we could focus on keeping the house tidy, neat and clean for people who were going to come and look at the house. 

The source of the fire was a foot off the floor, underneath the charred table.

Then, when we thought we had things under control, the unthinkable hit—a disaster, according to most—a fire started in our basement after putting the finishing touches on the floor.  

To the left of the above picture.  The melted plastic on the walls was part of a French Drain system.

Past the hot water heater on the other side of the basement was our home gym. 



Pantry cupboard, a small portion of it, with everything charred from the fire.  All of our food, including the contents of the refrigerator upstairs, had to be thrown out.  The only redeeming items were in the garage freezers.



This is looking down the steps to the basement.  The side door that was broken in is to the left.



How did the flylady system help through all of that?  Well, all through the 4 years prior, she encouraged all of her readers to start a Control Journal.  This thing was basically a binder that was “Command Central” for each of our own homes.  With the Control Journal, it was something that if you had an emergency and you just are clueless about what to do next, because let’s face it—most of us shut down when you see that your front and side door of your home has been kicked in, glass is everywhere and you’re not allowed back in to your house.  This was our one saving grace because I took my Control Journal, my crocheting and my camera with us where ever we went in my bag.  I pulled out my Control Journal while sitting in the drive way, paged to the Emergency Contacts section and called our insurance agent on our cell phone.  I then called my dad and a friend of ours.  Everything was right there because I had prepared for it ahead of time. 

Now, so I don't leave you hanging, I'll post the newer, improved pictures after things were cleaned up and taken care of. 

Newness everywhere.  :) 

New door, everything sealed for the fire smell and repainted. 

God worked everything out for this entire transaction.  October 2004, we started praying for the future owner of our house that our house would be a blessing to them.  In February 2006, this house sold to a single lady.  I think she was blessed!   

In March of 2005, my husband transferred to another facility 2 hours away.  He was driving back and forth and was considering starting to stay with some friends during his work week.  We prayed that God would keep us together as a family.  We ended up living in a camper for 6 months, but God is faithful.  We didn’t spend one night separated as a family.  God gave us a place to lay our heads, shelter and food. 

In September of 2005, God blessed us with this house after spending 6 months in a camper—

The back of our house.

As you can see, preparation is very important.  I would like to encourage you, if you are overwhelmed, much like I was, please go to flylady.net and read.  Start today just simply shining your sink.   

Disclaimer:  Is my sink shiny every day all day long?  No!  There are days when things are so very busy and we’re gone all day, we get home and it is just waiting for us.  BUT, I know that within 15 minutes the kitchen will be taken care of.  The living room and any other room is the same way.  With 10 hands working at the same time toward a common goal, things get tidy and neat within a very short amount of time.   

What a wonderful feeling!  That is perfect peace!

In His Service,

Regina