Starting over

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It's new year and many of us make resolutions. We want to lose weight, save money, drink less, blog more, etc. Yes, these are my goals except for the drinking less which is moot since I don't drink often. And most of us fail in keeping our resolutions, after all, old habits die hard.


Lat fall, I began a personal campaign to cut the cutter, clean the house, eat better & exercise. I was doing pretty well when I found out my siblings would be coming down for dad's birthday. I knew I had to put cut the clutter and clean the house into high gear. I put exercise on the back burner justifying it with that all the moving I was doing while cleaning counted for something.


Then Christmas was here and everything got put to the back burner. Heck, everything got taken off the stove. So now I have get back to decluttering, cleaning, eating better & exercise. And I am having a hard time finding the motivation. I signed up for an online workout program and have done nothing my first week.


Wouldn't it be easy if motivation came in the form of a pill?

it's progress

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Yesterday, I took the boys to get haircuts. Their reward for sitting well is going to the bookstore and their favorite bookstore is Barnes & Noble. The new one, just 3 miles away, is 2 stories and the boys love to go up and down the escalators as well as the elevator.


The first few times we went there, I was careful to follow them around and make sure they behaved and knew the rules. Over time, I relax and start to trust them. Last week, instead of following them (very difficult as they went in 2 different directions), I stayed downstairs and sat by the cafe. I had a good view of the escalators and could see them go up and come back down. I occassionally called them over just to keep in contact. Yesterday, I did the same thing and sat by the cafe but they didn't seem to be going up and down as much as last week. I should have taken this as a sign and went to look for them but I did not. Soon there was a page, "Will Mr. or Mrs. Faulk please come to Literature? Andy is waiting for you." I jumped and saw Andy waiting upstairs with 2 employees. He didin't do anything wrong but they were concerned about his wandering. "Did he have a video camera?" Yes, and he set it down somewhere and walked away. "We found it and have at the front counter."


010409-andy


I should mention here that Andy got a video camera for Christmas. He loves to make videos about elevators and escalators like gluse on YouTube. I haven't let Andy upload any videos to YouTube and he hasn't asked. He brought his video camera last week and left it somewhere in the toy store. We searched but couldn't find it. We were about leave when the camera was back in Andy's hand. He never said where he found it. This boy is lucky.

housework

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Growing up, we had chores. We had dishes to wash (dishwasher to load) every night and we had to clean one room every Saturday. We got $.50 for an allowance. I can remember cleaning the bathroom and washing the tile floor on my hands & knees. I hated all the hair on the floor (especially since no one had ever told me to sweep first so the hair got wet and disgusting.)


Things changed in the early 70s. My brothers are quite a few years older than me and my sister and they had after school jobs so I don't remember them being around the house too much. The housework fell mostly to Nancy & I. Things changed even more when we got the cottage. We started spending most weekends there which meant we didn't clean at home. We did hardly any housework at the cottage except washing the dishes.


Spring cleaning to me meant taking off the storm windows and storing them, getting out the screens and washing them in the yard, and the smell of Murphy's Oil Soap while washing the walls on stairway. Every few months, mom would wash the kitchen floor. It was not a regular occurrence.


What is all this about? My point is just this, I didn't have a very good model for housework. Sure, I learned to keep my stuff controlled so it wouldn't get moved and lost. But for cleaning, not so much. There always seemed to be something better to do and it didn't get done until it was necessary, like before holidays and birthdays.


OK, so now I know why I don't do housework very well. But that doesn't let me off the hook. Now I have to overcome my laissez faire attitude and buckle down. Or find a job and hire a maid.

routine

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I like routine. I need routine. I crave routine.

My routine was interrupted this week. I forgot to pay the gas bill and the gas was shut off. I couldn't fix the chicken nuggets in the oven and the boys wouldn't eat them cooked in the microwave. The boys couldn't take their baths and they felt icky, stinky & grumpy. I couldn't take my shower before bed so I felt grimey and icky. I couldn't shower in the morning so I felt even more grimey and icky and my head itched. I couldn't fix my oatmeal (I tried in the microwave but made a big mess.) so I fixed a large smoothie but that left me hungry later in the morning. I couldn't cook any salmon or chicken in the oven so I got even more grumpy.


Thursday, the gas was turned back on just before noon. I rewashed the towels left in the washer for 2 days. I took a nice hot shower and began to feel better. The boys got their chicken cooked the way they like it and enjoyed their baths. I got my shower last night and slept better.


Yesterday morning is where it really hit me. I got my routine back. I got to wake up, get some sweet tea (and down some pills), check the internets, take a shower, get breakfast for the boys and get my breakfast of steel cut oats and a small smoothie. Everything felt much better just knowing I could do what I wanted needed to do.


Now if I could just make myself follow a routine of paying my bills on time.