Yesterday I shared about Flylady and how I have begun to establish routines. Today I want to share with you my early morning routine, also known as my before breakfast routine.

Flylady teaches that when you get out of bed in the morning, you should get dressed to the lace-up shoes and make the bed. Because I like to air the bed first–and especially since my husband is often still in it when I rise–I have moved that to a later routine. But I have found it helpful to get dressed and wash my face first thing, right after going to the bathroom (unless I plan on showering, in which case I just put on my shoes, because I don’t have time to shower before breakfast right now). So that is the first step of my routine: Get dressed and wash face. I never used to bother with washing my face, but I’m 31 now, and I think it’s about time I started taking care of it–especially since I recently noticed a couple of lines that I don’t remember being there before. At this point, I have Melaleuca’s Sei Bella facial wash and toner, so I use those. Later I plan on getting more products, like a moisturizer and a facial masque to use once in a while. But for now, I feel like I’m doing something good for my face, so I’m happy.

Then, before I leave the bathroom, I clean it. Yes, every day (except Sabbath). This consists of dampening a rag and wiping down all the surfaces. First, spots on the mirror, then the counter and sink, then the toilet. Then I hang it up to dry. It takes 1-2 minutes, and the bathroom is company-ready. I also take the time to put away brushes and toothpaste tubes or anything else that doesn’t belong on the counter. All that is supposed to be there are two soap dispensers and a container of Gislaine’s hair “thingies” that doesn’t fit in the medicine cabinet and I want to keep out of Manny’s reach (so not in the drawes). I don’t move the latter when I wipe, only the soap dispensers if I see bits of soap near them that need to be wiped up. Then I take the toilet bowl brush and give the bowl a quick 5-second swish.

Now, because I don’t use any soap for this process, once a week, just before hopping in the shower, I clear everything off of the counter and put it in the window, then spray the counter, sink, and all of the toilet with an herbal disinfectant spray. After drying and dressing, the spray has done its job of killing all the bacteria on those surfaces, and I just need to wipe it down (since it has soap in it, I can’t leave it like lysol). I also spray it inside the toilet bowl. Once we move back to well water, I’ll add some of the Tub & Tile cleaner to the toilet bowl to keep down the limescale, but for now, our water is very soft and it never gets any build-up.

The next thing on my list is to empty the dishwasher. Whether it is full from a load I ran the night before, or whether it just has a few bowls or plates from supper, I empty it. That way I don’t have to empty it before washing the dishes. This takes less than 5 minutes max.

The last thing I do is check my to-do list. I have a list on the fridge that lists things that I need to do on specific days of the week, but not necessarily every day, from deep-cleaning the kitchen counters (meaning I move everything and spray down the counters one at a time, instead of just wiping the bare areas) to soaking beans for the next day’s meal. I also add any daily tasks I want to make sure I don’t forget, such as laundry (it’s amazing how easy it is to forget, with the washer and dryer being out in the garage), or anything else I need to remember, like a doctor’s visit or a call I need to make. These I write down on a little dry-erase board on my fridge. When I accomplish a task, I wipe it off. Then I can see what is left. I put dots beside things that I absolutely want to get done today (sometimes a phone call can be postponed, or organizing the garage can wait a few days when the kids are sick), and as I go through the day, I might put lines beside the things I want to focus on next–2 or 3 things to get done before I attempt anything else. Because, well, I have to admit I am a S.H.E–sidetracked home executive–and tend to get started with something, then remember I should be doing something else, then get called by the kids to help with something or change a diaper… so being able to refocus with a glance at my white board is very helpful!

Now, it took quite a bit to describe my morning routine, but it takes much less time to actually do it. Getting dressed and washing face takes 10 minutes if I’m slow. “Swish & swipe” (cleaning the bathroom surfaces and toilet) takes about 2 or 3 minutes. Emptying the dishwasher takes 5 minutes or less, and updating my to-do list takes about 2 or 3 minutes.

And although it’s not officially on my list, I also drink a glass of water while I’m in the kitchen. Then I either have my devotions or start on breakfast, depending on what time it is and when my husband needs to leave.

So that’s my before breakfast routine. It looks like a lot, so I will summarize:

• Get dressed to the shoes & wash face
• Swish & Swipe
• Empty dishwasher
• Update to-do list

So what do you do before you start breakfast?

Have you heard of Flylady? No, the name has nothing whatsoever to do with flies. It’s a lady who enjoys fly fishing. What she is about is getting organized. And unless you are a BO (born organized), like my mom, that is probably not as easy as you wish it could be.

I inherited my dad’s and and his mother’s lack of organization–along with an “I don’t really care” attitude. At least, sometimes I don’t care. Other times I do, but then I’m overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, so I just don’t start.

That’s where Flylady comes in. She has a few rules to follow that make life much simpler and organization kind of fall into place. The first rule is to shine the kitchen sink and keep it that way. As simplistic as that sounds, it really helps keep the kitchen cleaner. Because who wants to just have a shiny sink with dishes piled around and filthy counters? So each time the sink is used, it should be wiped down–which takes all of one minute–and left clean for the next use.

Then there is the 15-minute rule. That is, “You can do anything for 15 minutes.” Whether it’s washing dishes, mopping the floor, cleaning the bathroom, or tackling an overwhelming filing project, if it seems like too much, just set a timer for 15 minutes, work like mad, and quit when the timer goes off.

The other thing she teaches is to establish routines. That is what I want to talk about over the next few posts. Even though I had routines established as a child, such as brushing my teeth after breakfast and making my bed before school started, I think Mom was the motivating factor behind them, and not any inward motivation, so I got out of them when I left home. I’ll admit that there are times when I would not make the bed all day, leave the breakfast dishes dirty until almost lunch time, and only brush my teeth when the feel of a dirty mouth became too disgusting (which was probably half way through the morning). Before I had kids, it wasn’t so bad, because I could just get things done whenever; but now with two kids and another on the way, I realized that I needed to help them establish routines too, especially since my daughter has a way of getting very distracted and forgetting what she is supposed to be doing.

So I am working on establishing basic routines for the daily tasks that need to be done. I find it easier than a schedule at this point. Because a schedule says that I need to have the dishes done by, say, 8:30. But if my husband and I were up late working on something and didn’t get up until 7:30, there is no way the breakfast dishes can be done by 8:30. That messes up my schedule, and then I feel overwhelmed. Instead, I have routines. When I finish breakfast, I start my after-breakfast routine, even if that happens to be at 10:00 in the morning.

The next post will detail my early morning routine, the one I do before devotions and breakfast. Then over the next few days I will go through the various routines I have established or am working on, just to share how I have modified Flylady’s methods to fit my home and lifestyle.

Do you have any routines that you have established? Please share them in the comments!

Okay, this is going to be a random post full of random details about my life.

Unless you haven’t read anything on my blog lately, I am pregnant. Working on month 4 now. I’ve been bad and haven’t had any prenatal check-ups yet. But I figure at this point, I’m not too worried. It will be easier to deal with that after we move next month. That, and I’m procrastinating trying to find someone who is covered by my insurance who will do the prenatal care knowing that I am planning a home birth with a midwife. The one place I tried said they wouldn’t do it. They referred me to a birth center, and I haven’t asked my insurance if they cover that. But I’ll do it. Soon. I promise.

Morning sickness is almost gone. I still get queasy moments, but I don’t have to eat before breakfast anymore, and I haven’t thrown up for at least a week, so I know the queasiness will disappear soon.

I bought some wheat grass recently. It was on sale, and I figured that it would be good for the baby and me. I need all the nutrition I can get. (Speaking of which, did I take my second dose of prenatal vitamins today? I don’t remember.) For two days, my son loved it. I’d put it in his milk, and he would drink it as if it were chocolate milk! Then he decided he didn’t like it anymore. And I haven’t found a way to disguise it yet. His meals are too plain for that. Oh well… It was nice while it lasted! I, on the other hand, love the stuff. In juice or a smoothie. Especially a smoothie. Tonight I had it with a banana and blueberries. Mmmmm! That was bliss!

I wish it would stop raining. We are supposed to be out of this house by February 20. Since that’s a Monday and a holiday, we are having things picked up from here on the 17th. They have done some work, but it’s been raining so much that the contractor hasn’t been able to get as much done as would be ideal. That, and the other contractor who said he could do the septic, well, it turns out he isn’t licensed to do septic systems, and he didn’t know what he was doing, which meant he stalled and wasted two weeks. Because he isn’t licensed, we were able to void the contract, and Rafael got his money back last night. Thankfully the guy has an account at the same bank we do, so he was able to verify that there were funds for the check and the money was transferred instantly. This is good, because he needs to write a check tomorrow to the new contractor!

The long and short of it is that we may end up taking a neighbor of ours up on his offer to sleep in his tiny camp trailer. We spent a couple of weekends there this last summer. Rafael will take the bus to work (it’s cheaper than gas and will give him time to study that isn’t being interrupted by noisy children) and I will have the kids and the car. We have our freezer at his place already, but I hope we don’t have to stay there long, because the fridge in the camper is super tiny and Manny’s special diet requires that we cook double. But it will be nice to be back in the country, where the kids can run wild and explore and play outside. They are tired of our back yard here. It’s just grass, nothing else, unless you count the puddles from all the rain, and they just don’t seem interested in it anymore.

We are also filing suit against some of the people involved in the purchase of our home. I won’t go into details now, because the suit is just about to be filed, but let’s just say, I hope we win at least part of it, because we really need the money. Extra, unexpected costs, such as a more expensive septic system, have drained every last bit of money we have, except our $1,000 emergency fund (which is almost nothing for a family of almost 5). We even had to use the money we got to replace damaged goods like furniture and clothing to pay contractors. Which means we won’t have anything to replace those things with. Which means we can’t afford to buy them. Which means we lose the depreciation. We have lost so much money on this place, because we didn’t know a few things that we just didn’t know about knowing, being first-time home buyers. If we had known even one or two of them, we wouldn’t have made an offer! And I haven’t even begun to talk about how the stress has affected our family, and especially my husband…

But on the bright side, we do have a good lawyer. Honest lawyers are hard to find, but this one really seems to be. She bent over backwards to help us on the first part of things, getting a reasonable amount from the insurance company, for less than pretty much any lawyer would accept. So even if not for us, I hope we win something out of this lawsuit! I mean, 3 or 4 times she came to our home on her way home from work (she lives near us) to discuss details of this or that related to what we were doing, thus saving us the trouble of finding a babysitter and making a trip to her office (about 20 minutes away). And she’s always been on top of things, very prompt and assertive in dealing with each aspect of things. I can’t recommend Sandy Webb enough!

Something else I’ve been trying to do lately is be a bit more organized. Flylady has been helping me with that. If you’ve never heard of her, you should go check her out.

Which reminds me… it’s late and I need to go shine my sink and then go to bed. Manny was congested last night and didn’t sleep well, resulting in Mom and Dad not sleeping enough. So I need to go to bed earlier than I did last night and pray he sleeps peacefully all night!

Good night!

If you are familiar with the Flylady, you are probably familiar with the phrase, “You can do anything for 15 minutes.” Obviously, there are limits to that. I mean, unless you’re single, you probably can’t–and wouldn’t want to–limit your shopping to 15 minutes per store. But the idea is that if you don’t think you can do something, or simply don’t want to, you can make yourself do it for 15 minutes.

That’s how it was with me this evening. I had an orthodontist appointment in the late morning, but it’s an hour’s drive away and my husband needed to go somewhere else, so he dropped me off half an hour early. So we ate breakfast, packed a lunch for my son, and didn’t clean anything before we left. I ate lunch after the appointment (before the soreness set in) and took the train & bus back home–about a two-hour trip. It was 3:00 pm when we got home. And I was tired.

So instead of tackling the dishes and the laundry and such things, I sat down in a recliner and tried to nap. When my son decided to join me (but wouldn’t sit still), I put in a nice video for him to watch, turned the volume way down, and went to bed.

I got out of bed a little before 5:00, and was feeling rather groggy. Morning sickness had been mostly nil all day, and I still didn’t notice any, but I was tired and sluggish. Then my husband got home about 10 minutes later, and brought a whole bunch of fruit that he had gotten either free or cheap on the way home. I ate one of the oranges, feeling that I needed to eat something, and almost instantly my tummy began to complain. I moved away and sat down, hoping the feeling would go away like it sometimes did, but it just got worse. So I browsed facebook and tried to ignore my stomach for an hour or so, until I just couldn’t ignore it anymore.

I’ll spare you what happened next, but once I did what I needed to do and was feeling better, I ate a granola bar and decided that happy tummy or no (I was still not feeling 100%), I needed to do some shopping or we wouldn’t be able to eat cooked cereal in the morning (I’m hoping it will be gentle on my sore teeth–the orthodontist really tightened things up this time). So off I went to the store around 7:30.

When I got home at 8:30, I was feeling better, but I was also tired and didn’t want to face the kitchen. My husband had been very busy with things related to our house, so he wasn’t able to clean up–at least he had fed Manny while I was feeling so sick, so I didn’t feel it right to complain. But I didn’t want to clean up either. It looked like about a half hour of work to get the kitchen in order.

Then I remembered the Flylady and her favorite saying: “You can do anything for 15 minutes.” Yes, I told myself, I can clean the kitchen for 15 minutes. I’ll set a timer, and whatever is left when it goes off can wait until morning. After all, if we’re just having cooked cereal with nuts and fruit, there won’t be a lot of dishes after breakfast, so adding in a few from the day before won’t be a problem. And having some clean counters and a cleared-off stove will make breakfast so much less stressful.

So I put a cup of water in the microwave, set a timer for 15 minutes, and got busy. When the water was hot, I added a tea bag and left it to steep while I worked (I like to steep my tea a long time).

In 10 minutes, I was well over half way done. I stopped washing and rinsing  to clear and wipe the counters and stove, then washed a few more. When the timer went off, I took and extra 15 seconds to rinse the soapy silverware, and then took a look around. All that was left was my pressure cooker and a frying pan, neither of which I will need first thing in the morning. Everything else was done and the counters cleared and wiped.

And my reward? A nice cup of raspberry zinger tea. Mmmm!