Doing Things Better

Routine is a powerful force that remains far from my reach. It may be underdiagnosed attention deficit disorder or it may be laziness. Of course I would prefer to believe my chemicals were disordered. Though laziness remains a distinct possibility. Me and Winston Churchill make a strong case for not standing when one can sit, not sitting when one can recline, and for heavens sake, if you are already lying down, why not sleep?

When I was little my mom was up and in her robe with her coffee, maybe her newspaper, when I got up. She also fixed our breakfast (cereal) and likely did dishes in the morning. She was industrious. I remember her cousin was a different kind of mom. When I stayed over for slumber parties we had to be quiet in the morning because the Mom was still sleeping. That appalled me. I thought the girls ought to be embarrassed that their mommy was in bed in the morning. I guess my girls out to be embarrassed too. Or maybe now I understand that my mom was a morning person and their mom was not. Either way my girls get up in the morning, wake my husband and I up. He gets out of bed and gives them breakfast. Frequently I only get up when he says goodbye and heads off to work. I have good intentions to create a morning routine for myself. But routine continues to elude me.

The same can be said for my intentions to create a routine with my housework. I prefer a clean house. I am skilled in the craft of picking up and scrubbing down. But to keep a home running smoothly and staying clean a routine seems to be essential. Though I’m not in love with the tone of the website, flylady.com is a brilliant resource for planning your life as a homemaker. And anyone with a home has to do some of the work of a homemaker. Even if they have a big, important, or meaningful job. I don’t mean that they should see themselves as an Apron Clad Curler Using Browning Making Slave (though I do love to wear an apron. Sick, no?) Some people can whittle their job as homemaker down to hiring the right housecleaning service, but even that ought to be done thoughtfully and in consideration of the needs of the home.

There is a stewardship aspect to all parts of our lives. We need to steward the resources of our home. If we share a home with roommates or family we need to work together to meet each others needs for a clean, safe, meaningful space to exist in.

On the topic of budgeting a wise man said we need to tell our money what to do each month so it doesn’t go do its own thing. He requires people who follow his advice to write out a new budget each month, telling their money each month what it needs to do. If your first go at it doesn’t work, that’s okay. You write a new budget at then end of four weeks. You get to try again every month. I’ve been doing this for three years now. It has become (I almost hate to say it, for fear of jinx) a routine. Following the plan has become a routine as well. I know what I want my money to do and it obeys. I am the master—-no I am the steward--of resources that God has put in my hands.

This is the only routine that I have made a successful go at-—that has changed my life and made it better.

I’ve had three years of success with it and yet yesterday was the first time I realized the principal could be applied elsewhere. The principal is each month you start fresh. Messing up a little doesn’t ruin your whole year (or New Year's resolution, if that's your thing.)

Flylady incorporates this principle. She wants you to start small and win your success over your home bit by bit.

I don’t think I will plunge wholeheartedly into her specific program. I’ve tried in the past to figure out how to become an active member at flylady.com and have had trouble. Perhaps her program is defunct now. Probably my dial up internet and shallow reserve of patience are the real cause of the problem. At any rate I can use her website for encouragement and a place to read advice while I follow my own path to housekeeping success.

I am excited right now, knowing that I can tell my house what needs to be done this month and then do it. And next month I can reassess and do it again. I don’t have to write a weekly plan today that must be followed for the rest of my life. I can take it one month at a time.

And that summarizes my thoughts right now. I think a smoothly running home is within my reach and routine may be grown even in the most abysmal of soil (me).