Thursday, November 11, 2010

I'll Think About That Tomorrow...

This time of year is hectic. Parent/teacher conferences, end of quarter responsibilities, gymnastic meet season begins, inservice presentations, and holiday performances (I'm singing three this year) all seem to be scheduled at once. You think I would remember just how much of a catastrophe my house becomes, but every year I'm surprised.

Today is the first day after conferences, and it's also Veteran's Day (Thank you, dear Veterans!), so I'm off work. I was looking forward to a restful, lazy afternoon. I'd made myself promise that I would ignore the mountain of laundry, stacks of mail, and the myriad assortment of misplaced items on every surface. I refused to hunt down every missing sock behind couches, chairs and stacked in piles at the top of the stairs. Stealing socks is a fairly recent event that is a new hobby of my cat, Angel. Today was a day to relax. After all, as Scarlett would say, "I'll think about that tomorrow."

I was doing pretty well with my self-imposed mandate. I ignored the dust bunnies that shimmered in the sunbeam streaming through my open window. I turned a blind eye to the stack of boxes in the corner that needed to be unpacked and put away. And after a few deep breaths, I even kept my cool when I walked into the upstairs bathroom and every towel we own was wet and thrown on the floor. If I was taking a day off, my kids could too. Right?

But then I saw them. FIFTEEN spider nests. There's a cover to an old, whole-house fan on the ceiling at the top of the landing to the stairs. The nests were all along the same wall next to the cover. The creep factor was too much. Out came the vacuum. Out came the orders to the children... To oldest teenager: "Get the towels to the laundry and start a load. Clean the upstairs bath. Rake the leaves on the front lawn to the curb." To younger teenager: "Clean the family room then pick up, vacuum, and dust your room." I tackled the spider webs then decided I needed to mop the ceiling and the walls as well as vacuum and mop the stairs.

My sudden obsession with clean could very well keep me up until midnight. So I decided to enlist the help of FlyLady.net. That's right. FlyLady is a systematic cleaning process for those of us who are overwhelmed, overextended, and overdrawn. She's awesome! And it works. I know, I've used her in the past. Why I drifted away I'll never know. But I'm BACK!

So now that I've put FlyLady's cleaning system in place, I have NO excuses for not getting back into my writing routine. None.

Is it too late to join NaNoWriMo?

15 comments:

Marcia said...

Thanks for the FlyLady link! It's new to me. I had to laugh at "The Control Journal."

Rena Jones said...

Love this post. You can always try again to do nothing tomorrow!

Nora MacFarlane said...

Marcia - Flylady is a riot, but her system works!

Rena - Thanks! :)

Mrs. Random said...

wait....did you say _mop- your ceilings? seriously? that was just humor, right? right?

Nora MacFarlane said...

Nope. I really did mop the ceilings. Older teenager runs his hands across the wall and ceiling as he descends the stairs and leaves wonderful dirt trails (who needs a handrail, right?). It's MUCH easier to use a Swiffer mop to clean it than scrub it down by hand.

Nora MacFarlane said...

It's a trick I learned from the maintenance guy at school...

Sharon K. Mayhew said...

Great post Nora! I've been on a bit of a cleaning spurt myself... We're putting up Christmas this weekend! I have family coming from England next week and we are going to have a kick off the holidays party at our house next Friday. :)

I hope you get to relax tomorrow...

Dayana Stockdale said...

Funny website! I like the line "Are you behind before you get started?" in the video about a shiny sink. It is so true that clutter complicates writing! Good luck :)

C.R. Evers said...

It's never too late to join NaNo. Not even when it's December. ;0)

I tried to join Fly Lady once. But when they kept telling me to shine my kitchen sink and I couldn't do it because the sink was too full of dishes, I realized that I was even too far gone for fly lady. maybe one day I'll do better. :0)

Good luck with your crazy holiday month! You go girl!

Anonymous said...

I cleaned for hours today, so I had my spurt.

I was off Veteran's Day, too. And I find that a day off doesn't really feel like a day off at all these days.

Now I'll check out FlyLady.

Julie Musil said...

I've never heard of FlyLady! I'll check that out right now. I know how it feels to clean one thing, which leads to another...

It feels pretty good when it's all done, though!

Anne Spollen said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has an out of control house and a Nanoless life.

I'll have to check out the Flylady!

Nora MacFarlane said...

It looks like I'm in good company!

Thanks seo, I've got one more crazy week of running, rehearsals, performances and school. Once it's over, I can get back to blogging, writing, and all that jazz!

SEO Southampton said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
SEO Southampton said...

I was even too far gone for fly lady.I really did mop the ceilings. Older teenager runs his hands across the wall and ceiling as he descends the stairs and leaves wonderful dirt trails.Thanks
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