Day One

I did okay.  Not spectacular, but good.  

I worked in the kitchen and the laundry area.  I mopped.  And mopped.  I cleaned counters and did dishes.  I cleared off the table of unnecessary items (which chore has to be done regularly at our house).  I know that doesn't sound like much, but it took some time.

I realized that some household tasks (namely, mopping) are an aerobic exercise when done for a long stretch, so I had to stop once-in-a-while to catch my breath and get a drink or snack.   I was burning calories, you see.  

The next day I took a nap in the morning, because I had been up in the middle of the night for at least an hour with a fussy, but not sick, kid.  I think he had a bad dream.   If I don't get enough sleep I drag the rest of the day; it affects my patience level; and it can cause flare-ups of IBS.  So, I do take a nap when I really need one.  My husband understands and encourages this.  He is pretty awesome.

Today I need to spend some extra time preparing for Bible Study tomorrow night, so we'll see if anything else gets done this morning.

Fall cleaning

I've heard of "spring cleaning", but not fall cleaning, so maybe I just made that up.  I've heard of fall pruning, and I'm going to do some of that, too.  And I'm going to blog about it.  Exciting, eh?

I'm blogging about it because I want to use this to hold myself accountable to my plans/goals. I will report my progress and maybe even post pictures..."after" pictures, only.  Either it will help me remember later that I can do it, or else it will make me realize that I can do better. 

My house is in a sad state, owing to a very hectic summer.  Add up a new diet that takes lots of cooking time, two messy boys at home pretty much all day, and excessive heat that makes it impossible to go outside for long and saps my energy.  That was my summer.  I am too embarrassed to have anyone in my house right now.  I am determined to do something about it now that the boys are in school again.  NB is not going full-time yet, so that gives me approx. 3 hours with an empty house each morning.  The first half hour is set aside for personal devotions, and then some days I have to run errands that would be difficult with the boys.  But that still gives me some good time to tackle this project.  MAJOR house cleaning.

The fall pruning I am going to do involves the boys' and my closets, the toy shelves and bins, and book shelves.  We are still in a small house, so it's time to simplify things and get rid of stuff that is outgrown or not used.  PJ is going to work on the garage where we have put boxes of clothing to either give away or keep.  The problem there is that the boys were out there in the spring and scattered everything all over, so it all needs to be re-sorted and marked clearly.  (We have a lock in place now to keep them from going out there without our knowledge.)

So, I will update here about how it's going and my non-readers can hold me accountable.  Hmm...