Deena! I love seeing you post! I hope it's not causing you too much discomfort to do so.

Aidan, do not scare your mother that way.

She made a raccoon with a six pack ring thingy around its neck sitting by a polluted stream with dead fish on the banks, accompanied by a fallen birds' nest (with dead parent bird and smushed eggs) and a black squirrel with its head stuck in a can.

Ha! Kara, don't ever change.

I just looked into FlyLady, since buffistas have been talking about it so much lately. It kind of scares me, but I need something for weeks like this when I become so overwhelmed that nothing gets done at all.

My mom cleaned house every day from between nine and noon when I was a little kid, including changing all the sheets, doing the laundry, ironing!, dishes, vacuuming, etc. When I was older, it was all saved until Saturday, and my sister and I did it all, except that I remember having to vacuum and rake the shag carpet every evening before I set the table for dinner when I was about 9. I hated raking the carpet.

My mother and stepdad used to spend every Saturday morning doing major housework, which always seemed like such a waste of a good Saturday morning to me. Unfortunately, TCG is of a similar mindset so things can go from neat to disaster hear in what feels like a blink of an eye. Until there is something like dinner guest coming over or (like this week) movers coming with furniture that gets us to do a major clean up. We both could use something that just gets us to do a little bit every day so it doesn't become such an overwhelming task.

I had to vacuum every day growing up. Which made me loathe it so much that now I let it go far too long.

Thanks, sj! I think this is my last post for the night. I haven't said anything about your posts in press because I haven't known what to say. You guys overwhelm me just in good wishes. This is...I don't know what to say (and now I'm repeating myself). You made me soggy, though.

Yeah, that's exactly what it's good for, sj, if you can ignore or put up with the cheeriness. You just do the 15 minutes. And you say to yourself, 15 minutes is ridiculous! I'll never get the house clean at this rate. But it's better and better all the time.

Of course, right now the kitchen is a wreck because I cooked before classes and ran off to teach. And the I still need to bring the laundry in because I rebooted it and then forgot I'd done so. And the office is piled with stuff that I pulled off the dining room table hotspot.

So. Not perfect. Just better.

eta love for soggy Deena. We are glad to have you back, but understand when it's too much.

We thought we were being all stealthy because you weren't around. Deena, I owe you more than I could ever possibly repay you for, and you know that is true. We're happy to do it. So, save the soggy until we actually do something.

It is so wonderful to see your posts, Deena! And also what Liese said re: understanding when it's too much.

The basics were - she had a work from home job where she had to get fully dressed, evidently people you talk to on the phone can hear if you are "profesional" and fully dressed vs just in your pjs.

Bah. I've called into meetings wearing only a sheet and whichever cat was flopped on me. But then, I wear PJ bottoms to work.

Fly Lady brings out the defiant authority hater in me.

Yeah, you'll get shoes on me when inside hell freezes over. I end up in loungey clothes much of the time and I don't wear shoes inside.

But it's nice to have my sink clean in the morning and coffee ready to be brewed when I wake up.