I am in growth!

I have known about the Sidetracked Home Executives since about 1993 or 94, when my husband was in graduate school and my daughter was very young. I heard them on Focus on the Family and they spoke to me.

Anyway, I have been “in the box” off and on for years. I spent a lot of time doing Flylady which is kind of an offshoot of the SHE system. I met a lot of wonderful Flylady friends, some of whom I still keep in touch with, but I honestly feel the box system works better for me.

It’s easier to carry the 3×5 cards around from room to room to know what to do next rather than a big binder, and I think it’s easier to add or take something away from the box, too.

Anyway, I bought myself a big card file and set things up from the Happiness File, another book by the authors of the Sidetracked Home Executives which is like my get organized bible.

With Christmas come and gone, I decided that Dec. 26 would be my New Year and I would get back on track with Weight Watchers and my home.

I searched all over for my box and my organization books. Yes, I get the irony of not being able to find the box and books that help keep me organized. Finally, I found them on the floor next to my husband’s chair. He’d been watching me go through, literally, every drawer and shelf in the house trying to figure out where these things went. See, about a month or so ago, I had planned to get back in the box and i knew exactly where I had done that planning – on my side of the sofa/recliner he sits in. Everything got moved for Christmas and I knew the stuff had to be nearby. He must have moved them off his end table to the floor!

So, I spent a good chunk of yesterday figuring everything out again and planning my days/weeks/months. I knew that today would be a half cleaning day and I would do all my before bed stuff so we’d be ready for today.

THEN:

All the drains in the house backed up. It was pouring outside and we have a huge, lovely live oak tree outside our front door and we thought we’d handled the root problem, especially since we had a “weed” tree (I don’t know what it was the but arborist said no one actually plants those trees) taken out of the yard, too.

Guess not.

We quickly packed up all of the stuff we would need and headed to the in-laws’ house to spend the night since we couldn’t flush anything.

So, now Roto=Rooter guy’s been here and we’re back. But my card file system is already out of whack as today was supposed to be a cleaning day and Steve said we needed to run to the store to get cleaner as the toilets backed up into the tubs.

I didn’t get home until after 10 am which messed up my morning plans. However, the system is new-ish to us and this happens every time I try to get back in the box. Not the drains but something pops up to throw me off the system.

I figure I’ll do what I can card-wise today and just keep going. It’ll be better than it was, if not perfect. Flylady says that you’re never behind, you just jump in where you are. She also says even housework done imperfectly blesses your family.

I will keep going.