More company. No CHAOS here!

We had company this weekend and it was great! Just being able to invite someone to come stay in our guest bedroom, which isn't a junk room, is a great feeling. The day before, Joel and I set the timer for 15 minutes to pick up the living room. When the timer beeped, we had been done for about 3 minutes. Then we played (guitar and computer) for a while. Then we set the timer for 15 more minutes for the dining room. Again, when the timer beeped, we were already done! Then we still had time to sit in front of the boob tube for a while before bed. Cool stuff. Now I just have to maintain....

Back again - Brianne

I won against mom in the St. Patty's day game. I didn't do anything for most of the time, and I got away with it! I would have been in big trouble if dad hadn't helped mom clean up everything the night before company came. When they were done everything looked great! It doesn't anymore, though. That's due to me, hehe. Mom spent too long at work for too many days, and so when she got home, I only wanted to play, not work! And it sure looks like it at home.

So now she says we have to start up again. She even got a progress report to fill out for me. I'm being graded! I always liked school and got straight A's, but this is going to be hard!

Mom also says we can't just eat whatever we want whenever we want anymore. She's been weighing herself and writing it down. I like to draw pretty graphs, but I like it better when the line goes down instead of up. It's too soon to see how pretty this graph will look. I was reading Libby's diary today and saw that she has to start getting off her "but". So I will, too.

Mom's happier with me today than she has been in a while, because already today we made dinner ('cause dad helped get the crock pot ready last night), ran the dishwasher, and got to play with Roomba. Maybe if I can make mom happier, she'll let me play more, instead of yelling at me for not helping out. I don't like it when mom's sad, but I just want to play. :(

I'm hungry for crock pot lamb now, so I'll chat more later.

Brianne

Neener, neener -- Brianne

No timer, no missions, and the dining room and kitchen are both huge messes. Yay me!!

I'm winning.... Brianne

No timer since Monday. I think I'm winning against mom. The bedroom looks pretty darn good, the closet is all cleaned out, and the dining room table somehow got totally cleared off, but we haven't done a thing in the guest bedroom. Hehe. I've also kept mom from paying bills, working on her friend's website, and doing more laundry. I wonder how long I can keep it up. Today's mission wouldn't be too bad, though, because it's just a Hot Spot one. Those are easy. Even I like how things look when a hot spot gets cleared off.

Brianne.

Day three results - Brianne

It was fun tossing all those old clothes out of the closet! The old, fat clothes. I thought I was going to want to keep the pretty ones, but then I thought they wouldn't look so pretty if they fit so loosely. So then it was fun to say "begone!" to them all. Check the tag, if the size is bigger than what I'm wearing right now, "baleeted!"

I've been resisting the timer lately, since last time mom used the timer we folded clothes. Blecch! But on Tuesday we cleaned without the timer. It didn't feel like cleaning because it was just random. That's how I would rather clean, because then I just clean the easiest stuff I can find! But mom doesn't like cleaning randomly all over the house because we never get to the bottom of the piles. When we focus, we find things like countertops and tabletops and they stay clean longer if they get totally cleared off. But that means we have to find a home for everything in that spot. I'd rather just do the easy stuff.

Speaking of which, we're going to run out of stuff to clean in the bedroom soon. Easy or not easy! I'm sure going to try to use that as an excuse to do nothing, but I have a feeling mom won't let me. She's talking about expanding the "Master Bedroom" zone to include the guest bedroom, too. No fun! Maybe I can distract her by playing with all the toys in the guest bedroom. Hmmm... good idea. I'll try that tonight.

Brianne

Day three results

In response to a question someone asked me, I definitely think housework done randomly still blesses your family! On Tuesday my 15 minutes kind of went that way. Our neighbor came over after dinner to play video games with my husband, so in order to be sort of social, but still productive, I did random cleaning downstairs mixed in with socializing. (There was nothing under my bed, so Kelly's mission was done!) I made a big dent in my dining room this way.

Yesterday was the closet mission. I have an old house with small, poorly-designed closets. My shoes aren't in my closet (I don't have that many) so I looked at the hanging clothes. I don't have that many clothes that I hang up (wrinkle-resistant clothes + dresser drawers), but still my poor closet was too full. I was thinking the other day that I don't remember the last time I wore something out of my closet. So I went through it, and sure enough, when I was done I had a pile of nice clothes (that are too big for me now) to go to Goodwill, another pile that belonged with the Halloween costumes, a couple things that just went in the trash, and my closet was left with one dress that fits me and some of DH's dress-shirts and pants. He doesn't wear dress clothes other than at weddings and funerals, but he didn't remember what size fit him, so that will be another day.

In the process, I found a bandana that I almost forgot I had. I bought it on a trip to the sand dunes in Michigan last summer, but I was thinking it would be nice to have under my motorcycle helmet this summer. Treasure!

So it's going well so far. And I've been rewarding my inner brat by reading before bed, but I set the timer first!

After one day of the St. Patty's game - Brianne

Whew, I got through the first day without having to clean.

Well, I guess I helped change sheets, but that's not so bad when it's not the last thing I do before bed. When that happens, I just want to go to bed instead. I love sleep.

And I guess I mated some socks, but I only had to do that for 15 minutes. Although I did have them all done in that amount of time. But if I didn't, mom would have let me stop. Or I would have stopped anyhow, even if mom said no! I hate matching up the socks. I always have.

But I got my way, because I had a nice bath and I got to read before bed, too. So there. Mom says today we have to clean under the bed. Lucky me, there's nothing under the bed! That means all I have to do is one little 15 minutes thing, and mom says we get to go through the closet. Adventure!

Brianne

After one day of the St. Patty's game

I did!...
Make dinner - Mmmm.... dinner...
Do Kelly's mission - change my bed sheets.
Spend 15 minutes doing something in the zone - This ended up being mating socks, but that's fine. It's something productive.
Pamper myself - Joel just twisted my arm until I agreed to take a nice hot bath now that our water heater is fixed.
Read - for 15 minutes after everything else was done.

I didn't...
Nah, I don't need this list. Too negative. Instead, let me say:

I didn't have to...
Vaccuum - Joel ran Roomba and therefore picked up the floor, just because I asked.
Say no to watching a movie - I can make and eat dinner, take a bath, change sheets, fold clothes, and still have time to watch a movie. The power of 15 minutes.

Company's coming - From Brianne

You won't believe my luck. I've been quietly causing trouble for mom for years, and NOW she starts paying attention to me. Here she's been blaming herself for the trouble my brattiness causes, but now she says she's going to crack down on me.

We've got company coming in a little over a month, and I can't wait to play! But mom says we have to get the house ready first. Why now? We've got over a month. We should just do it later. Mom thinks that's a bad idea. I can't imagine why. She seems to think we'll be better off if we do a little each day until it's all done. That doesn't sound like any fun at all. We have to clean EVERY day for a MONTH? She says it won't be bad because it's just 15 minutes a day. I still don't like the sound of it. We'll see.

Brianne.

Company's coming

I've got a very obtainable goal, but I think I'm going to need some accountability to keep on track.

My husband's dad and stepmom are coming to visit at the end of March. They live in Michigan, so they haven't been out to see our house since we bought it over a year ago. Now, each room in my house could be considered company-ready, but not in-law ready! So my goal over the next month (starting today) is to do each of Kelly's missions, plus 15 minutes in the current zone each weekday. (This was my first FlyLady babystep for myself when I started, before getting routines in place. I learned the power of 15 minutes and made a huge difference in my house.) By the time I've been through each zone, it will be St. Patrick's day, and I'll have two weeks of easy maintenance and touch-ups before company arrives on the 31st. This will work much better than a crash-and-burn stash-and-dash on the 30th!

So, how can I make this a game so my "inner brat" will want to play?

I named my inner brat Brianne because my youngest brother's name is Brian, and when we were kids, he was definitely the biggest brat I knew! See http://thebratfactor.com to see what I mean about inner brats.