FlyLady Week 3 Update

Can't really believe I'm still keeping up with this FlyLady stuff! I've been going with this for 3 weeks now which is a bit of a record for me. ;)
This week's focus has been the master bedroom which we are working on transforming from a huge heap of clothes to a "vacation retreat." Ooh, sounds so fancy! Our bedroom actually wasn't all that bad to begin with so it has been a pretty light week for me so far... that will be made up for if I ever have to do the guest bedroom! hee hee... that is far from a vacation retreat!
Here are some of the things I've been up to to make my room more "bed and breakfast-y":
Threw out a bunch of crap! I honestly don't know why I don't go into feng shui mode more often - it's really liberating! I tossed a couple purses and several pairs of shoes (hubby was quick to point out that I still have 44 pairs...); tossed a bunch of junk from the night-stand and head board; tossed some old make-up and stuff from the master bathroom. I've thoroughly dusted the room and have just been working on straightening things up. I've also been trying to toss some stuff from the guest bedroom and found a gazillion old photo frames! Some of the nicer ones were kept and I stuck some nice photos in those to go in the master bedroom. I have some candle things to put on the wall above the bed; just have to check with hubby first!
I really need to get in there and clean under the bed.. not sure what's lurking under there!

Oh, Wednesdays are Anti-Procrastination Days... lol, how appropriate for me! You're supposed to pick something that you have been procrastinating about and just do the dang thing. Today I had quite the list... here goes:
*Find a dentist (done - well, I found one right down the street who accepts my insurance! I just have to actually call them now!)

*Print passport application - done. I even filled it in! Woohoo! Quite the overachiever, aren't I? The funny part of this was when I came to look for my old passport which has to be returned with the application and I couldn't find it! Oh my God... panic mode set in! I seriously thought I'd just completely lost it but then found it - after taking half my house (and my car!) apart, I discovered it had been hiding on my desk the entire time... pesky passport!

*Start work on the final paper for my class... not actually due until August 4 and it's only 2 pages (nice!) so it's not really procrastinating... just wanted to motivate myself to actually start it! Oh, this was done - I actually got a huge chunk of the paper written so I should have no problems finishing it up tomorrow (I have 3 or 4 short paragraphs to write then I have to type it/edit it).

*Get back into some cardio workouts. OK, so I get more exercise in a week than a lot of people get in a year (right now I'd say I'm doing some kind of tai chi or kung fu 10-11 hours per week). That's great, but it's mostly all strength training; very little cardio. So... I have decided to take up running! I'll post more about this in a separate post but I actually checked out the Couch To 5K (C25K) program on the Cool Running website and printed out the schedule. It seems so do-able; I'm very excited :) Now to find a running buddy...

*I also have some painting projects I've been putting off - no real reason. I actually like painting - I find it quite therapeutic. So, I have added to my to-do lists for the next couple days some of these projects. Tomorrow, I will paint the baseboards in the master bedroom; Friday, I'll paint the door leading from the garage to the house; and Saturday, I think I'll tackle the inside of the front door. The outside was just painted a couple weeks ago and it has made the inside of the door look even more grody!

Boots!

No, not the shoes... I don't get excited over that kind of boots until at least early October :) I'm talking about the British pharmacy shop with the same name...!

So exciting - I was at Target yesterday stocking up on cleaning supplies (and a couple random impulse buys! Target is dangerous..!) and found myself in the cosmetics aisle (I really did have a reason to be there!) Well, as I was leaving I walked down an aisle and found a whole row of Boots products. I actually had to pinch myself to make sure it wasn't fake.. lol The ones in England are a bit of a mini Sephora - they sell all kinds of items from other companies - but also have their own line. The Target aisle was all Boots-brand product.
So much good stuff; shame I didn't *need* any of it...
Here's a link to the British website.
and a link to Target's site with the products they stock.
Yippee!

Fly Lady Progress

Well, I have survived my first week of "Flying lessons!" ;) I didn't do perfectly but I'm still getting the hang of this stuff so I'm not too concerned that I didn't get to it all. Besides, I started a master's degree class the same day I started this Fly Lady thing so I have a very valid excuse!

So last week's focus was the kitchen. I'm pretty anal about keeping my kitchen clean to begin with so it wasn't really hard to do the stuff on the list. I thoroughly cleaned most of my counter-tops (there are still a couple I need to do!) - I got the nasty bleach cleaner out and used a scrubbing brush so you know those bad boys are clean! I can't stand using bleach - the smell just eeks me out and I always have to wonder just what exactly it is that I'm breathing in??? Can't be good, especially when you think that if you mix it with certain other cleaners it can kill you... always a pleasant thought! I really try to stay away from the harsh chemical stuff but once in a while I have to break it out for these darn white tile/white grout counter-tops I have! Can't wait until I can get new ones!
Anyway, small bleach vent over! :) Other than that I was able to clean out under my sink and clean out the fridge! I do still have to get in there and wipe down all the shelves and stuff...

This week's focus is the main bathroom (since hubby takes care of his own bathroom, I'll just do mine/the master bath) and one other room in the house. I think I might do the office... it could use some help! ;) I don't have a list of what all I'm supposed to do this week - should have an email about that soon (seriously, you get so much email from this FlyLady person! I had to start a whole new email address for it...! Helps me to not ignore it since I can't just tell myself "oops, that one got lost in with all the other mail... hee hee)

The Baby Steps things are going well - those are pretty easy, though! Today is Day 8 so I've set up my binder with the morning and evening routines. Those should help - I'm a list-maker so this will allow me to "check-off" what is done and keep me focused!
There is a woman on the Nest who started a daily check-in so that is also preventing me from falling off the wagon (which I'm sure I would have done by now!) I'll keep posting on here about it as well. Not the most exciting blog topic but if it helps Mrs. Distraction stay on task then it's all good!

Have a wonderful week!!! Hope it's not too humid where you are!

Tai Chi

Well, tonight is my second observation with the sifu (head instructor) before I get to test for my purple fringe... Pretty exciting! I just hope he doesn't ask to see my sabre (sword form) since I haven't practiced it in a while! oops! From what my instructor has been telling me, he should only want to see the fan form and the long form (maybe not even the whole 108 steps since sifu already saw part of it and the sabre during the last observation).

I am just so ready to test and start learning something new! I love tai chi - it's probably my favourite hobby - I am just started to get a bit bored with this material... Maybe if I actually practiced outside of the school I'd be done by now! lol ;) I've been working on the fan form and the long form since I got my green fringe so it's been about a year and a half now (yeah, yeah, I'm slow..) and I really want to do something different! I'm not even sure what I'll learn at purple fringe... I think it's another sword form - the longer gim (straight sword) form which should be fun - and a hand form (the 48 combo form or something like that).

Hopefully my observation tonight will go well and I won't have too many little details to fix!! ;)

Fly Lady

Ok, so I broke down and joined in the Fly Lady cleaning craze! My house really doesn't need it, it's generally very clean and organized but I figured it would help me not have to do all the cleaning and organizing on the weekends. So far it's going well, but it's only my second day with it so we'll see how long I can keep that up! :)

The beginning is just really easy stuff to help you get started. What they call Baby Steps.
So far, I've done all the Day 1 and Day 2 stuff which was as follows:
*Shining my sink - bit of a pain since I have this UGLY white ceramic sink (I really want a stainless steel one) so it took quite a bit of scrubbing. It looks great now! Hopefully I can keep it that way!

*"Get dressed to lace-up shoes" - well, since I live in San Diego and it's the middle of summer there was no way I was going to wear lace-up shoes (well, except for kung fu!). And anyway, I don't wear shoes around the house - I'm trying to keep it clean, not make it dirtier! But, I did set out clothes to wear today last night which I'm pretty sure was part of that...

I've also been working on the Weekly Focus which is Zone Two: The Kitchen. I love my kitchen (even if the tile, sink, and oven are all really ugly!) so it's nice to spend time showing it some of that love. :)
Here's the details/things I'm supposed to do this week:
*Empty and clean the fridge
*Clean the microwave (done)
*Clean the stove/oven (the stove is done; cleaning the oven intimidates me...)
*Wash canisters for knick-knacks
*Wash the inside windows (done)
*Scrub down the cabinet fronts
*Clean under the sink

For Day 3 (tomorrow), I'm supposed to just do what I've already been doing on Days 1 and 2... nice and easy! :)

Gorgeous Magnolia

Ahhh... I am so jealous of my neighbor's magnolia! I was just out on the balcony - apparently there was a bank robbery in the area (I do not live in a bad part of town!) and SD Police are flying over announcing it so I had to be nosy - and my favourite tree is totally blooming! Here's a photo:


Yes, I'm odd for taking photos of my neighbour's tree... but I have a macro setting on my camera! Not like I was on their property! And besides, it's on the "common ground" in the parking lot of the complex so technically it's not his anyway :) lol

Wish I could get up close enough to smell it - I've heard they smell amazing!

The gas/electric bill

Normally I have no complaints about the gas/electric company here in San Diego. Well, except that I'm a bit miffed that they are really the only one we have available to us so it's a bit of a monopoly but whatever...
Anyway, I'm the one who pays the electric bill in our house (we have separate accounts and split up the bills when we first got married/I write him a check for my portion of the mortgage). This month we got this weird bill - $13! I thought.. "dang! That's nice! It's like being back in my little one-bedroom apartment when I didn't have cable and was rarely home" (my electric bill was TINY!) I actually drew a big smiley face (can't help it - I'm a teacher!) on the bill and stuck it on the fridge... lol
I was all happy about my cute little $13 electric bill, even if there was a rather odd note attached to it. Here's the basics of what the "odd note" had to say:
Dear Customer:
"Occasionally, our meter readers are not able to read our customers' meters due to locked gates, unrestrained dogs, or other circumstances preventing access. When this happens, bills are processed using estimated meter readings that are verified when we are able to obtain actual meter readings."
It blabs on to say something along the lines of we have estimated your bill based on previous readings/bills and have adjusted it to reflect on recent energy use.. blah blah blah
So, yesterday I got another bill! This second one was much more like our usual bills! Guess they took care of those "unrestrained dogs and locked gates" (neither of which we have since this is a townhouse complex!)
Kind of stinks that I have to pay them again... :( Oh well, it's not very expensive since we don't use too much power (I'm working on "training" DH to be a bit more of a greenie!)