over the years i have struggled with keeping my house to some level of non-CHAOS ("can't have anyone over syndrome" - per the fly lady - but i'm getting to that).
i have actually used the same philosophy with my home that i use with my personal devotions. i use what works until it doesn't.
when we only had 1.68 children, my devotions were leisurely affairs over tea while they were napping and cleaned as needed. when that 1.68 became 5.7 - little boys count double :) - i used nap time for cleaning and wedged my quiet times - i had multiple small increment devos during the day - in between handing out snacks and cleaning up after snacks, after placing a small child on a potty chair and wiping said small child's bottom, in between laying down to go to sleep and actually falling asleep - sometimes this amounted to a12 second devotional. i sang a lot of worship songs while picking up, cleaning up, straightening up, and throwing up - i throw up easily when i'm tired. i hoped that the worship in the worship songs counted for something. i had three intensive years of bible school - no where in all that instruction did we cover quiet times for mommies. so i rolled with the punches and adapted.
ok, so i know some of you are rolling your eyes. . . please, just file this away for the future - when one of your friends/sisters/grown children can't keep house like you do.
when the kids were really small i used the SHE system by Pam Young and Peggy Jones (Side-tracked Home Executives). a great little system based on rotating 3x5 index cards that scheduled chores on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. it worked and the sisters who developed it were really funny! (the only time this didn't work is when the card file got dumped. . . )
when the kids were school age i used the flipper system developed by Sandra Felton, founder of MA (Messies Anonymous). too cool! using index cards inserted into a flipper photo album with a over-head marker to check off the chores. i had made some homemaking progress so this was a step forward.
then the kids were tweens and teens, i was working full-time and i needed some extra help. enter The Fly Lady and her marvelous computer based system with fun stuff to do like the 27 fling boogie.
each system met a different homemaking skill level need for me. so i share all this with you to say - IF YOUR CURRENT SYSTEM IS NOT WORKING. . . FIND ANOTHER ONE!
do not give up! there is help out there!
dave and i will be empty nesters soon - like in 9 weeks - and i am going back the flipper system. . . i'll let you know how this goes. . . i'll also post something about my adventures in quiet times. . .
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