Dear FlyLady,

My DS (age four) loves to help me cook, bake, etc.  Recently I came into the kitchen to discover him trying to bake muffins on his own.  Flour, salt, baking powder, etc. all over the counter-tops, the floor, the DS, and all in my sink.  It took a lot of tongue-biting not to yell at him, but I managed to smile and tell him we would clean it up together.  The hardest part was the sink – how to get all that flour and stuff out without clogging the plumbing?  Then I had an ah-ha moment – the vacuum cleaner!  The hose attachment got most of the flour and stuff out, and the rest I could wipe out with a paper towel.

I finished shining my sink, and dried it out and was so proud of it.  The next morning I discovered the faucet on my shiny sink had a leak.  Who knows how long water and money had been wasted down the drain before I finally got that sink shined?  So that morning I learned that FLYing can save money!

And then I vacuumed inside my stove.  Luckily I didn’t discover any kind of leaks in it the next day  😉

I’ve been fluttering along for over a decade, since the first days of the email list.  I’ve never managed to get the baby steps done.  But a few weeks ago I finally “got it.”  My husband’s aunt and uncle were coming into town from out of state.  They’ve never visited us before, and I was near panic because our house was, as always, total CHAOS.  But I printed out the crisis cleaning instructions and followed them to the letter.  In just a day, our house went from CHAOS to presentable.  And my brain finally absorbed the idea that everything can be accomplished in 15 minute increments.  I no longer look at our house as a complete disaster that will never be clean, but as a few sets of 15 minutes cleaning sessions away from being presentable.

Thank you FlyLady and your team, for showing us we can do anything for 15 minutes, and it can really make a difference.  I am finally learning to overcome my perfectionism (which was hard for me to believe – me, a perfectionist?!  No way!  Turns out, yes way.  Way way yes way) and shut up the stinkin’ thinkin’ that used to paralyze me.

Finally starting to really FLY in Rocket City, Huntsville Alabama USA