Dear FlyLady,

I’m a relatively new FlyBaby at 6 weeks old. I’ve known for years that I needed a bedtime routine. I am so not a morning person having worked nights all of my adult life – really about 20 years.

About a year and a half ago I started a Monday thru Friday 7-3:30 job. It took me forever to get used to sleeping at night, but once I did, I was still waking up, hitting the snooze until I absolutely had to get up, then rushing around here trying to get out of the houses to make it to work on time.

Then I discovered FlyLady. Went through the BabySteps. Now after I get the kids in bed it goes like this: tidy the living room and kitchen, shine the sink, hit the hot spots on the way to the bedroom, turn on the shower, pull my next day’s clothes out of the closet while the shower is warming up, shower, check in on the girls, on my way to bed around 10pm (after some winding down with a little TV from the DVR and iPad and/or reading).

I wake up in the morning and my clothes are ready, and I don’t have to shower. All around improving my mood in the mornings and getting to work on time

Thanks FlyLady,

Jennifer in Waco, Tx

Tracking Finances

Dear FlyLady,

I have items that get paid either bi-monthly or tri-monthly (lawn bin is bi-monthly but swim team dues are tri-monthly) and do not like the scrambled feeling of forgetting when the time comes and having to find the money to pay the lump sum. I go through my calendar for the year and write in an unnumbered square what gets paid on what month and the amount.

I also mark on the first day of the month that my son has guitar lessons the amount for the lessons that month (we pay at the beginning of the month for the lessons and it varies depending on the number of Thursdays). I know what I’m paying for the month to budget accordingly. This has saved the stress of going from one amount one month and twice the amount the next month and not having adapted the amount.

Thanks to using the calendar (it is on our refrigerator in the kitchen with a white board and small cork board) there is no more double-booking and we can see if we are committing ourselves to too many activities and need to make a choice somewhere.

Thank you for all you do!

Seattle FlyBaby