I am in a HEAP of trouble!

Yes, pun intended. I really am in a heap of trouble. Let me start from the beginning.

A statement has been going through my head for a while now. It started well before my wardrobe worries. Someone stated almost in passing that a persons closet really shows the state of a persons life. That completely rocked my world for two reasons. The first is from a former employer. She told me that she always walked applicants to their cars after an interview so she could see inside their car. She always said it showed something about them.

Second, it the fact that both my closet and my car (or soccer mom mini-van) are disaster areas. I can blame it on the old "that's just who I am". But the fact of the matter is that I have always had a meticulous car and for the most part closet. Those were always two things that were always together. I cannot put a finger on when or where, but that is not the case anymore.

So, if I am going to make a change, it must start from within, first. And, I must begin to clean the external mess along with the internal mess. I am a born again evangelical Christian. I am a sinner saved by grace. I do believe that the Bible is the truth and the 100% word of God. So, I must start there. In fact, the Bible talks plainly about getting back to your first love. If I were to be honest, I would have to say that my life problems started with a foundation problem. Somewhere, my foundation has been allowed to deteriorate. I must at all costs renew and refresh my relationship with God the father.

So today begins a new quest. I am going to on purpose put God first in all I do. Seems simple enough. The Bible says that if we put Him first, all the other things will be added unto us. In Him, I live and have my being. What a great start!

Stay tuned tomorrow for why I am in a HEAP of trouble now!

My Breakthrough Task

So, I am a huge fan of FlyLady. She has a whole method of things which I subscribe to in some general consensus. If you have never heard of FlyLady, you have to check her out at flylady.com. As part of her get organized theory, she asks that you get dressed to your shoes each day. A seemingly easy task for most. But not me. Since deciding to stay home with my kids, I have put my "look" or style on the back burner. The biggest reason is/was money. And couple that with the identity crisis of a on-the-go, never stop, ALWAYS going person. I immediately one day just stayed home. Again, a simple and rewarding task for most. However, it was a death sentence to me.

Fast forward three and a half years later, and that brings us to now, the present day. I have conceded to the fact that I am in fact a stay-at-home anything - not just mom. But nothing else about me has adjusted accordingly. Stupid I know. I would love to be one of those women that I envy who has it all together - clean house, decorated house, clean kids, fashionable kids, put together, never appears under pressure, knows the latest news, has the latest scoop, can sing all the songs to HSM 1, 2 and 3, you get the picture.

As per FlyLady rules, the first step is shining your sink. I have perfected the shinning sink to the point of true sink shine stardom. Nothing else in my kitchen may be clean (including all pots and pans and for some reason spoons) but the sink is spotless.

The second step is where her whole system leaves me in the dust - get dressed to your shoes. This simple step is the one place that keeps me stuck in the mud and muck of life, I am convinced. I have tried and tried, but no matter what I do I get stuck on number two. I am not a stupid person (actually self-proclaimed genius). I am a reasonable young woman who should be able to do a reasonable task. I truly believe that this one single step could be my breakthrough step.

FlyLady and all her minions proclaim that this one step has changed there life. I subscribe to the Tim Gunn theory of your outside is really a mirror to your inside. So, what does my outside say? Tired. Stressed. Blasè. Uninterested. Boring. A literal mess. Yes, these things all describe me at some point in most days, but they don't hit on the REAL me.

Over-Simplification

So, I was thinking this morning about how I spend so much of my time trying to simplify things so that my day is more streamlined. It is amazing that I keep myself going all of the time and never have time when I couldn't tell you what was taking up my time. I'm not sure if that last sentence made sense to anyone else but me.

I am a stay-at-home mom. I work around 91 hours per week. So, I have tried to do things, organize, come up with new methods, etc. all in an effort to gain back some time lost on "must do" things. Like most families, we have school to get to, church functions, Bible studies, dinners to cook, bikes to ride, laundry, general house work and all the other "typical" and most likely "atypical" family things. I will literally spend hours trying to come up with a system that will save me 5 minutes every other day only to abandon the system within a week or two.

My life is a series of over-simplifications. Hmmm . . . how to simplify the simplified. For the over-simplified-a-holic, I am sure I will find a way. It should be a simple task. And once accomplished, a real time saver for sure.