Flying through my house

One the most important habits I established lately is my house cleaning routine, in the format promoted by FlyLady. She suggests a light, extremely regular cleaning routine, with a general superficial cleaning once a week for an hour or so, and spend another hour throughout the course of the week on a more ambitious, thorough cleaning of one "zone" of the house.

This week was the kitchen. Last week was the living room and dining room. Next week is the main bathroom. It seems the bathroom zone keeps coming around week after week as time flies by! Last month when I was cleaning that zone, I spent an hour or more over the course of a few days scrubbing mildew from the grout on the bathroom floor with a toothbrush. YES! I did that. I cannot believe the new me.

It feels grand to tackle a problem area that I have noticed for years without ever addressing. The floor in the bathroom really bothered me. This time around, I may work on recaulking the tub. It's one of the tasks I really should request of the landlord. There is mold growing on the caulking and it is stripping away from the wall. Apparently this allows water under the tub which can damage the floor.

I actually have not completed my thorough cleaning of the kitchen for the week, mainly because it is always pretty clean. As I have been cycling through FlyLady about three times now, the daily tasks she assigns are not as applicable to me. Last month, for example, I soaked and scrubbed the stove top and knobs and have rarely used them since, due the extreme heat in August when I loathe turning on any appliance in the kitchen. Therefore, when that task rolled around, I promptly ignore it. I am due, though, for another declutter in that zone. I am considering waiting for my parents to visit later this month, as it will give my mom and I something fun to do.

Oh, yes! I did fix one item that I had been struggling with for the decade I have lived at this house, and countless women have suffered while living here. I sprayed our cabinet lazy susan with WD-40 so that it actually turns and opens with less tension. Not perfect, but much better.

Our handyman/friend also fixed our Kitchen light that I had compromised by letting the plug tubing get too close to the burner. Between that and my brother's hot water kettle that had the same problem, I had been stressed about the more real threat of kitchen fire. Both issues are now resolved and our smoke detector is quite sensitive in the kitchen. These are of great relief to me as a mother of two in a three story house with questionable egress in the case of fire. I do plan on investing in fire safety supplies once I determine exactly what we should have. I am thinking of escape ladders, masks of some sort, and fire-repellant blankets if they exist.

As for my afternoon routine and habit,  I continued the course of working out by utilizing a youtube Pilates video. I really enjoyed the workout. It was varied and I could feel it working and I feel it even this morning, though the soreness is not debilitating. I may even walk over to the gym and cancel my never-used membership. I have put that off far too long.

Yesterday was also my brother's birthday so I made two desserts- a turtle brownie, and a yellow cake with cool whip frosting and pink sugar sprinkles with ten candles on top! We had barbecue chicken with the delicious (seriously delicious) sriracha and garlic barbecue sauce from Trader Joe's and hamburgers on potato roll buns. The girls and I walked to Safeway to buy a balloon bouquet-- most of the balloons made it home. It's a bad idea to go on a long walk with balloons when windy outside.

I will leave you with a reflection on today's Mass readings from Roman's 8:

Brothers and sisters:
We know that all things work for good for those who love God,
who are called according to his purpose. 
For those he foreknew he also predestined
to be conformed to the image of his Son,
so that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers.
And those he predestined he also called;
and those he called he also justified;
and those he justified he also glorified.



This shows me that when God wants and calls a person, he provides all of the necessary work and effort and graces for that person to be conformed to the image of his Son, Jesus, and therefore to be glorified. It starts in our Baptism and ends in our glorification in Heaven with Christ. But it is a process and God both initiates and acts with us and within us to reach the end desired by both God and self-- seeing Christ in our glorified body-- the Beatific Vision.