FLYing

After Buddy was born, we came to the decision to have me stay at home. Initially, I thought I'd be going back to work... I wanted to stay home, but it just didn't seem to be in the cards for us.

Then he was born so early and was only 3lbs, 12 ounces at 6 and a half weeks old when he was sent home from the hospital. My bosses were great and let me work from home for 12 weeks and by that time, Buddy was up to only 5 and a half pounds.

The Evil Twin and I felt it was best for me to stay home and take care of his almost round the clock care. It was tough because I really loved my job and my bosses, but my first obligation was to my son.

I decided early on that there would be no daytime TV. And that is something I've stuck with for over 10 years now. I mean, I do turn on the TV for the "quality" kiddy programming - more for background noise than anything. Sissy rarely pays attention to it.

I really needed some direction in life - it's hard adjusting from working full time to being a mom full time. I have always been the type who does better when I have a routine. So, I started incorporating little things into my day that became habits. Like the bed gets made before I get in the shower. That way, when I come back to our room to get dressed, the bed looks tidy.

A few years into my SAHM (stay at home mom) status, I heard about a website, Flylady. FLYing means Finally Loving Yourself. The website offers encouragement and solutions for SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executives). If you sign up for the mailing list, you get tons of email. I finally set mine to digest, so I only get one a day.

I am still in FLY larvae stage, even after all these years. I do follow the plan of getting up, doing my hair and make up and getting dressed. Flylady recommends getting dressed to include shoes, but hey, I'm a Southern gal and we don't wear shoes if we can help it!

During the warmer weather, I keep sandals by the door that I can slip on. In colder months, I do have to get socks and shoes from my room, but otherwise, I'm pretty much ready to go in a snap. Plus, I think I feel better about myself if I look decent. Even if I don't have any place important to go, I still like to look as if I do have somewhere important to go.

My days don't vary much, but that's okay. I like the routine. Even if I will remind myself 400 times today that "Today is Monday." LOL.

The Evil Twin is off today and he took me to Red Lobster for lunch (we didn't want to deal with the crowds yesterday). He is off tomorrow for the election, it's a regular day off for him, so he took today too so he could have a 4 day weekend. Of course, it's been cold and shitty just about the whole time. I'll be "off" this whole week since my routine will be out of whack. It's worth it to have him home, though.