FLYing on my own

Although I've tried FLY lady for over 4 years, "her system" hasn't stuck. Her cleaning system makes life look easy. I can't seem to make it work in my house. My problems thus far:

1. When I first tried her system, I was a young, working wife and my daily schedule didn't line up with hers. I was over eager and tried to do too much with not enough time to really let it settle in.
2. I became pregnant with Little Lady shortly after I started and things went down hill from there. *Note to self: don't try a new cleaning system while pregnant, not a good idea in my book.
3. I switched jobs and started working lots of hours, not good in the cleaning book.
4. I then had Friday's off so I could take 4 hours and do a whole house clean, not in the FLYlady's book. I was doomed!
5. Then, we moved into an apartment and I was pregnant with #2 with lots of time on my hands... refer to note in #2!
6. So, now we've moved into our house, I'm not pregnant and both kids are over the age of 6 months *Note to self, also don't try to start a cleaning system with children less than 6 months old, I get overwhelmed and over stressed and life should really be about the kids at that stage!

I've tried to do FLYlady and I've tried again and again. I finally came to the conclusion that although her theories are good on paper, the ladies add way too many LOL's and :)'s for my liking. I want my directions so I can get to work without the fluff. Give me a checklist and let me go!

That brings me to now. I have FINALLY figured it out! FLYlady has a Cozi calendar. Here's the kicker. You can't copy & paste it into your own calendar and you only get access to it through Cozi and you have use their products. Being the savvy computer techie that I like to think I am, I downloaded Cozi as an iPod Touch app when it was still new and free without the advertising :) So, I get the calendar but it doesn't show up on my main iPod calendar... bummer. Over the last 6 months and the next 6 months, I will be spending time retyping (and customizing) FLYlady's immense wealth of daily zone work into my Outlook calendar (note: it's the only one I have found that I can schedule reoccurring events on the Third Thursday of August every year). Another kicker, the PC that the Outlook Calendar is on is not connected to the Internet and I can't sync it with my iPod unless it's connected (old iPod, old computer. Gotta love DH).

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been retyping all of my FLYlady daily missions and scheduling them. Now, I've discovered that there isn't really much behind the mystery. It feels like I've uncovered the magic in the tricks. The smoke and mirrors are gone. I also don't have a spotless house. FLYlady skips over a bunch of the things that get dirty in my house (high chairs, steps, closets, you know the important things!).  I can stick to her schedule and get some things done or I can add to it and create my own schedule and FLY all on my own. That's the point right?!

I've also wanted something to incorporate faith into my daily schedule. I found Small Steps for Catholic Moms and I really like that a lot of the tasks Incorporated are things that the FLYlady does. There is an addition of a prayer and a quote from a saint or a bible verse. The perfect addition to my Calendar!

So, when I get the chance that will be my next addition... baby steps!

I've also decided that I want to have "Bonus Missions" things that I can do if I accomplish my daily mission such as those pesky stairs and that darn high chair!

And that my friends, is how I plan to FLY on my own, in a nut shell.