Coffee With Maddie




While shopping at a local bookstore this past week, I walked past a display and one of the books caught my attention. It would have been pretty hard to miss - the cover was hot pink with a picture of a bright and shiny kitchen sink and a familiar cartoon character on it. The cartoon character was the “FlyLady.” I recognized the picture from her website which I mentioned a few weeks back - www.flylady.net. The title of the book is Sink Reflections, by Marla Cilley - the FlyLady.

Underneath the title of the book were three questions: Overwhelmed? Disorganized? Living in chaos? Yep! Those three questions pretty much sum up my life. I looked at the table of contents, at the price and bought it. I decided $14.95 was a small price to pay if any suggestions in it would help me. The one suggestion I took off of her website - the 15-minute cleaning idea - has already been very helpful to me.

That same evening I took my new book and a highlighter down to my favorite coffee shop and got busy reading. By the time I had finished the introduction and first chapter, I was in tears. There’s been only one other book, until now, where I felt the author really knew me and understood me. Now I needed to add a second book to that list. The FlyLady and I could be clones! The tears were falling mainly from a sense of relief. I realized from just the little bit I’d read so far that this author had been a lot like me, especially in her thinking, and had changed her habits to become the organized, peaceful woman she wanted to be. Now I know there’s hope for me! She says, “The FlyLady program is not about cleaning. It is about changing your life to make it more rewarding and leading to a more important goal, to FLY, or Finally Loving Yourself.” I’m sold. I’ll keep reading.

But before I read any more of the book, I did what she suggested in the first chapter. I completely cleaned, sanitized and shined up my kitchen sink and the counter adjacent to it. Five days later it still looks beautiful. I told my husband and boys that I wanted to keep it clean - not just for a day or two, but long term. I asked them to rinse off their dishes and put them in the dishwasher or in the dishpan underneath the sink if the dishwasher was full. It’s actually working . . . well, at least most of the time. I know that old habits die hard! It’s so much easier to put the dishes in the sink. But I’m thankful they’re willing to try. It will just take some time.

I didn’t believe that I’d feel better after cleaning that sink, but I do. And I feel better because of that same feeling of hope I had after reading the first chapter. It’s the hope that my whole house can eventually look like this - sparkly clean and uncluttered. In her second chapter she says, “I know you are not lazy; you just need someone to give you specific instructions to get you moving. This is where I can help you. Having learned to be organized, I can teach you techniques to get you started and keep you from giving up.” I just finished chapter six and am going to stop reading for a few days so I can put more of her suggestions to work. I’m sure I’ll be sharing more successes in the weeks to come. If you can relate to any of this, do yourself a favor - run out and buy this book! I read a lot of non-fiction, self-help books. This one has been more helpful than any I’ve read for a long time - a very long time.

Until next week . . . God bless you and yours! -Maddie

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Coffee With Maddie: Archive;
Blessings
Magazine Junkie!
Maddie Goes to College
Changes
Let the season begin!
Getting Older!
I'm Getting Fat!
I Love a good book!
Family Games
Manners!
Someone to Love
A Special Anniversary
New Year Goals
My Spinal Tap!
The Book Store
I Salute Our Men in Uniform
Valentine's Day
My Birthday Choices
Current Events and Politics
Cabin Fever
We Can Choose the Words We Use
Let's Get Organized!
Support Our Troops
Acts of Kindness
Find Something to Do!
Yippee, Spring!
Yo Dude
Mother's Day

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About the Author;
Maddie is a dear friend from the Midwest who will touch your heart with her gentle stories of home of family. You can just picture yourself at the kitchen table any early morning with Maddie, a fresh cup of coffee, maybe the smell of bacon in the air, and a log on the fire to take out the chill.

Talk to Maddie at ...
Maddie@boomerjournals.com