Freecycle and Flylady - my Favorite two F things!

Freecyclers have been blessing us left and right lately. If you haven't checked out freecycle - you should! www.freecycle.org - join the local one near you. What it is - people post wanted or free ads and if you reply back and the person chooses you, you go to their house to get the item. Most of the time it's a porch pickup so you don't even have to meet the person.

The past few months we've received the following and have been so blessed because of it. I think everyone is feeling the pinch in the economy!

• A hose reel (I've always wanted one and now my hose isn't just sitting in a mess in front of the house!)
• Size 4 pair of swim trunks for Justin which I think he can wear now. A nice 'cars' pair.
• A remote controlled car, a bubble blowing push lawn mower, 3 cartoon dvds, a construction truck that  makes noises and a few puppets of Elmo and Cookie Monster!
• 10 gallon trash bag of girls clothes size 6-12 months for my friend Lori who just found out she's having a girl and has NO girl clothes!
• An eye spy game which Joey and I love to play!
• A brand new vsmile playing cartridge of Shrek.
  
• 2 pairs of size 4 cargo shorts for Justin
• A pair of shorts for me and a few t-shirts for Joe
• 6 foot silk tree that looks great in my formal living room
• A BAG of boys clothes size 4 - which Justin will fit into this fall - which included a nice jacket/coat. This was a very nice set of clothes for Justin. 
• Men's XL shirts which we got a TON of new dress shirts for Joe! This was a really nice bag of clothes for Joe. He got a few new polo collared shirts too out of the deal!
• a one foot stack of one sided paper, perfect for scrap printing. We NEEDED this! :)
• A bag of misc toy cars that Justin just loved
• Some clothes for me and some purple crocs
• A bag of stuffed animals, most talking
• A bag of board games, like bingo, operations, etc

Every little bit helps - esp with the clothes, games and toys!

Let me say I don't just take stuff from freecycle. We got rid of a few toys, a thermometer and a few other things recently. I give back too. I gave back a lot in our local freecycle back in Michigan as well. It's great. People are looking to get rid of stuff and people are looking to get stuff.

Another cool thing - have you seen Flylady (www.flylady.net)? She helps you get organized and declutter and keep your house presentable. It talk about her a lot because she's helped me SOO much.

She actually posted the testimonial I sent to her! I was so excited. Here is what it said. I was so excited they posted my testimonial. It goes out to over 500,000 members!

From: KELLY <flyladykelly@flylady.net>
To: FlyLadyMentors@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, June 8, 2009 7:13:43 AM
Subject: FLYLADY: Testimonial: Husband Did A Somersault

FlyLady and Kelly,

I thought of you two many times last night.

My dear husband loves his children and we were at the park at the end of the street. My husband was playing on my son's razor scooter and was going as fast as he could, lost control and did a complete somersault into the ground, his shoulder taking the impact. It looked like something out the movies!

He stood up and announced he needed to go to the ER. He heard something 'pop'.

I had both kids with us who are 5 and 2 1/2. I had my cell phone on me. I immediately called my neighbor to ask if she could watch the boys while I took DH to emergency after 8pm at night.

FlyLady - you helped me because I had an emergency plan. We are new to living in Texas. We moved here a year ago from living all our lives in Michigan and we have no family here to lean on in an emergency. I've asked around enough to find out where to go in case of an emergency. The last thing you need is to be faced with an emergency and not know where to go! I knew who I would call to help us (we had wonderful neighbors that watched the kids).

We got home from the park and our wonderful neighbors were there ready to help. I was able to run inside. The laundry was folded and put away. I was able to pull together the kids pj's and overnight diaper in less than 5 seconds. I explained the night routine we have the boys on to the neighbors. The house was picked up. The dishes were in the dishwasher and sink was empty. It's because of my routines and finding FlyLady that I was able to get out of the house very quickly and get my husband the care he needed. They reported the kids were on routine and went to bed easily that evening.

You help me in the unfortunate event of an accident. I was calm and collected. I knew this was because I was prepared and had routines in place.

Please make sure your FlyBabies have a control journal and know who they will call in an emergency and where they would go. We tend to push this off like it won't happen to us. Unfortunately accidents happen to everyone! There are many hospitals in our area where we live. Through research we asked around for the best and when we went our homework paid off. The care was great at the ER we went to.

Also, please tell your FlyBabies to please be careful on their kid's toys. It's fun to play with your kids, but accidents can happen! Through this accident we've actually met a lot of other parents who've had similar experiences with getting hurt on their kids toys. I'm sure they were like us and just trying to have fun with their kids! Please be careful!

Thanks again,
FlyBaby flying in Dallas!

PS - I loved meeting both of you in Dallas a year ago. You two are the best!

Kelly here: We are so sorry that this FlyBaby's DH had to go to the emergency room. She was able to FLY right through this emergency since she had a plan in place.

Have you created a control journal? Do you have routines in place? Do you have an emergency plan. Even if you have moved to a new city, take the time to find out which hospital you would want to go in case of an emergency.

You set the tone for your family. When you begin to FLY, others in the household will also FLY.

Here is the link to creating the control journal.

http://flylady. net/pages/ cjmain.asp