Tackling My Tuesday

Do you know how when you don't manage to get done the things you wanted to get done during a day that the day feels like a complete bust? Yeah, I had one of those days...

Initially, my plan for the day was to take Dad to radiation and get some Psych reading done; Take husband to hospital for surgery and get some more reading done; Come home and clean for 3 hours.

I took Dad but had another patient arrive in a chatty mood so I only got 4 pages read.

I took my husband to the hospital (for an outpatient surgery) but 2 chatty women in the waiting room and were tired of their discussion with each other and then had to ask "what's your husband here for? ohhh my husband had that done and this is what happened and this is why we're here now." One benefit of living in an urban area is that nobody talks to each other. Move to a rural area - everybody knows everybody and if they don't know you, they will talk long enough until they do.....So I wasn't able to get any reading done until those women left, which means a whopping 2 additional pages.

Sigh.

I was hoping to get the entire chapter read. 6 lousy pages. Unbelievable.

So I came home and had every intention to start cleaning. But at that point, I was wiped out. 3 hours of driving and 3 hours of sitting in hospitals just took everything out of me. I sucked down a pot of coffee and did manage to get dinner done and cleaned the entertainment center in the living room.

PCCX Work
I didn't require my son to do anything pccx wise, only because he managed to get out of the house before I got home from hospital #2. Previously, the entertainment center looked like this:


I took out all of the DVD's, books, and VHS tapes. Dusted/polished the shelf and then sorted through the items determining what to keep, what to toss, what to put in Jordan's room and then put it all back in alphabetical order. That was the hard part. The rest was pretty easy as I dusted/polished the rest of the center and cleaned all of the electronics. In the end, this is what it looks like:



So I got something done for pccx, just not enough reading to make the day feel like I accomplished enough. Oh well, such is life.

Jamie's Befores

Day 1 - Teresa

Well, day 1 didn't go exactly as planned. I'm seeing a trend here folks...

Got up yesterday morning expecting that we would make the trek up to the bus stop and I would come back and get to work. Didn't happen. Woke up late-ish, no time to make the bus so we opted to drive the short distance to school. Not sure exactly what made us so late but I have the feeling it was button care. If anyone reads this and doesn't know what I mean when I talk about "button care" please feel free to read my personal blog for more information. Anyway, she made it to school with just enough time to get to her class without being tardy.

Once I got back home I was set to get busy cleaning. Started with routine stuff and pretty much that 's all I got done. I stripped the bed, washed the sheets, tried to catch up on dishes (everyday occurence lately), made a meal plan for the week, and before I knew it it was time for me to go get her off the bus. Just a little side note here, I got really irritated when I went to the bus stop because there was a little ankle nipper dog there that wouldn't let me into the driveway so I could wait for the bus out of the road. Thankfully there is no traffic to speak of on our roads in town.

Homework happened next, then dinner, then it was time to put B to bed so I could watch my House and Trauma. Of course bedtime, as usual, didn't go smoothly either since again I had to do button care and make sure she got one of her Boost drinks. We're averaging 2 a day which is 1 less than what they want us to do. Insert heavy sigh here...

Well today is another day in the life so I'm off to see what I can accomplish. I'm hitting post on this without rereading because I'll try to edit it if I reread. Not a good thing since I won't get it posted if I do that. Bye All!

What happened to Day 1?

I thought I was going to go into town for a short couple hours--a meeting at the bank and a chiropractor appointment. It turns out we had both of those plus lunch, a meeting with one of the boys' teacher and a meeting with the realtor. By that time it was supper, so we splurged and went to Cold Stone Creamery and had an ice cream supper. B, LJ and I left home at 1:30 and we didn't get home until 7:00. By that time, I was done. No house cleaning was going to be done today. Oh well. I'm home all day Tuesday so surely I can make up for it then. So we'll see what happens then. And it's off to the races!

Chou for now!

Don't Talk to Me, I'll Bite Your Head Off!

I don't want to say I was under a lot of stress yesterday, but if one more person reminded me of something I had to do, they were going to die. I am determined to get more done in this PCCX than any other, but the start date couldn't have come at a worse time!

• I have massively fallen behind in my 2 college classes (Geography and Psychology) and had a ton of Geography homework due but first had to read 60 pages, complete a lab report, a 90 minute test to take, a posting on how to solve climate change due in a discussion forum as well as 2 postings to comment on other people's submissions
• Dad's radiation therapy (5x a week with a little more than 3 weeks to go which is a 1 hour drive each way + 30 minutes for treatment and sometimes up to 30 minutes waiting)
• My husband is having a colonoscopy today which meant that as of yesterday around 3 p.m. he was restricted to a clear liquid diet (fun times) and can't eat/drink anything today
• My son actually came home with homework yesterday and wanted me to help with his linear functions (uh, what?)
• And for some reason, my son decided he wanted to rearrange his room and needed my assistance a couple of times.
• Oh, and I had an eye doctor appointment to verify the trial contacts I got last week were okay.
• Finally I had to make sure I snagged my son to do at least 1 PCCX item after school, otherwise he would defect and I'd never get his help since I reminded him all weekend he was going to do this.
  

I lost it at one point yesterday as my husband decided to ask what time Dad's radiation would be today because he's concerned I won't get him to the hospital on time for his surgery. I yelled at him for about 10 minutes. I'm sick and tired of people reminding me of everything I have to do. I KNOW!! I have a calendar. I have a blog. I have notes on my POA (Plan of Attack) so I don't forget. Reminding me is like nails on a chalkboard. I KNOW....BACK OFF!

So, this is what my day will look like today:

6:30 - 9:30 Wake up and do morning routine items
9:30 - 12:30 Dad's radiation (I'll do homework reading while in waiting room)
12:30 - 3:30 Eric's colonoscopy (Again, homework reading)
3:30 - 6:30 Housecleaning/Dinner Prep
6:30 - 7:30 Cook/Eat
7:30 - 8:00 Dishes
8:00 - 10:00 Hide in bedroom and watch The Biggest Loser

Yeah that's right, I'm watching reality tv to escape reality, don't judge me.

I'd probably gone on a bit more, but I just looked at the clock and Jordan isn't up for school yet and he has to be there in 20 minutes!

Jamie's Day 1

My computer is EXTREMELY slow and photobucket was extremely uncooperative this evening. :( I made my daily goal and am pleased with my overall day, although I did not get any PCCX done, so to speak. I got somewhat of a gameplan together and will only be able to work on PCCX two full days a week. I am going to have to stay on task and make sure I am following the schedule that I have set up to keep my work, homeschool, dailies and pccx done. I am pleased that I kept up with my POA, I worked steadily, I got my water in, we completed school and I got all my rumbles done.

Off to bed....tomorrow will be full with school activities for dd, so I will have to work after dinner.....toodles.

First day....

It's the first day of pccx and I've decided to start with my bedroom. I woke up at 5 this morning ready to go. Til my son woke up at 5:30 and felt warm....then my daughter woke at 6 and felt warm too.....insert your favorite cuss words here cause I said them all. My husband's out of town til tomorrow and I had a ton of errands to run today. So errands are done on a must need basis today. Must have coffee for tomorrow so we are going to the store. I called my daughter's school and said she wouldn't be in today. That's about the only time I can work on my own school work. You don't realize how much a 4 year old talks until they are gone for 3 hrs a day. Everything else will have to wait. Back to work for me now.

Teresa's Intro

Hi, I'm Teresa, single stay at home mom of an 8 year old daughter and a 20 year old daughter who is married and has a home of her own. We have a cat and dog who let us share their house, LOL, and an outside cat who adopted all of us.

I am probably the oldest blog contributor and should by all rights have all this cleaning and "housekeeping" stuff down but to be honest I don't have it down at all. Life has a way of keeping me off kilter most of the time. Currently, the curve ball that has been thrown my way is that my 8yo has just had a feeding tube button put in and we are still trying to get the routine care of it and the associated feedings incorporated into what little routine we had prior to this. My house is serving a dual purpose right now in that it is our home and is also a temporary storage place for my older daughters stuff that stayed when she left home. The house is small and there is no storage outside. There isn't very much space inside either so finding somewhere to put everything is a challenge.

Currently, my 20 year olds stuff is housed in the laundry room which also houses all of the "off season" things such as the fans we used during the summer. Because one of our heaters is in the laundry room and is totally blocked by stuff right now I am declaring the laundry room as my dungeon. I won't be able to totally clear it out unless I can find storage somewhere away from my home, but I do need to at least have access to the 2nd Dearborn heater in there for the coming winter months.

We rent this house so there won't be any major changes done during PCCX but hopefully I'll be able to at least do a thorough cleaning job on it. I will be posting pictures shortly so hang around and I'll give you the guided tour.

Aaargh!

Day 1 and I'm already behind. I spent too much time last night on my regular blog posts for the week, and I didn't want to stay up any later than I already was, so I didn't get properly prepped for today. I still don't have a working list for today, I still have posts to write, I still have paperwork to do, and at this rate it'll be lunchtime before I'm ready to get up and do anything.

You know what? Screw it. We did a lot of work this weekend, and except for a few places on the floor that I want to get cleaned all the "condemnable" bits got cleaned. If the place as it is now (minus those spots on the floor) isn't good enough, then I guess I'm not good enough. I have enough to do today without stressing about making things picture perfect. So my official cleaning goals for the day include half an hour on the floors, half an hour on my room, half an hour on dishes and dining room, and a couple loads of laundry. Given that, I can safely start whenever I finish the rest of this stuff.

So how about you? Are you prepared to start today, or even this week? What do you feel you need to do before you begin? 50 points for answering in the comments.

And to get us off on the right foot, 50 points for declaring a dungeon (take it if you've already done so or if you do it today), and another 50 for adding yourself to the database (ditto).

The 1st Day of PCCX

I feel like a kid on the 1st day of school. I have all my papers together. I have a list prepared for the week. I've already informed Jordan (my son) that he will be helping daily. I am just itching to start but secretly know that the newness of it all will wear off quickly LOL

I know I'm like this with the beginning of every pccx. But I honestly think I can finish this time. Granted Dad has radiation 5 times a week and I have a ton of homework, but if I'm disciplined enough, I can do it!

I'd keep on blogging, but I have a serious amount of work to do today!

Jamie's Introduction….Productivity….Completion

My name is Jamie and I am a 30ish WAHSHM….for those of you still learning all the email/blog lingo (like me), I am a Work At Home Single Homeschool Mom. I stumbled across yahoo groups and PCC all in the same week completely by accident. :) At the time, I was married with a 2 year old and was joining a local Mom’s group that was recommended to me. That opened up an entire underworld of yahoo groups, lol. My mother has always said that I am an organized person, but I wasn’t feeling very organized trying to care for my toddler, be the lover and best friend to my dh, run a perfect household right down to the hot, home cooked meal every night, regular dinner parties and play dates, perfectly ironed sheets and pillowcases…yes, you read that right….all that while being perfectly healthy and fit! Something had to give…..SO, I chose to ditch the dh, put the perfect household on the back burner and opted for getting healthy praying that fit would come along, lol.

All kidding aside, I thought I was coming along in my quest for a tidy and organized home and life. I was on track to complete PCCX last year prior to selling our home and moving out of Florida, so that my husband could take a job that he wanted. It was October and I had our Thanksgiving dinner planned and was well on my way to having Christmas organized. I even had my baking/cooking lists prepared and budgeted to make goodies for our neighbors and friends. I had begun listing on ebay regularly and was looking forward to reclaiming my guest bedroom. The day we got the contract on our home my husband told me he wasn’t happy with his job and wanted to move to Texas where there were more opportunities in his company. In a nutshell, our daughter and I were to come to Texas and stay temporarily with my mom and dad until he could get his transfer to come join us. We got to Texas the week before Thanksgiving and put all of our items in storage. He went on his merry way for several job interviews. He called me the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to tell me that HE wasn’t marriage material (uh, we have been married 7 years) and that he wouldn’t be joining us out in Texas. I no longer had a home that I dearly loved and was enjoying getting in order and I no longer had one of the most cherished “roles” of my life….housewife.

The past year has been a roller coaster of emotions, events and new learning experiences. I am so incredibly blessed to be working from home and homeschooling my daughter as we had planned all along. I have a home that is still in the VERY beginning stages of being unpacked and I am re-learning how important it is to be organized, so when your life is turned upside down, you have a fighting chance. I am learning and tweaking my daily routine which has to include cleaning/maintaining the home, meal planning, my work (to earn a paycheck), schooling my daughter, activities with her, activities with my parents and my brother and some how manage to find “me” time, exercise time, errands, church and all those other things that make you wish there were 40 hours in a work day instead of the work week.

My dungeon: ALL unpacked boxes in the house (did I mention, we have been here 10 months and are still unpacking!) and the storage unit where the rest of our “stuff” is, including all items that we have purged so far for a huge garage sale in November. If I complete the unpacking of the boxes, my “reward” is a new digital camera. I want one of the ones with the detachable zoom lens.

I will be posting photo links of my “before’s” and “after’s” and I hope you enjoy the journey that we are on as well as your own. I have learned in 3 years of attempting pccx, that it comes around more than once a year, so I get multiple tries! :)

The Day Before Hell...I Mean PCCX

So, yesterday I spent 8 hours of cleaning so I could take pics today. Don't judge me when you see the pictures! I'm a very busy person!!!

I've already warned Jordan (my 15 year old son) that he WILL be helping. I figure 30 minutes a day after school should suffice. This way, if I'm too busy, at least something will get done!

Here's my plan:
Finish a room every week...ROFL...I kill me. No seriously, I'm going to finish a room weekly and add the pics every Sunday night of the room that is completed.

I do have "kinks" in my cleaning. This is my father's house. We moved in with him last year to prevent him from losing the house. So there will be some things that I just can't do anything about. But, I will try...

My dungeon this time will be my bathroom. Yes, my bathroom. A huge assortment of bar soaps that nobody uses, shampoos, towels, lotions, etc need to be weeded out. I'm hoping to take anything unopened to the local battered woman's shelter.

Ann's Intro and Plan of Attack

Hi all! I’m Ann, stay at home mom/step-mom of 5 children, ages 11, 8, 7, 4 and 4 months. I’ve been married to John since November 2008. We live in Ohio. We home school our 11 year old daughter, who has Congenital Myasthenic Syndrome and uses a wheelchair. Our 8 (who has Asperger's /ADHD) and 7 year old boys go to public school and our 4 yo daughter goes to a preschool where my husband works. Also, the children are in various extracurricular activities. Can you tell we're busy?

We’re in the process of trying to buy a larger house. So, it’s very likely that I’ll be pccx’ing (is that a word?) 2 houses at once. Granted the new house will be empty when I clean so that will probably help. Hopefully, this week I’ll know for sure what will be happening. Then I’ll be able to plan my attack a little better.

Drumroll, please!!!! My dungeon is…..the garage! Due to combining households, we have boxes of my stuff that hasn’t gotten unpacked yet. I’m still looking for my plates. I know they are out there somewhere. We’re using a mishmash of what my husband collected. I can’t wait to get matching plates again. Anyway, I must have the garage clean before winter sets in, which could be any time. We would really like to park the vehicles in there so we don’t have to trek through the snow to the house.

I think for this week, I’m going to work on the 2 bathrooms. They need a really, really deep cleaning and it will feel good to get them done. Besides, I’m pretty sure I can get both of them done in a week and still have time to find my dishes. Finally, I want to get my fall decorations put up even if I will have to change them to a different house.

Anyway, I’ve introduced myself, declared my dungeon, and made my goals for the week so I think I’ll end here for now. I’ll check in tomorrow---the 1^st day of FALL PCCX!! Happy Cleaning all!!

Ye Olde Dungeon

A definition for those new to the concept: a dungeon is a room or area of your home that is so cluttered, so over-run by *stuff*, that you are thoroughly embarrassed to have anyone see it. Usual suspects are craft rooms, offices, empty rooms that become catch-all storage areas, garages, storage areas (sheds, attics, basements), but any room in the house can be one. When we talk about dungeons we're talking about *clutter*, not dirt. A grimy bathroom is not a dungeon, but a slightly dusty room piled high with sewing patterns, fabric, scrapbook supplies, and other crafts is.

The points for dungeons during PCCX are as follows:

• If you cleared (not cleaned, cleared) a dungeon in a previous PCCX period and it is still clear, 500 points.
• Flinging (getting rid of) items from your dungeon (give away, throw away, sell), 10 points per item, paper and other very small multiple items are 10 pieces per 10 points.
• Every 15 minutes spent decluttering your dungeon, 200 points.
• If you completely clear your dungeon during the PCCX period, 1000 points in addition to time and flinging points.
• If you clear your dungeon, have time to spare, and decide to clean the room as well using the appropriate room list, double the task points for that room.
• Finally, if you begin PCCX with no area you can call a dungeon, 1000 points and our congratulations.

If you have one and are participating, you must declare a single dungeon at the start of the period. You don't need to list any other rooms you have, though you may if you wish.

For example, my dungeon for this time around is my storage shed in the backyard. My home consists of 4 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2 hallways, a living/dining room combo, the kitchen, and a laundry room. And *if* I get all that done and am feeling ambitious, mom's "apartment" has a bedroom, office, bathroom, and walk-in closet, but I'm not counting on that.

The day before....

It's the day before pccx starts and I'm not sure where to begin. I think I might start with the bedrooms since they'll be the easiest. Easiest to get done and easiest to maintain. I need to go through my children's toys. They have far far too many of them. I also need to take the carpets out of the rooms and wash them. I'd like to get that done before it gets too cold outside. Living in MO you never know when it will get cold.

Dungeon.....I've put some thought into this. Since I don't have alot of extra stuff laying around I need to get my filing cabinet in order. It's a mess. Too many papers and not enough space for them. I've also decided that my husband will have his own dungeon. All his Army crap needs to be gone through and organized. He's taken over our entire bedroom. So there we go.....I have two dungeons to get done. I don't do points because I just can't get the hang of it. But both these areas need to be cleaned up and organized.

Good luck everyone and we can do it!

Before pics are posted in the sidebar.

Let's talk strategy

The way PCCX is written allows for a lot of flexibility in accomplishing the gargantuan list of tasks. This is great for different people who work in different ways and have different schedules and circumstances. Not so great for just me, when I try to figure out how I want to tackle the project *this time*.

Originally it was structured around the Flylady way of doing things. So even though every section is virtually identical (with minor variations and different examples to reflect the space), it's split up into the 5 "zones": dining room/entry, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room. That accounts for 5 of the 8 weeks, and then we have a week dedicated to the dungeon (more on that in a later post), a week for extra rooms (laundry, office, play, craft, etc.), and a week for seasonal and outside chores. As an aside, the Spring PCCX is organized the same way, while Winter and Summer are just the 5 weeks, lacking the seasonal/outside section and incorporating bonus rooms and dungeons into the base period. Anyway, this one section a week plan works fine for monthly tasks, or maybe for PCCX if one has a smaller house. But for those of us with many bedrooms or other things to throw off the balance I think it's better to take a different approach. For example, in my "main house", i.e. not including mom's rooms, I have 3 bedrooms and 1 small bathroom. I can finish my bathroom (if I really work at it) in a single day, but each bedroom takes a minimum of several days.

Another tactic is to do all "like tasks" at the same time for the whole house. Wash *all* the windows at once. Scrub *all* the hard floors at once. Sometimes I find this makes sense; dealing with everyone's wardrobes changing from hot to cool weather at once for instance. Other things, like the floors, I think are too big a job to do all at once for every room. That's just me though, I do see the potential benefits of it for other people.

I'm often tempted by the thought of picking a corner - any corner - and starting there, washing, scrubbing, polishing, dusting, moving everything in a 3' square before moving on. But then I think that's too much changing tasks and thus inefficient in the long run.

So where does that leave me? I think what I'll do this time is take room at a time but without regard to order or how long it takes me to finish. Start at the top of the room, dusting cobwebs off the ceiling and washing walls, and moving down and out from there. If a room like the bathroom gets done in a day that's great, but if a room takes me a week I'm not going to fuss. I'm hoping it evens out in the end. I have 12 areas (1 of which is my dungeon) not including outside. Obviously I can't spend a week on each one, but at least 3 of them should be 1-day projects.

That decided, where to begin? As each room/area is completed it will have to be maintained while at the same time moving on to the next room. So do I start with the harder/longer rooms so that there's fewer areas to maintain while I'm working on the big ones? Or do I start with those little 1-day rooms so I have that many areas to check off the list? I think I'll just wait until Monday and see which room is bugging me the most. Not the most logical method, but it has potential. :)

So do you have any thoughts as to how you'll tackle your home? Any of these ideas strike your fancy, or do you have a method I haven't thought of?

Oh brother

Well, there's nothing quite like a surprise visit from CPS to break one out of a housework malaise. Oh yeah, you read that right. A couple of hours ago a very nice lady (I can be objective) knocked on my door in response to an anonymous call about the state of my home. My home, which no one but family and Teresa have set foot in in months. Months. So...old call? Someone who's never seen the place? Who knows, who cares. She really was very nice and didn't go poking around at all, just said she'd come back Monday afternoon to make sure she could talk to all three of the older kids (since the girls are at school) and to give me a chance to pick up some before she took a look around. So we'll be "pre-cleaning" this weekend, which is good, will make it easier to do PCCX tasks with all the junk picked up. Still...it had to be *this* week? Sigh.

Champing at the bit

(Because I'm the insecure perfectionist that I am, I first Googled that phrase to make double-dog sure I was right (I was).)

In a perverse sort of way I wish it were next week, or that PCCX started today. I look around the house and SO much needs to be done, desperately. Part of me wants to dive in and start somewhere - anywhere - and move on from that spot only after it is DONE. But DONE involves tasks only found on the PCCX list. I don't want to start early; that's cheating. And I don't want to just do a half-assed swipe of the problem areas (as in, every square inch of the place) and face the same thing tomorrow. So, in a quandary I sit, and do nothing. Yeah, yeah, every little bit helps. And yeah, yeah, something has to be done even if it has to be redone. I just can't wrap my overwhelmed little brain around either option at the moment. Perhaps tomorrow will be better, after 4 hours of premiere television and some medication.

Oh, I posted a series of "before" pictures in the links list at the right. In the interest of full disclosure, these are actually pictures taken immediately prior to LAST Fall's PCCX. Aside from some minor furniture placement changes, it is all, sadly, about the same.

Celeste's Intro

My name is Celeste and I'm a stay at home mom of 2 preschoolers, and an Army wife. I try not to keep my house too cluttered cause I have to move everything with me every 3 years or so.

I'm brand-spankin'-new to blogging. This is my very first post. Hopefully I can keep up with it. I'm the youngest member of the group and enjoy my time with them. They've become some of my best friends. awwwww.....

So I've never attempted a pccx but I figure WTH might as well give it a shot. I don't know what our holiday plans are this year but if we go out of town I'll come home to a sparkely clean house.

Hope everyone has a great pccx! We can finish it all!

Kim's Introduction

We can do it, yes we can! Wait, what are we trying to do? Optimism is great folks, but I don't want to overextend. We're...what? Wait, really? We're trying to do ALL of Fall/Holiday PCCX? Umm...ok, I guess I can try.

Wait....WHAT?!? FINISH??

It's official, Amanda has lost her mind!

Why must Amanda decide to do this when I have full-time college classes and taking care of my father while he's suffering from oral cancer? Because she's cruel and insane and optimistic...all the reasons why I love her ;)

Anyways, I'm Kim from Michigan. Old at 39, married (to Eric for 9 years), 3 boys (Kelly 22, Kris 19 and Jordan 15) and also an adorable granddaughter (Bryanna, 2). Unlike most in the group, I don't have diapers to change or toddlers to deal with. However, I do have a very sick father that we live with who is suffering from oral cancer and is a type 2 diabetic. A good part of my day has become being caregiver for him.

So, it looks like my day will look something like this:

3 hours of driving/radiation therapy
2 hours psych homework (this will change in October to another class)
2 hours geography homework (this will change in October to another class)
1 hour regular housework

• 1 load of laundry minimum daily
• Rumbles daily
• 1 hour cook/eat dinner
  

3 hours television - HEY! I like my escape, okay? Prime time is looking awesome this year
30 minutes of pccx and maybe a little during commercials of tv viewing
30 minutes of cardio daily because I really need to lose at least 25 pounds before 2010

It looks like my youngest son Jordan will be helping quite a bit LOL I don't have time for other appointments and such, but I'll figure it all out somehow!

What the heck is this PCCX thing, anyway?

A long time ago, in a room about 10 feet from here, PCCX was born. PCCX stands for PCC Extreme (Challenge). PCC in turn stands for Purple Chat and Challenge, a Yahoo group I didn't create but I am immensely grateful for. PCC takes basic housecleaning and maintenance chores and adds a rewards system of points, community challenges, and competition. After a while we decided to build on that with seasonal deep cleaning periods and what came was 4x yearly PCCX. We are about to embark on our 16th PCCX, and while all of us have had good intentions at least most of the time, to my knowledge no one has ever completed a full run. Well, maybe something new will help us keep on track...maybe? It's worth a shot, no?

So, I've asked a few of the Drill Team peeps to author their own progress with it this season, and I'll have mine, and I'll post the "official" assignments as they come, and maybe the combination will be a hit. I'll let all of them introduce themselves as they arrive to the party. For my part, I'm Amanda in north TX. I co-wrote the original PCCX list in 2005 and have written all the revisions since then. I manage a semi-rural household of 11: myself and hubby, my mom, my 4 kids (1, 6, 8, and 11), and 4 medium-large dogs. Ours is a 2000ish square foot house with 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a 1/2-acre lot. A little over 2 years ago I fell off the cleaning wagon and let it run down the road and over a cliff, never to be seen again. I've built myself a new wagon and I'm hanging on for dear life. I want this to work. I really, REALLY want this to work. So help a gal out and give a few props and I might see my floors again by Thanksgiving.