Welcome!

This is me.

Esther.

I'm a wife to a aircraft mechanic and a volunteer fire chief.

I'm a mom of Four. 

Mom life is a crazy, messy life.

Lazy in an interesting concept. Most people think about in a negative context, but it can actually be used in a positive way. Being lazy while working can be a tool to save time and energy if used right.

This is a quote from the book, "Cheaper By the Dozen" 

by  Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and  Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

(If you have more than two children you really should read this book. Just saying.)

Therbligs.

    The Therbligs were discovered or maybe a better word would be diagnosed, by Dad and Mother. Everybody has seventeen of them, they said, and the Therbligs can be used in such a way as to make life difficult or easy for their possessor. 

     A lazy man, Dad believed, always makes the best use of his Therbligs because he is too indolent to waste motions. 

Whenever Dad started to do a new motion study project at a factory, he'd always begin by announcing he wanted to photograph the motions of the laziest man on the job. “The kind of fellow I want” he'd say, “is the fellow who is so lazy he won't even scratch himself. You must have one of those around some place. Every factory has them.”

    Dad named the Therbligs for himself - Gilbreth spelled backwards, with a slight variation. They were the basic theorems of his business and resulted indirectly in such things as foot levers to open garbage cans, special chairs for factory workers, redesign of typewriters, and some aspects of the assembly line technique. 

     Using Therbligs Dad had shown Regal Shoe Company clerks how they could take a customer's shoe off in seven seconds, and put it back on again and lace it up in twenty-two seconds. Actually, a Therblig is a unit of motion or thought. Suppose a man goes into the bathroom to shave. We'll assume that his face is all lathered and he is ready to pick up his razor. He knows where the razor is, but first be must locate it with his eye. That is “search” the first Therblig. His eye finds it and comes to rest – that’s “find” the second Therblig. Third comes “select” the process of sliding the razor prior to the fourth Therblig “grasp”. Fifth is “transport loaded” bringing the razor up to the face, and sixth is “position” getting the razor set on the face. 

    There are eleven other Therbligs--the last one is “think!”

    When Dad made a motion study, he broke down each operation into a Therblig, and then tried to reduce the time taken to perform each Therblig. Perhaps certain parts to be assembled could be painted red and others green, so as to reduce the time required for “search” and “find”. Perhaps the parts could be moved closer to the object being assembled so as to reduce the time required for “transport loaded.” 

    Every Therblig had its own symbol, and once they were painted on the wall Dad had us apply them to our house hold chores—bed making, dishwashing, sweeping, and dusting. 

I've have discovered a few things that save me some time and energy and I thought I'd create a blog to put some of them. It may not help everyone, but these are just some things that keep my sane! :)