August's 1st Anniversary Fledgling Flyers: It's our party and we'll fly if we want to.

[elliepac]

Welcome to the August edition of the Fledgling Flyers where we are going to attempt to restore order in our houses, chatting as we go.

This month is officially our first birthday so we are celebrating sink shining and swishing and swiping in style!

Here you can do any of the following:

• repeat or start baby steps (again!)

• repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone

or

• reinforce babysteps and do daily missions if you have finished decluttering

For those who are curious, these are the Babysteps which we all hope will restore order in our homes and make our lives a little bit easier with lots of support (and chat, and wine, and a little more chat )

So please come and join us for our birthday party, old and new, from August 1st.

Evening all. Ds had a fab time at his party this afternoon, as did everyone else so a success all round. Tomorrow is his actual birthday. In answer to your nettie the reason is because various relatives didn't come to soft play so all said they were popping round on his birthday. Dh has a large family so this equated so over twenty people. We decided that instead of having visitors all day we would have them all for a couple of hours in the afternoon. All we Are doing is throwing some sausages and burgers on the BBQ and have bought paper plates minimal expense and effort and hopefully quite a relaxed afternoon. Plus it will all be outside so don't have to worry about house too much!

Takeaway ordered, wine open, x factor on. Relax!0

Morning everyone! As you know busy day ahead today. Am up early to wrap DS's pressies and then it is full on bday celebrations all the way!

Quiet day one here yesterday! Easy to round-up!

namechange is off on her holidays! Have a lovely time, maybe the rest of us will stop feeling so guilty with no lists from her over the week .

nettie was wise mean mummy at the fire station open day and was contmplating doing some more painting? DId she do it?

toffeefudge's DH, bless him, wanted an intellectual day out in Cambridge. What he got was 'one of those' days out, we all know how that feels!

pa did a runner from the MIL and went shoe shopping, a task we all despise I am sure!

Big waves to everyone else, Am going now to sort birthday boy out!

The step for today is nagging about Control Journals!.

Have a good day everyone. I can't believe my baby boy is 7 today, where has all that time gone?

Good morning

Ellie hope he has a great day. Happy birthday

Well I did my painting and spent all night kicking myself that I didn't do it when dh was at work by the time he had stopped -criticising my every move-- giving helpful suggestions I felt ready for divorce courts! Only 4.5 rooms to do!!!! [sceptical]

Well today have made 2 beds so far.
Off to do dw/wm floor sweep
Then we are off to swimming lessons (did evening routine and swim bag all ready)
Then soft play with friends
Home to make dinner and tidy up!
Wardrobe chap coming for another ludicrous quote
Then dh working and I must paint so he doesn't have chance to go on and on at me!
(can anyone tell me what is wrong with White endurance washable paint in Matt for a ceiling

Sorry got stuck mid post

Do I need a control journal? Will it not be like my life diary and never gets looked at or filled in? Hmmm still not convinced

I hope everyone has a lovely day

God knows nettie cos I have just painted my ceiling in the exact same thing. On my dad's advice!

My control journal holds things like stamps, addresses, birthday lists, upcoming in the next month lists, and rountines which is diferent to my diary which holds things like birthdays, day/school trips, ds' contact trips to his dad and other events. does that help nettie?

TOday = discover my bedroom day
And someone thought it was a good idea to paint the grout with some antimould/antistain stuff. It has taken me and hour to do a quarter of the windowsil and my back is agony. off to sort more paperwork before coming back down to do another quarter of windowsil. October's great decorating plan has been discuss and approved. I want to cry but it is the best solution for getting everything done. On of these days I will have a boy free patch when i can relax or just do nice projects. Not holding my breath though.

Have been Flying again. Arrived back home this afternoon and spent at least two hours cleaning the kitchen and dining room. In the spirit of Flylady, I made my sink shiny first. Have washed every work surface in the kitchen and moved all the post and papers out of the clutter corner. New resolution: don't put any papers in the kitchen from now on. Found fruit festering on the sideboard and a tub of mouldy Philadelphia cheese in the fridge . DH had helpfully decided to drag all the old baby clothes out of the loft to sort through, then left them strewn all over DS1's bedroom. Spent half an hour putting them all back again . DH's priorities whilst I was away appear to have been to paint the skirting boards and strew clothes all over DS's bedroom .

DH and I have just polished off a bottle of wine together, which has gone some way towards reconciling our irreconcilable differences.

Back to my normal routines tomorrow. Will also be making use of Flylady's holiday preparation list, as we are going to France on Saturday .

Hi Ladies

Glad DS's party went well Ellie and hope he had a lovely day today. My DS's party was great but tiring!

Have a good evening all, got to get ready for work tomorrow!

Today was quiet and peaceful here - well for a few hours anyway, as DH took DS to a model show and I opted to stay here. Spent the time trying to find the flat surfaces in our bedroom - the room no visitor enters, hence the room which is always left til last on any cleaning list, so rarely sees me in "cleaning mode", just "tired mummy" mode.

Morning routine - done
Sort out day bags for DS and wave bye bye - done
Vacuum living room - done
Vacuum kitchen - done
Wash sleeping bag - done (and now outside on line in the pouring rain)
Wash dusters - done
Air picnic blanket - done
Wash kitchen floor - done
Bedroom: two hours going round in circles, sorting clothes out for charity, pairing socks, dumping all sorts of rubbish, etc etc - done
Cook tea - done
Cook tomorrow's tea - done
Wash up and shine sink - done
Long bath - done
Going to bed - just about to do

Blardy ridiculously late but to keep me motivation up I have done following

Dw/wm
S/s again and again cos of paint
Swept floors
Sorted out washing
Swimming lessons
Soft play
House rescued
Room painted except ceiling dh doing tomorrow with Matt paint after all his grumbling. I know i know supposed to do ceiling first
Man for wardrobes been and done
Booked for mm xmas meal=[nervous]

Tomorrow is dh day off.weather permitting im gonna drag himmround zoo!

Then im off out bowling with group of people never met before and no alcohol to help!! Im thinking I've gone stark raving mad-i am not a joiner- what ammo doing!!!!

Morning all,

We had a lovely weekend - took a train to the top of a mountain on Saturday (spectacular views) and SIL and her family came to visit yesterday, which went surprisingly well as DH's teenage niece was not too moody for once. However, I may have to strangle the next person to suggest that DD2 will be bored at school because she can "already" read. Because they do of course spend the entire first year reading "cat in the hat" type sentences. Personally, I would rather she was slightly bored - I'm positive she won't be - than have to go through what we went through when DD1 started school (learning to read was a huge struggle for her).

Anyway, I really must get on with things while I have my mornings to myself again this week (the DDs are at a "school warm-up week" and luckily DS didn't seem to mind going to kindergarten on his own this morning).

My short but (hopefully) manageable list:

Morning routine
Mission
15 min decluttering

should be achievable if I stay away from MN.

Nettie that you're going to the MN Xmas meet-up - you must tell us all the gossip! I posted on the local MN thread when I was back in the UK but no one replied and I missed out on the north Wales/Shropshire meet-up by a few days, although I did manage to meet up with one MNer while I was back at my parents'.

ellie A belated happy birthday to your DS. I could hardly believe it when my baby boy turned 4 last month; it's a very strange feeling no longer having any babies/toddlers!

Waves to everyone else; have a good day.

Good morning everyone :)

Have been away to my parents in NI, come back, had a birthday (Happy birthday to all the other August babies), been out for a child-free meal for said birthday, looked after friend's chickens without killing them (though they did sulk and didn't lay us many eggs :(), taught DD to knit, went for lovely walk yesterday and came back to roast duck with just-picked blackberries and waffles for pudding - yum.

Have done very little Flying over past 10 days but today it is back to reality. House didn't look too bad after being left in DH's hands for 5 days but need to get back on track if my grand mission of taming this house is ever to be realised

So today I have a list:

• Email new head at school re School Assoc - done
• Morning routine
• Hoover living room, hall and stairs
• Clean carpet (maybe!)
• Friend's for lunch so DC can play and we can chat
• Some work
• Afternoon/evening routine
• Name label sewing - having helped at school clearing up all the un-named uniform at the end of term I am determined my DC's will be clearly marked. There was a fortune in new, un-named school logo stuff there
• Bed by 10.30pm

Better get dressed and see if DC are close to waking - fresh air is a wonderful thing!

Have a good day everyone, will try and catch up later.

Morning everyone!

Late get-up for everyone in our house this morning as we are all pooped from the birthday BBQ yesterday. Had a fabulous time with good food, good wine and good company and sunny weather (bizarrely the weather has never let us down on DS's birthday yet). It was 8pm by the time everybody left but DS got spoilt silly and it was a good day. Am planning a quiet day today, weather is foul and have spent all my time since we got back from holiday preparing/partying so am going to take it easy today! Just routines and a mass put away clothes mission.

Round-up looks like this:-

feetheart has returned from holiday, looked after sulky chickens (how do you tell if chickens are sulky, do they actually frown?) and sewed in name labels (is it bad that i just write his name on?).

linzer had a lovely idyllic weekend up mountains and is going to enjoy some time on her own this week .

nettie had a criticising DH (bet we all know how that feels, mine is off work for another week and I wish he would just sod off back ) and painted some ceilings and blatantly ignored the bed early rule

ihate posted a most impressive list which included cooking tomorrow's tea! Gold star of the day to her, I don't even know what I am having for tea today yet!

mm, like me, is suffering from birthday fatigue. Back to work today for her . It's getting to that time in the summer holidays where work is starting to play on my mind (and everything I should have done for work by now!)

toffeefudge is proper flying! She s another one who's DH appears to be ore of a hindrance at the moment but they drank wine together to make it all alright. Best type of reconciliation methinks .

dem discussed the merits of a control journal and laboured upon a window sill (not literally on you understand )

elliepac ran around like a blue bottomed fly in the morning and then had a lovely afternoon. As a result, today she is doing nothing!

Steps and mission in a mo!

Today's babystep is about setting an Afternoon Routine that works for you.

The mission for today is here.

Have a good day everyone!

Morning everyone. Very happy to come down to a spotless kitchen this morning, but as for the rest of the house.... .

Have done my morning routine, so have unloaded dw, washed up b/f stuff, ensured boys are fed, dressed and have brushed teeth and hair (and done the same for myself), and swished and swiped in the bathroom.

Feel that rabbit-in-the-headlights feeling now, though, because I have so much to do before we go to France on Saturday. I have printed out Flylady's 'holiday preparation' list, which helps, but what is really not helping is that my ever-so-critical, houseproud SM is visiting on Wednesday. She always criticises the state of my house (hers is spotless, of course, but she has no children and only works part time). So now, in addition to getting everything ready for school and preparing for the holiday, I have to try and make the house look perfect so she can't find anything to criticise .

And DS2 has just told me he has put out all the ingredients to make a cake and please, please, please can we make one now....

So, in addition to making a cake , today I am going to:

Wash our sheets
Unpack from holiday with Mum
Take DC to playground and/or visit friend with newborn
Tidy clutter hotspots
Put away excess coats in hall
Clean windows
Polish door handles and letterbox
Buy flowers for window box and indoor pots
Throw away dead flowers on kitchen window sill
Hoover throughout
Clean bathroom
Hoover and clean the stairs
Contact PO about redelivering package
Renew DC's books at library
Find best deal for Euros
Iron labels into school uniforms
Print out important forms for holiday
Make sandwiches and sausage rolls for lunch
Afternoon routine - make big spag bol that will last two days
Evening routine
Go to bed at decent hour

Better get started then....

Afraid today's mission fell off the list, Ellie .

Oh, and the telly's not working. Bugger.

DS2 has decided to have a 'creative' day today. He says he is going to be a 'world-famous artist', but it is, frankly, a pain in the arse right now and has created lots of mess. So haven't managed to complete my list yet.

Wash our sheets done
Unpack from holiday with Mum
Take DC to playground and/or visit friend with newborn done
Tidy clutter hotspots
Put away excess coats in hall done
Clean windows
Polish door handles and letterbox done
Buy flowers for window box and indoor pots
Throw away dead flowers on kitchen window sill
Hoover throughout hoovered downstairs
Clean bathroom
Hoover and clean the stairs
Contact PO about redelivering package done
Renew DC's books at library done
Find best deal for Euros
Iron labels into school uniforms
Print out important forms for holiday
Make sandwiches and sausage rolls for lunch
Afternoon routine - make big spag bol that will last two days done
Evening routine
Go to bed at decent hour

DH home and has poured me a glass of wine, so am not sure how much more of the list I will get through tonight. Might have to carry it over to tomorrow.

It's very quiet here, btw. Shall have a glass of wine on my own then .

toffeefudge never fear, ellie is here! I literally have had a day of doing nothing unlike yourself but I shall join you in the wine anyway .

On a positive note however, after several abortive attempts, DD has decided to toilet train herself, starting from today! She asked to use the potty at lunchtime (she has done this loads of times but never actually done anything), did a wee and tehn did several more over the afternoon! We have also waved goodbye to the dummy today. In for a penny in for a pound I decided, so told her that seeing as she was a big girl and using the potty, big girls didn't have dummies. She is in bed now, not asleep but not crying so fingers crossed (she has never used it during sleep, just to get to sleep so am hoping it won't disturb her sleep too much).

Hope everyone is ok!

Wine? Wine? did someone mention wine??? I am here!!!!

Well done mini Ellie on the potty and dummy big girl stuff!!!

Today I decided that I was heading for CHAOS again, so needed drastic action.
So, I tackled the washing/sorting/ironing mountain and got that more or less under control.
Went into town and bought DD4's shoe shoes without any tears, tantrums or strops (thats from me, she behaved aswell)
Cleaned out rabbit hutch as rain seemed to get in there a lot last night and made all their warm bedding disgustingly wet.
Out for a walk round where DH is going to be working, then home and booked hotel and boat tickets for him going away next week.
Best bit of the day - I sat on the sofa reading my book while DH hoovered around me!!! He has actually done nothing over the past 4 weeks of no work, so I was determined not to feel guilty. - It worked, I didnt!!!
Spent an hour trying to work out how to Skype, asked DD2 to help, who is now skying her friend, so will have to wait until tomorrow now to speak with DD1!!!
Found out today that DS gets his GCSE results tomorrow, I thought it was Thursday

Already had a couple of blue WKD (wonderful stuff, that doesnt feel like alcohol!!) so this is all getting a bit rambly and my brain has stopped funtioning too well!!!

Off to fill my glass again, hurry if you want to share..... its going rather wuickly bice bowl of choccy nibbles too.......
See you all in the morning. Work, so up early!!

Not a murmur from dd! With ds we had months of torture and failed attempts . Am mn-ing in bed with ds snoring and bed hogging beside me. He was complaining of tummy ache so has ended up in his comfort blanket ie. Our bed with me.

Any wine left because I have also just realised it's gcse results tomorrow. They ate always on a Thursday. Sleepless night for me methinks !

Its going to be a late finish tonight - but I have an excuse, honest - husband came in late, and I have just finished cooking for him. When he's eaten I will start on the washing up and sink shining. I hate washing up twice in the evening, so tend to leave it until he's eaten, hence very late nights occasionally.

Today's list:
Morning routine - done
DS waved "bye bye" to Daddy amidst lots of tears and finally consented to eating breakfast - done (DS likes weekends having DH around, and really gets the "Monday mornings"!)
Shopping list - done
Got ready to go shopping - how many potty trips??? before we're ready - done
Collected my mother for shopping in town- done
Haircut for DS - done
Bank for mother - done
Sorted mobile for mother - done
Grocery shopping - done
DIY shopping (so we can finish tiling the kitchen) - done
Took mother home to put shopping away - done
Brought mother here as DS wanted her to have tea with us - done
Made potato wedges and salad to go with Mexican chilli made last night - done
Tea - done
Took mother home - done
Started new shopping list from items couldn't get on current list and stored in home journal - done
Bins and recycling out for collection - done
Cooked tea for DH - done

Washing up
Clean Aga
Shine sink
Get washing out of machine and onto airer
Go to bed

Ellie - well done to your little big girl. Fingers crossed that this continues. Funny how it happens like this sometimes. My DS2 weaned himself overnight. He just forgot to feed and never asked again. My first son had taken months of me 'not offering or refusing' and I thought he would never stop, so I was flabbergasted when my second simply stopped.

Positive and Ellie - best of luck with the GCSE results tomorrow. I have all this to come, but I can imagine how awful it must be for you, as well as your DC.

Ihatecobwebs - impressive list again! You will appreciate the shiny sink in the morning.

I haven't completed today's list, but I have made significant progress and, considering how demanding DS2 was today, that's not bad. Will continue tomorrow.

Am going to print out lots of holiday stuff now - insurance details etc. - then shine my sink and go to bed. Night all.

Evening everyone

I've had a lovely day, bit of a lie in, visit to zoo. Lovely meal at zoo for lunch followed by lovely ice cream followed by trip to maccyd's followed by trip out with people I've never met. Very nice meal and lovely pudding, good company and didn't come last at bowling.

I'm gonna bow out of all bedroom missions this week as I can't move in mine can just get to bed and there is a plethora of contractors traipsing through.

Ellie ooo good luck on having a dummy free night. She is gonna do brill. My dd decided to wear her pants today but only lasted about an hour as we have been out all day
pa never got me head round sykpe hope you get in soon
toffee well done today, hope you get organised soon for France holidays ooo la la
linzer very jealous of mountain railway trip. [geek emotion] two of my truely favourite things railways and mountains
ihate gosh you have been ridiculously busy too.
Late to party but puts inmsome orange breeders for those who fancy and for those who are fanciabke

Hope anyone dcs and ellies masses of school children get great results tomorrow.

Typing on phone and can't see out hope this is lelegible.