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.

Nice time cuddling newborn and then going for a picnic with the boys. At least we fitted in some time outside before it rained.

Have not done very well with the washing and ironing or the missions, but I did make cakes with DS2 and did an online Tesco order for tomorrow. Also helped DS1 with his Kumon maths, which was making him cry .

How do you strike out words? I did the hyphen either side thingy on my list, but it just came out on the preview with hyphens. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

Off to make spag bol now.

Evening ladies,

Toffee Broody, broody. I want a cuddle, bunnies are just not quite the same! Did you do double -- and no gaps? like this?

DEM You seem very good at keeping DS busy on rainy days. Hope you arent treading on lego bits anymore. I used to hate those being left around, they really hurt in a stupid way!

Ellie dont worry about having a day off, you have been doing amazingly well. Hope the DCs havent driven you mad yet. When are you going away? I will have to be organised.

Kick up bum to our oracle, SC. Only because you asked so nicely. Just relax and enjoy a few quieter days.

MrsD, was it you who had an ice cream maker? Just bought one and made a really yummy chocolate chip ice cream tonight. Do you have any favourite recipes that you care to share?

Yep, I have officially gone kitchen gadget tastic and got myself an ice cream maker. Nothing else on my list for a while now.

Bunnies are settling well. We have had a cuddle tonight for the first time because we didnt want to frighten them. Quite sweet really, but thye have shredded all the paper I put down at the bottom of the hutch and made a huge mess everywhere. Cats seem rather interested. I am worried they may try to attack them and squeeze into the hutch.

Stupid day at work today, so very little flying. DH is going to the mainland for a job interview tomorrow, so maybe I will get something done then.

DS was sailing at Cowes week today, and we planned to go and support him, but it decided to chuck it down with rain, so stayed in doors instead. Normally we spend most of this week at Cowes, but I havent been down once yet. DH and DS cycled there on Monday. Looks like not til friday for me now, though.

Right, enough waffle from me, so off to eat tea.

Have a good evening everyone.

evening evereyone, im so sorry im doing really rubbish at personal messages. I just seem to run out of time/gusto past few days. blaming auntie flo

Dummy fairy came and delivered a rather lovely cuddly Little Roo. DD was very chuffed this morning. Kinda made up for the two hours of on and off crying yesterday evening. She slept till 6.20am not bad not bad Tonight so far little protest and has gone off. I am praying for a quiet one again.

sc hoovering of pool went badly (maybe i should pull the plug...daydreams about 11,000 gallons of water floating away and down the road) Used it once all year and am desperately trying to get it running for my visitors on Friday but me and DH are so poxed off with it and the money we are wasting think it might just be a huge fish pond!!

Anyway sorry today i have

had very productive day at work (hoping the more productive i am the less anyone will care about next weeks holiday)
Put caravan bedding in and towels. Just need survival pack of food and drinks and bog roll
S/s
Bed made
Ironing put away
Floors swept
Dinner eaten.
Booked tickets to the Circus
tried another rehash of birthday party invites.
Requested nursery class lists

toffee no newborn cuddles here (not brrody at all, cuddles with newborns scare me and serve as a good reminder that i'm almost 99.9% sure i cant handle anymore.

pa I love names *marble and Squidge, Glad you have had a squidge of the two of them.

hugest humungoust waves to eveyone i have missed. Off to tidy kitchen shine sink and hopefully be big brother time and bed.

PA - Thank you. I realise I was trying to strike out two words at once with only two sets of hyphens, instead of four - doh!

Didn't get much done this afternoon. The clean washing still needs to be put away and the ironing still needs to be done . Put DS2 to bed early because he was grumpy and complaining of a headache, and I should have used that time to do some jobs, but I didn't. Seem to have run out of energy.

Will have a cuddle on your behalf, PA. The baby is so tiny - can't believe my boys were ever that tiny. Funnily enough, when we arrived to see the baby, both my boys sat firmly on my lap and prevented me from cuddling the baby at all for the first 10 minutes - just to make a point, I think!

Nettie - glad dummy fairy was successful.

OK, will try to get something done now. Just feeling bored of sink shining all of a sudden.

Just popping in to say hello as I have little in the way of flying to report. The DC's room is going from bad to worse and is in desperate need of more decluttering; it is inadvisable to enter it with bare feet. There is a big bag ready to go to the charity shop, but it consists mainly of clothes and I really need to sort out the DC's toys and books. The problem is that most of the toys they have here were birthday and Christmas presents from my parents so I feel very guilty about getting rid of anything other than things that they are now obviously too old for.

Nick I got lots of shopping done in London but it still wasn't enough - I ran out of time in John Lewis as I had to catch my train back home! Now wondering whether I can persuade my parents to look after the DC again at Christmas so I can pick up where I left off.

SC Lovely to "see" you. I actually go to Bratislava for my underwear shopping as the M&S there is closer to us in Austria than the nearest M&S is to my parents, but couldn't resist popping in while we were in London.

Toffee I wish I'd done enough sink shining to be bored of it. I also tend to run out of steam in the evenings; I have lots of good intentions about getting the missions and decluttering done once the DC are in bed, but am still struggling to put this into practice.

Nettie Glad dummy fairy's visit went well. None of my three would take a dummy (although I was desperate for DD1 to do so), but DD2 still sucks her thumb at 6 and I'm wondering whether I should be doing something about it.

PA Hope DH's interview goes well tomorrow and that the weather improves for Cowes.

DEM What is it about little boys and snails? DS is fascinated by them too...
Hope you have a good trip!

ellie Hope the coffee helped - cabin fever is not fun. At least you have the holiday to look forward to - when are you off?

Waves to feetheart, DWM, MrsD, OM, teamcullen and everyone else I've missed!

Evening all,

Masses of rain and thunder here today too, silly me put washing on the line and had to re-spin and tumble it after all. Took DCs to day 3 of tennis camp, one hour every morning for 4 days, they are loving it and friends are going, so mums for me to chat to while they play, all good. Then to one of the friends for coffee/play.

Then home, a bit of tidying, too much telly. Dragged DCs into town at 4 pm for a few essentials, and decided to let them have a quick run in the softplay at the sports centre, DS's best friend was there too, so they enjoyed that. The DCs bedtime is getting later and later this hol, DD has only just gone to bed.

PA - yes we've got an ice cream machine, my favourite all time vanilla is this

Ultimate Vanilla

but usually use this one as much quicker and still pretty good

quick vanilla

Mix the quick recipe with about a pound of liquidised strawberries - very nice. The possibilities are endless! Someone posted a Lemon ice cream recipe for me a while ago too, but I lost it .

I also used the machine to make slush puppy blackcurrant sorbet out of Ribena the other week which went down well with the DCs.

I'm tired and haven't done much Flying, so will just wave at everyone else tonight, see you tomorrow.

oo, bunnies, plums and pool cleaning! what an eclectic bunch we are!

dw-done
wm-done
summer camp-done
pay bills-done
wonder why i'm soooo skint-done with bells on
persuade big kids to take dogs for walk-done (pocket money is a wonderful thing)
dinner - we haven't got to that babystep yet, have we? something pasta-y i think...
upstairs bathroom-done (i scrubbed the bath!)

i'm not doing post-its. i'm just not. uh-uh. no sirree.

instead i will go back and do monday's mission, as the contractors turned up today and dumped about two tons of topsoil in the garden. consequently my doorstep and path is in desperate need of a sweep! (i shamefully also have to admit that the next door house - the only other house in the road - about twenty feet away - has been awarded 'best kept residence' in the Royston Vasey-esque goldfish bowl that i inhabit (something to do with an 'in-bloom'/ community award etc etc). i am certain this is due to proximity and comparison... ) can i be seen sweeping my step next to such paragons of virtue? keeping up with the jones's indeed.

tonight is the first night in a million years that we don't have visitors - i am going to fall asleep on the sofa, and possibly drool a little, in front of 'so you think you can dance'.

ah, this is the life.

Morning everyone!

In a far better mood this morning mainly due to a very early night last night and a drop of sunshine this morning. Today consists of my first visit to the dentist in a very long time due to a combination of fear and lack of NHS dentists. So my whole day revolves around that. I took the afternoon/evening off yesterday and in just a few hours chaos descended so this morning I have to do y routines, get the DC's ready to go to my mum's, take DC's to mum's and then go to dentist. Will see what time I get finished with all that but I suspect I won't be back until mid-afternoon.

Back in a mo for round-up and steps!

Round-up time!

nick has been keeping up with the jones's by sweeping soil and bribing small children to walk dogs. She's also rebelling against post-it notes. I think she may be a genius .

linzer discussed the merits of M&S pants with sc and decluttered whilst desperately trying not to offend the parents (tricky, tricky, tricky).

mrsd did better than me in that she took her washing off the line, mine is still there . She shared delicious ice-cream recipes for pa's latest gadget and resorted to TV with the DC's. Snap! .

toffeefudge had a striking out nightmare and a poorly DS. She did however get to snuggle a newborn again . I daren't go near a newborn as I might be tempted and I have resolved no more .

nettie hoovered a swimming pool?! SHe has a swimming pool?! . She also had a successful visit from the dummy fairy (really need to do this with DD but she only has at night and I can't bring myself too...I know I need to ).

pa had a squidge of a squidge and bought yet another gadget. She loves her gadgets . Good luck to DH for the job interview. I go away on Saturday morning for two weeks btw!

dem dispensed rainy day wisdom to me (unimaginative mother that I am ), had a nap and packed for her DS to go on holiday! She is also going away for a few days and we hope she has a lovely time .

sc had an attack of that common flying disease called disease called cba. Watch out for it everyone, it tends to strike when you least expect it, when your house is presentable for the first time in ages. It can only be cured by a swift kick up the rear which I hereby administer to sc . It was catching because I got it too .

feetheart is plumhappy . She was making courgette cake?! I always thought courgettes went on a plate with meat and potatoes but I am clearly behind the times . SHe mentioned the C word. . She can stop that malarkey right now .

dwm had a busy list and was hoping DS would be content with a lazy day. Every day is lazy day in my house .

That's it for now! Back in mo for steps!

The babystep for today is writing down what you hear. Another take it or leave it one in my book!

The mission for today is here.

Have a good day everyone!

Happy anniversary to all!
Has taken me a while to realise why the old thread wasn't moving! When did August happen?

Well, I have 3 boxes left to unpack so I have been busy with that and have had atidy kitchen for 2 days now so I have to keep it up.

My dc went back to school today (our area is the first in Germany to go back as we broke up 6 weeks ago) so I can really get back into a routine.

Someone has asked me to do some more proof reading but as I usually do it for dh's colleagues and lets say for a small fee - I have to come up with a quote for this job, no idea how much to ask for.

ellie good luck at the dentist, what are you going for? Nothing big I hope.

linzer sounds like you did some good shopping! Just remembered, last time I flew with a cheap airline I booked extra baggage online but when I got to the check in (I was very early) the girl just checked all my luggage in and said she wasn't bothered about it being abit over the limit. Could have saved 60 odd euro.

toffee awww, it's lovely when you get to cuddle a new born isn't it. I even find myself saying oh how adorable when I see toddlers especially up to 2 or 3 years old, tthey are so cute. Mostly mothers think I'm crazy as they are usually tired out and stressed!

Off to wash floors and fold washing.

Oh, seeing todays mission - can you all tell me where you keep shoes?

We have a massive pile of them and I'd need loads of those shoe cupboard things or a really tall one maybe? And how do you keep it fresh smelling if you have them all in a cupboard?

Morning all!

Bunnies sound lovely, newborn sounds lovely, pool sounds lovely but I don't want any of them thank you

Well yesterday went a bit tts up so thank you SC* for congratulations on list but sadly that's all it was. Think I managed morning routine and picnic but nothing else .
Ended up with a very convoluted day involving child-care for poorly friend's 3 DC (in conjunction with picnic friend!) and ferrying another friend, who has had op on her hand and can't drive, and her DS to his swimming lesson.

Today will probably be little better as I have to go back up to Bedford to get wisdom tooth hole checked out as it is still hurting 8 days after op
Whilst there I will sort out final bits for new tenants.
Luckily another friend has offered to have DC so I won't have to drag them with me and can hopefully get there and back in a reasonable time.

I will attempt a list but only include essentials!

• Various admin bits for School Assoc and new tenants - done
• Morning routine
• Hospital to see dentist
• Flat with paperwork/stuff!
• Clean kitchen floor
• Hoover living room, hall and stairs
• Make cake
• Make pizzas to feed family
• School Assoc meeting here hence above cleaning/baking

Anything else will be a bonus.
Hope everyone has a good day.

• DS's SWIMMING LESSON at 4.30pm - must, must, must remember.

PA - I have ice-cream maker too and use it lots. Will come back with recipes when I have caught up with myself.

admylin how lovely to have you back! Well Done on the move! In answer to your question, the shoes in our house technically speaking go in a cupboard in the hallway but are, in reality, strewn across the house so no words of wisdom there. It is one thing having a shoe cupboard, it is another thing getting everyone to put their shoes in there!

Lots done here. Wanting to report my updates on here is a good incentive. Ironed half the school shirts last night whilst watching telly. Then was up by 7 this morning so that I could open the door to Tesco delivery man fully dressed instead of in my dressing gown. Shopping delivered and put away by 9.

Put washing on, sorted out the kitchen, shined the sink and cleaned out a sticky cupboard. Cleaning frenzy interrupted for some time by DS1 getting hysterical over his Kumon maths, so had to sit with him and help him through it until he'd finished. Back to cleaning frenzy then - did yesterday's mission (cleaning windows and walls), then put washing out to dry.

DS1(4) has played on his own all morning. Amazing. As a result the sitting room and his bedroom are littered with toys, but at least I got loads done.

Ad - sorry, no good solution to the shoe issue here. We put unseasonal/rarely used shoes in a wicker basket and the rest go under the piano in the dining room, which is hardly ideal as they make the room look cluttered. However, we don't have room for a shoe rack in the hall and our only cupboard is full up already. I spend a lot of time lining the shoes up so that they at least look tidy.

Nice to catch up with you Linzer, Nick, MrsD, Feet and Ellie.

By the way, Ad, have a look at the website for the Society of Proofreaders and Editors to get an idea of how much to charge.

Good luck at the dentist today Ellie

Thank you too for neatly administered kick up rear - it's worked because I have started Mnsetting drinking coffee tidying up again and am making tentative steps towards packing for this we's departure. I've got longer than I thought because dh is being delayed by work.

Well done with your cleaning frenzy Toffeefudge

Feetheart sorry - hope I did not pass on cba virus - looks like you are busy being a very good friend rather than avoiding housework though! Good luck at dentist too.

Good to see you Admylin. Well done with all the unpacking. Afraid we are old-fashioned and keep shoes at bottom of our individual wardrobes (but we don't take them off indoors - wooden hard floors or floor tiles throughout - no carpets). Wellingtons/wellibobs by kitchen door/garden. Any other discarded shoes go in stair basket ready to take up. Can't believe your dc are back at school already in August! Hadn't realised the 'retour' was staggered so much in Germany.

Linzer sympathies re: curtailed John Lewis visit. I never have long enough when I'm in UK.

Hope you are feeling better/more energetic today Nettie

Hope your dh's interview goes well today PA
Waves to Nick (hope it was good quality drooling last night!!) MrsDinky and everyone else!

It's absolutely tipping it down here - must don a waterproof cape and effect guinea pig rescue from garden before they drown

Oh nearly forget

If anyone of you are on here this afternoon/evening and happen to know where PAs oatie choc square recipe is posted (ie which past thread/which month) I'd be very grateful... I've had a look and can't find it .. Want to make a batch tonight for dd's pony club tomorrow (last day)

Thanks!

SC here it is from a post it note on my fridge

8oz marge
8oz SR flour
8oz sugar
5oz oats
3oz drinking chocolate

melt marge, stir in everything else, put in tray, bake at 190C for 15 mins

God bless you MrsD - that's brilliant!

eeeeew, there are creatures crawling on my laptop! little red tiny ones! baby spiders?

i'll be back later when i've cleaned the laptop!...

red spider mites nick? did you get rid of them?

i am dead. i have just trawled through the lego buy a brick section. Half the bricks we need are specialist and have to be requested. But hey ho, will go through those in a bit. We are expecting a delivery of almost 200 bricks for about £23. Nope we havent lost that many but have picked up the parts for a skeleton, and spiders and bats and a few other bits and bobs ds wanted.

We are not traveling until tomo now and ds has had a lovely day at joderal bank. Back to earth with a bump.

Flying is being helped with and ds is doing the washing up

Hope yopu have all had a productive day, i am escaping the computer whilst i can still move my arms. Have lovely evenings and weekends.

Apologies right from hte start for lack of personal messages. I ma too brain dead to think!!

Although, just want to say Thank you for the ice cream recipes MrsD and feetheart, Id love some varieties.
As the thread popped up I saw a recipe and thought Oooohhh yeah I love recipes, then realised it was mine!! MrsD you were super quick with that one for SC. Hope they work out well, SC.

Right, another bugger of a day today. My car is waiting to go into the garage for the brakes to be sorted, had a staff end of year BBQ planned for this afternoon. I had to wait for DH to arrive home from interview to take his car to BBQ, so was late leaving home. Got in the middle of no-where and his car started to smoke and had to pull over, call Mr RAC. Told he would be there in 45 mins. After 45 mins he phoned to say that he would be another 90 mins!!! I had raw chinese ribs and a bottle of lemonade. Out of boredom I started to drink the lemonade, only to realise that there were no toilets!!! Poor Mr RAC came to a mad woman with crossed legs. He was a very nice mr RAC, but he wasnt able to fix the car properly, so both cars are now waiting to be sorted!

It is surprisingly tiring being sat on the side of the road for nearly 4 hours!! So not doing ANYTHING other than sipping a drink tonight - near a toilet, now!!!

Will catch up more in the morning.

Evening all,

Shoes - we have a small narrow hall, but have two racks like this

argos shoe rack

along one side of the hall, these hold the most frequently used pairs. Only problem with the racks is that shoes with no heels like trainers roll off them, but a friend told me to turn them round so they slope in towards the wall which works a treat plus a bonus is that the DCs shoes fit underneath the bottom row, so have 3 rows. Things like walking boots, wellies live in the under stairs cupboard, I have a box in the bottom of my wardrobe with sandals, going out shoes etc that don't get worn very often.

Inspired by earlier discussions of ice cream I made some chocolate ice cream tonight, yum.

On Day 2 of my "I'm going to get the DCs and DH to tidy up more if it kills me" campaign. Things are going very well. Told the DCs yesterday that any toys that were still on the floor once they have gone to bed will be taken away, with a view to being binned or given away (although in reality I would probably just confiscate them for a bit). There was a bit of alarm re much loved teddies etc, but on the whole they have taken this on board very well and been tidying diligently before bed. Just got to get DH on board now, partly on his own account and partly to make sure he keeps this up if I'm out etc (he tends to let them have a bath and leave all their clothes on the floor etc).

Despite tidy house, haven't done much cleaning, feeling very much CBA (SC - I need s kick up the backside too). Did h owever put up an airer (one of those pulley ones with 4 wooden slats, which we hadn't used for years) in the recently cleared shed, so no more clothes draped over radiators, fireguards etc.

Anyway, thanks to everyone that is doing for brilliant roundups, put mine to shame. Off to watchtelly clean the bathroom.

x-posted with PA - oh dear, fingers crossed your cars can be sorted without too much expense. Have you heard of this useful item? She Wee

And no, I haven't got one....