Remember Remember, Fledglings Fly through November

[DidEinsteinsMum]

Welcome to the November Fledgling Flying thread.

From the 1st of the month we shall be decluttering and taming the chaos using baby steps, missions and zones. A great big thank you to MrsDinky who looked after us last month.

We are not strict followers of the fat fairy and take some of the babysteps wearing shoes indoors with a pinch of salt. Also advise against signing up for the fairy's emails.

All are welcome, jump on board for one of our three methods of chaos attack:

1. Baby steps
2. Baby steps and 15mins decluttering in current zone
3. Re-inforce the baby steps and daily mission

This month the fat fairy is gearing up for the feastive period. So I shall also post the christmas mission for those who wish are brave enough to look.

In here the motto is:

*"No perfection! Do what you can, but be realistic about what you can do."

Happy flying.

OM - I remember you from some of my earliest failed attempts at flying and you always made the same welcome. You are a fledgling, an original. So of course you are welcome back. It is nice to have some of the originals that helped me to understand the flying system back on the thread.

DEM.

DID your presents sound very odd. Wings? Faces? Have I missed something? :)

om is a bona fide fledgling . Am about to embark on the swimming run but have managed to be quite productive:-

Banking
Phone calls
New goggles and vacuum bought
Washing on
Dinner in oven
General tidy

No routines to speak of but it's a start. Things are still a little tricky at work and even trickier between dh and I. If a marriage is about peaks and troughs we are definitely in a trough at the moment and trying to claw our way out. After 15 yrs together and 9 yrs of marriage there is always going to be some struggles but we'll survive .

Anyway, to swimming I go. Backayer.

MrsP i am making some christmas angels.

Parents evening was not as bad as ds fear it woulod be. Although I now know why he is so upset wrt maths. Its fixable though.

ellie - take care of yourself.

Evening all,

Feetheart I used this recipe which was fairly quick and used plain flour (some recipes say strong flour but I didn't have any). Gary Rhodes. They were tasty but not very holey. I think I needed to thin the batter down a bit more.

Ellie - hope you manage to climb out of your trough before too long

DEM - glad parents eve was OK. I have been asked to meet DS's teacher and SENCO next week, he is struggling with Yr 2, I feel , think he needs more help but not sure what really, however we need to do something. He is bright but immature.

OM - hello, welcome back.

I'm really tired today, went Christmas shopping and didn't buy anything (it's just too soon for me). Then went to a friend's for a cup of tea and a cheer up chat about DS. Did a particularly non-productive bit of FLying this morning, brought two loads of washing downstairs, put the machine on, wandered back in 20 mins later to see the machine going round nicely full of suds and both lots of washing still in their baskets on the kitchen floor. Duh!

Other than that, fixed a couple of hotspots, made dinner, had a nice time with the DCs this evening and about to go and watch the Apprentice in bed whilst ironing.

Very unhappy BabyScout today. Made it difficult to do normal tick-over things, let alone Fly. I did manage to do a lot of shredding and lots of recycling but have found that BabyScout REALLY doesn't like the shredder and cries whenever something goes through (it even woke him up from his nap). Any suggestions on how to shred and not have him cry since I still have loads more to shred?

Evening all

Had a quick catch up with the last few days of chat. I am not going to tell you how long it took me to realise that DID=DEM . Hellow DEM your presents sound very intriguing!

I am very impressed by all this Christmas activity from everybody. I haven't even started yet, and can't imagine that it is imminent!

Welcome back OM I too remember you from the early days, i have only just rejoined after a lapse myself so don't worry about that

MrsD I love gary Rhodes recipes but have never tried his crumpets, will have to have a go when I get back from Scotland. I like them fried in egg with smoked crispy bacon and maple syrup. Not very healthy though.

Nettie am of your gorgeous tree surgeons. I do quite a lot of work with arboriculturalists and sadly I have yet to meet an attractive one!

Big hello to ellie, feetheart, sylvia, Bob (I hope you are feeling as OK as possible?), systems, giraffe and everyone else I have missed!

MrsD - sorry DS is struggling. Hopefully between you, his teacher and the SENCO you can work out some strategies to help him. Definitely better to tackle it now but SO hard.

You were right about the best chef winning :)

Quick post to see how I've done today:

• Work - Sage sorted but work can wait
• Tax car once DH has brought it back with its MOT - done
• Make quiche for dinner (with wedges and home-made coleslaw, now have coleslaw mountain ) - done
• Put sofa back together - done and looks great
• Hoover living room - no
• 15mins paperwork sorting as need to find Bookers card - no
• Book flights - had a look but they are far too expensive now. Am going to have to break it to my Mum and the DC that we can't go to N Ireland for Christmas now :(

Feeling very flat now as I know I've messed up Christmas but there isn't much I can do about it - no idea why I didn't book earlier as I know everyone goes home for Christmas so flights get to stupid prices early on. DH will be quietly relieved though as it isn't always the easiest of visits

Going to finish off in the kitchen and get to bed on time. DH has a new computer so will be in the office (probably stroking it) for at least another hour Luckily the office is in the garden so he doesn't have far to go.

Night all.

Feetheart pre-Xmas flights to Eire silly money (unless one takes a day off school) In the end I booked flights after Xmas, although I have to say that was always the plan as dh refuses to spend xmas in my parents' godless house Last time he went he pointed out that no-one spent any length of time in the same room if they could help it! He is quite sentimental about German Xmases.

This year I was relieved I left it so late as dd had her orthodontic appt changed at last minute which would have buggered up my attempts at getting to Eire for Xmas itself.

Could you plan now to go for another £0 ticket holiday later in year? I am now booking summer 6 months ahead to avoid the last minute disappointment of no cheap tickets and having to book weird times and dates.

pushme thank you.

did :o

I am even getting into a night time routine now and arriving down in the morning to a tidy kitchen with a shiny sink which is great. I asked my kids if they liked the changes and they said well you've only been doing it for a few days mum! :)

mrsD hold on, don't let them get you down, remember they just want him to fit in to their scheme, and perhaps they need to find ways of adapting to his needs rather than the other way round. I'm sure that's what they are trying to do anyway, I think sometimes as parents we feel so worried that we are causing trouble, and forget that the school is there to help our child learn.

Hello :) dd is up again before I've managed to sleep but she's pretty chirpy.

I bought christmas cards too, and found the photo cards I bought in the sale last year. I will be organised this year, I hate scrawling in cards and throwing wrapping paper around things in a rush at the last minute. Two christmas eves ago I was up until 3am drinking wine/southern comfort and wrapping thins muttering to myself about how it was all going to be ripped off in 3 hours time, never again, last year was slightly improved, this year I will be better.

Having a clean kitchen in the morning is lovely Sylvia I agree, it's what keeps me FlyLadying some days.

We learnt about how they do christmas in Germany at school swan in my vague recollections it sounded really lovely

I'm sorry feet that must be really disappointing, are flights any cheaper after christmas day? My cousin comes from Portugal and flew on boxing day last year.

You're not alone PMPY it had to be pointed out to me

Hope babyscout is happier tomorrow Scout we burn ours, could you do that instead?

Ooh I'll try that recipe on the weekend MrsD ds loves crumpets. I've done the washing machine thing too

I'm sorry you're having a hard time ellie, I'm sending you virtual cake :)

I'd love to see your angels DiD, that's good news about ds' maths too.

I can see I have a lot of christmas card catching up to do nettie I'm jealous of the hunky tree surgeons too.

Waves to OM

good morning flyers! Ds has been up since half past 3. I have just asked him if he wanted to go watch some tv. His response was seriously? in the middle of the night? perhaps not then

Babysteps here This is one that we dont all do. personally i dont want to be cluttering with post it notes. So its up to you if do this one

mission here

christmas missions here

reminders here

Thursday is errand day.

will do the round up when i dont have fractious child throwing a paddy. And it is a reasonable time so my brain is awake.

Thought I would be first here but no! sorry for those kept awake by dc ...

Crashed last night again and forgot about tidying kids' rooms but did manage to do:

• one Christmas thing done if having 'the conversation' about going down to my Mum's for Xmas with dp counts and
• hung up washing (delegation to dp failed) and
• loaded dishwasher.

Today's plan:
morning:

• continue tidying downstairs.
• cat litter
• put salt in dishwasher

evening:

• tidy in kids' rooms.

Whoops failed by the namechange

babysteps

mission

christmas mission

daily reminder

happy flying.

Woohoo off on holiday for a couple of days without DD as she is staying with Gran. [Grin] and all at once. I will miss her, she is just so fab at the moment. Managed to get the kichen related flying done last night, or rather DH did as I got overtaken by paid work again. Wish I got overtime! Am working nearly 60 hrs per week at the moment. Grr bloody economic crisis/recession or whatever we're calling it these days!

Morning to all those up at stupid o'clock! Off to go pack

Enjoy PMPY!

Morning all .

Not too bad yesterday so am planning to try and add in evening routine today ( can already tell that morning one won't get done).

pmpy enjoy your break!

did hope you manage to get some rest while ds is at school.

mrsd sorry to hear about the problems with ds. Hopefully a chat with the school will help him.

Big waves to everyone else especially you new fledglings who are putting me ( who has been here for 15months) to shame . better go!

Good morning,

No list today as I'm snowed under with work and will be struggling to meet the deadline, let alone get much flying done. The afternoon looks like it will be taken up with learning the national anthem as DD1 announced that she has to know it off by heart by tomorrow - three verses of seven lines each! She's actually known about it for a week but didn't see fit to tell us until today - DH is already in a panic...

Come to Austria, ellie - it's perfectly acceptable to eat cake for breakfast here!

swan I prefer the run-up to Christmas here, as it seems far less commercialised (more about Advent markets, baking biscuits, St Martin/lanterns, St Nicholas, etc.), but would far rather be at my parents' for Christmas itself than my ILs. The problem with celebrating on (the evening of) the 24th is that it's all crammed into a few hours (it's a normal morning with shops open, etc.) and the 25th is very flat (at my ILs' anyway; I know it's not the same everywhere). I also got a bit fed up with wrapping paper being ripped open but presents barely looked at, no one needing to be thanked because the "Christ child" brings all the presents, etc. - I came over all PFB when DD1 was little and decided her cousins were a bad influence!

Right, enough procrastinating, must get back to work - hope everyone has a good day.

Hi all,
Brillinam round-up DEM. Very to get 'flyer of the day'!

Yesterday was tricky as very long work day but still managed the morning and evening stuff, and this morning DH we have already washed up.

Also we are now flying in the highlighter household with DH's parents in tow - which is tricky as they are here for 10 days and bring all sorts of crap lots of things we don't have a place for during their visit (piles of newspapers, dictionaries etc) as well as more clutter lots of lovely things for us and the boys.

Anyhow, am chuffed as I have already done the mission!
Bit frightened by all the talk of Christmas cards though - eeek!

Happy flying!

Morning all

Can't decide on whether to do my usual yoga class or go to Tesco It is now getting to crisis point here and we have Mother Hubbard issues! Both my boys took one look in the cupboards/fridge and declared that they would have breakfast at school thanks very much!
DD (15) is still in bed as she has a 2 week half term (teachers decided to take all their inset days in one week!!)

So at some point today:
Tesco
Paperwork
Clear porch of shoes (a la mission)
Organise myself re Xmas pressies
Exercise of some sort (might drag DD round local park to scuff in the leaves as pay back for clothes shopping yesterday!)

Thanks for all your lovely welcome backs ..
MrsD - don't worry too much about DS, Year 2 can be a big step up from Year 1. If you want any specific advice I have been teaching in a primary all my working life specifically Y3/4 if it helps...
Ellie - chin up, I'm sure you'll be out of your trough soon - just make some time for each other and get a babysitter....

Hi to everyone else on the thread....Have a good day...

Morning All

Welcome back OM, lovely to 'see' you again.

Scout my DS used to hate the sound of the food blender just as I was at the point of weaning him - an argument for BLW perhaps! The only thing I can suggest is late night shredding!

Name confusion again DEM/DID etc !

My list for today:

• washing on and out
• ironing (don't forget to nag me)!
• put clothes away
• clean kitchen
• swim
• make pate to go in freezer
• make dinner
• order buggyboard
• remove any old things from freezer
• pack labour bag
• passport application and any other paperwork

Have a good day everyone x

ooh, forgot to say have a fab weekend away PMPY.

Ellie I have just had real cake, let alone virtual cake so definitely allowed

Everyone's lists are making me nervous!

things are simple in swan household this morning:
Todo
washingup
breakfast clear
dw on
put away and put on laundry
make beds
tidy bedrooms
sweep the leaves on front path

see you when these things are done
and then I'll think of some errands...

Ellie we are in a bit of a trough too, arguing about housework/plans rather than actually helping each other get it done. Babysitting might help, except in our case, the mere organising of babysitter and tidying of house before babysitter came, and backlog of things after the babysitter went, would make us even crosser with each other

This week the arguments have been about
Xmas (what makes a fun xmas)
Xmas presents (what kids will want)
why laundry not in the drawers(dh)
why kids never put their laundry in basket(me)
why there isn't any food in the fridge (dh)
why he won't eat the food there is (me)
why I keep shouting (dh)
why he keeps shouting (me)

a bit depressing really, I think we need more alcohol after 6pm! Or possibly mood music.