If your nest is cluttered and getting you down, join February's Fledgling Flyers and turn it around

[pushmepullyou]

Welcome to the February Fledgling Flyers' thread. A very big thankyou to ToffeeChristmasCake (who will presumably return under her non-Christmas name ) for seeing us through the thick and thin of January decluttering.

All flyers and fledgings old and new are very welcome - we have a fairly relaxed attitude to flying and take some of the babysteps - such as getting dressed to lace-up shoes - with a pinch of salt. We also strongly advise against signing up for the FlyLady emails.

From the first of the month, we will be following Flylady's tips on restoring order to our homes, using one of the following methods:

1. Babysteps
2. Babysteps + 15 mins daily decluttering
3. Babysteps + daily missions

Following the babysteps helps to establish daily routines and build a weekly plan.

If you are overwhelmed by the mess in your home, start with just one thing: shine your sink. It's amazing what you can achieve by just doing a bit at a time!

Pleased be warned that my month's leadership comes with a bit of a caveat as I am due to have DC2 at the beginning of March so there is a chance I may disappear mid month! Thankfully Toffee has very kindly offered to deputise in the event of the unexpected appearance of DS .

Apologies to Toffee (and by extension Ellie) for blatant intro plagarising and thankyou to Nettie for the thread title

See you all in February!

SC dh is back, but still suffering the amnesiac afterglow of missing his beloved wife and children consequently has forgotten Valentine's Day completely, and was perfectly thrilled to find some cardboard hearts covered with glitter glue on table at breakfast FIL in hosp still in Berlin, MIL so relieved to have dh there for four days. BIL and friends now taking up the slack in Berlin.

So we haven't had a row yet, despite both our cc not working and operating on a slush fund from the children's money boxes

Barclaycard, in a bizarre flourish, cancelled his card because he tried to buy a ticket over the internet using my email last Wednesday, and a large amount of carpet in an obscure part of West London on the same day.. (must be fraud!! But the strange twist was that Lufthansa let him buy a ticket at airport on Thursday morning using a signature (as their chip and pin machine wasn't working?) and then he had only used his stash of Euros over last four days so didn't find out his card was blocked...And they did not contact his mobile...Thus he is so furious with Barclaycard that the minor irritations of homelife are overlooked

My card is not working because I've run out of money! Hopefully there will be some in my account by the end of today

Done
kids to school (not without some delays)
paid for first instalment of Outward Bound x 2

EndlessList
breakfast table
laundry away
beds
bins
rubbish in front garden!!!!!!!!Car to TIP!

house bless - hoovering and floor mopping [ever hopeful]
Football tonight
2 lots of Scouts pickups and dropoffs
Singng lesson dd

Food? Is there any? Leek and potato pie? Lentil soup?

various other things...will come back to those later

swan Both DH and I forgot that it was Valentine's Day this morning (although he did tell me last week that he'd looked for a present in M&S but hadn't been able to find anything... I didn't even get as far as looking for anything for him). Perhaps I could get the DC to help me make some cards this afternoon; I'm always thinking we should do more arts and craft things together - the Austrians are very into "basteln", but I'm hopelessly untalented in that area).

Quick post whilst listening to Pop Master :)

OFM - if your BiL has no joy with your hard-drive DH has details of place that does data-retrieval. He has used them to get stuff back for a client (he's another IT bod!)

PMPY - at disappearing thesis.
Glad BH have calmed down

SC - sorry nice start to the day was ruined :(

Well my lesson learnt today is: Don't buy cheap airer from Wilkinsons as cats will do the mad-cat-chase-around-the-house thing, use it as a climbing wall, make it fall over and break it just after you have put a second load in washing machine

• Email builder friend re rental property bathroom done
• Email friend re above bathroom (another 'here is even more info that you have asked for now pull your finger out' one!) - done
• Morning routine - done
• Sneak heart-shaped sarnies into lunchboxes - Done Will be interested in reactions - betting is DD thinks its wonderful and DS won't notice :o
• Post ebay stuff - done
• Hoover downstairs
• Hoover upstairs
• Sort out clothes for DD the wear to friend's party after school and TAKE THEM WITH ME
• Bathroom surfaces and floor (easy as tiny!)
• 15 mins decluttering in living room
• Posters up at school
• Reading at school

Pop Master and 11am News long since finished so better get on..............

Happy Flying :)

What's happened to the ? Was the old one too small?

10 minutes to get a few bits and pieces done before the school run part 2 and piano lesson, starting now!

Just checking in on coffee break!

Done:-
Washed up
Washing on
Dining room tidied and quick clean
Kitchen tidied and cleaned
DC's kicked out into garden to play
Kitchen floor swept

DH and I also forgot Valentine's Day, quick mumbled Happy Valentine's this morning and that was that .

What has happened to the , Linzer? Has it changed? I'm very impressed by your fantastic organised list this morning. You are off to a Flying start this week.

Still - sorry about the row. Am intrigued to find out what your DH did now, but I know it's none of my business. DH annoyed me last night too. He never puts the children to bed, but suddenly decided last night that he could tell me how to do it better . Let's just say, I didn't take kindly to it. We stomped off in different directions and both forgot all about Valentine's Day today.

Ellie - welcome back to Flying!

Swan - glad DH is back with you.

Feet - sorry about the broken airer.

Apart from that, I am having a good day here so far. My neck is feeling a lot better, so I'm holding off on seeing the osteopath (would rather save the money, to be honest). I saw the headteacher this morning for a quick catch-up meeting about DS1 and she really cheered me up. She is just lovely, full of encouragement and good advice. Came home and ended up playing 'Questionnaire' with DS1, a BBC Bitesize game that is hugely good fun (and cleverly very educational too) (it's on the BBC KS2 Bitesize website, if anyone's interested).

Just having a break, then me and Flyboy are doing our morning chores. His list is: 'make
your bed, tidy your bedroom, hoover your bedroom, put any dirty clothes into the laundry bin, polish mirrors and windows' (he loved doing the latter last week). Then a bit more home ed, then have a friend coming for lunch. Whilst DS does his chores this morning, I'm going to do a quick once over/crisis clean in the house.

Be back later.

It used to be about half the size and more like a teacup Toffee - now it's more of a mug. (Yes, I have too much time on my hands and am too obsessed by the new drinks emoticons.) I was also intrigued by what SC's DH could have done but managed to restrain myself from asking (for once!) - I'm far too nosey for my own good.

Glad to hear DH and I weren't the only ones to have forgotten Valentine's Day today. He may surprise me when he comes home, but I seriously doubt it.

Now have an hour to fly round the housew hile the DDs are at their piano lesson. I need to put the sheets back on their beds and change our sheets, which will probably take up most of the time - how on earth are you expected to change the sheets in 10 minutes (i.e. 1/6 of the weekly home blessing hour)? It probably takes me that long just to strip the beds.

Lunchtime check in!

Done-
Living room tidy and sweep
Hallway tidy and sweep
Lunch for dc's and I
Exercising of self restraint when trying to deal with huge temper tantrum from dd

toffee ds loves the bitesize website, spends more time on that than anything else!

linzer I struggle with the whole idea of a home bless in an hour!

Better get on!

It took me a good 20 minutes to change the sheet, duvet cover and pillowcases on our bed, and I haven't even started putting the sheets back on the DDs' beds yet. If DH hadn't changed DS's bedding at the weekend, I suspect I could spend the entire hour changing sheets! I'm not at all convinced by this weekly home blessing hour thing.

kitchen is looking a bit better, have re-organised it somewhat

decluttered quite a lot and put pans in a new cupboard and thrown stuff out of that cupboard, cookbooks where pans were, cereals where cookbooks were...

poured vinegar on lots of greasy varnished surfaces doesn't seem to have improved things much

enrolled dd tentatively in new ballet school round the corner, from 28th, although proprietess did talk rather too much about " mummies" for my liking

not even going to attempt to add to the washing pile by changing sheets Linzer, I usually stagger childrens and grownup sheets or do duvets on a separate day ...or forget till Friday...

Now - attempt to finish kitchen
hoover upstairs
mop

as usual feeling defeated

Toffee glad to hear you so cheery!
Ellie restraint, well done, so difficult. You've done loads!

on a more romantic note, I've discovered quantities of alcohol, Campari, Pimms, Moscatel, Vodka, Sherry, Champagne..Clearly I have been not been drinking enough!
But it is all just CLUTTER really - where can I stow it..? There is no room in the kitchen, and we have no cellar, and there is already 2 crates of wine under the playroom table, leftover form Xmas party.
Ditto enormous bags full of baking ingredients...

House has been at a standstill this weekend, as we're all ill. Some sort of cold/flu thing - temp, sore throat, headache, shivering, feebleness etc etc. DS is a bit better today, but I think he now has UTI - very frequent trips to loo, v.small wee, dark colour etc. I had to go out this morning to collect accounts from auditor, DH phoned GP - no appts available, but I could take a sample over. Cue, getting back (only wanting to collapse), finding sample bottle and encouraging DS(3) to wee into it. Took sample to GP and am now waiting for results, should get phone call this afternoon.

I'm not even thinking about writing a list today, will just potter round, trying to get essentials done (like the washing up which wasn't done at all yesterday ), whilst keeping a sheet of times of DS's trips to bathroom.

May be back later, may just collapse in feeble, sickly heap in living room!

poor Cobweb, and uti-s miserable

I have pinned some Valentine's hearts up with Blu-tak to encourage myself!

dw unloaded and reloaded
large bowl of cornflakes with sugar eaten

Hung up a Hopper poster of yacht going past a sandbank to encourage myself!

hung out clean dishcloths
washed door mat
wiped worktops

Go swan, go swan .

Done:-

S/s and tidy in the bathroom
Tidied our bedroom and made bed.
Looked in ds's room with a view to tidying an walked straight out again .
looked in dd's room with a view to tidying and came downstairs for a fortifying cuppa .

It is a beautiful day here and I have turned all screens off for the afternoon and told the dc's to play out. Seems to be working in that they have been out there for nearly an hour and not one fight yet!

ihate sick note duly accepted now go and put your feet up. This may be the one day in the history of this thread where my list is longer than yours .

Oh and ihate utis are so nasty in little ones! Dd has been really poorly with them twice. Hugs to your little one!

I'm pottering round, doing bits and pieces. Have tidied, vacuumed and dusted in living room, sorted out the washing, done the washing up, and am logging DS's trips to the bathroom - 16 since 2pm. Am waiting for call back from GP!

Hello all!
Happy Valentine's Day!
Hope you are all having a lovely day!
I have NO motivation today at all!
Sorry i have hardly been here since i newly joined!
The only thing i am managing each day is to shine that sink!
DH was at work for 3 wks, and even noticed the sink on his return!
He has gone back to work now, was only home for 6 nights! :( Away again for around 5 wks or so!! :( :( :(
That's probably why i have no motivation! Am sad!
Need a kick up the backside!!!!
xx

missjulie that is worth having no motivation for..a very long time
Have you got a plan, and friends to visit, or visit you? And lots of lovely DVDS to watch and books to read to cheer you up?

I have picked up children
given them snacks
taken two to singing lesson
taken one to the cafe
run up and down a hill with one
driven home again
walked to shop to buy lemonade for disgruntled one
and my baked potatoes are burnt! Too efficient by half. will now have to give them boring pasta again...
then football
then Scouts

Ellie mine tend to quarrel and then bring mud in almost immediately wish our garden was 1000 times bigger...

Thanks hun!
No, no plans, yet..........
Will sort myself out though, usually do after a couple of days!

Productive flying day here

done
Shiney sink
2 loads DW
48 cupcakes (12x of 4 flavours) made and iced
1 large cake made and
tidy lounge, dining room, hall, kitchen, stairs, cloakroom
clean and hoover all
4 loads washing
folding
ironing
clothes put away
Shopping

Just about to ds' bedtime
shower, eat tea and go training.
I am shattered and hope to be asleep before 1am tonight.

Don't expect miracles and me back properally yet. February is My white board calander is full with everything that is going on. And sleep is irratic. Just had to share the successful day.

today Lair actually flew properally

Well done Lair! Give me some of your motivation!! xx

Well done CHB good to see you again. Was thinking about you yesterday when DH took DD skating.

Hello MissJulie welcome back, have a and relax, your motivation will come back when it's ready.

Cobwebs for you too I think, hope DS gets better soon, and the rest of you.

Swan - you're just going to have to drink it all. Party at Swan's house anyone?

Not too much Flying here today, just ticking over. Spent an hour this morning buying new running shoes, as my old ones are probably not helping the knees at all. There is a very good running shop conveniently located at the end of my road, they film your feet as you run on a treadmill and all sorts, so hoping to get back out tomorrow.

Valentine's Day, I bought a card for DH weeks ago but forgot to write it, DH bought one and a present yesterday and did wrap and write it but wasn't feeling well this am, so we kind of forgot. All well again now though. Got to go and get DS from Beavers, see you later.

Hello everyone :)

No PMPY? Hmmm ...

Ihate take it easy now!

Sorry you've had to wave off your DP again missjulie :(

Well done on being so productive CHB :)

Had the EA round this morning so house was pretty OK for that - still full of crap but short of hiring a skip I did my best.

DC are in bed and DP not home for another 4 hours so I'm going to do dishes and sink, throw some chicken legs in the slow cooker with whatever other stuff is lurking in the fridge (and hope it's transformed into some sort of edible mush by morning), and then pour myself a glass of wine. Nursery half term this week so boy am I glad DP has 3 days off!

Orge - did he take her just across the water? I have very very fond memories of that rink.