Part 2 - If you're house is cluttered and you're Mad as a Hare, join March Fledgling Flyers and get it all square

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

This is the second March Fledgling Flyers thread, all newcomers are welcome.

This is the thread that follows the Flylady website (loosely) for getting your home decluttered and your housework into routines, whilst dispensing tea and chat freely.

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.

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!

Lunchtime update:

• Morning routine - to finish
• Work - bank recs as rather behind! - done lots
• Text tenants to let them know when order is coming
• Text builder re above and sort out when he can finish the job - done

Need food then:

• Finish Morning routine
• Hoover living room, hall and stairs
• Make pizza dough
• 15 mins in our room

In the end, both my morning routine and work fell by the wayside as I had our neighbour's three-year-old DD here from 8.30 am while she went to the doctor's. Her mum came to pick her up just over an hour later, but then ended up staying for coffee until gone 11 am - by the time they left, I only had about 20 minutes to get some work done before it was time to pick up DD2.

As a result, I'm very behind with everything. I didn't look at the calendar this morning (usually part of my morning routine), so completely forgot about DD1's computer course this afternoon until she announced 10 minutes before it was due to start that she didn't want to go (told her she had to). Am picking up DS and two friends from kindergarten at 3 pm and we've then arranged to meet a friend and her DD at the playground - but completely forgot I'd have to pick up DD1 at 4 pm. She hasn't done her homework or revised for her test on the Romans yet either. And I didn't have time this morning to prepare tomorrow's English lesson, not to mention having no time to cook, tidy, put the washing on, etc etc. I am trying not to feel stressed! On the plus side, DD2 is doing her piano practice without me having had to remind her.

Nettie I didn't realise Lakeland do a gardening catalogue too - aha, have just found it on their website. I want their Around the Home and Gift Ideas catalogues, but couldn't find any way of ordering them on the website - I should have asked when I phoned yesterday.

I ordered something from the White Stuff website too. I wish you'd stop recommending websites Toffee; it's not good for my bank balance.

Welcome applegeek.

feetheart Well done on the taps!

funambulist I am full of admiration for anyone who can make a costume - and very relieved that I haven't been called on to do so yet!

ellie Hope you're feeling better soon.

SC Good luck with the home office!

Another day helping out with SIL/baby crisis, I am now officially knackered and have walked about five miles what with one thing and another.
SIL's house is now a shrine of order and calm, whilst my house is sinking into mire. I am needed tomorrow too, so beginning to panic slightly.
Why is it so easy to buy instant food for other people and yet it seems so extravagant to buy it for oneself? I have filled SIL's fridge with ready meals from Sainsbury's (they don't seem to have any food in that house, yet for some reason I feel it is cheating to buy myself the same although I now don't have any time to cook anything

Toffee lovely mum
Linzer I feel a bit like that today, at least there is nothing on this afternoon...except thank you letter writing [help!]

will try and tackle some mess now

Well, have had an energizing snooze as nettie put it and feel loads better and, sorry if tmi, but havent been to the toilet in hours-must be getting better!

Am going to have a potter this afternoon and see what happens. Have stripped our bed and put in wm and am about to put some stuff on line.

applegeek welcome .

sc thanks for the flowers, they look lovely in my laptop .

feet yay for taps!

linzer all costumes in this house come courtesy of mr tesco, i can't even sew beavers badges on .

Anyway off to get a bit of this glorious spring su sunshine and put the washing out!

What can I say - it was nice outside. So i went to make the most of it and dissappeared into the hills for a few hours.

Ellie - hope you are feeling better soon.

Swan - no idea re the ready meals. Although today is tuesday timings are tight so ds' tea is coming out of a tin and will be ready when the microwave goes ping.

Linzer - focus on the good bits. Hope you feel less stressed and more proactive as the day wears on.

Right must finish lunch before collecting the not bringing home school letters child and find out what nightmare we have in store tonight.

good afternoon back to update my list to make myself feel good.

lunch for dd-done
tidy living room-partially
tidy dc rooms-nope
move washing on-done
strip and remake my bed-done

also cleaned my dressing table, no clutter on there
collected ds
put seat up on ds bike, tried to get him to practise using breaks to help him when stabilizers come off next week.
swept kitchen and living room floors
dd swept the decking (ie spread the sand all over it)

still to finish sorting laundry for ironing, get last load of today dried and put away
make dinner - something with sausages
cut dc nails (yuk)
tidy dc rooms
sweep bathroom floor
tidy kitchen
prepare clothes and bags for tomorrow
find some energy left for chatting with dh and the dreaded gym!!

sc you go girl, i'm dreading this particular area, which we are moving downstairs so has to be clutter free very soon.
feetheart way to go, well done on bank recons, my most hated of all jobs
linzer best made plans, hope you manage to get round everywhere you hope to be.
swan well done you on all the help you are giving dsil. you are a super trooper. definately should give yourself permission for ready meal day or two. go on how about a lovely huge lasagna, just decant it into another dish and pretend its a new receipe you are trying
ellie glad you are feeling a bit better. i'm right with you on outfits from tescos, if tesco or ebay dont do it then Buzz lightyear is attending the easter dress up!
lost so of your walk in the hills, live in the flattest place in the world. enjoy your beautiful rolling hills and hope this evening goes well.

right better get on with dinner....stovies or sausage and chips? hhhmmmmmm

Should be working, but am just having a quick catch up here first . I have managed to get some work done today, though not as much as I'd hoped. My Flying routines have fallen by the wayside. It's like life pre-Flying here again: no clothes laid out this morning (hence a lot of stress as I hunted for socks or coats at the last minute); the kitchen perpetually full of dirty washing up; no weekly houseclean done; no shopping done; piles of clean laundry piled up all over the place; and no idea at all what we are having for dinner in half an hour .

And DS2 is having his turn with the class bear this evening! Eek! What am I supposed to do? DS2 is already getting stressed about having to take pictures. At the moment, Bill the Bear is watching CBBC on the sofa. We have to do better than that, don't we? Maybe I could put an apron on him, give him a duster and turn him into FlyBear?

Ellie - sorry to hear you've had a bug. Hope you feel better very soon.
Lady - Happy Anniversary!
Still - did my kick up the bum have any effect on your tidying up?
Linzer - I think you are very, very kind to have babysat for your neighbour in spite of all the work you have to do. I hope you can catch up without losing sleep.
Applegeek - welcome to the thread!
Nettie - am more than happy to turn off my proofreading eyes! Sorry your DD has been ill - hope she's better soon.
Fun - congratulations to your clever DS!
Feet - hurray! Your taps are done! I have a dripping-tap situation that I keep putting off, but it is getting out of hand now. It's turning into more of a stream. Must phone the plumber (but have so many more important things to do - grrr).
Swan - you are another kind babysitter (see Linzer). The reason your SIL's house is tidy is because she keeps giving the baby to you, so you don't have time to get your own stuff done! Plus you have three children compared to her one baby. I hope you can get some more time to yourself soon. Btw, re: Maths for our DSs - I have just subscribed to MathsWhizz. DS loves it so far. It's much, much cheaper than a tutor and it seems to be good fun. You get 'credits' for doing maths exercises and can 'spend' them on virtual pets, etc.

Swan - there is a link to MathsWhizz at the end of this thread which gives you a free trial. I let DS have a go at it and see if he liked it before I subscribed.

It is never too early for toffee, mine is purely medicinal .

Nettie if there is one thing I can't abide it's ready meal lasagne - reminds me of school dinners unfortunately. I can make my own soggy enough!
No, I mean those sort of overpriced convenient glamorously adorned bits of chicken/Fish in trays sayng things like "Cook" or "Dine In" festooned with avantgard seasoning. Anyway I have put some Sainsbury's special dish so I'm cheating tonight, but with homecooked veg and potatoes.

Toffee SIL has just moved into her house, and it reminds me of when I first had a baby, everything new and spotless, freshly prepared/shopped meals or nothing to eat non-grubby paintwork, lvery little plastic tat, oads of storage etc. It is a eye-opener to see how low my standards after three kids are. At the same time I know the way to cut corners! Aha!!!!

swan i think you are being a bloody wonderful sil and you definitely deserve to cheat for a couple of nights. Give it a couple of years and sil's house will look just like the rest of us with the aforementioned grubby paintwork and finger prints everywhere. Your standards haven't fallen they have adjusted to life with 3 kids. Pre dc i remember i always used to spend all day cleaning on a saturday and it would stay that way until at least thursday ! Now i spend all day cleaning on saturday and it stays that way until about 7pm on saturday evening .

Quite right ellie - never too early for thanks for the toffee

Ds is whiney. I am tired. tv ban revoked for sanity reasons. He goes to bed at 7pm and whole hour early instead.

It's never too early for , Toffee - and if you're opening a bottle, I could really do with a glass or three. I was feeling much less stressed after a few hours at the playground, where there was practically no arguing (must definitely go more often) and I was able to have a virtually uninterrupted chat with my friend. Then we dropped off DS's friend and little sister, and their mum asked if DS wanted to go swimming with them tomorrow - cue much wailing, crying and general hysterics from DD2, who wanted to go too (apart from the fact that she has a friend coming tomorrow before they both go to ballet and that there would be no room in the car, said mum has enough children to cope with - three under fives plus DS). She's only just calmed down, after fetching her duvet and pillow so that she could "go to bed" on the sofa - she's definitely over-tired.

It was so nice to be out of the house this afternoon and not to be surrounded by the chaos and constant reminders of things that need to be done. The living room is at least being cheered up by the lovely bunch of flowers that our neighbour brought over as a thank you this morning, but unfortunately they're not quite enough of a distraction! I really must make more of an effort to keep up the basic routines, at the very least.

Nettie DS has written, or rather drawn a picture on, a postcard to your DS, which will be on its way soon.

Lost Getting out of the house is always good - hope you don't have too much of a nightmare in store tonight after all.

ellie Glad to hear you're feeling better.

swan Three mobile children have the capacity to make far more mess than a tiny baby. I feel quite nostalgic when I think back to the small amount of belongings we had when we just had DD1.

I've had a lovely afternoon
Twins have calmly done homework, enjoyed Mr Sainsbury's supper, dd has planted some seeds, and ds2 even tried to go to football without me at 6pm! He was half way done the street with his kit on Unheard of organisation on his part.
A hour of tidying up did the trick just before school, and the absence of third child who was at Hockey and didn't appear till 4.30.

I've looked in the veg box and various things have caught my eye - Parsnip, leek and apple cakes anyone? and chilli and bacon purple sprouting brocolli, so might cook something nice for dh after all...

Now will attempt washing up of breakfast dishes and supper dishes and several loads of laundry.

Toffee Ellie I suppose I was just musing on how children change the way we expect to live. I liked/loved the bit with small baby, it's just so odd to think how I was then...
Little did I realise that all that was required was a nice comfy sofa and a place to hide the piles of laundry.

Lost hope he sleeps sweetly.

Arrrrrrggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

I have just discovered i have neglected my calander. Now I am sorting it out it looks hideously mad :( I like and empty calander. It makes life easier!

Although plus note ds is already asleep. Peace at last.

checking to say goodnight, i am very proud of myself. i made it to the gym!! house doesnt look too bad, just going to sort dd bag and mine for tomorrow, have a shower {peweee} and hit the sack watchtv addictedtocharmed gotta love sky and reruns

nite nite all. im going to try and check in tomorrow and be productive.

feetheart well done on your bank reconcilations.
Linzer and swan you are so lovely. Your neighbour and SIL are very lucky to have you. Linzer I'm glad that you got flowers by way of a thank you.
Linzer and Lost sometimes you just need to get out of the house for everything to seem easier. When I was a new mum someone told me to go for a walk with the baby if things got on top of me. It always made me feel better.

It's odd thinking back to those early days isn't it? I can't believe how much time I spent at playgroups with a tiny baby who couldn't really interact with other children at all. If I did it all again I would spend much more time doing things that I enjoyed as little babies don't much care what you do as long as they are with you. I also remember, along with the sleepless nights and pooey nappies, sometimes feeling rather bored and then guilty about it. You can't be bored with three children, far too busy for that! My lot sometimes complain of being bored and I only feel envy! If only I had the time for that!

ellie glad you feel better.
applegeek welcome.
toffee well done on getting some work done. Those class bears are a nightmare aren't they? Our one had a book of photos that travelled with him so that you could see what exciting lives the rest of the class led. Our bear had a very dull weekend with us!

Update on my list.

to do

shopping list done
menu plan for the week done
big shop done
petrol done (how much!? )
additions to DS2's costume? no
mark DS2's english work done
dry washing away done
vanquish dust from under the bed (completion of yesterday's mission) done-ish definitely spent longer than 15 mins so think I'll leave it at that until next time that zone comes around.
library book for DS2 no Will hunt tomorrow.
lay out clothes for the morning done DCs only
sort out tea DCs done, DH working late and will eat something at the office, so I'll do something simple for me I think.
remember to bring cheque book to swimming to pay for badges and next term's lessons. done all the DCs got badges and certificates but I have no idea what they mean as they are skills rather than distance. DD is apparently level 5, whatever that means. DCs are always glad to get a certificate even if they don't know what for exactly.

also done

various texts
gossip catch up at swimming lessons.
swim kit into wash
hot spot - again
dust and polish bit of houseblessing (wiped down various grimy surfaces in the kitchen - shelf with plants on, window frames etc.)

still to do

eat something
watch tv
lay out my clothes
list for tomorrow

Nettie its the one at Bicester

Haven't got time to read through today, must get back to breadmaking in a couple of minutes. Collected my mum today, she's staying til Thursday, it does make a big difference to an evening - she got DS bathed while I cooked tea, then did the washing up while I did the rest of bedtime - no washing up to do

Today did:
Morning routine
DS to playgroup
S/s
Make beds
Put washing out
Sort out WI banking
Sort out playgroup banking
Collect mother and dog
Take mother to town so she could do her shopping
Did the WI and playgroup banking
Lunch
Collect DS
Washing up
Zone cleaning
Zone mission
Washing in machine for tonight
Allotment - planted potatoes, sowed peas and carrots, cleared bed for summer onions
Cook tea
Tea
Grocery order arrived so put away
DS bedtime
Washing on airer
Clean washing away
Some of evening routine
Making bread at the moment

Evening all,

Achey legs here, I?m still doing the Couch to 5K running scheme, managed my first 20 minute run today (the last run was 8 mins run, 5 mins walk, 8 mins run) so quite a step up as it were. Enjoyed it though.

Another busy day, morning routine, work, bit of Flying, run, school run, ballet, home for lots of cooking, packed lunch making and clearing up. DS played basketball in the garden with his imaginary friends for an hour while I made tea, the kitchen has patio doors to the garden which is nice for watching them play, but he did drive me a little bit nuts with his running commentary at the top of his voice.

Lost was up very early today, hope the clocks forward thing works for you at the weekend. Good luck with your calendar.

Linzer had her plans waylaid by the need to help with a friend?s child

SC requested a boot up the backside, which was promptly delivered by Toffee

Toffee has got reinforcements arriving from Thursday in the shape of her mum, good news given the current workload. Flybear would be quite a novelty! Try not to stress about the house, you will get back on track soon I?m sure.

Ellie is poorly ? take it easy Ellie, hope you feel better soon

Fun ? well done to DS on his music exam

Feet - THE TAPS ARE SORTED!

Nettie requested a proofreaders amnesty for her complicated pots ? if you can do that amount of emoticons and asterisks from an Iphone without it all going horribly wrong Nettie I?m well impressed. I?d like to see Butterflies again. Have you seen the older son in Corrie lately? Making me feel very old that he played a teenager in Butterflies and now he?s a man in his fifties. Has aged quite well I must say.

Applegeek ? welcome! Does your name refer to your love of all things MAC? We have recently converted from PC to MAC, and although in some respects it is good, in many it has got me wanting to hurl the thing oout of the nearest window (the version of Word and Finder are my two pet hates). Perhaps I need to come to you for advice

Swan ? could I swap you for one of my SILs please?

And todays quote of the day, from Linzer, ?It?s never too early for ? thank you, don?t mind if I do.

Wednesday

Babystep Set your afternoon routine

Mission

Evening all. Slowly getting there i think so back to work tomorrow! Have managed to potter around and get a few things done.

Our bed stripped, washed and re-made
Several loads of washing done
Load in the washer on timer so can hang out in the morning
Bathroom s/s but needs a really good clean tomorrow
Natter with sister
Dh tidied all downstairs
Washing up

Not bad considering i am still recovering. Am posting from bed in lovely clean sheets and am about to watch some mindless telly on iplayer.

Bless me Toffee (and others who were kind enough to offer carefully aimed kicks up backside encouragement) for I have sinned ...

I, um, got a little side-tracked today ...

..SC drags mattress, pillows, and sheets in to naughty corner and beds down for night, studiously avoiding any mention of home office

Good to hear you are on the road to recovery Ellie
Swan you are being a great sil - well done to you
Toffee enjoy the class bear!! Would a picture of him enjoying a quick fag and a glass of do the trick?
Great round-up Whoknows

Waves to all and waits for arrival of motivation fairy in the morning ...

x posts ...Don't over-do it Ellie - take care of yourself x

G'night all

Still - funnily enough, the class bear had dinner with us and I gave him a small wine glass and put a wine bottle next to him. I so wanted to take a photo of him like that and stick it in the book, but I wasn't sure his class teacher would be very amused, so I chickened out!

The class bear had a very quiet evening with us. He watched CBBC with DS2 (didn't mention that in the book ), then 'helped' me and DS2 to cook dinner. Took a photo of him wearing a little chef's hat (left over from DS's pizza party) and with a napkin wrapped round him like an apron. Then DH came home and told me that our printer has run out of colour, so we can't print out photos anyway. However, DS seemed perfectly happy to just draw a picture and write in the book. He is sleeping with his arms wrapped round the bear and I'm trying very hard not to worry about what germs are trapped in that rather off-white fur.

Thanks for an excellent round up, Who Knows.

Must get on with some more work before bed. There has been no chance since collecting DS2 at 3. He is being particularly difficult and demanding at the moment - something to do with being at school, I think.

See you all tomorrow.