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!

Morning PA - another earlybird though you seen to have achieved rather more than me :)

friends

It's a lovely sunny day here today, although DD1 - an Austrian through and through - has just gone off to school in her thick winter coat, bobble hat and skiing gloves (I did try to persuade her to wear a thinner hat at least, but to no avail).

Providing that no more work arrives, I now have a whole morning (a whole five hours in fact, as DD2 will be going to a friend's straight after school and DD1 doesn't finish until an hour later) to get back on track. I'm ashamed to admit I don't even know what zone we're in this week. I desperately need to catch up with the washing first, though; apart from the backlog of the last few days, DS was wet again - but thankfully only his PJs need to be washed, unlike DD2, whose entire bedding (including the duvet) will need to go in the machine (I'm now on the second load).

Right, had better start getting on with things. Have a good day everyone.

Good morning

Gosh you are all up rather early this morning.

My list is get up dh turn so dd is having a ginormous paddy!
dc dressed to nursery, me work
Dw
Wm
Td
S/s
Make bed
Gym

Think that's gonna be the best I can do for today.

Hope you all have lovely days

Morning everyone!

Another beautiful day here as I sit at my desk looking out of the window wishing I wasn't at work! Tonight is the first night this week that I don't have to be anywhere so I am going to get a flier from work and try and enjoy a bit of the sunshine!

List today looks like this:-

Washing
Putting away
Cook dinner
DS homework
Schoolwork
Budgetting for next month
Play in the garden with DC's/Take DC's to park

That will do for me I think. Have a good day everyone!

Sent another chapter back this morning, which means I'm keeping up with my work timetable. The house is another matter. It is such a tip. My mum is arriving this afternoon, but I really can't leave it in this state for her to see. So, my plan is to get some work done, then:

Washing (towels)
Tumbledry sheets from last night
S&S in bathroom plus put new towel out
Change sheets on DS2's bed (which is where mum will sleep)
Make all beds
Unload d/w
Reload d/w
Tackle furnaces hotspots, especially kitchen and piano top
Tidy sitting room
Tidy kitchen
Plant flowers in window box
Sort piles of laundry to be ironed (am hoping mum will help)

That will do.

Linzer - enjoy your day's Flying. No sign of your Lakeland products yet, I suppose?

Nettie - have a nice day at work

Feet at the Muslim girl praying for a new Barbie

PA - sorry you are losing your day off. Oh, I loved that film - it was the first film I went to see with my friends and no adults accompanying us. We thought we were so grown up (have given away my great age now).

Am now singing along to

That song is the first no. 1 I can remember Toffee - I remember it being at the end of TOTP for weeks on end! Well done on finishing the chapter; when you're so busy with work, something has to give - our house is a mess too. Unlike you, however, I have no excuses this morning (other than getting ridiculously distracted by MN). I'm expecting the Lakeland order to arrive next week, but you've just reminded me that I want to place another order by post so that I can use the 5 pound voucher (to be sent to my parents'; I can't afford to spend any more ridiculous amounts on postage!).

ellie Getting outside this afternoon sounds like an excellent idea. I'm wondering whether we can fit in a trip to the playground today, even if it's just for half an hour after picking up DS (DD1 has to revise for her test tomorrow beforehand).

Nettie Hope your DD calmed down eventually. For the first time I can remember, both DD2 and DS were in a good mood this morning - it made such a difference and was such a nice start to the day, but I don't know how likely it is to be repeated!

Right, must go and see to the washing - one lot needs to be put away, one lot is in the dryer and the third batch in the WM.

Toffee good luck with house tackling before arrival of mum! However helpful, tis best not to let them see the full horror I remember each of the songs hitting the No 1 spot on Top of the Pops, and so enjoying watching the video clips (in the days before DVD/video) on telly. I remember seeing Grease in the Kensington High Street Odeon at 14!

Nettie hope dd calmed down, not very restful for you

Feet what a lovely thing to do with the children at school, not surprised you are not getting any time to deal with house

lovely day here, I wish our kitchen had a view/sunshine Just complained to dh about it and he is not best pleased. All that is required is to flip house a little...and....but he is not interested....
done
booked Easter flights online

Have done some work and now I'm tackling the kitchen before mum gets here. Also doing a lot of laundry, particularly sheets and towels - just to be on the safe side.

Very quiet on this thread today .

Oh, how exciting, Swan - where are you going to?

Linzer - how's the MN browsing laundry and house cleaning going?

I know, Toffee - I've been forced to go and chat on another thread do some housework as this thread has been so quiet. How was your DS last night? No more itching, I hope!

swan We have a north facing kitchen with a small window and a very uninspiring view of our back garden (which is about the size of a postage stamp). I would love a large, light and airy kitchen instead of the small dark one we have.

DD1 has just come in complaining about how much sunnier the neighbours' (front) garden is and how she would love to play outside in the garden instead of learning about the Romans. I'll be so glad once this test is out of the way.

Have finally finished my laundry marathon and it's now all hanging out to dry (which shouldn't take too long in this sunny weather). I've also managed to get my morning routine finished - if not the mission and decluttering - despite all my MNing; the extra hour this morning made a big difference. Only another four years to go until all DC are at school until at least 12.45 pm most days.

Friend has just phoned to ask if I can pick up her DS from kindergarten when I collect DS as her train has been delayed. Hopefully it will be easier to help DD1 revise if DS has a friend here, but she's proving to be very easily distractable at the moment. I wonder who she gets it from.

SC waves from naughty corner (expanded to conservatory as it is a sunny 18°c here but feels more like 25°c)

No flying done whatsover ... had to work all day yesterday and part of this morning to prepare for humungous meeting this afternoon (which I am not participating in thankfully) and I'm supposed to be catching up with the chores I failed to do on Thursday right now but battling a rampant case of cba!!

You know when you have 10 urgent things on your list but you can't be bothered with any of them. Not helped by the fact that I am in no way prepared for spring weather. The other mothers here seem to appear at the school gate with natural light tans, perfectly fitting new season clothes and perfect sandals/pedicures within half a day of the sun making an appearance. I on the other hand look like a pale over-weight dumpling shuffling around in dark, stifling woollens ....

Anyway, enough whinging .... I should either sit on the terrace and enjoy the sun ...or go and actually do something productive ... and not dither around doing neither!

Yay! Great to see you back Pushme Glad to hear littlest Doolittle allowing you a bit of rest but Flying + work + baby is always hard so don't overdo it!

PA sorry to hear about dd4. I hope you feel better soon too!! Take it steady x

Toffee Glad to hear class bear has avoided being nuked for now!!

Ellie enjoy your well-deserved afternoon/evening of sunshine

Feetheart respect re: en masse school crafts!!

Better go and stop making excuses and turn the timer on for 15 mins ...

oops .. proof-reading failure!!

...failed to do on Tuesday ....

that's possibly a Freudian slip ...I've obviously given up before I've started

at all the poo-reading v proof-reading stuff btw!

Afternoon. Ds did indeed sleep alnight and was up bright and cheerful at 7am. So it was a good move not to give him the sleep meds.

I have just woken up (went back to bed after dropping him off) so my list for today looks like this:

Get up
collect ds from school
go on a chocolate bar hunt - he would a specific one and i am not sure where will have it in the village and i made the mistake of promising
Take the very long way home so that ds has an hours worth of exercise before getting home
chuck ds into garden to play once changed
Washing - lots and lots of
fold mount cleanwashing
iron mount ironmore
pack clothes for weekend
put clothes away
cook tea
clear up kitchen
load dishwasher
Find my glasses - had them for the school run but the seem to have disappeared

and with a list like that two things are clear. I will fail to complete and I need at least two cups of coffee to get me going and ensure i even attempt it.

Enjoy the sunshine folks!

Afternoon all, just attending to some important admin timewastingbeforeschoolrun.

A fairly relaxed day, tip visit, bit of shopping, bit of ironing, bit of helping DH unblock a drain, not quite sure if we've finished that one yet, waiting for him to get home from work.

Good news for DS today, he had a speech therapy appointment, the NHS hasn't managed to provide him with much help in this area so far, all he has had is a review every year plus being left some exercises to do. Anyway, I was going to tell her that as I think he needed more help I was going to go private, but she pre-empted me and said she was going to book him in for a block of therapy sessions with her starting next week, which I was very pleased about. He can't say the letter F, poor little man. Remember my last nickname, OgreTriplets - he is still very fond of the ogre triplets (has got cuddly ones) and talks about them a lot, unfortunately their names are Farkle, Felicia and Fergus, the effect is very funny!

Back later.

That's great news, WhoKnows! And so soon, too. Hopefully, she can teach him to say the names of his toy ogres (although you'll probably miss hearing him misproununcing them).

Mum is here and is helping DS2 'make and do' and paint! I don't think I've ever seen her do that (she is a wonderful Granny, but prefers reading to her grandchildren to practical activities). I have retreated upstairs to work. She's even going to make a shepherd's pie for us this evening. Such a relief to have her here.

Must use my time wisely now, rather than chat!

I've finally finished helping DD1 with her revision; I'm not convinced she knows everything she should about the Romans, but she just couldn't concentrate any more (despite regular breaks) so has gone out to play in the garden now. This means I can get on with things again; I've managed to remake DD2's bed while DD1 was revising, but have done very little otherwise.

WhoKnows It's good that the speech therapy will be starting soon; DS is still on a six-month waiting list, although I'm sure it's now more than six months since we had our original appointment. Neither he nor DD2 can pronounce s/sh properly, but DD2 already goes for speech therapy at school. DD1 can't pronounce the "th" sound but as you don't need to in German, there's no provision for dealing with it here!

SC Glad it's not just me having a CBA day. I really wanted to sit outside in the sun and read this morning - and might as well have done, considering the amount of Flying I got done in the end!

WhoKnows it is always difficult to know when to step in - glad she pre-empted so satisfactorily. I like the tongue twisting triplets.

done
singing lesson (a break from piano) although rather embarrassingly she seems to have downgraded me from Handel to a ditty for 9 year olds called Haunted House
all too brief Ladies lunch in cafe
pickup
lots of piano practice
2 loads of laundry

much musing about sunny extensions, gardening, etc

Linzer the scullery part of our kitchen faces north the nicer part faces East, but only gets full sun before 7.45 am If I was you, and got up much earlier, it would be absolutely lovely . From 5am till 7.45am in summer it is flooded with sunshine! Unfortunately I always have a headache before 8am

off to swmming again in a moment [sigh] at least I know where all the swimmig stuff is as it's still in a heap from yesterday...

Linzer and SC I don't think I've even looked in the dcs' bedrooms this morning, completely given up on that one...well I suppose I rounded up some little laundry offerings, but otherwise..

Now I need to drink my reviving tea and get cracking, and put stuff in the car so we can pick up ds1 from football and go straight to pool....

swan Am envious of you having a kitchen large enough to have a scullery part. And sympathies at being downgraded from Handel to a ditty for 9 year olds - but I'm very impressed at you being able to find time to practise the piano and sing.

I have also been doing some musing - mainly about how much easier life seemed to be when we were still in a flat (where we did have a lovely big kitchen). The hoovering part of the weekly home blessing hour was actually achievable in 10 minutes there; here, it takes me 10 minutes just to lug the hoover up and down all the stairs. On the downside, we didn't have a garden - and having seen how well the DC have played outside today, I'm not sure I'd want to do without one now. Mind you, the novelty of being able to play outside is bound to wear off soon (today was about the first day this year that they've been out in the garden for longer than five minutes).

Oh, and I usually try to stay out of the DC's bedrooms as much as possible (the DDs' room, in particular, gives me a headache) but need to check for wet sheets in the morning. In DD2's case, she had managed to wet absolutely every item of bedding apart from the pillow this morning.

Well here in elliepac towers ( or poky 3 bed semi in dirty industrial town ), dh decided to finally get round to laying the new floor in the hallway. Good for dh i hear you cry? Well, maybe so but bad for dw. Downstairs is in upheaval, laminate is half finished and dh is grumpy. Dc's are confined to one room and are therefore fighting and all my lovely plans of some family time in the sunshine have gone up the swanee .

whoknows that's fab news about ds .

linzer and swan i too prefer the ignorance is bliss method where bedrooms are concerned. and on the subject of kitchens my poky little shitheap of a kitchen gets the sun for the first couple of hours and then all i see is next doors garage wall!

sc a cba day is good for the soul . i have the happiest soul around .

Better go and finish dinner. Back later!

toffee we are having shepherds pis as well!

Oh dear, i dont think shepherds pis would taste very nice .

Ellie - I'd rather have a with my pie, thanks very much .
(will be thinking of your typo as I eat).

I'm getting so much more work done now mum is doing all the other stuff. What a difference! No wonder it takes me so long to get through the proofreading normally. Am looking forward to being served dinner with a glass of pis wine shortly.

Fabulous news on the speech therapy whoknows

Ds is already asleep on the sofa. he was shattered after yesterday. Aparantly I am the best mum ever though, and he wasnt too grumpy so it might be something we repeat.

As for the list of doom:

Get up done
collect ds from school done
go on a chocolate bar hunt done
Take the very long way home done
chuck ds into garden to play once changed - he was too tired so flopped in front of tv
Washing - lots and lots of in progress about to put 4th load on
fold mount cleanwashing two loads folded will tackle more after tea
iron mount ironmore - mount ironmore is being created in preparation
pack clothes for weekend
put clothes away
cook tea ds' tea out of tin as so tired. mine to do
clear up kitchen
load dishwasher
Find my glasses done
Go out a buy new cupboard handles done
Fit new cupboard handles done
Write note for ds' teacher re appointment and missing school

Going for tea and coffee whilst this motivation lasts. I shall be no flying this weekend so i will reserve a spot in the naughty corner now.