April Fledgling Flyers: April Fools we are not, babysteps and decluttering makes our thread hot, step right in and mark your spot.

[NettieSpaghetti]

Welcome, come away in you?ll have had your . This is the April Fledgling Flyers Thread.

Thanks to WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes who was champion at leading us through March.

We are trying to stick to the Flylady © Website and her baby steps and routines to help keep our houses out of C.H.A.O.S and ready for everyday, maybe the odd visitor or two.

Check her website out but don?t sign up for emails as they are likely to inspire but fill your inbox so full we might not see you till August.

The principles are:

Babysteps (one at a time)
Babysteps and 15 minutes daily decluttering
Babysteps and daily missions.

This month I will be posting the links and leading you down the road to building a routine and keeping your house under control.

It is amazing what you can achieve in a simple babystep,15 minutes a day and a little chat.

Elevenses update :)

• All up and out - done
• Back home for man who is coming to clean suite chairs - done
• Morning routine - done apart from sweep kitchen floor which will get done before I mop floor

Have also:

• Wiped down some of kitchen surfaces which must be a mission sometime this week
• Done a couple of invoices for work
• Sorted outfit for DD to wear for end of term 'Come as a Book Character' Day Borrowing friend's green school dress and cardi (DD's is blue), plaits, torch - voila, Ann from Famous Five :)

DS is going in Mr Bump t-shirt and a knight's outfit he has - Mr Bump and the Knight :)

Onwards.....................

push hope meeting goes well, it's nice to see people as well and get out awayfrombins-
feet inspired choice, like th etorch too!

quickupdate
read deep clean section of Flylady, I love the "you haven't done this for years" bit! Feel better already, as have often cleaned pet dishes and occasionally cannisters.

avoided cleaning kitchen however, apart from dw, oven dishes in sink, bins, and breakfast
hung out washing in garden
soaked up some Spring sunshine
seedlings emerging from my seed trays YAY!
started moussaka, salted aubergines etc
rescued hall
tried rescuing playroom - gave up after removing some pjs, a dirty plate and adjusting some sweet pea seedlings will try again when I do piano
recycling, all out
swept front path of petals again

soo slow this morning, heading upstairs now.

Ooh, forgot that I scrubbed my bins too. Gross! But now they look fabulous :)

Am in a bit of a panic about my work as the 30-page chapter turns out to be 60 pages and it is due back on Friday . So I worked till late last night and am working today, whilst Flyboy educates himself. (Actually, he's been very hardworking this morning). DS2 decided to wake up at 6.30 this morning, which wasn't part of my plan, but it did at least mean I had an extra hour to tidy up the kitchen and get my morning routine done before school.

DH was very, very grumpy this morning because he had to drive over to visit MIL for no reason other than that he didn't visit her on Saturday, even though he thinks he never arranged that anyway . As a result, everything was my fault today. He is also cross because he will have to look after the boys when he gets back at 3, so I can work. I did point out that they are his children too.

List today:

Dress etc. done
B/fasts done
S&S done
W/M on done
D/W on done
Wipe kitchen counters done
Lunchbox and water done
School run done
Clear out fridge and wipe down done
Empty bin done
Put stuff into recycle bins done
T/D on to do next
Sweep and mop kitchen floor done
Put yesterday's laundry away nope, it's still in the T/D, which is why today's washing is still in the w/m
Tesco delivery - put away shopping done
Sort out arrangements for MIL's hospital appointment next week done
Home education done
Paid work doing
Lunch
Paid work
School run
Paid work
Dinner (DH to do if not too grumpy)
Bedtime routines
Paid work
Before-bed routine
Paid work
Bed at indecent hour

Sorry to post and not add messages, but must get on. Am concerned about missing Flyladies - OverflowingMum (back at work and too busy, I suppose), Ihatecobwebs (not seen for a week), PA, to name a few. Oh well, RL intervenes sometimes...

Back later.

Right, just finished work ...must go home and sort first floor... but it's such a beautiful day outside and I really, really don't want to spend it cleaning ...but this is my only slot ...oh dear .. temptation, temptation

Arf at piano playing Old Man of the Sea Swan. Love that moment when seedlings emerge (got to plant my yet!!)

Crikey - you are on a roll Toffee - hope your dh cheers up!

Good luck with your meeting Pushme

oh no, hope you didn't lose too much food JaneyJ

Waves to everyone else ...

The perfect solution! Inspired by CheerfulYank I am going to scrub down laundry paniers and bins and veg rack in the sunshine on the terrace!!

Hi,

Ive not done a lot today. Although I have just spent ages writing a reply and went onto another page to find something out and lost it all, so here goes again, but first of all AAGGGHHHHHHHHHHH.

1. start washing machine and get it dried/hung up - done
2. Ironing my earlier washing load
3. put clothes in washer ready for Thursday morning - done
4. wipe down kitchen and table in room
5. shine sink
6. Complete more control journal
7. get uniforms ready for school and hang up in living room - half done DD actually came home clean so have hers ready again for tomorrow. Will asses DS when he gets home.

Now what did I say before?????? Ah yes

makingchanges many congrats on the swimming. hope you are very proud. Also good luck with the exam (even though you prob wont see this until after, but hope all went well)

feetheart sorry to hear about the cat pee its not exactly the best smell in the world

funambulist I agree about houses that are too neat, but mine is too messy. Though in a few months hopefully I should have a more organised clutter.

toffee sorry to hear DH has been grumpy, hopes he's in a better mood for you soon.

Anyway off to go and wash the dishes and wipe down kitchen. We are off out tonight for DH's birthday so wont have to do it again today :)

Thanks everyone for your comments about my freezer. It isn't too bad - I've thrown away everything that was at the front of the drawers and we'll eat the salvageable stuff from the backs tonight in a bizarre kind of feast

I am checking in with what I hope will be inspiration for fellow declutterers and recovering hoarders.

For my 40th birthday (nearly 2 years ago) DH had a pendant made for me which matches my engagement ring. We went back to the town where we used to live when we got engaged and asked the same jeweller to make a matching necklace. He gave it to me on my birthday and I wore it twice - once for my party and then for a family photo we had taken. Then we went on holiday and I put it somewhere safe in the house so that if we were broken into while we were away, no one would find it (stupid, I know - it seemed organised and grown-up at the time!). When we came back from holiday I found the watch I'd also hidden in the DDs' soft toy box, but the necklace wasn't there. In the intervening nearly 2 years I have turned the upstairs of my house upside down several times, and despairingly concluded that I must have put it in a charity bag (wrapped in clothes perhaps) or in the bin because it was nowhere to be found. DH has helped me to look and this just made it worse. In fact, I'd become afraid to look for it because not finding it was so awful. I never even looked at the photos we had taken because I felt so guilty about the necklace.

Well, today, while decluttering my tea towel drawer, I found it! I cannot believe it. I've just called all my friends and family to tell them. DH is over the moon and I am just so relieved that I hadn't lost it after all.

That's wonderful janey
:o :o :o for you.

Update:

• Mop kitchen floor - done
• Crisis clean in all 3 bedrooms - done 15 mins in each room. Ours looks better, DCs' look worse at moment
• Prep dinner - leftover roast from Sunday - spuds peeled and boiling

Need to have another 15 mins in each of DC's rooms then get to school by 2.30 to help set up 2nd Hand Uniform sale.........better make that 10mins in each.

That's wonderful janey; you must be over the moon. I'm often rediscovering things that I thought I'd lost (or had just completely forgotten about) when I'm decluttering - another good reason to make sure I stick to my 15 minutes of decluttering a day!

It's going to be a challenge to get my afternoon routine done today with four under fives in the house, but I'm going to make a start on the ironing while the littlest one does some drawing and the three boys watch Micky Mouse (I've reluctantly agreed that one episode is OK). I was hoping to go to the playground but it's a bit cold and windy.

List update to keep me going (I'm still trying to stick to our challenge Toffee - having to come back and report on my progress - or lack of -definitely helps motivate me!):

Morning routine done
15 min decluttering part done
Mission done
Polish mirrors
Purge magazines
Finish preparing English lesson done
e-mail hotel for confirmation
Find hotel in Chester found two with rooms available (need to discuss with DH this evening)
e-mail friend re hotel done
English lesson done
Check UK bank balance
Pay membership subscription and PII
Collect DS and DC's friends done
Afternoon routine
Hang up washing
Ironing
Take DS's and DD1's friends home and pick up DD2
Evening routine

linzer you are amazing to have picked up all those children successfully and even be contemplating afternoon routines enjoy the little ones!
toffee drat those husbands [sprays serontin around] - on the grumpiness meter I think mine is measuring highly
janey I am always doing that - hiding things in supposedly "safe" places, just as we go on holiday. Fantastic!
Feet you are undefeated - all this PTA stuff

not much to report - hung washing on the climbing frame just for the pleasure of wandering round garden again in sunshine
finally reaching clear unadorned bedroom floor. Just need to hoover
found all summer clothes, including dd's summer uniform in loft, and washing winter stuff to go away [in progress]

still so much washing to do I'm not going to iron ANYTHING so there...

SC it never ceases to amaze why I end up gardening in the rain and wind and snow, and cleaning indoors in the spring sunshine

So exciting janey ! :o

Hi all, sorry, not had time to read the thread. DD turned night into day again, been like that for weeks. Didn't get to bed until around 4am, and am really struggling to get going today - again!
Really need some energy from somewhere, someone?!!
House is like a bomb has gone off! DH and I are too tired to do much about it, and are slouched on couch watching the excitable DD playing!!! Wish we could get some of her energy!
Hope everyone is having a good week so far. xx

MissJ - hurray! One of the missing Flyladies returns to the fold! Sorry to hear you are so sleep deprived, though . I think you just have to turn a blind eye, if you can, to the bombsite and concentrate on getting through the day. Hope you have a better night tonight.

Janey - what a lovely thing to happen!

Linzer - you are definitely a supermum today!

Swan - the serotonin spray may have worked, thank you: DH came back in a better mood. He said his mum was really happy to see him, but he didn't really understand why he was there. (Duh!) Anyway, he's taken DS2 out into the garden with him, so I can work.

Er, so why am I on MN?

It is such a lovely day here. It feels like Summer!

First day of the holidays for DD and DS1, which is normally the cue for a bit of a slump for me but inspired by you lot I haven't done too badly. The nice i phone people are busy transferring my old mobile number to my lovely new i phone so I can't use my home routines app until later today and have had to revert back to a written list.

miss julie I'm sorry that you're so tired, don't worry about getting stuff done today. Just make sure you get an early night.

Janey so pleased for you!

Linzer good luck flying with all those little ones around.

myhouse enjoy your DH's birthday meal.

Toffee hope your DH cheers up.

done

swish and swipe (downstairs)
hot spot x 1
load of washing done and hung out to dry in the sunshine
shiny sink
bought DS2 new cricket bat and various other bits of kit. He is very, very pleased.
wiped down all the kitchen cabinet doors, took ages but the kitchen looks much better
2 lots of music practice done by the DCs
DD and I decluttered, hoovered and cleaned another corner of her room. She is fantastic at chucking things out that she doesn't need. She has decided to get rid of all her Barbies and their clothes
Emptied and cleaned kitchen bin
DS2 took out the recycling
Decided what to cook for DC's and our tea

to do

Various phone calls and emails
iron DS2 karate kit and take him and his friend to karate
DS1 music lesson + pay for next term
put bins out
put away dry washing
DS2 music practice
hot spot x 1
swish and swipe upstairs
lay out clothes
bed at a decent hour (I might manage it one day)

Well, serotonin seems to have missed me, by the time I picked kids, I felt in completely bad mood - far too hot in the playground and children all screaming at me simultaneously and handing me things to carry. Sometimes the playground is like a circle of hell

However, we are back home now with icelollies and a bit of tv. I had some codeine earlier and when it wears off I tend to feel dreadfully twitchy and weird. I think more pills are in order to get me through afternoon
plan
change dcs into newly discovered summer wear
do a bit of last minute dd project
go to park without overloaded school bags
put moussaka in oven
help at Beavers
is there Brownies tonight???? hope not...
15 minutes putting clothes away
5 minute hall rescue

missj glad dh is still there with you. The clocks seem to be wreaking havoc on everyone's sleep patterns in this house..

oh yes, spurred by Fun's list
write sponsorship cheque
pay gas bill
pay books bill
pay BT bill (find a/c ref in Control Journal yay! or maybe not...)
write card to friend
write anothe rcard to another friend
another load of winter washing so I can bag it up!!!

Fun I have the DK Barbie clothes collectors book! I don't think I will ever be able to declutter the Barbie stuff now. The best are the pages about the Costumes of the World.
Dd is not very interested though, I am

What a beautiful day! As someone else said it has felt more like summer here today. Havent got much done as i didnt leave work until quarter to six. Went straight to MIL's to pick up dc's, dh was there and she had baked me a belated birthday cake so we all sat in the sunshine for an hour drinking tea and eating cake. Lovely. So far today i have:-

Washing on line before work
Wm on before work
Tidy downstaits before work
Work
Washing up
Washing off line
Washing on line
Dd to bed
Dinner prepped and cooking
Ds homework

I am considering doing some ironing tonight. Our sky box in living room has broken. We have another in dining room but dh is using that tv to play his xbox so i am going to use the wii to watch iplayer and see what i can find. If its something good there will be no ironing done......place your bets please.

Hope everyone has had a good day. Am posting on my phone and scrolling up and down is a pita so sorry for lack of personals.

Back later to report on the ironing!

Evening everyone.

1. start washing machine and get it dried/hung up - done
2. Ironing my earlier washing load - going to leave
3. put clothes in washer ready for Thursday morning - done
4. wipe down kitchen and table in room - done
5. shine sink - done
6. Complete more control journal - done
7. get uniforms ready for school and hang up in living room - done

I am absolutely stuffed now after a big tea so the ironing can wait. I will do a bit of my backlog every so often now. It will get caught up by the weekend. If not I have got more time next week without having to do school runs.

Anyway tomorrows list:

1. start washing machine and get it dried/hung up
2. Ironing my earlier washing load and a bit of backlog for 1hr
3. put clothes in washer ready for Friday morning
4. wipe down kitchen and table in room
5. shine sink
6. Complete more control journal
7. get uniforms ready for school and hang up in living room
8. fill bookcase bought earlier in week with erm books and DVD's
9. cut the grass at the front.

Janey so pleased to hear you found your necklace. Im looking forward to finding the odd thing we've lost. Found some scissors the other day that were lost (we had already bought some more).

Right now I am relaxing not thinking about the ironing Ive not done as Im so so so full and stuffed.

Also had some good news today, I had a triple test last week and today I got the letter to say I was low risk. I am slightly in shock at the figure though, 1 in 100,000!!!!! (am unsure if there's a typo and there's too many 0's, but surely it would have been checked, they cant make an error like that can they?)

Anyway hope you all have a good evening and I shall 'see' you tomorrow.

myhouse - that's great news. I had triple test with DD in an attempt to stop them bullying me into an amnio (tried to bamboozle me with percentages and risks as I was ancient - first baby at 40 :)) Told them I'd have the triple test and had lots of doom and gloom about how high it would come back because of my age, etc, etc. Even told me she would ring me with the result so she could then book the amnio. Never heard a thing and eventually found out it had come back as 62,000 to 1 :o Stupid bl**dy Registrar/hospital midwife.
Different hospital with DS, fantastic Consultant who actually asked us if we would do anything if baby had an abnormality. Told us if we wouldn't then don't have any tests, go off and enjoy the pregnancy - we did :)
Sorry, bit of a bugbear!

Glad you had good result, now try and enjoy it.

Currently babysitting for a friend. All very last minute (about 5.30pm!) so completely unprepared and have left DH to put DC to bed, wash up, bring washing in, etc. Not sure how much will get done - he can be very good and he can develop blinkers, no idea which one it will be tonight

Final update on today's list:

• Further 10mins in each of DC's rooms - done DD's looks better but not great, DS's looks worse - work in progress!
• Uniform sale - done Didn't make much this time but nice chat with few other Mums
• Roast for dinner - done
• Make cake for lunchboxes tomorrow - done
• Babysit - did think about bringing ironing but brought HUGE bag of School Assoc paperwork instead - my 'chuck it in a bag' filing system . Might try and sort it. Then again, might not bother!
• Eat Easter egg - doing. Left for me by friend for last minute babysitting :)

Am now off to wander round the internet as can do so without being made to feel like I should be interacting with DH.
I may return and ramble some more :)

Evening all,

Well, I am struggling a bit to keep up with the thread at the moment, but am glad Myhouse has had good news with the triple test. My result for DS was 1 in 50 but we refused amnio because we were going to keep him whatever happened, it was worrying but my midwife told us much the same as Feet's second one, to forget the tests and not worry, so that's what we did.

Also very pleased for Janey finding a necklace. I've got one which was made for me by my god-mother when I was little, I very rarely take it off because I'm so terrified of losing it. It is lovely and hardly a week goes by without someone commenting on it, so I'm very pleased you found yours.

I'm keeping up with my FLying quite well, despite having a full school day worth of paid work today. Was woken about half an hour earlier than usual by Ds who had not quite made it to the loo on time and had flooded the bathroom floor. He was making a really good effort to clean up with toilet roll, which I have asked him to do for splashes, but this was quite a flood, so the bathroom floor had to be cleaned. I still had 20 mins or do to spare so managed the clean the kitchen counters mission from Monday, did the tap on Monday, the bin last week, it's all over the place but I am determined.

Have discovered the downside of decluttering today though, our washing line broke (it was a long one from the house to the shed). I asked DD if she would come to the shops to buy a new one, she said she wanted a rotary one like Grandma's. I chose to have the long one because stuff dries faster, but it does all get in the way a bit in our long narrow garden, so I thought maybe she has a point. But, annoyingly, having stored a rotary one in the shed for 10 years after we moved from our old house, I Freecycled it last year, grrrr.

So despite it being the hottest day of the year so far the washing ended up in the dryer .

Janey, that's lovely - it's such a nice feeling when you find something dear that you thought had gone forever .

Well busy day today so not a great deal done except:

Breakfast cleared and DW on before leaving for school (major step!)
Beds made (when we got in from school but still before we got back in them!!
Dinner made, eaten, cleared and DW back on
Kitchen tidied and sink shined
Packed lunches made
1.5 loads of washing done - 1 washed,dried and put away and 1 washed but waiting in machine to be hung on line in the morning.

It's been lovely here too since lunchtime - very summery!!

Good evening, so sorry for late round up, has been ridiculously busy day and night.

just to finish off my list

Get up, dressed, hair! (one day maybe I'll do face as s matter of course)-done
Make bed-done*
S/s-done
Wm/td on-done
Emptied dw last night so fill dw with breakfast stuff-done
Get dc breakfasted and dressed for nursery-done
Drop off-done
Me work-done
Pick dc up, home bathe dd-done
Ds parents evening-done
Gym-nope
Try and deal with hotspot of paper in kitchen-nope
Deal with unwanted ornaments. Try convince dh that his bogging old men ornaments have no place in our home.-done
Try and force myself to wrap up and store my incense dragon and wax candle innthe shape of doc Martin boot! (can't bring myself to part with them but don't want them on display. -stillhovering but bot closer to box
Ask nag dh to move computer desk to new home-partly and it was only because i started that we got as far as we did.
Oh yes better eat dinner in there too. -done indian

Today fabulous flyers have been:-

feetheart has done loadsa flying, cake making and is serttling down for her easter egg treat.
myhouse has been a fab flyer and cpuld let herself off with the ironing tonight.
ellie worked extremely hard and had some wonderful sunshiney birthday cake eating courtesy of her dm.
swan added lotsa seratonin (what the flip is that and why didnt it help my grumpy ass dh?) to the thread and was last seen searching for some pills to get her through the afternoon. hope you feel better soon. loved climbing frame clothes drier and ds decriptin of old man of sea.
fun had a barbie clothes amnsety and made her ds very very happy with some new cricket gear
toffee is snowed under with work and getting up sillily early but flying too. is searching for lost flyladys.
missj welcome back, her dd has turned noctural playing havoc with all her brill flying. (good thing about flying is i find it doesnt take too long to get back under control)
linzer got up at the dawn of time and surrounded herself in under 5yr old children and still tried to fly.
janeyjampot decluttering queen found a very special necklace tucked away in tea towel drawer. (i once found my wedding ring, sentimental diamond one of dh dear nanny which was mil for 6 months in my kitchen junk drawer) so chuffed you found it. found and lost some food and had a mix up feast for dinner
sc very cleverly took her flying outdoors, cleaing and buffing in the sunshine.
cheerfulyank has fantabulous bins (oo eerr)
blue bypassed the brick dust and order some storage device for paper my dh reckons our family paperwork needs a 4 drawer filling cabinet!! i refuse!
pmpy has been attending work meetings with a gorgeous newborn ds and was making savory scones and soup. (recipe for scones please? )
cyberwebcinders make good use of the dust bunnies under her sofa and used them to hide her computer.
scatty ds concert was fab and work plus more plus beavers and brown things were to occupy her day.

Heres hoping noone was missed or stuck in the seratonin mist, posting is bit hit and miss, ill leave before i have to give you all a kiss

links coming, nite all