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.

Hello all . Am of those on holidays. We have 1 (manic) week left!

SC our TV seems to be on pretty much all the time . ATM ds is watching (and re-enacting) a Star Wars DVD in 1 room while dd is watching HSM in another (and making easter bonnets)!

FH My one regret about where we live is that there are no DC on the street (all bungalows = pensioners).

Last night DS managed to vomit in 4 different rooms . Dh has stayed home with him today but he seems fine now .

To do:
dry/put away bedding
wash floors properly
organise multiple outfits for tomorrows after school activities (2 discos and a judo lesson)
make sandwiches

BBL

scatty - lots and lots of bungalow/pensioner combinations here too but a few families. Was very funny at the time when possibly the only 2 women of child-bearing age (neighbour and me) managed to produce babies within 5 days of each other five years ago :o
Positive thing about lots of oldies is:

• lots of potential surrogate grandparents
• lots of people who have been here for years and knew DH as a child (we live in the house he grew up in)

Have failed to do any more Flying but have toad-in-hole in oven.

well, a very busy day, but absolutely no packing
why did I choose this day to organise so many playdates????? in and out of house

however, now I am going to try a bit harder as all children are now watching telly.
todo
passports
tickets done
money doneish but not Euros
rubbish sort out
supper - tortelloni
barbies away
books away
school bags - re-rescue as dd has tipped contents out to make room for her luggage
laundry - hang out
laundry - PE bag stuff
empty bin
cricket stuff away
tarpaulin away
order something to be delivered to Eire before I go as I'm not online there
pay bill to bookshop
take SATS stuff, revision homework, handwriting homework with me
pack dressmakign stuff and |Burda magazine [ever hopeful] and pins
ring cat sitter for next week when dh isn't here
RELAX and not stress! (hate travelling)

Scatty LOL at HSM and Easter bonnets very sweet combination

Feet hope your trip goes well, hiring car sounds an excellent decision. Sharing my parents' car leads to all sorts of problems, although at least they don't mind the mud! (Their car literally had grass growing in it one year!)

Hello ladies! Hope everyone is doing well?! Thank goodness you don't get reprimanded for being awol!!! Lol! DH and I have been so so busy! But have been out and about doing things with DD for days! The house is like a bomb hit it! We started tidying up today, but didn't get very far, and are now sat down with a !!! xx

Evening. I am in the north west Pmpy. SC - i think you are on my fb friends list - if you want green check out my photos and then hate me a bit

Done tons today. Absolutely tons. About to sink into a hot girly bath and do girly things. Currently testing out new make up to see if i rash up. Forgot the wrist test so it could go horribly wrong

Ds had a huge meltdeown - kicking biting hitting - proper red rage stuff this evening. It has left me feeling tired and drained so going to get everything sorted for tomo morning and then go to bed.

There will be no flying tomo as the day will be nearly 20hrs long. I suspect mucho recovery required wed too. So will take residency in the naughty corner.

Evening everyone.

Right today I have done the following:

1. start load that it is washing machine, hang it up - done
2. ironing for 1hr to do earlier load and backlog - done
3. towels washed and dried - done
4. short trip to supermarket to stock the new fridge - done
5. wipe down sides - done
6. load washing machine for Tuesday - done

So have had a good day today, its not a lot, but with it being kids hols I dont have as much time. Have also taken the old fridge to the skip along with the cardboard from the new fridge so another thing to add to the list :)

Right tomorrow's list:

1. start load that it is washing machine, hang it up
2. ironing to do earlier load
3. bedding washed and dried
4. wipe down sides
5. load washing machine for Wednesday
6. clean bathroom
7. use colour corrector on hair so I can dye it a completely different colour later.

There do seem to be a lot of people in Yorkshire on here. Janey I was surprised how close you are, I expected you to say somewhere miles away. I bet I went to the same school as your daughter as we had a few people from near Selby in our school (a village beginning with R). I went to a school beginning with F.

Anyway my bath is now ready so off to go relax.

Evening all. Am officially on holiday now as i am at the caravan in Filey with dc's. Dh has stayed behind to look for work so am on my own with 2 very excitable children and rain forecast! Woooohooooo. Not complaining mind as it is still rather relaxing.

Yes yes yes to Yorkshire meet up. Though please dont ask me to organise it as i couldnt organise a piss up in a brewery .

Anyway am going to watch the last Waking the Dead. Sob sob. Have a lovely week everyone, back friday momentarily till i depart on school trip on friday night!

Evening all,

Sorry to have been AWOL for a bit, just lazy of me really.

Done lots today, not all of it planned. DH was off work, so on childcare duty for me to go to work. Before I went to work I took DD to the dentist for a filling , she was very good though. Then we went and did the Sainsburys shop together, got back at 9.15 to find DH and S in their pyjamas watching telly. Went to work, with a request from DH to be back by 4 so he could go off for a lads night out in London. Imagine my displeasure on arriving back at 3.45 to find no DH or DCs present, the breakfast stuff still all on the side, extra dishes from lunch, the place generally messy, no washing done. DH arrived back at 4 with the DCS, having had a work emergency and had to go to work after all with the DCs, Ok, not his fault, but that was not till about 2, so he could have done the dishes by then!

Anyway,

took him to the station,
played with DCs,
planted some sunflowers,
decluttered the garden a bit,
watered the veg beds,
sorted the breakfast dishes,
made tea.

The sun pours into our kitchen at about 6pm at this time of year highlighting every dirty nook and cranny. So I

cleaned the floor,
cleaned the cooker hood (yuck!),
put away the remainder of the Sainsburys shop,
put away 3 loads of washing from yesterday,
more play and reading with the DCS and am now starving again!

SC - if it's any consolation my TV / Wii regime relaxes a bit in the holidays, why not really. I am thinking of putting a password on the Ipad though, DS has got into the habit of picking it up and playing at every opportunity instead of asking first.

weekly shop
put away
washing
put away - half done
shine sink
s&s - still to do
survive the first day of the holidays! - made it by the skin of our teeth!

Actually, today wasn't too bad. Got round sainsburys by dint of outrageous bribery and v expensive stop off in the café afterwards. Boys seemed slightly less accident prone today too. DS2 is fine, but he fell on to a toy and cut his top gum hence all yesterday's blood. He seems none the worse for it but I don't think my t-shirt will ever be the same again.

I even managed 15 mins in the utility room!

Out and busy tomorrow so no list beyond morning and evening routines.

Oh, and inspirational quotes - I read an article about spring cleaning at the w/e. Can't remember word for word, but 2 things I liked: Things are only clutter if they're getting you down, and there's nothing morally superior about a blank white cube!

Update:

B/fasts done
Everyone get dressed done
S&S done
Empty d/w done
W/M on done
Put yesterday's wash away done
Reload d/w done
Make beds done
Empty bin done
Hotspots nope
Tumbledrier done
Order washing line from Lakeland poor reviews, so no
15-min declutter in bedroom no
Ironing yes - half an hours' worth!
Water our mini allotment done
11 - 1 Tesco delivery due done; put away
Book measles jabs at dr done
Book new dentist done
Book osteopath (neck still bad) done
Find plumber for leaky tap done
Text friend re PM meet up done
Lunch done
PM - Visit friend with DS2 done
Put washing away mostly done
Dinner done
Bedtime routines done
Before-bed routine done
Bed at decent hour not really, no

Also, remembered to put the rubbish out.

Have just caught up with the thread...

Blue - congrats on surviving today!

WhoKnows - welcome back. Grr at your DH's lack of sink-shining skills. Passwords necessary in this house too.

Ellie - have a lovely hol. Not too British (ie rainy), I hope.

MyHouse - you deserved that relaxing bath after all that Flying.

CHB - meltdown's are exhausting - poor you.

MissJ - welcome back. [Scatters sleepdust over DD].

Swan - what a busy day! Hope family emergency turned out OK.

Feet - we love toad in the hole .

Scatty - vomit in four rooms?!

Linzer- good luck with school issues.

Cheerful - hope you feel better soon.

Still - TV at 4 impressively restrained.

CobwebCinders - Please bring spider kit here!

Pushme - I second Still's commendation on your baby, toddler, flying, work juggling.

My eyes are closing...

Night night.

Good Evening everyone. Sorry im late, I forgot I had the Circle AGM tonight so my brain might not be working anymore as have had few classes of

Get up-done
Ring schools admissions team-done 5th on waiting list so feeling a bit more hopeful.
Hope dc are dressed-nope dh asleep on sofa
Get swim bags ready off to the flume swimming pool as a reward chart treat-done
Washing to hang out: more washing to put in-done
Machine-?
Take chicken out of freezer for tomorrow-done
Try and find a home for stuff on kitchen top -nope
Tidy dc room -partly
Dw on-done
Go swimming once dh get back from dealing with boat electrician -eventually at 2pm DH decided not well but managed just to get through it.
lunch out somewhere nice-quick bit at pizza hut prior to swim
Ds swimming lesson this evening-done
Also done Circle AGM

swan reward chart works ok, when I work it. This reward has been on chart to be earner since January and that?s not because they are really bad its because I am lacklustre with stickers. need to find a new reward for not so far away, might try the one the others were talking about.

What have you all been up to?

linzer sounds like a lovely weekend, missed you. I think I might go for school even with journey if they are going to be more geared up for DD.
feetheart ever so slightly of your holiday morning. What age are your dc again?
swan yes dh does have a boat, it has been getting done up for months and it will be ready to launch soon. It is a speedboat or at least I think it is . It is great for him. I hope SIL is ok, sportscamp sounds fab. Hope you have a great holiday.
cyberwebcinders mmm yum chocolate biscuits and butter cream sound fab.
pmpy I so remember the jealous 2 year old stage. Nice to see you. Can some of choclate brownie be posted to us southies and those abroad too?
toffee what a useful mil. What washing line are you getting? Had your friend got a proper treehouse?
chb sorry you have had a really difficult day, hope you are ok and ds has calmed down. Hope your bath was properly relaxing.
sc im not in a city but I long for rolling hills. Another lovely late morning. My ds regularly follows me whinging about tv until I give in.
scatty poor ds, hope he feels better soon. I remember playing on the square when I wa little with all the neighbouring dc. We live on a road and nowhere to play. Playdates when a bit older will be a must.
missjulie hands out detention for awolness--
myhouse so very organised getting rid of old fridge and cardboard. Am I the only one with a pile outside my house enjoy your bath.
ellie have a fab break, hope rain stays away.
whoknows I was going to give you detention for awoledness but feel free to pass it to your dh. I can totally imagine experienced similar.
blue good quote. I took mine to supermarket the other day and was reminded very quickly why I do internet shopping.

Right its now ridiculously late so off to find links. Good night all

babystep deleting

bathroom bin

anyone need more?

Hope you all have a fab day

toffee well done on list

whoops mission

Not feeling very well so I didn't get much done today. :( I went to the doctor and it's not strep, which is actually kind of unfortunate. With strep I get antibiotics and feel better in less than 24 hours; with a virus it's usually days of misery.

But! Did do:

Swish n swipe
Scrubbed toilet
Took garbage out
Did dishes
Washed and changed all bed linens.

I just took a bunch of nyquil and I'm hoping to be asleep by 8 p.m. or so. Ahhh....lovely. :) Good night all!

Sorry you're not well, CheerfulYank - hope you feel better soon.

myhouse - my DDs go to M school through church connections, but I agree that F is nearer. I think we'd have had to move north of Escrick to get in though

I'm just checking in quickly to confess to very little FLYing as my parents are still here and we seem to be out all the time while the weather is good. Whenever I am in I seem to be cooking... Anyway, I am keeping a shiny sink and doing swish & swipe every day, so I seem to be keeping on top of things, even if I'm not actually doing the big things. Having spent a while decluttering over the last month or so I do find it much easier to remain in control when I'm busy, which is good.

Hope everyone has a lovely day. We are going to the coast as my DDs hope to persuade my Dad to find fossils with them.

Morning everyone,

Had the usual Tuesday morning struggle trying to pin up DD1's hair so that it will go under her swimming cap - it's just the wrong length (too long to go under the cap as it is, too short to be able to do anything with it). Dropped the girls off at school (I've decided to drive them to school when DD1 has swimming, as trying to get them to the meeting point in time for them to walk with their friends is just too stressful - doing DD1's hair takes a good 10 minutes - plus she has an extra bag to carry) and then DS at kindergarten. He's always very excited about the English teacher being there on a Tuesday and told me last night that the teacher has taught him the expression "give me five" - definitely something he wouldn't have learned from me!

janey Enjoy your trip to the coast!

CheerfulYank Hope you're feeling better soon.

Nettie Thanks for the round-up and links.

Toffee The Lakeland reviews are very useful, aren't they? I got rid of a couple of things from my list as the reviews weren't good.

Blue Boys definitely seem more accident prone - DS cut his top lip the other day when he tried to jump from the sofa to the coffee table but missed the table...

WhoKnows Grr at arriving back home to a messy house - maybe your DH was hoping to have a quick tidy-up 15 minutes before you got home! I had to put a password lock on my iPod as DD1 would play on it for hours otherwise.

This morning's list:

Morning routine
Mission
15 min decluttering (30 if I have time, as I didn't get round to doing any yesterday)
Empty bins
Recycle paper
Recycle metal and glass
Post membership subscription

Will be back later - I'm hoping to have one or two child-free hours after lunch so may actually be able to get something done in the afternoon for a change!

morning .

linzer hope your afternoon's productive.

CY I can't get ABs out of my GP for love nor money, tis frustrating as def speeds up recovery. Hope you feel ok soon.

blue I read that article. It was very good.

Crazy day today:
work/school
collect dd from school (+ friend)
Deliver dd and friend to school disco (ignoring the fancy dress suggestion)
collect ds from judo (somehow feed him and change clothes)
collect dd from disco (and feed)
deliver ds to disco
collect ds from disco

Can't wait for the end of term!!

im on a go slow as ds has shared his cold with me

waves

wanders off slowly

Morning!

Wow scatty thought all the school's had broken up by now - guess you will have a few extra days tagged on the other end when we all go back!

Still have the decorater here so FLYing is quite hard but am totally up on my washing and drying and halfway through my mountainous ironing pile as airing racks are now full. Changed the beds and flipped mattresses too - hate that job.

DD is round a friends for a play at 2pm so will get some work done then i expect. We are round PIL's for dinner tonight so no cooking yippee. Made a massive fish pie last night which will do for lunch today so i'm happy

Can't immerse bathroom bin as it's made of wicker but will clean inside it as it's plastic lined. Need to thoroughly clean out my kitchen cupboards as i have noticed some ants crawling around so the crumbs must be mounting - hate those bastards!

Hope you feel better soon Cinders i had a cold during holiday and am still snuffly now so feel it will last the summer as it seems like it's turned into hayfever now - ggrrr!

CobwebCinders - spider catcher required here. There is a monster living in our bathroom and nobody can catch it . Hope you feel better soon.

CheerfulYank - hope you feel better soon.

Linzer - hope you get your child-free hours.

Scatty - that does look like a crazy day . Good luck.

Janey - good to know that the decluttering is helping to keep the house under control. That is still a work in progress here. Enjoy the coast and lovely weather.

Nettie - yes, MIL is very good with little children - she is endlessly patient and will happily play games with DS2 for ages. Very useful! Yes, it was a proper treehouse - up a ladder to a platform with fence around it, built round the trunk of an old tree. It was a bit nerve-wracking seeing my son up there, particularly when he decided to crawl along an overhanging branch, but once I'd stopped him doing that, he had a great time. Re: washing line - I think I'm going to have to have a look at Amazon for a washing line.

Actually, can anyone recommend a good washing line? ie. one that won't sag or break when I put it up.

DH has taken MIL off for her hospital appointment. She has carefully unloaded all the stuff in her handbag and put it in a shopping bag, as she doesn't think a man should be seen holding a woman's handbag. (Who knows what might happen to him?!).

The boys and I are getting ready to meet friends for a picnic.

Today's list:

B/Fast done
Dress about to do
S&S ditto
D/W done
W/M
T/D
Put Monday wash away
Make beds
Prepare picnic lunch
Buy suncream
PICNIC
Hotspots
Declutter bedroom
Change ferry booking
Confirm holiday dates and pay deposit
Water seeds
Put washing away
Make shepherd's pie
Dinner
Bedtime routines
Before-bed routine
Bed at decent hour

I slept for nine hours' last night (apologies to all those of you who are sleep deprived - PMPY and MissJ, for instance).

Oops, time's getting on. Must get ready. Enjoy the sunshine everyone.

Lady - we have an ongoing ant crisis in DS2's bedroom, which leads into the garden. We are using an ant-killer - Nippon, I think it's called - which seems to do the trick. If we don't, the ants multiply. Last summer, DS2 made an 'ant city' for them out of Lego, which was sweet at first, but the ants kept inviting their mates over, until the place was crawling. We have taken a zero tolerance attitude ever since.

Hi, everyone

Update so far:

1. start load that it is washing machine, hang it up - done
2. ironing to do earlier load
3. bedding washed and dried - in washing machine
4. wipe down sides - done
5. load washing machine for Wednesday
6. clean bathroom - done
7. use colour corrector on hair so I can dye it a completely different colour later. - might be doing this tomorrow

toffee thanks, but really dont know about flying. I dont feel like Im doing much at all. Im just getting too worn out all the time.

Ellie hope you have had/are having a good time in Filey and it doenst rain

Janey Have a good day at the coast, you may even bump into elliepac and not even realise it

nettie We still have a pile of rubbish outside our house, we have a corner of our enclosed backgarden full of crap things that need taking to the skip. When we first moved in (6 years ago) our gardens were overgrown, full of thorns and needed lots of work. Im glad to say that we have two reasonably OK gardens, but we did get into the habbit of chucking large items by our shed and now we need to get rid of it we do still have an OK back garden that the kids can actually play in and I can actually hang washing out so we are getting somewhere, but no you're not the only one with rubbish outside. Im just not letting it build up any more.

cheerful hope you get well soon :(

Hi to everyone else, hope you are all ok.

Anyway Ive had my little bit of rest and got my breath back, back to it :(

Speak to you all tonight.

Children not playing quite so nicely today, novelty of having each other all day has possibly worn off (they are 8 and 5 Nettie)
Chucked them in the bath with multitude of Playmobil earlier and have now let them watch an episode of Blue Planet as I have a bit of work to do - TV/computer/DS doesn't usually go on until 4.30pm in this house (apart from Sat/Sun mornings when DH and I want a lie-in :))

Should be working not MN-ing so best do quick list:

• Prance around in new Joe Brown's clothes that arrived today - DC were very complimentary - done :o
• Morning routine - mostly done
• Solved one work problem - done (and feeling smug :))
• Work phone-call - complicated one I think
• Bit more work
• Plant herbs we bought 10 days ago!
• Sort out clothes to pack
• Clear kitchen some more
• 15 mins somewhere - maybe our bedroom
• Pizza dough for tonight
• Trip to Hobbycraft :)

Will see how I get on with that lot.
Waves to all :)

Hi all ... another extremely leisurely morning. Not doing much as dd has picked up a bit of a cold.

Thanks for all your sympathetic comments about her TV-watching - I don't feel quite so guilty now! (Whoknows yes, I'm having difficulty enforcing the "ask first" rule too!!)

Willing myself to keep doing chores but motivation slightly lacking - combination of overcast weather and the fact that when I stop and relax nowadays, I feel absolutely wiped out (sign of middle age!).

Janey & Ellie enjoy the coast!

Toffee & LadyinPink enjoy the ant exterminations!

CheerfulYank sorry you are still under the weather

Scatty glad your ds feeling better now

CHB definitely would drool in at your surroundings am certain, but am not on FB - spend too much time on Mnsnet as it is!!

Waves to Nettie and everyone else ...

Better start cleaning out art cupboard (today's goal) or should I say this afternoon's goal as morning has somehow disappeared...

Having an extremely emotional time of it. Exactly one year ago today, my waters broke, and ensued 4 days of hell before DD was born 7 weeks prem. Been dreading this week. Nightmares and flashbacks are worse. Needing hand holding. x