If your house is calling May Day, do not fear: May's Fledgling Flyers are here

[LinzerTorte]

Welcome to the May edition of the Fledgling Flyers' thread. Thank you to Nettie for her splendid leadership of last month's thread.

If you're living in CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome), this is the thread for you! We follow the tips on the FlyLady website in an attempt to restore order to our homes, but advise against signing up for the e-mails; all the information you need is on this thread.

Each day, I'll be posting the links that will enable you to do any of the following:

• start or repeat baby steps

• repeat babysteps and do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone

or

• reinforce babysteps and do daily missions if you have finished decluttering.

More information about the babysteps is here.

So please join us - there's always plenty of chat, tea, cake, encouragement and the occasional to help us on our way!

Thinking of you, Cinders. Keep us posted. Hope you get some good news about your mum tomorrow.

Scatty and Linzer - glad I'm not the only rubbish nurse to DH around here! I have been wondering why it makes me so cross and I think it must be, as you say, Linzer, because he gets to lie in bed all day, whereas I rarely get the chance and just have to carry on with life. This evening, he didn't want to have the meal I was cooking us at 6pm, so I said I'd cook him something else later. At 7, as I was taking DS2 upstairs for a bath, he wanted his dinner and looked a bit wounded when I told him he'd have to wait because I couldn't be in two places at once, ie. putting DS to bed and cooking a meal downstairs. Can't say I relished cooking two meals either. I still haven't finished all the washing up - I'm going to break Flylady's rule and leave the rest for tomorrow. OK, rant over.

Have been really rubbish at flying today. And at home educating, come to that. Spent all morning in town doing chores and gettting stocked up on library books. Still haven't put Sunday's washing away. I just feel this sense of extreme boredom wash over me every time I look at it.

Will try to do better tomorrow.

Good morning,

The babystep today is an important one but one that many of us struggle with: set a specific bedtime and stick to it.

Today?s missions are to check your bathroom supplies and a 27 fling boogie in the extra room.

Tuesdays are all about planning and then having fun.

What a worry for you Cinders; it must be a relief that you're nearby, though (I'm assuming your mum is still with you). I hope she's on the mend and out of hospital very soon.

Toffee I try to be patient with DH when he's ill, but just can't help myself stomping around feeling very fed up at how "easy" he has it. I even remember slamming the door very loudly on him once while he was lying in bed.

Really must get back on track today after my virtually flying-free day yesterday. Will be back later when I have some flying to report!

Morning all! I was a very good fly girl last night and then this morning remembered why flylady tells us to do these things. Last night i :-

Cooked dinner
Picked ds up from football
Took ds to beavers and back
Ironed and laid out clothes for today
Tidied all downstairs
Cleaned kitchen
Washed up and dried up
Shined sink
Put out breakfast things

Ds has been told he will be moving up to cubs in a few weeks and he is impossibly excited because that mea s he gets to go camping!
Another busy day today at work, ds having tea at mum's tonight to help her do some planting.

cinders thinking of you, hope you get some good news about your mum.

Better get on! Have a good day everyone!

thank you ..

keep typing and deleting

but thank you for letting me moan

Hope your mum gets better soon Cinders.

Ellie - Up with the lark?? DS was also stupidly excited about camping as a cub when he was that age. Then when he went it rained, rained, rained and then rained some more. When I went to collect him he said in the sort of voice that makes every mum within 2 miles look at you: "Dont you ever make me do something like that ever again!" as if I had pushed him into a torture chamber!! He has been away a few times since, with the school, but every time he is a nightmare before he goes and insists he is going to hate it! I paid for him to go on an adventure holiday to France a few years ago and he borrowed his friends phone twice during the week to phone us up and tell me that I just had to get over to France to bring him home! - I ended up having to contact the friends parents and paying for the international calls from his mobile!

I hope everyone had a better night's sleep! And Toffee, hope DH is better soon and you will be relieved of nursing duty!

Today is a stupid day with absolutely no time for flying:

Work
Visit a friend who has just got out of hospital
Dentist
Quick tea
Take DS to college open evening
Late night swimming
Collapse!!

So, I will be back tomorrow, although tomorrow looks stupidly busy, too!! Maybe Thursday will be better!

Oh, mine loved camping, but I think they would like it even more with ME! Ds1 tells blood curdling stories of being too scared to leave the tent in the night to do a pee Ds2's first Cub camp clashes wth the School Fete, so I'm waiting to see what he decides...

Toffee I feel a bit guilty now...DH looks after me beautifully when I'm ill, and almost always gets dragged out of bed by the children however bad he feels...on the other hand I do think a hangover doesn't count as feeling ill I remember when he broke his foot when ds1 was 5 months though...I think the impossibility of preparing food for two fussy people both of whom couldn't walk a step led me to the land of babyfood jars...
Yesterday, he did NOT have a hangover I hasten to add, as he had lunch with a charming lady bookseller he used to work with, and caught up with FAMILY news as she also has three kids....

I had an excellent night's sleep. They sang only Fleetwood Mac songs in Glee, and I knew the words to all of them Dh said he had never heard of F M! Amazing.

Children back at school, minor hiccups Ds1's trousers had split, DD wanted to take in some watercolours for which she was searching in vain in the lost craft corner, Ds1 lost his bag..but all to school in a good mood, I hope

Toffee I find putting washing away soo boring too. I've tried to vary the arrangements to make myself more productive and put the ironing board in ds1's room where the cupboard is. There are just little piles of clothes everywhere but never a pair of school trousers when you need them

swan I have little piles of clothes all over the living room floor as I write, but am hiding on MN with a coffee and trying not to think about how much I have left to do in my last child-free hour.

List for the rest of the morning (to get me off MN):

Put washing (and iron & ironing board) away
Hang up washing still in dryer
Finish making flashcards
Swish & swipe
2 mins on hot spot (but which one?)
5 min room rescue (ditto)
Drink glass of water
Mission
15 min decluttering in extra room
Recycling

swan They're no doubt called Fleetwood Mäc (pron. Meck) in Germany and Austria - must ask DH (if he has heard of them). It drives me mad when people here call McDonalds "Meckies" (but even their in-house children's magazine is called Happy Mäccy, i.e. Heppy Mecky). However, I am fighting a losing battle when it comes to convincing Austrians (even the DC I teach) that a in English is not pronounced ä/e.

done
washing hung out
cooker cleaned
worktops/table wiped
floor swept
dw loaded
potatoes for fishcakes washed
what's for dinner: fishcakes, vegetables, salad

Todo
The area next to the back door is so dreadful. I need to tackle that next:
recycling
old pots
garden rubbish

then the equally dreadful "craft corner" which used to be the recycling corner, so dh keeps throwing old tins into it

then the ironing

Linzer well Dh said he only ever listened to his younger brother's choice in pop music which was more along the lines of Black Sabbath

okay

she is being sent home

well to our home

truly not sure about her flying home in a few days..

crosses fingers today is a better day...

till later

Good morning everyone :)

Hope your Mum is OK, Cinders

Some success with DD1 this morning - we had a chat last night and agreed that it was OK and normal to feel nervous about school, especially when you'd missed some lessons and were worried about your ignorance being exposed :) BUT that the situation wouldn't get any better if you stayed at home or sat in the sick room all day putting off the inevitable. This morning she didn't make a fuss for the first time in ages. She only ate a little breakfast and remembered to let me know as she was leaving that she was putting a brave face on things (just in case I was stupid enough to think she was totally cured!) and so far so good - no calls from school at least. Thanks again for all the support you gave me with this yesterday.

FLYing is actually going quite well. I am getting a decluttering habit which is really making a difference. There are some short-term hurdles though, like the DDs deciding to sell all their old Build-a-Bear stuff on ebay and leaving it all over the dining room table waiting to be photographed... On the upside it will soon be gone and I won't be falling over ridiculous roller skates for teddies for much longer.

Today I have done a couple of loads of washing and swish & swipe. The kitchen surfaces are clear and that always makes a difference to how I feel about my house. The beds are made and there is no stuff on the landing - the landing is often the dumping ground for washing that is waiting to be put away and anything the DDs can step over instead of putting it away in their rooms!

I have to go for a mammogram this afternoon, which I am dreading. It's my first one and I'm only going because we have a family history of breast cancer, and not because I've found anything that needs investigating, but I'm still really nervous about the process itself, and of course apprehensive about any problems that might be discovered as a result.

Update on list:

Put washing (and iron & ironing board) away done
Hang up washing still in dryer done
Finish making flashcards done
Swish & swipe done
2 mins on hot spot (but which one?) done
5 min room rescue (ditto)
Drink glass of water
Mission
15 min decluttering in extra room
Recycling
Print out handouts for tomorrow
Afternoon routine
DD2 to IT lesson, then pick up DS plus two friends
Evening routine
DC in bed by 7 pm (DH is out this evening, so I'd like to enjoy a couple of hours of peace and quiet rather than putting them to bed too late, rushing round tidying up, having something to eat and then feeling ready for bed myself, as I usually do)
Early night

Your poor mum Cinders, she's really been in the wars recently. It must have been a scare for you all. Hope she's OK now.

Janey Hope the mammogram goes well. I had my first last year and it wasn't as bad as I was expecting - I'd heard it could be quite painful, but they said to tell them to stop if it got too much and it was fairly bearable in the end.

okay

I will stay calm

I will stay calm

off to tuck my mum into bed

bless her

she keeps saying sorry
she even swore....

Janey good luck, you will be fine. It sounds like you said just the right things to dd to encourage her

I have done just what Flylady does NOT advise, which is try and clear out too many drawers at once..
done
craft corner - ruthless cull, but clearly not quite ruthless enough as I still have three different kinds of paint

*todo
stationary (ery?) drawer in kitchen
it seems almost beyond me to have a drawer (for children) which has simple things like rubbers, pencil sharpeners, rulers, pencils, and not get them utterly muddled up with miscellaneous extras like laundry marking pens, staples, fabric glue. I need three stationary drawers, and then another for envelopes, then another for birthday cards etc... In fact, what I need is [whisper] an office

large pile of pending paperwork I don't know whattodowith well I do but it will take all the week

Upstairs is still a hideous muddle

grr

Right, another hour on the drawer(s) and then I am tackling upstairs

Hope you mum continues to improve cinders!

Grunnlovsdagen thus no minimal fly day here!

hope you are all having reasonable days.

Thinking of you Cinders and hope your mum recovers quickly x

Hope your mammogram goes well janey, not had one yet, tbh I wonder how they will even be able to examine my bee stings!

Been out for a walk with my sister again so felt virtuous enough to have a chocolate cake with my coffee at 11.30am (prob undid all my hard work...)
Planted my runner beans and put up a huge net against garden shed (with DH help)
Planted 8 sunflowers
Have 4 sunflowers to take to school so DD can give them to her best friends so potted and bagged them up
Wiped down all kitchen surfaces
Lots of paperwork done in home office
That's all i've done for now............

No afterschool activities today - YAY - so DD and i can come home and chill before homework needs doing.
Cook dinner
Bath DD
Water garden
Write shopping list for tomorrows food shop!

See you all later

hello i'm still here....quick post whilst at work, the most peaceful part of my week. well i am continuing to de clutter and do missions and baby step and weekly house bla bla bla and it's all going very nicely, just no energy left for posting at the end of the day. i had lots of family for lunch on saturday and my mum said ....'your kitchen looks very clean..' in a slightly confused and suspicious manner as if to say ...'what are you up to young lady...' i am 40 by the way but my mum can make me feel 14.
so although quiet i'm cheering you all on, just imagine me diligently scrubbing away in the corner and occasionally waving....

LOL (bobbinogs* my mum has the same effect on me.

Need to go and fetch Ds from judo in a mo.
I have been trying to modify a fantastic if elaborate (and bulky) Roman soldier costume dh and ds made. They did a great job (dh's engineering skills very evident), however ds has confided in me that he doesn't want to wear it on Roman day at school!! I have been trying to downsize it to something he can get his coat over, but without causing too much offence to dh (who really is quite proud of his work). Sometimes life is unduly complicated.

Hope your mum is soon on the mend cinders

Cinders - glad your mum is home. I hope she continues to improve. Good luck with nursing - she sounds like a good patient!

Janey - well done to you and your DD. She was very brave to face her fears today. That's a big step. Hope the mammogram went OK. I have never had one (am 46), but both my mum and grandmother had breast cancer. I was told, by a nurse, that because they had cancer after the menopause, it wasn't genetic. It always troubles me a bit though. Maybe I should ask again....

Bobbinogs - I have had comments like that since starting flylady. It's always slightly insulting - I don't think my kitchen used to be that bad . Although, on reflection....

Linzer - at you slamming the door on DH!

Hello to everyone else. Sorry, can't do any more messages or I'll never get dinner on (which I should be doing now, but needed a MN shot first).

Flying really is taking a back seat at the moment. Having people here all the time (DH and DS) is putting me off! I think I need some time to whizz round the house on my own. I have dealt with the pile of washing....by moving it to the sofa in sitting room. I think I might need to iron some of it. It makes me weary just thinking about it. Oh, and I have done two loads of washing, but I had to really, as DS2 told me casually, as we were leaving the house this morning, that he had wet the bed.

Worked with DS1 on multiplication this morning and managed to get him to practise the 'grid method', which he was struggling with. Then he did some Mathswhizz. We had lunch, then I read to him from a book which we are both really enjoying - 'How to Write Really Badly' by Anne Fine. It's clearly about a dyslexic boy (like my DS), but I'm not sure if DS has rumbled that yet. He's loving it though.

After that, DS read a 'Mr Gum' book, which he thinks is hilarious. It's wonderful how much more reading he does when I won't let him put the computer on (duh!).

OK, really must get on with dinner now: chicken and pea risotto. Have never made it before and my DC hate peas, so might have to think of some other vegetable. Or maybe I will just let them pick the peas out. The kitchen is a mess, but I've run out of energy. I need to blitz it.

Oh, good news - I found my timer, which has been missing for about a month. To be accurate, DS1 found it. He heard it going off this morning and followed the noise to DS2's chest of drawers, where it had been hidden along with all his other 'treasures'. I found my front-door keys in his pocket yesterday as well!

Thanks everyone - mammogram was not as bad as I'd feared and the DDs both managed school without trouble, so all in all not a bad day.

In Flying terms the house is looking good and I can't believe what a difference Flylady has made.

Toffee I think it might be worth asking your GP. I was referred because my Mum has had a cancerous lump removed (she is 67) and both of her sisters had also had lumps removed in their 50s. The GP had a handbook to refer to and we worked our way through all my relatives before she referred me for genetic counselling. I had to fill in some forms about family history and go for a discussion, the recommendation from which was that I should have mammograms from 40 (I am 42), so I went today. It's all rather unpleasant and I was rather guilty of not wanting to think about it, but I am glad I have been. Now to wait for the results!

Toffee I've also heard that you're at higher risk of breast cancer if you have a close female relative who was diagnosed with it at an early age (two of my mum's cousins died from it in their early fifties). I don't know if the risk is any higher in your case but it sounds like it might be worth getting a second opinion, if only to put your mind at rest. I had my first mammogram at 38, but they start much earlier and do them more regularly here (although the doctor said he couldn't tell a great deal from my mammogram as the tissue was still very dense - ideally, I would be twice as old and weigh twice as much ).

bobbinogs I also feel about 16 whenever I'm back at my parents', but unfortunately can no longer escape up to my bedroom for hours on end now that I have DC!

Lady I had the same concern re the mammogram, but it is doable.

God 17. mai CHB!

Off to print out some handouts for tomorrow and will then be back to do the round-up. DH is out this evening and I really want to go to bed early with my book, so must refrain from too much pottering and MNing.

Janey Glad to hear the mammogram went OK; it must be a relief to have it out of the way now. My gynaecologist told me last week that I should make an appointment for a mammogram in October (when I'll be 40), and you've reminded me that I should check whether I've written it in the calendar. Do you know how long it will take for the results to come through?

No afterschool activities today - YAY - so DD and i can come home and chill before homework needs doing.
Cook dinner
Bath DD
Water garden
Write shopping list for tomorrows food shop!
All now done

Just have to put DD to bed with bedtime stories and my evening can start (hot bath with a new book)

See you all tomorrow