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!

Evening all!

Still managing to keep on top of things here...just!

Today I have:-

Got us all out to work/school/CM's on time with clean kitchen and tidy house
Tidied downstairs
Cooked dinner
Tidied away from dinner
Done packed lunches
Clothes out for morning

And that's me done for housework, have still got to write an assessment for Year 8 on the Industrial Revolution. Halfway there.

Tomorrow's task is to try and get DD to go to pre-school without screaming the place down. After very successful first day, she is having to be manhandled in every morning although does settle after 5 minutes. Tomorrow we are going for bribery with stickers and instand reward.If she walks to the door without crying, she gets a sticker, if she goes off without crying, she gets another sticker...peppa pig stickers nonetheless.

cinders so glad your mum is out of hospital and hopefully on the mend.

lady yay for no after school activities, today is my day off too, swimming tomorrow. .

bobinogs my mum also has the same effect on me, if she calls me by my full first name I am in trouble, first and middle name, super big trouble. .

janey glad the mammogram went ok.

pa i was up before the bloody larks this morning. Grrrr.

for those who have been discussing caring for ill DH's, I would be the kind caring wife if he did not take to the sofa/bed at the slightest sniff/ache/pain. He is a complete wuss where pain is concerned and I am afraid I exude little sympathy unless there is serious illness abound. at linzer, don't think I have ever slammed the door on him but I have done a lot of huffing and puffing to show general displeasure at his 'illness'. Watch this advert . Sums up things in my house.

Have a good evening everyone!

I love that clip, ellie (although to give DH his due, he does have to be really ill to take to his bed - I'm the one who feels most miserable when I have a cold). I also have happy memories of learning about the industrial revolution in iron and textiles (I used to know the dates too) - good luck with the assessment.

So much for my early night; at this rate, I'll still be up when DH gets back. Printing out the handouts took ages and I also had to make one last flashcard when I suddenly realised I didn't have a tortoise. Inspired, I think, by my flashcards, DS has suddenly decided he wants a guinea pig and was most upset when I told him he couldn't have one because of his allergies ("But they don't have dust mites!" he protested).

And finally, as promised, here is today's round-up:

ellie reaped the benefits of being a good fly girl last night and is womanfully keeping on top of the house while being snowed under with work.

Cinders was hoping for a better day and looking after her mum (who sounds like a lovely patient).

PA had a busy day ahead of her, including the dentist (hope it went OK) and late-night swimming (I am impressed by anyone who can muster the energy to do anything after about 6 pm).

swan successfully sent all her DS off to school in a good mood, culled the craft corner (the word craft alone fills me with dread, I must admit ) and was about to tackle the stationery drawer.

Janey had a better day with her DD, has got the decluttering bug and got her first mammogram out of the way.

CHB had a novel excuse to get out of flying ? Norwegian Constitution Day.

Lady has been busy in the garden, enjoyed coffee and chocolate cake (yum), chilled with her DD this afternoon and was about to enjoy a bath and book.

bobbinogs popped in to say hello and report on her flying success.

scatty is attempting to find a diplomatic solution to a Roman costume problem.

Definitely bedtime for me now; the only question is whether I'll be awake enough to read. Night all.

Linzer - up to 2 weeks for the results, apparently... I imagine they process them much more quickly if you've actually gone in with a problem, though. In this instance I don't mind being at the back of the queue!

Celebrated with cake linzer traditions and all that. shame it was raining for the parade though :(

Good morning everyone,

Today?s babystep is to read FlyLady?s Eleven Commandments. Most of them are well worth taking heed of (particularly number four in my case ).

Today?s mission is to wash the bathroom rugs, shower curtains and accessories and to do another 27 fling boogie (of things to give away this time) in the guest/extra room.

Wednesday is Anti-Procrastination Day, which means time to do all those things you?ve been putting off.

Morning

ellie hope dd is ok today. My ds cried everyday going into nursery and for the 1st 2 yrs at school, as he got older he told me that he liked nursery/school, but hated saying goodbye to me . He still needs a kiss and squeeze now before he goes into school (he is nearly 8), dd on the otherhand doesn't give me a backward glance!

Today:
school/work (swimming kit)
sew on rainbows badge
continue roman costume (have now handed over to ds to make weapons)
beavers/rainbows (give friend a lift)
buy food
laundry

BBL

Hi all

Today is 'walk to school' week and so far are on track (though last two days DD has scootered) I actually like to walk to school as DD usually tells me stuff I may not normally get to hear as we have 20mins of chat. DH takes her on Tues/Thurs and normally cycles (on tagalong bike) or takes the car. There were def fewer cars lining the roads around the school today though.

Today's tasks:

Food shop
Bathroom mission (hate this job, the rugs don't spin at all in my machine, so the mats have to drip dry for two days outside; it's overcast today too - typical)
For a treat I want to wax my eyebrows and dye them. Used to do them every couple of months but it's been ages since i last did them (prob Xmas ) though i do pluck inbetween waxing.
Hoover downstairs
Wash kitchen and bathroom floors
Dust master bedroom
Put ironing away

scatty DD has completed two more areas in Rainbows so I had the lovely task of sewing two more badges on last weekend - not a job i like but she is so proud of them. Good luck with yours

ellie my DD used to do the same at nursery, it broke my heart and i would cry in the car. I hope your DD goes in ok and that the stickers work . My DD is 6 now and stickers still work for her so we have charts for tidying etc still.

TTFN

Need to get sorted.

today's list:
ironing (approx 3hrs worth)
washing
Ds' room
lego off floor and away.
clothes away
folding

Sink is going to be a bit optional as i need to shit all of the clothes as there is so much washing in the lounge there is nowhere to sit especially as the floor is taken up with lego.

appologies for not catching up. need to do so at some point. Life is stupidly crazy here. And going to get madder. ds has afterschool activities on 4/5 nights and fri night is transfer night for him going to his dad's when he goes. its going to be none stop madness. How do people with bigger/multiple dc do this?

Bugger, inappropriate typo shift all the clothes!

keels over in a quiet corner for a mo

Donesofar
recycling kerbside
rubbish kerbside
3 kids to school bright and early
piano practice ds2, and violin dd
practised assembly song with ds2
filled Outward Bound health form for ds1
load of washing in
changed another lot of sheets (yest)
finished ironing (yest)
dusted ds1's room (yest)

Yest we had another food ishoo tantrum at supper from dd. We have now compromised. At every meal there will be a big bowl of green salad, and a basket of bread rolls, so that she can have bread and butter and salad and sit politely at table if she doesn't like the main course (in this case Spanish omelette she likes fried potatoes, and she likes scrambled eggs so???) This morning she has been as good as gold again, all neat and tidy for school, a bow in her hair, homework ready...trotting off by herself to school...

The effect of these tantrums is to make me feel completely worn out. Dd on the other hand just shakes them off, apologises and thinks everything is back to normal again...

Todo
shake off gloomy mood!
piano practise Schubert waltz
sweep yard now rubbish almost gone
go to garden centre again

Toffee glad ds1 is enjoying his reading. Ds1 was in a particularily bolshy teenage mood yesterday (although he does love Spanish omelette and gobbled dd's up as well as his). I started lovingly to read him a chapter of Artemis Fowl, and he walked out of the room! Whereas dd is of course chasing me round the house begging me to read her Jacqueline Wilson...

CHB afterschool activities...
I overscheduled before.
Now we have two days with no activities at all. Although that means we do things on Sat. Too many things.
It means that I can go to swimming pool ad hoc, or have playdates over, or just relax argue with the children. With homework to do, those "free" days feel essential. For us the breakthrough has been that ds1 can walk himself to football, and back from school if he does afterschool sport.

I think the problem is that he has taken up a new sport and he loves it, it is actually helping him with other issues so it is making life a bit calmer around here problem is that it means that he will be in matches in the new season, which means he is needed to start training with the team as well as complete the basic competency training which means 2 lots of evening sessions. cant do anything at the weekends because he is only in the area every other weekend. which means swimming lessons have to be fitted into the week. i suggests dropping mondays afterschool school activity and merry hell broke lose. He is determined it doesnt get dropped. Thankfully he has time before training to do homework in the summer and only a small amount in september. his school doesnt believe in homework other then reading and spellings for reception or yr 1. Next year it will be one sheet per week with the weekend to get it completed.

I like my calm afterschools. Ds doesnt do playdates. doesnt get invited to them, not really fussed about people coming over. Just feel like there is never any time to sit down for tea or tea has to be stupidly early to fit in with activities.

Right - ironing mountain for now tamed but more currently being created as currently on the 2nd load of washing already
dw loaded and running

off to put ds' clothes away and tackle his bedroom.

Decluttered cook book shelf. Again.
I must stop cutting out recipes from newspapers, as I never cook from them, and they just add to chaos.

How many cookbooks does a "normal" person who likes cooking, aged 40+ have? Just out of interest?

CHB I know what you mean. Dss are obsessive now about their football training (luckily at your son's age they weren't interested If he is happy, that's good. I think when they are beginning to show reluctance that it is clear one is doing too much..Certainly mine seem to love structure of activities, just not being dragged from pillar to post...if someone else's structure involves them being dragged...

swan I have 9 or 10 recipes books plus a file full of recipes cut out of magazines, which is far more than I need. I'm currently working my way through Good to Know Recipes magazine, and otherwise get most of my recipes off the Internet. DH also has three or four yellowing cook books that look like they're from the 1950s, but he refuses to get rid of them despite the fact that he only needs them for about one recipe a year. One of them begins with the greeting Liebe Hausfrau ("Dear housewife").

CHB I try to keep two afternoons free a week, although it's only one atm as DD1 is doing a computer course at school (just this semester, though). Despite school finishing by 12.45 pm at the latest, we still struggle to fit everything in (homework, piano practice, meeting friends) and I wonder how parents in the UK manage. Then again, I did an extracurricular activity every day (incl. weekends) when I was at primary school (unlike my brother, who did absolutely nothing) and never felt like it was too much - not sure whether my mum felt the same way, though!

Didn't Freud say there are no accidents? Well, after watching DH lie in bed for four days (we are now on Day 5), I injured myself this morning, have been to A&E and now have to spend the rest of the day sitting with my leg elevated and an ice pack on it. Somehow, I managed to bash my knee really hard on the door handle as I was rushing to get the boys out of the door to school (don't ask me how - I still can't work it out). It was very, very painful and I swore - a lot. Then forgot all about it whilst I got DS2 to school and DS1 and I stayed to help with some artwork that is being done in school this week. This is the first time that DS1 has wanted to come in to school for anything, so it was a big deal. Lots of his former classmates came up to him and were obviously pleased to see him, so it was really good for him.

On the way home, I felt an odd lump on my knee and rolled up my trousers to reveal a rather hideous-looking bruise. Hobbled off to A&E because I had a 'haematoma' once before and left it too long and almost needed an operation and didn't want another scare like that. Turns out I've burst a blood vessel.

Am now sitting on my backside with the perfect excuse to be on MN all day if I so wish. DH has got out of bed to make lunch and said he will pick DS2 up from school this afternoon. It's a miracle!

Swan - I probably have about 20 cookbooks, but I only use one or two of them regularly. You have reminded me that I really need a clearout too. With regard to tantrums - I also always feel completely drained after dealing with one. They are really, really stressful. Good idea about the salad and bread. Last night, I ended up cooking DS2 pasta because he refused to eat the chicken risotto. It means that dinner goes on for hours and hours. Oh, and at DS walking out on you reading to him. Bloomin' cheek.

Cinders -

Oh no, poor you Toffee - as if you didn't have enough on your plate as it is. I hope you manage to pick up your DS OK; don't overdo it, now . Permission granted, of course.

The girls have finished their homework (DD1 didn't have any today in fact, which is a very rare event) so I'm off to pick up DS from kindergarten now and then to fetch his friend. DD2 is going to ballet a bit later so I'll probably take them all (and my book ) to the playground next to the school while she's there.

Must admit that, yet again, I haven't done much in the way of flying. I am paying myself for the English lessons (DD2's class found the word "guinea pig" hugely amusing this morning, for some reason) by allowing myself to read. I think I need to start rewarding myself for flying too - or possibly introduce a sticker chart for myself (was it you who had one, swan?).

Thanks for granting permission, O Thread Leader.

Very good idea to pay yourself for teaching by allowing yourself to read. We don't reward ourselves enough, do we?

DS is practising English by writing a letter to a sick relative. I was going to ask him to do it, but when I mentioned that she was ill he was genuinely upset (she is a lovely woman and we usually meet her every summer. She's now in her 90s and still bright and still telling very funny family stories). Without my prompting, he said, "I want to write to her!" and has run upstairs to do it . He hates writing letters, so she must have been a big hit with him!

Have decided it's easier if I go up to school myself, as I've realised that I left my rucksack up there this morning and all the delegating is just going to get too complicated. Will just have to leave a bit earlier to give myself time.

DH made lunch and loaded the dishwasher, which has helped a lot. He really does feel dreadful, poor thing. It's proper flu. We should have had the jabs. We meant to, but forgot. Cross fingers the rest of us don't get it!

laundry and clothes are definetely getting to me. Have to wizz up a dress for saturday thank fuck my mother can dress make so can help.

I like this quiet corner

my Mum is now right down the flipping end of the garden

I need a zip wire to whizz her supplies down on

she is a bit better
think she will be here for a bit longer

and ouch to the bashes knee

till later ..

Oh dear, I just managed to mislay ds1, by arranging to meet him in the Morrison's cafe whilst I took ds2 to his piano; he went to park round corner instead for some reason we went round in circles searching for him...
Anyway he has returned home safe and sound, rather hungry and a bit upset. I suppose he is 11 and by extension old enough to find his way home (he goes to the park by himself all the time), but just makes me realise that
a. all plans need to be in writing
b. I need to write my mobile down in his knapsack so he can ask an adult to ring me if nec
c. I need a back up plan if we don't meet up for some reason, in this case it should have been return home after half an hour (which is what in fact he did do thank goodness)
d. he needs a latchkey
e. boys listen only selectively to everything you say

And the good news he has got a proper singing part in his school musical at end of term. Fingers crossed he can do it without collapsing into giggles.

Toffee oh poor dh, real flu is so horrible, I think you don't remember till you actually have it how awful it is. Ouch to knee, well done for all the help with the art day, and glad that ds1 enjoyed it. I don't know about accidents, just that the one disaster usually begets another...

done
swept yard
friend came over for coffee unexpectedly
piano practice
piano lesson ds2

After all that I didn't manage to get the groceries
and now it is Beavers helping night and overtired Brownie night again...

linzer stickers have lost all power...Ds2 said to me today with a withering look, what's the point of stickers, I want a proper reward.

CHB full of admiration for anyone who can "whizz up a dress". Dd and I made the sewing machine from the loft work for one ecstatic seam (we were both so excited that it still worked after ten years), then a horrible burning smell came out of the foot pedal and the needle started going backwards . Kaput!
There are no accidents, as you said Toffee

Didn't you have a star chart for yourself as well, swan? We lost DD2 in a Bratislava shopping centre once, and learned some lessons from that too (mainly to reinforce the stranger danger message; a man and woman must have spotted her looking lost when we went into a shop without her and took her to security - they obviously meant well but I was quite worried about how easily she went off with them).

Glad to hear your mum's on the mend Cinders; we can postpone this weekend if it's easier (will e-mail you).

CHB Dress-making relatives are a godsend, aren't they? (My MIL used to be a seamstress.)

Toffee How lovely of your DS to write a letter to your relative. Hope you survived the school pick-up and that your DH is better soon.

Must get the DC off to bed now; we've spent most of the afternoon at the playground, which has tired them out.

Have done the following:
Food shop
For a treat I want to wax my eyebrows and dye them. Used to do them every couple of months but it's been ages since i last did them (prob Xmas ) though i do pluck inbetween waxing.
Hoover downstairs
Wash bathroom floor
Dust master bedroom
Put ironing away

Eyebrows look lovely now, went to pick up DD without sunglasses (still overcast so no excuse)
It's raining now so I don't need to water the garden - hooray
Made a HUGE vat of bolognaise sauce so had that for dinner and have bagged up lots of portions to freeze.

Hope your knee sorts itself soon Toffee sounds painful and not what you need especially this week with your DH poorly.

I'm off out tonight to attend a Rainbow meeting so have a good evening and see you all tomorrow

Dress making relatives are a definet godsend. I now have a pattern to work from!

Done:
Sort out pattern alterations for dress pattern
Make new pattern from mock up
Laundry 4 loads
folding - 1 load short of being up to date
ironing - was uptodate 2 loads ago, just small pile to tackle
wash ds' bedding
remake ds' bed
deal with over tired and feeling neglected ds
feed ds
dw loaded and run
buy zip
try on old dress
attempt alteration of dress done and abandoned
tidy up lego
hang up ironed tops ready for going away - half way through
pair the socks in the abandoned to be paired as needed sock basket

To do:
my tea
finish ironing
finish folding
finish sock pairing
start cutting out actual dress.
Early night
ds to bed

hopefully this is achieveable but i have drunk too much coffee, not eaten properally today and feeling like walking death. I would quite like my bed now if ds would be so kind to do is own nit check and put himself to bed. unrealistic and optomistic