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!

DWM ah you poor thing, i did something similar a couple of years ago but fell up the stairs (yes you read it right not down but up ) I hope it heals up quickly, a break is better than a fracture as it's cleaner so a better heal can take place it's a good excuse to get everyone else to wash up and cook/clean/tidy for you.

Thanks SCI it's just a Harvester but we love it there plus they emailed just now with a free ice-ceam voucher so even better

I have now just hoovered and washed my floors so just waiting for them to dry before tackling the ironing - may have to wait until this evening as school run in a bit and Rainbows after that.

BBL

DWM love the June thread title idea

Droit - so sorry you are in plaster! Take good care of yourself. Hope you get some help at home.

DS1 is back from his scary outing to his new secondary school. He's exhausted, but pleased with himself. I have rewarded him with a lovely lunch, ginger beer and his favourite biscuits. And he's now playing his favourite computer game. He said it was me shouting at him that made him go - so you are right about the tough love bit, Swan.

I'm just so relieved he did it. It will mean that his next challenge (a whole 'taster day' there) will be just a little less scary than it would have been.

what a relief Toffee

I have put washing away
talked to a friend on phone for an hour
felt v. tearful about trying to get ds2 referred (all too much at moment)
made some fairy cakes (forgot to put baking pwder in - rats)
had a bath

wiped/swept/washed

Toffee so glad DS1's trial at school went well, such a worry isn't it - i've still got secondary school trials to come!

swan i never put baking powder in my fairy cakes and they come out fine. I use SR flour though so maybe you use something different
How did the referral go? I often get tearful especially when it's relating to DD and many times broken down on the phone to a Dr or specialist. Hope your bath relaxed you a bit and a natter to a friend is always a help i fine

That's brilliant Toffee well done to you both!!

Mummy It's a must!! Will ponder thread titles no longer!! Hope you can get some help around the house ...

Swan sorry about DS2 referral - that sounds tough - I'm sorry I think I missed this further down thread - hands over consoling

Pink yes I use Nigella fairy cake recipe - never fails - with SR flour - it does use baking powder too but she says "I use a processor, but if you want to make fairy cakes by hand, cream the butter & sugar, then add the beaten eggs and flour in alternate tablespoons. Use milk to bind, as usual, and you won't need the extra baking powder." (Presumably it is the beating by hand that makes the difference - not the milk - more air bubbles - but I could be wrong.) Anyway, not sure if any of that info is useful to you Swan but you never know ...I'm sure they'll be delicious anyway ...

I will be embarking on a marathon fairy cake cook-off tomorrow as it happens in preparation for school fete on Sunday ...just lining up my tins, paper cases and sprinkles .. [sigh]

Swan - so sorry you are feeling sad about referral for DS2. I know what you mean about it all feeling too much sometimes. Am still struggling over filling in form for psychiatrist's appointment for DS1 for next month.

Lady - thank you.

Have just woken up from a rather long nap . I always need to sleep when I feel overwhelmed - it's like rebooting! DS1 is still playing on his computer game. DS2 is at a friend's house. The pile of washing is still magically growing.

Going to have a cup of coffee and try and pretend to DH that I have been a whirlwind of activity at home today .

I have just rebooted too toffee .

swan I think 'Trouble at mill' predates Monty Python, My grandparents used to say it alot (can't imagine rhem watching Python).

linzer Like the sheep saying. A friend at work says 'mind your own knitting' (or more usually 'she needs to mind her own knitting'!)

Done:
school (take DDs friend)/work
Lidl
laundry
quick clean up
find library books/swimming kits

pinklady I am at your DDs Lush party. Oh I wish I was a teen again (sigh).

Scatty I'm not even going, DD's best friends mom is picking her up and it's their best friends 7th birthday (they are still 6 for a while yet) so way off teen age. Unfortuntely DD is an eczema sufferer so won't be able to spend the £10 voucher the mom is giving all the girls unless of course they sell facecloths and lipbalms there

SCI I alternate between beating by hand and using my hand mixer depending on how much mixture i am making. If DD is helping it's done by hand, if i'm on my own it's the lazyboy way of the hand mixer Both ways work the same it seems to me in terms of lightness.

Enjoyed helping at DD Rainbow group tonight, they are such a lovely bunch of girls and have just come back from my meal out - had a surf platter yum!

Night night all.

wanders in

peers out at rl

wanders out

Good to see you Cinders. (Eek - have forgotten to e-mail you about Sunday! Will do so as soon as I've finished the round-up.)

Lady Glad you enjoyed your meal out. Hope you got your free ice cream.

Scatty "Mind your own knitting" is definitely a new one on me.

Toffee Sorry to hear about your stressful start to the day, but it sounds like the shouting was just what your DS needed (as guilty as we may feel about it afterwards) ? I'm sure he must have felt so much better about himself after going into school.

SC Hope you survive the fairy cake baking! Sorry, forgot to say earlier that I don't have Firefox on this computer (am having to type this in Word again), just on my netbook ? but I only really use it to watch iPlayer as I can normally type on MN without any problems.

swan Sorry to hear about the stress of the referral. Re the baking powder, DH forgot to put it in when he was making Biskuitroulade (like Swiss roll) recently so made another one. You couldn't tell the difference between them! (And he would definitely have used plain flour, as you can't get SR here.)

DWM Oh no, poor you ? hope your hand is better soon.

CHB Hope you're feeling better soon as well.

Blue I don't think mistakes in e-mails are too much to worry about if it's not your mother tongue (I'm just a perfectionist!) ? far more important not to have any mistakes in your translation!

Talking of translations, I've just finished work for the day and will probably be dreaming about cattle (with a brief appearance from a pig or two) tonight. I'm exhausted so am off to bed now; I really want to be up early for my run tomorrow, but am not sure whether I'll manage it. Hope the rain clears up by tomorrow; I can hear it bouncing off the skylight at the moment.

Night all.

Have done nothing to get ready for tomorrow (unless writing lists counts?). Had a v nice salad and once the boys were in bed though. :)

Lady - one of my friends has v bad eczema and Lush is about the only high street brand she can use, so maybe it'll be OK? Sounds fun though. I can't stand the taste of baking powder, so it's always SR flour for me.

SC - I understand that the thing about spotting your own mistakes is that the human brain is so good at seeing what it expects to see.

Hope your hand heals quickly DWM.

Off for the w/e now. See you on Monday. Waves to all.

Morning all,

Today's babystep is to eat good food, drink your water and get enough sleep.

The DC have already been up for nearly an hour; they all slept in the same room, which is never a good idea. (DD2 had a friend to stay overnight and DS didn't want to feel left out.) DH has gone to the baker's to buy things for breakfast. I think I need to go for a run to wake myself up - although the weather's not great here today; it looks very cool and windy, and possibly rainy, outside.

Hope everyone has a lovely day.

Oh bloody hell! I knew this month was going to be busy but not quite as busy as it actually has been. I am sorry to have been awol for the best part of two weeks but work has been crazy and I haven't had time to breathe! School holidays now so time to take a breather and catch up with my fledgling friends . I will be good this week I promise and I will catch up later on today.

JUst finishing packing as the DC's and I are going to the caravan for a few days with my Dsis and DNiece and will be setting off shortly.

I hope everyone is ok but a quick scan through the last page of the thread speaks of plaster casts dwm and a poorly chb plus worry for swan. I do miss you ladies when I go awol so it is good to be back (at least for a week until we go back!)

I can't promise to be any better in June, 10 days and counting until the first History GCSE and then in will come 300 exam paper to mark to pay for the new work van we have just bought for DH.

Better go and finish packing. Back later!

im on strike

Cinders you can join me in the corner - just need coffee & biscuits from time to time

Why am I still doing nearly everything when I only have 1 arm It's not that they won't they just don't think!

Moan over...

Our bedroom is tidied I think I had a date night with my bedroom, rather than in my bedroom, as Dh was cataloguing his latest collection of pop-up books. We had a nice evening though, feeling so pleased that it is halfterm and bank holiday, and NO clubs today,except for lovely boy-exhausting football. Which they are now at.

Sorted washing pile into three heaps.
Put washing on again
Out for lunch - way hay! For once I'm not going to complain despite having defrosted soup.

Still have to brave the tip though, and wheelchair to bicycle tyre shop.

Ellie caravan sounds soo lovely. I remember all your marking last year.

Referral wasn't a big deal (just to SAFE), just that dealing with professionals drags on so, and if they catch you at when you are down you wonder whether it is worth it at all. School said they will now make an appt for me, as I'm [apparently]not in the system. With all the problems people face I just feel like why should the council spend precious resources advising me how to make my difficult ds2 behave - there must be someone a 1000 times worse off who needs help. And then when problems crop again, you think...yes I do need help.so it is a roller coaster...

todo
tackle desk area - make new one in playroom - try and get Dh on board for this, he has agreed to break up some cardboard lego boxes so that I have room to put my files under the table He has a whole study to himself, but it is so piled high with antiquarian books that I can't use it at all. And no, he doesn't work from home.

Poor Droitwich.
Please look after yourself and Be SELFISH. It will heal quicker if you do.

drotwich I agree with swan. This is the perfect chance to permenantly offload a whole lot of jobs.
swan hope you get the desk problem sorted.
pinklady a lush party for 7 yr olds! Fab!
ellie hope the caravan revives you.

Have spent hours in town. DD wanted dh and ds to watch her swimming lesson (having sat through millions of ds swimming lessons it seemed fair enough), so we all went to town at 8.30.

Done:
DD swimming lesson
library for new books (Anglosaxons now)
paper shop
cafe
H&M (party shoes for dd, sunglasses ds)
photo booth (for bus passes)
DS swimming lesson
market for flowers (dsil birthday).
Home 2pm

Phew!

Im not good at striking

cake anyone...

Linzer oh yes we def had ice cream, it came with a choice of sauces and i went for lemon, it was so yummy!

ellie have fun camping

Blue thanks for the heads up on Lush products, will see what she comes back with.

Weather wet and windy here though i did get two loads dry on the line before it downpoured. Now i have to iron it all while DD at her party. Ate at our friends BBQ and I had 3 desserts (pavlova, cheesecake and profiterole choc gateaux cake)

See you all later

Busy (and very rainy) day here today ? I've done lots of work, DD1 has done lots of knights-and-castles revision and we went out to buy a new computer as this one is getting old and ridiculously slow. Also went for a run in the pouring rain, which was surprisingly refreshing, and had to restore (i.e. wipe everything off) my iPod, which had gone into recovery mode (i.e. stopped working). Putting all my songs and apps back onto it (from two different computers) is proving to be very time-consuming, and I've given up for the day. Back at work again now, but thought I'd take a quick break to do the round-up.

ellie Lovely to see you again. Hope you have a wonderful holiday ? sounds like it will be the calm before the storm.

DWM You'll just have to make them do everything ? you have a very good excuse for getting out of it!

swan It's so nice to have a week off from afternoon activities, isn't it? It's only during school holidays that I realise how much rushing round we normally do.

scatty It sounds like you had a very productive morning; hope you were able to relax a little this afternoon!

Cinders I never say no to cake.

Lady When I read your first sentence, I thought that your ice cream had come with a choice of sausages. (My eyes are getting tired from too much time at the computer!). Those three desserts sound yummy.

Must try to get a bit more work done now before I fall asleep over the computer.

Today's babystep is to do the Weekly Pamper Mission. As I mentioned earlier this week, this week's mission is to wax your eyebrows (I had forgotten it was also one of the babysteps).

Lovely sunshine here today, which makes a nice change from yesterday. Hope everyone has a relaxing and spirit-renewing day.

DD had a fantastic time at her Lush party. She came back seeming so grown up with a big bag of goodies. She bought a strawberry massage slice which when rubbed creates a soft massaging substance and a glittery heart that when rubbed leaves your skin soft with a sheen of glitter all over it. She also had a raison slice soap bar and a purple glitter bath bomb which she proceded to show us the experiment they did - putting it in a bowl of water and watching it fizz but she then tricked us by saying oh and if you add sugar something amazing happens, and then she said flour and porridge oats which we fell for and the bowl quickly became a clogged up mess - we did laugh when she said she had made it up but just wanted to see what happened. Once she was in bed we tipped it down the drain in our road as didn't want to have to clean our sink after swilling it.

Now just making a pasta and rice salad for our BBQ. The day started off sunny and now it's cloudy - boo

Hope you all have a lovely Sunday

Linzer - hope you managed to get your work done last night and didn't have to go to bed too late because of it.

Have had a read-through of the thread to get myself up to date. There are a lot of very, very busy people here! Nice to see you back, Ellie.

Had a nice day yesterday. Took the boys to a half-term book-swap event in the morning. DS1 refused to choose any books which meant DS2 ended up with 14 free books for himself. Spent the afternoon trying to tackle the ironing whilst also making butterfly cakes with DS2, who had made them at school and wanted to recreate them. Then spent some time out in the garden with DS2, sticking copper tape onto all our vegetable pots to prevent slugs and snails. Hope it works because all our lovely veg are being nibbled.

Came down to an unbelievable amount of washing up this morning - and we have run out of dishwasher powder . I have done half and left the rest to DH as it is my first lie in for several weeks today. It is immensely satisfying to hear him working downstairs whilst I stay in bed!

Mum is coming to stay tomorrow, so I will definitely have to do a crisis clean today. Also have to take the boys out somewhere to wear them out.

Hope you all have a lovely day.