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!

Apuski - well, at least the Lego potty is a step on from just wetting the bed, I suppose!

DH and DS1 are safely back from their adventure. It turned out that the lake was private and they couldn't sail the boat, so they went for a walk instead. DS loved the place so much (very peaceful and beautiful countryside) that he declared that he wanted to live there when he grows up. DH said he seemed much calmer there. Clearly, we need to do more of that sort of thing with him.

Am on a roll in the house now: the chicken is cooking in the oven, whilst I hoover and mop upstairs. I think I'm getting somewhere....

Go Toffee! If you have any energy to spare, could you send some over here please... I'm trying to work up the energy to get the DC to bed, and am about to give them their vitamins, inhalers and various other tablets - and then I really will get them to go upstairs. And then I really won't spent the rest of the evening on MN. So much for getting them to bed by 7; 7.15 pm is my new goal.

It's strange how the more you do, the more energetic you feel, isn't it? I couldn't get anything done this morning, but once I'd started, I was off! It helped that DS2 has been brilliant at keeping himself occupied all afternoon (telly helped ).

Have hoovered and mopped. Potatoes are on, just about to make pasta sauce for DS2, then will tackle hall mission and washing mountain.

Might allow myself a small glass of - more than this tends to slow me down. DH has just poured himself one, though, so I don't think I can resist a little.

School run done
Washing in machine done
Washing to hang out in a mo done plus hand washed loads of fiddly bits i've meant to do for ages.
Food shop done
Buy present for DD friend as her party is this wkend done
Plant bedding plants in garden done plus some bulbs i picked up half price at Asda.
Water garden still to do but am hoping the rain will do it for me - none appeared so far
Buy compost to grow sunflowers (really late with this i know) done and planted 12 in the pot my bedding plants came in. Hope they come up - have put them in my airing cupboard for a quick boost.
General tidying of hall did do but messy again after school run.

Glad DS1 came back safe and sound Toffee even though he didn't make it on the lake - you weren't to know that whilst waiting. Hope DS2 is scabbing nicely, though that is when the real itching starts

Also bought some Oven Pride as it was on special at Asda for £2.50 so may crack on and do the wire racks that are calling to me. Does it work on the heavy BBQ ones does anyone know??

DS2 is scabbing very nicely, thanks, Lady, but he doesn't seem itchy at all, thankfully. I'm just worried that some of the scabs are actually spots he scratched or rubbed, but I suppose we won't know that until they've all healed. He had such perfect, unmarked skin - it's a shame to think it might have scars on it. In fact, I'm wondering if I should send him back to school on Friday if all the spots have scabbed by then. It's not infectious once they've scabbed, is it? He could probably go tomorrow, but I think I'll give it one more day to play safe. Especially as he is sooooo lively!

I know nothing about Oven Pride, I'm afraid, Lady. I never go near my oven, except to cook stuff in it. DH often complains about the state of it, but it's a blindspot with me. (And if he's so bothered, why doesn't he clean it? )

Sod the hall mission. Am going into relax mode now. Sorry, illustrious leader, Linzer.

I haven't used it on a BBQ but I'd be surprised if it didn't work.

Today worked out quite well. For all the tedium of home blessing it does make a tremendous difference and makes you feel in control again, which was what I needed, especially as work is spectacularly out of control . It's nice to feel that something is going OK...

Washing and ironing done as well, and kitchen floor mopped (not sure if this is part of home blessing), so everything looks a lot better.

Toffee no it's not infectious once the spots have scabbed but you may get some funny looks if you send him back just 5 days after he first got them! Depends on how he is in himself, he sounds fine from what you say though you don't want him tiring himself out and getting weepy or knocking scabs off doing rough and tumble in the playground - it's always a hard one. See how he is Thursday night is the best thing My DD got hers on a Tuesday and she went back the following Tuesday (so 7 days later) and i was berated for bringing her back 'so early' apparantly by some mums. Sorry that's not been much help, but i think you'll just know as you know him best. Glad he's nearly over it though - another box ticked in the red book eh

Good evening

toffee lol at stuffing the mission. I love the Lego potty, shows great ingenuity
lady oven pride is fab on all racks, BBQ too!
linzer good luck getting dc safely off to bed. My ds had drawn reems of pictures for Tom! One included you. I shall send you one but I'm sure you don't want to be inundated with other dc pictures.
whoknows nice to see you.
bobbinogs he sound brill but very frustrating at times. One of best things for me about all of flying is accepting that waiting resentfully for dh to step up doesn't help me or my home. I now get on with things and ask him to help (narkily). Today I asked him to get the mop bucket out and he mopped the floor of his own accord! progress I'd say! Good luck, stick with it!
janey lol at daddy having his working name too
dwm well done at shoes. I have library book I took out this time last year. They have stopped chasing it's just sitting here waiting to go back but I haven't been near for months! Dc had Christmas and birthday book vouchers so we have had a steady stream of books!
blue apologies sincere apologies for drawing attention to your landing!
pmpy lovely to see you. How's it all going? I remember the search for buggy boards. I take it you e tried eBay?

oops meant to update my list

Dw/wm/td must make sure all clean clothes are dry as unlikely dh will find time think about to move it on-doing
S/s-done
Clean floors-dh did kitchen, dining, conservatory
Tidy up toys-done kind of
Pack dc overnight cases for Friday-nope dh says he can handle it
Change bedding x3- done 2 so far
Work all day-accomplish 6 days work in one day as my last day for two weeks.- spent all morning at the garage, did manage quite a bit not as much as id like.
Try and buy silver nail varnish-done
Pick dc up and spend quality time with them.-done
Bathe dc.-done
Lay out dcs clothes for Thursday, Friday, Sunday. (pack Saturday's clothes)-nope dh says he can manage
Leave list of what's for dinner whilst I'm away. Set timer in dh phone to tell him to take pre cooked meals out of freezer. Instructions on how to cook written on them.-reminded dh to make himslef notes
Decide whether to put bins out a day early as dh will forget and we forgot last week. If we forget again it will be 4 weeks rubbish - reminded dh
Go to bed-not yet, bit early.

Ive got to pop to tesco to get cat food so fil has enough to feed cat whe we go to scotland next week.

Tomorrows list

get up dressed, vote, say goodbye to dc and dh
get into friends car and head for train to blackpool.
My mission over next four days is not to drink too much . The drinking starts on the train.

Ill probably pop in as i am addicted to you girls Take care of youse.

Thanks for the energy, Toffee - much appreciated! Chocolate has helped too. You're so right about the more you do, the more energy you have. My mistake is checking the threads I'm on once I get back from the school run, and 45 minutes later I find I'm still on the computer.

Nettie DS will be so pleased (am intrigued by what your DS thinks I look like!). He decided that he was going to draw a picture of the caries monster for your DS. Although it's more likely that he'll draw one of his current obsessions - Mickey Mouse or his toy beaver Biber.

The DC are finally quiet, but it's now gone 8.30 pm here. I got them upstairs by 7.15 (just), but then they wanted me to read another chapter of the Enchanted Wood (that and the Magic Faraway Tree were yet more MN purchases, inspired by this thread in fact - I think ellie was one of those reading the Faraway Tree to her DC), and then DS got very upset about DH being away, and then they all wanted hot water bottles... I think I need to start the bedtime routine at 5.30 pm in future.

To save you all from SC quoting Camus, I will hand out the and [biscuits]

A better day today. After work DD3 wanted to practice her newly acquired hairdressing skills on me, so I now have newly coloured shiny straightened hair. She hasnt done cutting yet so Yes i was brave and have made an appointment, but its not till a week Friday. But she did all my nails too and I feel very pampered.

I tried to hide from the postman today when he knocked, only to have him knock on the window and wave at me saying "Open the door love, it will take me ages to pop these all through your letter box!" He then seemed to find it very funny that I had a lot of "fan mail" and asked if he had missed me on BGT. I mumbled some very un-witty response and grabbed an enormous pile of post and shut the door pretty darn quick. I will try to be out tomorrow for real. Then it should all be over with. I sometimes wonder where my daughter gets her ditzy-ness from >

Sorry for lack of personals, You lot yack way too much! HAve a good evenng.

Darn it DD2 has just text to say that she isnt finishing work until 11. I was supposed to be getting her at 8, then coming home for a rather large glass Now I cant! Boo Hoo!! (Hopefully she will get another car soon, after writing the first one off when she had had it only 10 days! )

Hi everyone
Today I have:

• kept sink shiny
• hung out washing
• discovered that musty, abandoned tumble drier clothes can be saved from being washed again by a few hours on the washing line (hooray!) (told my DH he'd made it onto MN - unthinkingly used the abbreviation 'DH' - he said 'What does that stand for? Dickhead?' - ha ha!)
• taken DS to swings
• batch cooked and frozen food for DS
• washed up by hand and run dishwasher

Tomorrow's mission: change the sheets.

List for today:

#DH(and the car) had to make a trip to Wisconsin (5 hours each way, poor man!), so had to get DS& myself up, dressed, fed, showered, etc, and out the door in enough time to walk to daycare and still have me be at work at 8. done
#Make beds done
#Swish n swipe
#vacuum upstairs
#tame the laundry monster
#pay the water bill
#clean out the armoire, the Hot Spot in my entryway. It's going to be at least an hour...sigh.
#Email link to property to someone done
#Make dinner
#Clean out the rabbit tub
#Make copies from craft magazine done
#Carry drawers into storage
#PHONE CALLS TO:
-friend that I've been playing phone tag with for two weeks
-sanitation company to order a dumpster...YAY!
-check on signing DS up for Sunday School done
-realtor & inquire about the possibility of renting space for childcare center
-lady who wants my help organizing children's parade and tell her that I'd love to help but she's mad if she thinks I'm doing the entire thing

Work failed to materialise in the end (must confess I breathed a sigh of relief), so I'm going to try and have a relatively early night - famous last words.

Anyway, round-up time:

CheerfulYank made a yummy soup and was worried that her house would be taken over by a laundry monster.

Janey was hoping to turn over a new leaf, aiming to stop eating chocolate the whole time (I have to hide the Nutella jar when I?m feeling stressed), looking for a new hairdresser and successfully completed her home blessing.

Apuski posted her first list and was trying not to spend all day fiddling with the Home Routines app (I spent the best part of a morning playing with it when I first got it).

Scatty was considering BBH, explained the origins of house bleugh and told us she?s a mom. Or possibly mam.

DWM was working at home so had to remind herself to eat lunch, looking forward to chips later and has sorted her shoes ? hooray!

Lady was also enjoying a home office day (apologies if this is an Austrianism ? have just googled it, and it looks like it is) and had plans for the garden.

WhoKnows is another fledgling who has been enlightened by MN about the use of mom.

swan breakfasted on chocolate and found that this thread eliminated her need for coffee. She also seems to have had her breakfast in the sink.

pmpy joined us from the naughty corner (where she really didn?t need to put herself, as she?s just had a baby) with an impressive list that covered both work and flying.

Nettie was bored of waiting at the garage so ran around the thread instead, getting ready for Blackpool and planning to start drinking on the train. ( Linzer starts feeling nostalgic about the days of being drunk tipsy on public transport.)

Blue, like Nettie, was feeling smug about not having a hall. Not counting your landing is definitely cheating.

Toffee has a very creative DS who made a potty out of Lego, glued said DS to the TV so that she could get on with a few things (am sure DH has some superglue somewhere...) and decided to sod the mission. (Actually, I didn?t do it either. )

bobbinogs is trying to get the whole family on board and is another one with a flybaby in the making. The less said about DHs who thnk that looking after children means getting out of housework, the better.

SC was theatening to quote Camus, has been attempting to sort out her technical problems and is making progress on finding a new school for her DD.

PA brought wine, showed off her shiny straight hair and pampered nails (not that I?m ) and failed to hide from the postman.

LiveLong discovered how to solve the problem of musty clothes left in the drier for too long and provided us with an alternative (and often apt) meaning for the abbreviation DH.

Linzer is propping her eyes open with matchsticks and suffering from SC-style text-that-can't-keep-up-with-her typing, so has decided it's time for bed. Night all.

fire up laptop (takes ages) done
empty WM and put on line done and got in again
empty and refill DW done
plan work for the day done
do some work done
one hotspot this morning - shoes! yay!
library at lunchtime (on bike so quicker) done (see below!)
eat lunch (often forget when I'm home alone) done - as a result of the result at the library I treated myself to a quick lunch in town
more work done
one hotspot this afternoon - hall stand done
pick up DS and DNiece from school done
more work no there's always tomorrow
last hotspot - coats done at same time as hall stand
DS to tennis done
chip shop on way home - bit of a Wednesday tradition done
water garden no it might rain
WM on later
DW on later
shine sink later

Nettie when I took my library books back today the mum of one od DS classmates served me and halved the fine! Have a great time, have a to get you started

SC PLEASE can you quote us some Camus? For me? Pretty please with a and ?

Just for you, DWM: "Aujourd'hui, maman est morte." And that, you'll be pleased to hear PA, is all the Camus I can remember.

(I've gone to bed, honestly.)

Thank you Linzer! Camus-fix met. PA you can look again now

Ok, Ok, I give in, Here's one just for me : "Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal." - So much wasted energy, I never will be normal, Normal is boring!!!

But I do like this :- Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend."

Toffee - I would play safe and keep DS off another day, CP can be very serious for pregnant women or anyone with compromised immunity. My two had it a couple of years ago and both have a scar or two, but they are quite sweet and not at all disfiguring, DD has a tiny one just below her eyebrow and DS has one on his temple, you only get to see it when he has just had his hair cut.

PA - you have made me laugh with your tale of hiding from the postman.

LadyinPink - I used Oven Pride on our gas BBQ last year and it did a pretty good job on it, I think I put the rack on the bag, painted the whole inside with the rest of it, scrubbed it with a scrubbing brush a few hours later and hosed it down, avoiding the burners.

Linzer - have you tried the BBH yet? I find it works best when hair is just damp, so give it a rough dry with normal dryer, then pin up the top layers and work round, then let the next layer down and repeat till it is all done. I then usually give it a blast again with the normal dryer on cold. Changing the subject completely - how many books have you had from that bookswap club? I've still only had one, it all seems to have gone quiet.

Nettie - have a great time in Blackpool/Scotland/wherever

I'd better go, still got to make packed lunches and finish the dishes, DH is out tonight. Not much Flying done today .

PA I think your quotes are a bit more meaningful than mine.

WhoKnows Thanks for the BBH tips (no, I still haven't used it yet).
I was meaning to ask you whether you'd had any books after the first one, as I've now sent three on to the person in between us (the last about three weeks ago) and I don't think any of them have been reviewed - I only know that the first one arrived. I've had two books so far and there's a third on its way apparently. Did you see that Toni posted on the thread earlier asking whether we all have something to read? It's strange you haven't had any of the books I sent, as I certainly wasn't late sending them on. I'll send a PM if I don't hear anything in the next few days.

Really, really, really must go to bed now.

What a fantastic roundup Linzer.
I've never felt quite the same about Enid since I saw a drama about her My favourite of all the Blytons was one called Those Dreadful Children, and another called Hollow Tree House.
Most of the best Blytons as far as I can remember involved children wanting a dog, and not being allowed one by their houseproud mamas.

PA I am sending dd on a hairdressing course the minute she grows up. She already loves arranging my hair, and doing my nails.

I laughed till I cried over PA piles of post - I am thinking Harry Potter's letter[s] from Hogwarts(thank goodness it was you! not some other address) and the Lego potty.

Toffee I would love ds1 to learn to sail. Tis of course quite difficult to find a sailing club in the suburbs...I remember finding sailing very difficult on my Irish lough(I was very uncoordinated and mad uncles were always shouting at me to change sides which I found unnerving, not realising that otherwise the boat would topple over [shock) but rowing wonderfully easy and relaxing - being in charge of that boat, feeling strong silent and purposeful...

nettie it is a bit stressful getting organised to go away, I'm so iimpressed by how much you are organising. Usually I give up in tears at the final hurdle and dh has to write a letter to the catsitter He promises to do various things, but luckily by the time we return I've forgotten what they were.

SC ds1 got into trouble in school today with one of the other children who has been ostracising him in the playground. I am feeling very worried because they are both going to same secondary school, and I don't want his problems with this child to follow to new school. It has really helped to talk endlessly with people who are at the secondary, and then you see the bigger picture, I feel that it is worth being shameless in pursuit of information, as it helps so much putting together what is, has and will go on...ifysim

Done
tidied playroom, (decluttered 3 bags of rubbish)
booked a pyschotherapy appt for twins to follow up one I had six months ago Toffee snap - didn't realise you had till I read your post later today - except I now think all five us need a pyschotherapist
made a delicious beef casserole
dealt with teacher fallout from ds1's behaviour (bad - and he's got a detention for making a racist comment
dealt with ds2 and dd both melting down over something else

BUT then had a relatively nice afternoon...No school tomorrow (polling day), so certain relaxing element crept in I managed to switch off telly by 4.30, ds2 did a jigsaw, dd did sewing in her newly tidied room, ds1 calm
lovely music playing
supper was made in advance, and dh liked it
Beavers helping was much less stressful as it is isn't a school night!

Finally had a surreal conversation with ds1 about school. (This playground stuff is an ongoing saga. Which is partly ds1's fault - ds1 now has an obssession about getting the other child to like him and play with him - as he is playground leader, which is not going to happen, especiallly when ds1 makes objectionable comments like he did today)

Me: "If you carry on like this, maybe we should rethink whether you want to go to school anymore. Maybe school is not working out atm. Would you rather learn things at home for rest of summer instead?"

Ds1 "But I like school, and I like the lessons. It's only the people I don't get on with... And it is SATs next week (Ds1 obviously looking forward to tests)

But to all intents and purposes, school is "people" so I really don't know what to do...

Linzer I am watching on of my fave films to cheer myself up called Before Sunset - I think it is set in Vienna.

Tomorrow's list:
washing
put away laundry
hoover
mop
filing
tidy desk
Go to vote!
Go to Aldi for cycling things for DH
Work
15 mins in dining room - see if I can face the "doodle drawers" this time...

Hope your post is back to normal tomorrow, PA!
Toffee - the worst ever comment I've had on the messy house was my mum to my MIL, just after DS2 was born - "I don't know how anybody can live like this!" , esp as MIL has a cleaner! Still, mum approves of Flylady and it makes me realise that I'm not actually as disorganised as all that. :)

Agree about doing stuff to get energy too - I completley lost it with the boys this evening, but have now zumbaed out my frustration and feel quite human again. :)

Night all. Waves microfibre cloths back before retiring.

PA What a gem! I love that. The first I completely agree with, except I'd rather go on being expending energy trying to be normal ifysim,
and the Second is so perfect!

I can remember nothing about Camus except the person who writes the same sentence over and over again, slightly tweaked. They only find it when he's dead I think

No it's Before Sunrise silly me, before sunset is when they are in Paris and a bit contrived..still ,I like that one too...

Blue any kind of dancing works miracles doesn't it.
P.S. I think they only say those horrid things (MIL's and mums I mean) because they feel a displaced guilt for not having helped more, and they are trying to disguise it with wrath.