June know it's the fledgling flyers?

[Stillchuckingit]

A warm welcome to the June Fledgling Flyers' thread.

If the state of your house is getting you down, this is the thread where we follow the step-by-step Flylady housekeeping system (in our own, unique, relaxed style ) with lots of chat and support along the way and where lace-up shoes are definitely optional.

A huge thank you to Linzer for keeping us all on track so splendidly during May and thank you to DroitwichMummy for the thread title.

As usual, we will be following the Flylady three-pronged approach:

1. Baby-steps (a daily step to establish routines)
2. Then baby-steps + 15 mins daily decluttering
3. (And once decluttered) babysteps + daily missions

If you are feeling overwhelmed by clutter and mess, you can make a difference, one step at a time.

For more information, have a look here. You don't need to sign up to Flylady e-mails (we advise you not to do so in fact - you will be overwhelmed - all the information you need can be gleaned from this thread).

All long-standing members, intermittent returnees, lurkers and newcomers welcome!!

CHB - :o at 'mouse over gel'

Still here, still stupidly busy, still no Flying.
Father's Day crafts at school going very well though.

There's always next week.................

Evening all,

Thanks for all the bun tips. Unfortunately Dd's hair is bobbed and only just longe enough to get it all through a bunch band at the back of her head, as soon as she moves wispy bits start escaping. I think lots of gel and flat hair clip things in brown are the only answer. She also hates me doing anything to it at all!

Just enjoying then end of the Apprentice, they are a pretty dreadful lot this year.

Well, got an unexpected free afternoon, went to give blood at 1.30 and found the session had been cancelled because the lorry with all the equipment hadn't arrived. So a bit of shopping, a bit of paperwork, a bit of MNing, and not much fLying .

DD had her Promise Ceremony at Rainbows tonight so my parents came over for that and for tea, which was nice.

CHB I have lost my glasses too, I wear contacts mostly so only need them occasionally but they cost £300 and I really don't want to have to replace them. Hope yours turn up. I suspect mine are in one of the inside pockets of our tent which is rolled up in the garden shed.

Night all.

Well, I got the sheets washed and dried as well as the towels, thankfully!
Also managed speed dusting, a bit of rubbish chucking in the boys' room and a cull of DH's sock drawer as well as work stuff. Went to pot a bit when I decided to make them egg fried rice for tea - they like eggs, ham, peas and sweetcorn, just not rice. I keep thinking that sooner or later they'll come round, but I should just give up as chucking it all away makes me so cross! Still, went to Zumba and worked all the frustration off. :)

Sounds like everyone's been busy today. Impressed by all the jamming CHB. I've made mincemeat before but boiling sugar scares me!

All the discussion of buns and ballet makes me glad to have boys though.

hope you enjoyed your free afternoon WhoKnows and that all the lost glasses turn up. Mine mostly live in the car as I mainly use them for driving, but I've lost the case for my prescription sunglasses at the moment.

Tomorrow is more work and house bleugh. Ought to do the filing, but there's too much "do we need this?" paperwork at the moment. :( Also got to go and collect a buggy board that we bought on ebay. :)

Night all.

Visited friend briefly on way back from piano
Homework
Paid in cheque from DH by post
Beavers helping - eventful, a child banged his head but he was fine. They were all relieved to do colouring activities after that
Finished the afternoon with a flourish, put together the handmower panther and mowed vigorously after Beavers..After which lawnmower obligingly fell into two pieces Somewhere in the garden are the two screws that were holding it together
Ah well, at least it is now MOWED. I was beginning to get very with the head gardener preferstositreadingtheGuardian and his fancy electric mower.
rescued socks in dd's room
tidied kitchen/washed up again, and unloaded dw

notdone
clothes not put away at all, I'm going to bed now with a strepsil

SC don't fret, she may take it up again, dd has with a two year gap...so much easier now, no tantrums about it at all. I think my dd just needed a smaller class. Anyway, we will see.

Whoknows how annoying about glasses. Could they be in the car, or spongebag left from holiday? Or one of those little bags into which one puts useful emergency items, and then promptly misplaces?

Blue I feel your pain over combining fav foods. I recently tried combining fried potatoes and egg in the form of Spanish Omelette, never again, hideous shrieks from dd -"it's got something in it, a bit of onion [shock horror]" She does like her rice though Plain with soy sauce, thank very much and cucumber on the side.

Evening all. You've all been mahoosively productive today.

Lots of hair-dressing, jam-making, present-buying, creative cooking, not to mention the endless hanging-out/bringing-in of washing ....

I've just finished watching The Apprentice revisited on the other side (cba to watch the main event) and I Dara O'Brien makes me cackle!

Agree Whoknows not sure I would want to go in to business with any of 'em! Promise ceremony sounds lovely!

CHB have noted bun tips just in case dd returns to ballet (I have cunningly booked her into a dance workshop for one week of the holiday - a taster of all differents types and styles not just ballet - hoping it will do the trick!!) I know this is a stupid question but do you put pony tail through centre of bun ring? And if so, what do you do then? (Please explain in Noddy-level language) And how did the jam-making go?

Hope you both find your glasses!!!

LadyinPink the fact that you can wear a bikini at all is massively impressive in my book!! You've had a stonkingly good Flying day (despite the possing)

Hope you are feeling a bit better tonight Swan

How did the show go Linzer?

How did it go at the park Scatty?

Huge waves to Feetheart and MissJ and everyone else ...

And apologies for lack of witty round-ups atm.

ooooh x-posts Swan and Blue

Swan I can recommend a herd of guinea pigs as effective mower replacement They, er, fertilise it too ...

Blue at least they are eating veg!!

Tomorrow's step, no.16 for Thursday 16thJune, is here but please ignore!! You know this already but do NOT look under the Big Tent. If you are interested in contents of e-mails you could be receiving, then you can read them here or through the reminder link on the Fat Fairy home page.

This week, we are in Zone 3, the bathroom plus one other room.

Your mission for tomorrow will appear here once the Flylady site updates itself. It's about cleaning the bathroom sink, not asphyxiating yourself with Windex + cleaning fingerprints off doorknobs, doors, and light switch plates in dcs room.

For more detail (sneak peak) look here

Thursday is grocery and errand day.

Jam making got put on hold because i had a bit of a disaster with tea and thought i would probably ended up burning the kitchen down or something tonight.

I have been uber productive though. Washing basket is being emptied. Ironing is up to date. the kitchen is being discovered (dishwasher running. Sink load of remaining soaking), socks are paired as much as possible with loads of washing left to do, clothes folded, Lounge has had the toys put away (with except to the lego game that is next on the llist of stuff to do), clearing stuff out of my room furniture wise, tidying up and decluttering the stuff accumulated on the floor, everything for all activities for tomo is sorted.

And this is all brought to you by the powr of insomnia combined with a coffee or two this morning. I suspect that there will be little sleep tonight but if this rate of productivity keeps up then the amount on my to do list will shrink. Finally. Might even try to get around to lining that other curtain. But then again i might just stick to non noisey, none dangerous activities

Night all!

whoops progress was stopped when i was reminded what night it was. Epic match and very content after watching. But didnt quite get as much done as i had hoped. Laundry is still working its way down and i did get a snail mail written. I am soooo going to pay for this later. but

I am in such a good mood that right now i don't care.

Exciting day today. DH off and in his words we are going to "Brainstorm our future!" Big plans, big changes, exciting times and lots to get our heads around. Nothing is going to be happening this week, this month, this year, but we need to start some balls rolling for the future.

When I am excited what do I do????? BAKE!!! (actually I also bake when I am bored, when I am nervous, when I am anxious, when I am happy, when I am sad, when I am................you get the picture!! )

Anyway, todays list looks like this: -day off, by the way!

Make bread
Prepare roast dinner
Bake Kensington buns
Apple crumble
"Brainstorm" with DH
Feet up, read my book.
Clear Kitchen a bit

Looks like it should be a pretty good day today then. As this is a week's holiday I was supposed to be taking off, but has ended up with me working until today, I do not feel the teeniest bit guilty!

Sorry if I have missed something going on up thread, I am off to do some reading now and catch up with all your news........

Thanks for your kind words yesterday, SC and swan. I know that the house could be far worse and that I can get it looking halfway respectable (by shoving things into drawers and cupboards) in a manageable amount of time - although it's only superficially tidy then, of course. However, it's the never-endingness (if that's a word) of the tidying that's getting to me.

Inspired by Lady's approach, I have decided to give up tidying the DDs' room for the time being. DH did a double-take when he saw it yesterday; I told him that I wanted to see what it looked like if I wasn't constantly tidying it and was also hoping he might agree that they have too much stuff. I think he switched off when I started talking about them having too many toys... who was it who said they were starting to sound like a broken record? I certainly feel like I am.

The ballet show went well - I'll see if I can add a photo of DD in her costume (bun not visible, unfortunately!) to my profile temporarily. Thanks for all the bun advice, CHB - I'll have to remember it for next time. Putting a mouse on top would certainly distract from a messy bun. Unfortunately, the day didn't end well as DH got into a temper with the DC for not listening to the story he was reading to them; the DC were very upset, but I managed to calm them down by reading them the first chapter of DD2's new book, "Sophie's Tom". Am still waiting for DH to mention the matter, however - he stormed off but must have calmed down after a while in the garden, and then behaved as if nothing had happened.

Glad the show went well Linzer. We had similar from DH last night, he had a very bad day at work and took it out on DD. Both the DCs have a little desk in their rooms, I was with DS in his and he was with DD in hers, they were both supposed to be doing some handwriting worksheets, I could hear DH yelling at DD for messing about, then he said "that's rubbish DD" and stomped off down the stairs, she was distraught. She calmed down pretty quickly once he'd gone downstairs, but it was very sad.

PA - how exciting about the brainstorming. What's a Kensington Bun?

CHB - what were you watching till 4am? Must have been good!

SC - you sound more cheerful, how are you feeling?

Linzer it is amazing what a bit of extra storage and blackbinlinerintheloft can do. DD's room now looks as messy as ever most of the time, but it only takes her me 5 mins to tidy it. I think she just needed umpteen compartments for different things (2 6 drawer chest of drawers, a cupboard, and shelving. Ds2 has a box room and only a small shoebox of toys, due to his temperament he tends to play very elaborate games with just one spaceship. Ds1 has only a box of Dr Who toys; in his room the problem is just books books books and CDS and general scuzziness. I think problem doesn't end with toys, it just morphs into other junk later on in teens.
I'm trying Dd on Eva Ibbotson now - Journey to River Sea, (who I see lives in Newcastle) have you read The Star of Kazan for your eldest(set in Vienna?)
However, I hasten to add we still have bags and bags of toys (things like puppets, wooden xylophones, non-working Hornby sets, softtoys) that Dh won't let me throw away, just that I have put them in the loft in most cases. I think if you have a 4 year old it may be that you have to live with the toys for a good while longer, and rotate them??

PA I love brainstorming. I have several plans up my sleeve. Dh finds change difficult though. When I talk to older people I am often struck by how they will say, I wished we'd done this or that, but at the time it didn't seem possible, now I realise it was...
Re: baking, You remind me of the bit in "Jennie" by Paul Gallico when she says When in doubt WASH

It is very very squelchy in London. The day started with twins screaming at each other, and Dh swearing; however by 8.15 am(an hour and quarter later) everyone had calmed down, ds2 had done his homework, raincoats and umbrellas and violins had been assembled and it seemed like a lovely peaceful household

Still have sore throat though not from shouting that's something.

todo
piano - master new piece/lesson for me
buy creme fraiche for lasagne assembly
plan craft activity after school
email
post exam good luck card
sprinkle lawn feed on lawn!!!!whilst it is raining

too rainy to do any serious errands.

Whoknows
It is just so frustrating - sometimes they just do the windup Can't Do It, Don't Want to Do It, Not Correcting Mistakes, I'm sure your dh was just fed up with the whole dynamic. I find it very difficult to stay calm with homework. Dh is better, he has worked out some coping strategy which the children respond better to. He is forceful, but reasonable, and he turns it into a sort of game I think. Sometimes he gets furious over spelling mistakes or the way the homework is set, which I don't feel is appropriate.

It was very much enjoyed. Unfortunately though my good mood has been brought crashing back down to earth. As i am no longer bouncing about, i think i might just be able to sleep a little so that i dont feel like walking death tomo/later.

aarrrrrrrgghhhhhhh

flipping school day is over for ds already

but have prepared pizzas

shopped

vacumed

did I say the school day is already over well

...ponders on going to live on the Isle of Wight ...

PA - my DS has been asking for Kensington buns again. As he usually prefers savoury stuff they have obviously made a big impression :)

Whoknows - think Chelsea buns but with chocolate and marshmallows instead of fruit :o

A PA invention I think that has become legendary here and I've only made them twice......so far.

Today:

• Work - bank recs done, need to do statements and lots of bits and pieces but am losing will now
• School for Father's Day craft session - well over 100 children already done, 80+ booked over next 2 days
• Stay at school for 'Fun with Food' session with DD - must remember to take bread we made and cress (and scary food diary that I had to fill in - I can snack for England )
• Quick dinner - take salmon out of freezer
• Swimming for both DC
• Ironing whilst watching Springwatch!

Half an hour till need to leave for school - more work or hoovering? Decisions, decisions.

Very quiet on here today (imagines hatches on Ark battened down against floodwaters)

done
piano lesson/practice
nowt else, except find out that there is an Argos in Eire...which will deliver in Eire! Aha!

think I will now go and snuggle up to the dcs on telly sofa with more lemsip.

Oh yes, booked carpet cleaner for playroom carpet, which is now indescribable due to yesterday's choc krispies on top of last two years of grime.
rescued hall table

Many thanks for bun-ring instructions CHB - well done on the uber-productivity front - and great to see you bouncing around (even if it is in the wee small hours!)!!

Yay PA I love the insouciance of your throwaway line "prepare roast dinner, could be for 7, could be for 15"!! Talk about one of life's copers!!! Moooccchho respect!! Happy baking and plan-making!!!

Dh and I are always making plans - unfortunately they always seem to involve pots of cash we don't have

However, Swan those are very wise words about looking back in retrospect and wishing ... where there's a will there's a way and all that ....oh and thanks for reminder about feeding the lawn ..

Linzer and Whoknows - good luck with the dh-soothing!!

[When it comes to hwk, and in fact almost everything else now I think about it, dh is much more patient and calm than me . It drives me mad when I almost tell dd an answer (in another form) but she doesn't listen or focus. Arrrggghhh!!!]

Linzer glad the ballet went well

Whoknows ahhh!!! The mystery of Kensington buns solved!! (With my baking talents, I think I can only aspire to making Peckham fancies )

Cinders well at least if the day is going fast, it will soon be time for bed ...

Humungous waves to Feetheart and everyone else ...

Apologies for my absence day and for yet another "about me/my health" message (groan). Had a rather "interesting" night last night. Heart rate (despite pills) went pecccuuullliaar (much worse) at 3am, couldn't sleep, sweating, tightness around chest etc. To cut a very long story short, I have spent half the day at the cardiologist's (a day early) am now on different medication, and I currently have electrodes on my chest which will be monitoring every movement me old strawberry makes between now and Sunday lunch time. Then back to docs to take more tests Monday. This isn't as scary as it sounds because cardiologist did nearly two hour exam (she had super dooper equip in her office) and said said my heart etc was in "really good condition" it's just that it is going too fast and with a bit of a wierd rhythmn...and they don't know why.

Anyway, feeling a lot better now but a tiny bit worried about tonight as felt fine-ish yesterday during the day too!! But hopefully these new pills will do the trick for now until they find route cause.

Total digression: can't stop thinking about Kensington Buns and Peckham fancies now!

What aspects of your personality/place/location and cake/pastry/biscuit can you match up to make your distinct/individual/perfect baked item?

Of course, mine can only be ... Belgian waffle!!!!

oh dear ... that should have read ... root cause ...