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!!

Totally agree Swan - I love the feeling of getting up and getting the DCs ready in the morning knowing that school uniform, bookbag, shoes are all just there waiting. On the other hand, I don't sweat if they spill a drink on the lounge carpet because one more stain isn't going to make a lot of difference

waves at everyone I haven't "spoken to" for the last few days..

Evening Swan.

IME the need to keep the house tidy with sn kids is the fact that it illiminates one of the causes of their stress. less to stress them out less for us to deal with. DS is OCD wrt mess and tidy. I love chaos and mess doesnt bother me at all. It is just easier when it is tidy to sort him out as he is less stressed. iyswim

Fabulous evening but far far too late again.

Morning all,

As DS was back to normal yesterday, we're off to my ILs for the day today. That means 4-5 hours in the car altogether; News Quiz/Now Show podcasts usually help to make the journey go more quickly but I'm saving them up for our journey to Italy next month, as we can never find any decent Italian radio stations to listen to.

Went to pick up my run starter pack and paid my deposit for the chip yesterday evening, so there's no going back now. However, I have discovered (with the aid of a street map and a piece of string) that I've been running quite a bit further than 3.5k on my last few runs so don't feel as nervous now.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Feeling low again this morning, think it is codeine withdrawal symptoms despite being given a lie-in.
Dh is in foul mood, asking inflammatory questions - so what ARE we having for lunch, where's MY raincoat, why is dd wearing THOSE trousers, where is the BIN [I hid it yesterday when friends came round

further windups in form of - where are goalie gloves, ds2 shoes, dd's choir music, your door key
culminating in my attempting to accompany them to music, and admonishing dd for pushing ds2 into the road, whereupon he said, YOU ARE RUINING OUR OUTING...

oh dear, I'm sure he's right
so going to concentrate on tidying up a bit this morning, and possibly taking some more codeine [ahem]

Running is beginning to sound an excellent idea
Linzer enjoy family, dd so needs to see more of her grandma (s)

hello, can I join? I just stumbLed across this thread and the title interested me as I had no idea what it was all about. I have a 4 mo DD and we moved house about 6 months ago and what with various pg ailments I couldn't do bog all much cleaning of our new house and there's so much that needs doing I feel overwhelmed. This week we've had a new carpet in our sitting room and the week before I painted it so we have one clean and tidy room of the house and it's so nice to go into I want them all like that . Every day I say to myself that when dh comes home from work I'll have the WHOLE house gleaming for him and every day I fail - think small steps are the way to go - especially as it's so darn hard to do anything with a baby around

Hi Reastie of course you are very welcome to join us!! Congratulations on your new baby and the house-move. Any sort of housework is boring/hard but even more so with a baby so I'm sure the Flylady system will help (if you can ignore all the cutesy barftastic language on the site)

This fledglings thead - so-called to distinguish us from other Fly threads - (hopefully) cherry picks the best bits of the Flylady system so you don't have to wade through the site everyday and become overwhelmed with Fat Fairy e-mails (see first post for more info) and of course it can offer a bit of chat/encouragement/support reason to procrastinate along the way!

To get started, it might be worth just taking a quick look around the Flylady site here and in particular ...here

Any other questions ... don't hesitate to ask

Other than that, in the words of Flylady herself "you are never behind, just leap in where you are at"

... or some'at like that anyway!!

Hi everyone,

Dare I say it, apart from one 10-min shaky episode, I think I felt a bit better yesterday. Very strange weather here though this morning, sort of cold but airless at same time ...

Dh exhausted and grumpy (compassion fatigue I think is understandably setting in) and dd has a headache and has started a sniffle ... I have been sitting making Orb Factory sticky mosaics with her for half the morning which is pleasantly mindless ... (Someone gave them to us as a present - I am dead set against "painting by numbers" on the grounds that it stifles imagination - but I have to grudgingly admit that they are quite enjoyable. (And the company sent us extra stickies free of charge a while back when we found bits of the kit were missing.)

Spoke to one of my best friends (who has moved away [sniff]) this morning and had a lovely catch up with her - one of those friends where you can take up a conversation after three weeks as if you have spoken just a minute before. Was hoping she could come and see us in the summer but they are strapped for cash this year (renovation project) so we are going to try and see if we can visit them instead (health allowing and all that)

Nowt much else to report except we are all going to try and take it fairly easy today.

Whoknows well done for surviving the fair (and clearing up afterwards!!) Hope you don't feel too cream-crackered this morning

Swan I hope you are OK. [Offers ] Sounds like you are having a v. tough morning. (I'd be tempted to leave your dh to find those things himself ) I can see your dilemma with playground situation, which must be so hard on your ds. Agree, playgrounds CAN be very scary places at the best of times. Hope the school can provide some extra support. Hope you have a lovely barbecue with your db tomorrow - you deserve a bit of r & r!

Didn't see Andy Murray scary face but can't really talk as dh and dd are watching a very scary re-run of Dr Who downstairs atm (weeping angels)!! Sorry your ds was upset though - you'd think tennis would be a pretty safe bet. I'm going to sound like Mary Whitehouse now but I get upset at some of the things shown before 6pm on Dutch/Flemish/French channels that are supposedly suitable for dc. The other day, turned the tv off when some misguided soul had dressed a six or seven year old child up as Katy Perry and had her miming to the lyrics of "Not Fair" (which included references to "lying in the damp patch in bed" and "giving head" - apologies for tmi!! I dunno. I think I'm getting old. Is it only me that is offended by that on children's telly????

Good luck with the bike shed Blue

Have a good trip Linzer. Pish! You'll knock 'em dead on the run!!!!

Humungous waves to everyone else

SC of Tunbridge Wells x

sorry CHB I missed you out Waves!!

Glad that you are feeling a bit better SC.

Welcome Reastie

For those feeling below par today have a and a slice of choc cake!
Hope things improve through the day.

Is there something in the air making DH's grumpy today? DH was in a real grump before work this morning. Sort of understandable as finished work late last night, has a 15 hour day today starting at 6am and had a call at 1am this morning and had to go into work as a security alarm was going off!! Not a happy DH!

A bit of a frenzy here today. I have had a clear out of some of my cupboards. Under the kitchen sink, a store cupboard and my sheets and towels cupboard. All sorted. I even impressed myself!
Washbins still surprisingly manageable.
Ironing basket empty
Chocolate cake made and diminishing
Cookies made and diminished!!

Still to do:
Cook curry
Take DS to a camping trip
Go to a large carnival tonight for the Island Games, which is being held here. All very exciting.

EXAMS ARE OVER!! DD2 had her final A level yesterday. Oh how times have changed...... she celebrated her final day of school, ever , by........wait for it.............build up excitement.............. going to Tesco and MacDonalds!! My final day many moons ago was a pub crawl starting at lunch-time!
She is still adamant that alcohol is from the devil and she will never touch a drop ever again. I cant believe she has learnt her lesson after her first drunken escapade, but long may it last!!

Right got to go. Off to take DS and friends to the campsite.

massive waves to everyone else on here. have a good weekend.

thank you for the warm welcome

I've had my hair cut today - first time in nearly 5 months does that count as something productive?! left dh with dd for the first time ever on his own and she slept most of the time wish she'd do that for me . oh, and I've just made a tomato sauce for dinner to have with pasta and picked some flowers from the garden to make my one nice clean room look ultra spesh when pil come to admire it tomorrow

positive at dd celebrating with tescos and maccy ds - hope she got oodles of cakes after all the exams she had. Has she got planned what she's doing now uni etc?

sc was that tunbridge wells I heard? - I live near sevenoaks - maybe on monday you'll be able to smell the polish from my house as I get stuck in to this cleaning thing. So, which zone are we on this week

yes reastie the Fat Fairy a.k.a Flylady manages to make a fairly simple system sound pretty complicated ...ie once you have fought your way through the Flylady website (or try to) you realise why she needed to invent a home management system !!!! And believe it or not, the website has slightly improved over the years.

OK the low-down on the zones is here! Next week (Mon-Fri) we will be in Zone 5, the living room. Individual missions will appear each day (ideally you should only start doing these once you have decluttered each zone but that's up to you) Btw you don't have to follow the Flylady way of dividing up her house in to zones, other combinations of rooms may suit you better, you can adapt the system to suit yourself.

Haircut definitely counts!! (Pampering is included in the baby-steps!) Great that you got some 'me' time!

Only joking about TW (pretending to be "disgusted of")!! Am Brussels-based but we often "land" near you when we come over on Eurostar!

Good to see you PA You and dh resting on your laurels as usual I see!!! (In case you don't know reastie, PA has five teenagers, 3 jobs, a bike-stroking dh, oversized electrical appliances and a wicked array of cake and slow-cooker recipes!!! She spends all day lying on a chaise-longue peeling grapes ......

Well done on your multi-cupboard clear-out PA I have the same urge every time I open my kitchen cabinets, and then I go and sit down rather quickly Fantastic your brood (and your good self) have survived exam season and hope your dh can catch up on some sleep tonight. Enjoy the Island Games ...will your dh be cycling?

Welcome to the thread, Reastie. The Fat Fairy's system works really well. It's sticking to it that seems to be my problem .

Sorry, no time for personal messages today, but waves to all.

Couldn't wake up this morning (thanks to going to bed at midnight after a lovely night out with some friends, then being dragged out of bed at 5.30am by DS2). Lasted till 11, then had to crawl back to bed again. Have been shopping with DH and boys and have managed to pull myself together enough to sort out healthy dinners tonight and to run a bath for DS2 early enough to get him to bed at a decent hour. My lie in tomorrow - ooh, am looking forward to that!

Hope you all have a pleasant evening and a good and restful Sunday.

Evening!

Crazy day here. Ds not settled down so has been up, down and all over the place in mood and behaviour. thankfully currently calm and headin to bed. Suffered for the late night last night but have been out with a friend running errands most of the day. The next few days are crazy training days again. So expect minimal non existant flying. Flying to hopefully start resume tuesday.

Appologises for the lack of personals. ds' bedtime and i want to go discover this soft warm thing that aparant is a good place to sleep. Seen far too little of it recently. Thank fuck for RL calming down a bit. Its eating up too much of my flying mnning time

Sorry SC guess we are as bad as each other Glad you are feeling a bit better.

You too Toffee! Enjoy your lie-in tomorrow! YOu deserve it!

As it is fairly quiet on here today I'm going to post tomorrow's step early and log-off

Bet I'll come back tomorrow and find a dozen posts ...!!!

Ok fledglings

The baby-step no. 26 for tomorrow, 26th June, is here totally ignorable! But if you are keen to read the content of Flylady e-mails they can be found here

No zones or missions tomorrow because it is the weekend

Sunday is "renew your spirit day" in Fat Fairy land

Forgot you again CHB (actually it was x post) but waves back enthusiastically anyway!!

Enjoy soft, warm thing!!

First Saturday tip run accomplished and the shed is built. Then had a nice evening over pizza and beer with the lovely friends who helped with building/keeping the boys out of the way. :)
Bikes aren't in it yet cos we need a padlock, but hey. Hopefully the utility room will now become useful again.

Welcome Reastie. Waves madly to everyone else and heads to bed. Yawn.

Just enjoying a few minutes of peace and quiet before everyone gets up. Rainy and grey here today so I hope the rain isn't too heavy for the run (just over two hours to go - eek!), but at least it won't be too hot.

Had a good day at my ILs; it wasn't very warm yesterday either so we had to have the BBQ indoors, but the DC insisted on going swimming in their cousins' pool. MIL and SIL were very sceptical (I kept expecting them to say it would make the DC ill, but they were remarkably restrained for once), but I remember going swimming in the freezing cold sea on summer holidays while my parents sat fully clothed on the beach, so I decided the DC would survive the experience too!

Welcome reastie. Must go as I can hear movement, but will try to come back later to catch up with everyone else.

Morning.

Morning CHB!

Popping my head round the corner to announce a major breakthrough - DH and I started decluttering the spare room yesterday! He decided it needed tacking (no kidding - its only been like it for 5 years) as one of our cats has decided she doesn't want to go outside anymore so there have been one or two 'accidents'. She has also taken over the spare room as a den (she's really quiet and has never been one to socialise) and he thought there might be some nasty surprises in there so he made a start and I joined in sorting the paperwork.

Still a work in progress but we can get all the way to the window and sit on the settee that is in there. In fact when I stopped for a breather i sat on it reading a book. It's a lovely quiet spot away from the TV, PC, Nintendo DS etc. I need to hold that thought to motivate me to continue and finish the job.

Cast comes off my hand on Tuesday and I'm at the doctor's on Thursday for the results of my tests so will hope to be flapping a bit in July.

Big waves to everyone!

Have caught up on sleep . I feel so much better. Apart from a bit of time in DS2's bed ("I'm scared, Mummy"), I was able to sleep through till 10am. So I might actually have some energy to get stuff done today.

Hello Droitwich. Congratulations on the major breakthough! It feels wonderful to see the difference decluttering makes, doesn't it? Your new room sounds very inviting (apart from the 'nasty surprises' ). Glad to hear the cast is coming off soon and good luck at the drs.

CHB - did you get a chance to catch up on sleep last night?

Linzer - good luck with your run!

Now I have a bit more energy, I'll try to get the house in order today and then start back on my routines tomorrow. The routines have been forgotten a bit over the last week and it shows .

Gorgeous weather here. Apparently there is going to be a heatwave on Monday. DS2 is going on a school trip to a forest that day and I can't go because I have DS1 to look after at home. Does anyone else get a bit panicky at the thought of their little ones on school trips? I know I didn't worry too much once DS1 grew up a bit, but I can't help being worried about DS2 because he's so little and this will be the first trip he's gone on without me there as a helper. Am trying to block out the worries (Will they look after him properly? Will he get lost? Will he miss me and want to come home? Can't even think about the coach journey...). Maybe I'm not the only one who worries, though, because there are an overwhelming number of parent helpers going...

Anyway, must start doing stuff now. DH has gone off to Homebase as he's in an energetic frame of mind and might even reattach a cupboard door which has been propped up in our dining room for about three months. He looked suspiciously at me as I sat down at the computer. "Don't get into Mumsnet now...!"

Afternoon fledglings (Morning CHB= !)

Bit of a sweltering/humid one here (having been freezing yesterday)

DD has a temperature/cough and is altogether listless so has had to miss both riding and party

Put out some washing and of course my neighbour has seized upon the first glimmer of sunshine to start up the smelly fish barbecue again!! (I closed the windows rather emphatically on that side of the house .... I think I am becoming my mother ) Wouldn't mind but she has space to place it much further away from us, not to mention all the poor apartment-dwellers who live directly above her, and she starts the wretched thing with paper. I now have a headache ....

Blue well done on the shed front! It must be a satisfying feeling to have it finished.

Linzer I'm sure I read somewhere that having cold baths/swimming resulted in some beneficial effect to your immune system ....!! Good luck with your run today - hope it isn't too hot for you. (Oh have just seen it is raining - that's good!)

Yay Mummy snap!! Dh and I have been decluttering home office today (well - seeing as I am supposed to be taking it easy - mine was more of a supervisory role). But thanks to him shifting some boxes and us both picking up a bit of detritus is already looks so much airier and spacious and makes me want to do more!! Like you, had forgotten what a lovely room it is without all the c*apola!! Great that your cast is coming off on Tuesday and good luck with your tests this week.

Toffee great you have had some much needed rest!! I'm a bit better now but I used to worry terribly about dd going on school trips. Couldn't relax at all while she was away. Oft quoted incident of first school trip when I packed her up with space blanket, change of clothes, extra food, extra water, identity wrist band, visibility arm bands, cagoule, hat, Kendal mint cake etc etc etc etc and their trip to the forest was cancelled owing to rain and they ended up going to a museum 10-mins up the road ... Good luck with the chores!!

Right, off to pair socks...