Fledglings flying though July into the summer.

[ColdHeartedBitch]

Roll up, roll up. tis the month of school fetes, sports days and annual reports. In all this flurry of extra activities and with the summer holidays hurtling towards us at rapid speed, now is the time to tame the chaos before our very special chaos creators are able to help us. Fully intending to beat the Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome so that my personal chaos creator can be occupied by others this holiday. Good luck to all to are also striving to achieve this.

Starting from the 1st of the month we shall be fluttering our way to tamed houses. If you are new to the system it is recommend that you focus on making the babysteps your main focus. The babysteps will build up to form routines to help you to stay on top of the house once you have discovered it. First step is to shine your sink. But not just half heartidly, deep clean til it shines Instructions here

For the more established flyer we then progress onto decluttering. 15mins each day in alloted zone of the week. New zones each week. and current zones and decluttering instructions can be found here Zones will automatically update for July.

As for the advanced flyer, there are missions to do each day in the current zone

We have one rule we are NOT perfectionists anything is better then nothing, real life gets in the way and we have to do other stuff other then cleaning (put it on your list, tick it off and :) ), besides the fat fairy's moto is "You are never behind"

As such take the vomit inducing cuteness of the website with a pinch of salt, and join us for wish lists formally to do lists , ta da lists and home bleurghs.

See you bright and early tomo although hopefully not too bright and early.

Just finishing lunch, and wondering whether it is worth starting the next job or whether to hide out with the computer until my DM comes over to look after DS so we can pick up my car. She's due over on the 2.30 bus.

Went to my Patchwork course today, to find that the last session (mid August) has been postponed to September, as the shop will be shut for a week, and then they "never run courses in the second half of August" - wish they could have told us that before we signed up in May! Annoyingly its now the first day of term.

Done
Morning routine
DS to playgroup
Patchwork course
Buy bread and milk
Dump car at home
Collect DS from playgroup
s/s
Make beds
Lunch

To Do
Collect car
Find out what time Torchwood is on tonight
Clean washing away
Zone cleaning
Pay bill
Plant out lettuce
Find Lightning McQueen
Stick cardboard lorry together
Cook tea
Tea
Evening routine
Washing on airer
Watch Torchwood

Hello Feet

I took the plunge with online shopping a few months ago and can't see me going back. I use Ocado, having tried Sainsburys in the past with limited success, but it does seem to vary depending where you live. I would sign up for a couple and give it a try, allow a nice quiet evening for your first go (with no DCs interrupting you), write out your usual list and see how you get on. It gets easier as you go on because you get to know your way round their websites and they start remembering what you have brought previously etc. Have read some very bad things about Asda online on MN, but other than that they are all probably OK (my Sainsbos bad experience was 2 or 3 years ago now). The main problem for me is being organised enough to get the order in a couple of days before stuff actually starts running out!

I know I'm late checking in but I've been a busy busy bee this morning.

Ta-Da:

• Made all beds and opened curtains
• Put ds2 down for a nap (and with success again
• Washed windows inside and out (out downstairs anyway)
• Vacuumed living room and stairs
• Remembered to eat
• Cooked ds2's lunch and lovingly watched him eat it
• Started my online shop with Sains, will place order tomorrow when it's all finished.
• Call E-on with my meter readings
• Called DVLA for dh about his tax refund for old car
• 3 loads of laundry, including dogs' bed/blanket (that she kindly pooed on overnight!)
• Put clean, folded laundry away.
• scrubbed skirting boards downstairs
• washed front door
• washed back door
• wiped kitchen sides
• swept kitchen
• cleaned bathroom
• successfully freecycled various baby and baking items. Collected today.
• vacuumed living room curtains
• quickly dusted over tv stand and wall fire
• polished all mirrors.

To Do (not necessarily today though):

• put bathroom shelving unit up
• declutter master bedroom (as it didn't get done yesterday)
• cull dc's old/broken toys
• wash all curtains
• pull out all living room furniture and vac under it.
• sweep/vac under fridge/freezer
• sort out/freecycle other old or unused baking supplies
• ??

Much love to all :)

whoknows we do nearly all our shopping online now - we do a mix of sainsburys and ocado. Ocado definately the best but have to balance it with the cheaper sainsburys (who once substituted breakfast cereal with chocolate buttons ). With ocado I do their delivery pass - pay a certain amount every month which covers as many deliveries as I want. Btw I'm usually so disorganised I do the order the day before I want it and just take whatever slot is left . Not much done today other than washing so won't make a list or will just feel a little let down after all yesterdays efforts.

I have delivery pass too, signed up in May when it was on cheap offer, I will feel the pain at renewal time but will be addicted by then, I guess that's the plan! I tend to need/want fairly specific slots, I also tend to make last minute changes rather a lot so usually book about 36 hours ahead. I love the iphone app, just walk round the kitchen logging all the stuff I need. Being able to do the week's shopping in 10 mins rather than an hour is fabulous.

whoknows i am of iphone. got the mac laptop but cant stretch to iphone too :(

Hi everyone

Thank you for fantabulous round-up last night Swan!! Hope your ds1 feels better soon and your spaghetti heats up as the day goes on (as it were!!)

Sympathies over house. Mine is in a similar state and I am not taking Flylady's advice and doing one thing at once (oh no that would be far too easy). Therefore downstairs is mixture of pots of apricot jam and jam making equip (copper pans, boxes of jars, funnels and giant wooden spoons) which normally live in cellar of doom, and parts of oven drying lying about interspersed with dd's hama bead projects and basket of tupperware that I am attempting to sort. Now joined by huge amounts of CDs spread out on tables. I just want to crawl away and hide.

And for steps/links CHB (Msnet "Talk" was down for maintenance when I tried to access twice this morning)

Feetheart as has been said, first online supermarket order always takes ages until you find your way around but don't let that put you off - thereafter, it becomes much easier and quicker. Especially if you use your last shopping list or standard shopping list as a template from which to make next orders. Good luck with it! Other tip is to note very carefully quantities and weights of products or you end up (like me) buying a year's supply of ironing water by mistake!!

Tulipsia¨and Reastie your v. impressive "ta da" lists are putting me to shame!! Well done on getting so much done!!

I'm in the middle of the "grim" bit of getting ready for visitors. (You know, all those jobs that one puts off.) Yesterday it was oven cleaning. Semi-industrial little number that hadn't been done in almost a decade . Actually, that sounds more disgusting than it was. But it took me half a day.

Today (as a bit of light relief) it is sorting out our entire and rather large CD collection which has never been the same since dh decided to chuck all the cases in to boxes in the roof and put the discs in to zipped fabric CD folders. The only problem being that he didn't bother to label any of them (many do not have names of songs or artists) and he didn't bother to consult with me about it either. Neither of us have been able to put our hands on a particular CD ever since [grrrrrrr]. Anyway, decided to reverse process today. Bring down CD racks from roof. Cleaned 'em. Am now in the process of matching up boxes with discs. It took me three hours to do about half. Am now havign a little pause ....then it's on to the more difficult half. Major yawn. Wouldn't mind if it was stuff that I was enthusiastic about but dh's taste in music is highly questionable. All of it makes me feel old frankly ...especially stuff from 80s when we were at uni.

The good bit though is that dd is being a complete star and extremely helpful and cooperative, especially considering we've hardly left the house today (freezing and chucking it down)

Toffee would you and yoru dh consider getting power of attorney for your mother-in-law for the future? Hope you don't mind me sticking my beak in but it is an issue that is very close to home for us atm. I would definitely recommend it. Part of our pil's financial problems are due to fact that fil (who has advanced dementia) is now mentally incompetent in terms of signing bank orders etc. He is based in France and has sum of money in UK bank account (which they desperately need) but cannot gain access to. So my dh now has to go about obtaining court order on their behalf (costly and fairly lengthy process). My ma (who is 83 and still extremely mentally sharp) has already arranged for a power of attorney to be in place so that my sister can gain access to her money should it become necessary. You can put safeguards in place such as a group of trustees to oversee all transactions (which is what my ma has done). Far better to do all this in advance.

Ihate love idea of patchwork course! Shame it's closed over the summer though.

I was about to say "enjoy your day off" PA until I saw yoru list ....

OM sorry your work situation is so tough atm. Hope your dh feels better soon

Waves to Ellie Whoknows and everyone else ...

Ta da list:

S&S in bathroom
DS home ed - Maths
Emails
Visited MIL
To library to choose books/dvds and fax MIL's document
To surgery to change MIL's new doctor (she had been designated to the least popular dr; she is now with the most popular one [hsmile])
Back to MIL for cup of tea and chat
Rush home to drop DS1 off, pick up DS2's scooter, then...
School run
Washing on

Not a lot of Flying on that list, I'm afraid. Still to do:

Washing up (from breakfast time [hblush])
Cook dinner (lamb with chickpeas and couscous - can guarantee DS2 won't touch it, so am making pasta for him)
Wash up again
Put washing in tumbledrier
Fit in some one-to-one time with DS2 - have come home with some of the Summer Reading Challenge stickers and circus stuff for him, so maybe we'll do that
Bathtimes
DC's bedtimes
Before bed routine

Wish list:

Watch DVD with DH whilst DC sleep peacefully upstairs
Read a book
Go to bed at a decent hour

[hhmm]

[hsmile] and waves to you all.

Still - just read your post. Thanks for your advice about the power of attorney and I'm so sorry that it has proved such a difficult issue for you and your DH. In fact, my DH already has power of attorney for his mum. She arranged it a few years ago when her husband died and she wanted my DH's help in managing her financial affairs (she left it all to her husband until then). Today, when I had to fax some of her bank information through to her solicitors, she didn't even know what bank account she had opened up the day before, which I found pretty shocking. She has no interest in money and gets in a terrible muddle over it, although she is - luckily - very conscious of budgeting.

Oh that's fantastic toffee. Hurray for sensible parents who think ahead!!

a successful day of cleaning and library work, and lots of deep cleaning in various places, washing greasy ornaments and suchlike. Feel a lot better for it. Still not sure what's for supper though, and have done no packing...
Leaver's mass tonight!

Still mine have not told us anything about their financial affairs. Mum is 72, and Dad 78, so it is very difficult to persuade them that they might not live forever.

My mother, on the other hand, wouldn't dream of letting me assume power of attorney, even though we are very close. I think she thinks I'll start spending it on or something . Fortunately, she is a young 71 at the moment.

My parents have set up powers of attorney - our solicitor suggested it to dad when she found out he was ill, and mum decided she might as well get her's done as well, so we don't have to think about it later - her's is just lodged with solicitor and I've got the instructions filed for what to do next if its needed.

evening all

well, usual chaos of a day today. Started well with me having constructed suasage casserole(for dinnner) by 7am...however went rapidly downhill from there, about 4 TOTAL meltdowns from DD3 before school due to her not having a clean jumper for school as it appears she has lost 3 AGAIN this week. I know her TOTAL lack of awareness and organisational skills is all down to her Aspergers and dyslexia and not her fault, but it is SO wearing to have to deal with it all the time without feeling angry/frustrated/generally peed off with her!
usual stuff at work, although I have now managed to pin down the colleague coming to join me in Aug and so have been able to book some annual leave for August - hurrrah!
Have a bit of an end of week feel now (thats what happens when not working Fridays LOL) so am having a well earned

not sure how tomorrow will pan out....hopefully will be productive.
Have managed to order shopping delivery for tomorrow as cupboards bare and cant face dd2 round a supermarket LOL

will try and BBl when calmer for individuals....

Haven't done much any flying today, but DS2 has new shoes and a new rain coat and we had a nice afternoon with friends. It's been v grim and rainy here too today so of people with good weather.

Some mega-impressive lists on here, and good advice on powers of attorney and online shopping. What a thread!

Boys getting out of the bath now so waves and runs.

ok...trying to catch up on thread and have to join in iphone envy [green]

blueeyeshadow afternoons with friends always good

swan yay for washing ornaments. I hate packing. Hope leavers mass goes well. Brilliant idea having it in the evening ...wish ours was....

Evening everyone, just putting ds2 down for the night, then will go vac the living room and sweep the kitchen so it's lovely for tomorrow - my sister is coming tomorrow and it just has to be clean and tidy for her critical eyes.

of anyone with a mac I have an iPhone but I really neeeeeed a mac. Because they're white and they're cool and there's no %23 button .

God I so want one

Goodnight all, I'm off for a .

Xx

%23 button

(is it just my phone or is it not showing the 'hash' symbol?)

not good
dh being a pain
have now added argument to list of pointless pains in the bum to deal with.... arrrgggghhhh
maybe more wine

tulipsia you're right - I have no hash key . what on earth am I suppose to do if I need to use it

Evening all

I'm late for my first log on as everytime I have tried to logon for the last two days either my PC or Mumsnet have been playing up.

I can't remember who was asking about online shopping but I do online shopping with Tesco, never had a problem with delivery or substitutions and I like the fact that their online service is linked with their clubcard so you can search by things you have bought previously in store.

Well I had a busy day today -two laps of the local country park with my friend catching up on gossip followed by a little shopping. I then went to the post office to post this weeks sales - I've earnt over £150 this week through decluttering uni books and old mobile phones. Finally a nice read on my new e-reader whilst DD was at ballet.

Tomorrows to do list

• DD to school
• weekend shop
• to school for lunchtime for DDs family funday and picnic
• Book a train for seminar in August
• At least two loads of washing
• Contact previous school re reference
• complete last job app before the summer :(

Right back tomorrow

[hands flagon of the red stuff over to OM]

Swan it is a difficult subject to raise with one's parents isn't it? I never had to (thankfully )with my own parents (same as your father Ihate, mine set it up as soon as he discovered he was ill) Hope the leaver's mass goes well tonight and congrats to getting to the end of your marathon end-of-term events!!!

Blue oh yes!!
We try and cover all major topics on here apart from cleaning of course!!

Tulipsia am with you re: generalised Mac-yearning

Waves to Toffee

Should go to bed but off to watch some calming telly by myself. Feeling pretty chuffed tonight as dd and I finished huge cd overhaul today - all sorted - and wait for it ....shelves labelled [over-controlling wierdo emoticon]. Made me feel better anyway.

Waves to ChB and elliepac as Swan rightly said last night, not in naughty corner but in hard-working, exhausted persons relaxation area!!

G'night all!!