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.

Its much harder getting things done with DS and DH at home today. I'm used to having Monday morning to myself, but with extra bodies in the way everything seems to be taking an awful lot longer than it should. Have given up on standard WHBH and am working through house one room at a time.

DH is on holiday today and tomorrow. We were supposed to be camping, but as my car died on Friday, we're at home instead .

Done
Morning routine
Washing on line
Washing up
Next load washing and on line
Sainsbury's order unpacked
Wash up pet bowls etc
Bin, recycling, food bin in
Clean clothes away
Phone garage
WHBH- bins, recycling, mirrors, glass
DS bedroom - "big" clean - moved bed, vacuumed everywhere, flipped mattress, changed bedding, dusted, decobweb'd etc etc
Bathroom - "semi-big" clean - windowsill, bath, s/s, decobweb'd, changed towels, vacuumed, sorted storage box, shelves etc etc
Mending - new tapes on handtowels so there is no excuse for not hanging them up properly
Lunch
Cup of tea and MN

And how has that taken me most of the day???

To Do
Clean living room
Clean kitchen
Clean bedroom
Washing in machine for tonight
Gardening
Cook tea (reheat hotpot from last night)
Tea
Evening routine
Washing on airer
Quilting block for course

Well, one more day of school to go. I spent this morning going to the opticians and shopping, this afternoon sorting paperwork, the DCs are bringing piles and piles of stuff home every day as the teachers declutter their classrooms.

Cobwebs - that would certainly have taken me most of the day, sever case of CBA here. Sorry to hear you've had to miss camping, hope the car gets sorted soon

PA please don't explode!

Linzer / Toffee - I use a fairly cool setting on the dryer, stuff seems to get less creased that way. Mine has dozens of settings, but is in the garen shed, I can't really see m carting coathangers out there TBH, but I do try and get the stuff out within an hour of it finishing, prevents the worst of the creases. I only iron once a week, so no point leaving it slightly damp.

MC - glad you are feeling a bit better

Ellie - glad you survived the taxiing to Sheffield.

Giving - you OK? Been thinking of you re events in Norway.

Please don't explode PA - it will leave a dreadful mess for Toffee to have to clear up.

cobwebs I find it impossible to get much done with the DC around and used to get very frustrated about it, but I've learned to lower the bar slightly.

WhoKnows If I put our dryer on the lowest setting (I'm not sure if the heat is lower or whether the cycle length is just shorter), the clothes are still damp when I take them out. There must be some way of getting clothes dry but uncreased as everyone else seems to manage it, but I can't work out what I'm doing wrong! (Quick hijack: I've just had another two books and am halfway through the first, so hope to be able to send it on by next week.)

The DDs have just been picked up to go and stay overnight with a friend and DS is now waiting very impatiently for his friend to arrive ("how much shall I count to?").

Linzer - {hijack back - I have still received nothing from the other person, by my reckoning there are two stuck in the system there}

AM going to go and see what this setting is called - back in a minute

Right, mine has two sides of settings, cottons and easy cares, each has a choice of about 4, damp though to extra dry. I use easy care extra dry for clothes it seems quite cool and quite quick, not sure how that works, and cottons extra dry for towels etc. Things shrink less on the easy cares cycle too [found out the hard way emoticon]

WhoKnows Thanks for checking for me - my machine only has iron dry and cupboard dry for easy care (which I use for most creasable clothes, but like I said they come out damp) plus the same two settings and extra dry for cottons (which I use for towels). So the problem is that I'm missing easy care extra dry! (I also have the option of drying for a certain amount of time so perhaps should experiment with that a bit too.)

[To continue the hijack, I think we might be missing three books unless she's sent on TGLAPPPS, OAC or R.]

Yes, I've got 20 and 40 mins too, but I only use them if I am putting in things that are only a bit damp, eg stuff you've had to take off the line because it's raining.

{scratches head as to what those ones are, so far I've only had AA and the one you sent, which I have now passed on}.

Hmm, maybe I'll experiment with easy care cupboard dry plus an extra 10/20/40 minutes.

[TGLAPPPS is my book, which I suppose I may have seen the last of, plus I sent on another two before I sent you the Kate Morton one.]

{I'll PM her again, this isn't on really}.

Sorry, everyone else, just ignore us wittering on.

No panic. Explosion avoided!!

What a nightmare day!! I do all the admin for 150 young people from all across the island going to a 5 day event in August. Every year it is a nightmare to sort out all the consent forms, medical forms, coaches, who is in charge of who, tent allocation etc, etc, etc. It normally takes me and a colleague about 3 full days both of us flat out to get it done. This year we decided we would do it all in one day. TODAY!! Then he got a sick bug and was throwing up all night so that was down to me!! Needless to say it is not all done and I will have to do loads when I get back. - not paid to do this job in school holiday, so a bit about it all, but needs doing, so hey ho!!

On a brighter note we spent the afternoon on the beach and the evening ironing!! Now I am knackered! I have got piles of clothes all across the back lounge floor ready for suitcases tomorrow. We also now have curtains that work in our bedroom for the first time in 11 years!!

WhoKnows it sounds like you are having book swap problems. No fun is it?? Ours ahs been going a few years now and we went through these problems in our first year. Very frustrating!!

Hoover marathon in the morning! Heyyyy What joy!!!

Forgive lack of personals and pathetic wave to you all!

I've given up on the garden today - I'm tired, my temp is going up, but I don't have time to be ill again!!

Done
Morning routine
Washing on line
Washing up
Next load washing and on line
Sainsbury's order unpacked
Wash up pet bowls etc
Bin, recycling, food bin in
Clean clothes away
Phone garage
WHBH- bins, recycling, mirrors, glass
DS bedroom - "big" clean - moved bed, vacuumed everywhere, flipped mattress, changed bedding, dusted, decobweb'd etc etc
Bathroom - "semi-big" clean - windowsill, bath, s/s, decobweb'd, changed towels, vacuumed, sorted storage box, shelves etc etc
Mending - new tapes on handtowels so there is no excuse for not hanging them up properly
Lunch
Cup of tea and MN
Clean living room
Clean kitchen
Clean bedroom
Washing in machine for tonight
Cook tea (reheat hotpot from last night)
Tea
Phone bank and argue about my account
Evening routine
Washing on airer

Now, going to sit down and get a bit more of my quilt done. Gardening will be on the list for tomorrow.

Hello everyone!

I'm very glad you didn't explode PA! Does sound like a nightmare though working curtains are good!

I've been very tired and irritable today so haven't done much any flying. Have decluttered the double buggy, done shopping, been to the library and successfully survived the first day of the summer holidays, which looked unlikely at 9.15 this morning... Have also done the living room mission. Unfortunately, most of the things I removed are now creating a new hotspot in here. Sigh.

Hope you enjoyed your quilting Cobwebs - that really is an impressive list!

On the tumble drier/ironing subject, it's much easier when things can dry on the line. I put shirts and t-shirts straight onto hangers with little clips on the line to stop them blowing away. Most things come out of the drier OK on the cupboard dry setting, but DH generally has non-iron shirts, which helps. I don't do ironing at the moment, but might start if our new kitchen makes the ironing board more accessible. Roll on the end of Sept when it should all get going in earnest.

Waves to all. Good night!

OK today...

Done list

• Post office
• shop for bread
• cooked a fresh tea in our house
• dance competition
• princess and the pea re-enactment and subsequent wedding
• made mirror for DD out of craft stuff
• played with £1 fishing game that bribed bought for DD from poundshop - Giving he a pound and telling her to pick anything she wanted was like giving her the best pressie ever.
• Booked gnomeo and Juliet for tomorrow
• 2 loads of washing
• tidied lounge yet again from DD -one girl whirlwind
• survived!!

I even managed to read 1/2 my book club book whilst DD was practicing her dance moves etc. Just thought i'd better update before bed. Tomorrow is another day, hopefully its a better onefor those whose day today was rubbish.

Woffelling now - bed!!

Hello all.

Right I know it is early but I have just got back and had a quick scroll through. I noticed that the linkies were missing so will shove the missing babysteps in with Tuesday's linkies.

Babystep 24: Swish and swipe
Babystep 25: Developing routines
Today's babystep most of us can ignore this babystep as we don't get the emails

The zone is the Living room so 15 mins decluttering in here or the mission

Tuesday is planning day

Morning all,

Forced myself to get up at 6 am to go for a run before DH left for work. Felt a bit guilty that I couldn't give him a lift to the station (he's flying to Albania later today so had slightly more to take than normal), but DS and his friend were still asleep. Needless to say, they woke up within about 10 minutes of DH leaving - probably my fault though, as I went for a shower and the bathroom is next door to where they were sleeping.

Anyway, they're now watching a DVD but I really must get them to switch it off and have some breakfast. Must also:

empty the dishwasher
have water and vitamins
make the beds

Back later!

SORRY!!

I said I'd do the links and I forgot! You know what's worse, I didn't even notice they weren't there!

Morning all

Today i am escaping the house and taking dd to the large shopping centre (must be mad) to go to cinema. Whilst there dd has requested mcdonalds and i have agreed if she is good as i need to finish getting holiday bits and mums birthday bits.

Also on list

• tidy dds bedroom (didn't get round to it yesterday)
• more washing
• book gym session
• 15 mins in lounge
• 15 mins in spare room
• find crb id required for training day and interview tomorrow
• whats for tea
• email old colleague to see if will be a referee for another volunteering app

ofm hope presentation went ok
giving thanks for links

Waves to everyone else

linzer well done on early run. That is what i would have to do - but i like my bed too much

Morning all! First day of the holidays proper for me (I don't count yesterday as DH was at home nursing a hangover and generally getting in the way ).

So far I have:-
General tidy downstairs
WM on
Hoovered downstairs
Cleaned bathroom
Started sorting DD's clothes/toys that are no longer fit for purpose

List for the rest of the day looks like this:-
Finish/clean DD's room
Attempt to find floor in our room
Wash bedding
half an houri in DS's room

DS's room is such a disgrace, I can't tackle it all at once. We have had a chat and I have told him I am going to spend the week throwing out all things that are broken/have pieces missing/doesn't play with anymore. I have decided to do this in two half hour bursts each day which will hopefully lead to a decluttered room by the end of the week. DD's room is tiny so another hour in there and I will be done.

We go away next Monday for a 10 days so want everything spick and span by then. Today is about trying to restore order so I can get back into my routines asap.

Apologies for no personals. If I stop for too long I might never start again!

Cobwebs - I get so much more done when there aren't other people in the house. They seem to clog up the space somehow. Half an hour ago, I finally sat down to check MN and emails and was interrupted almost straight away by DH ("Just need to borrow the computer to download something - won't be long". 10 minutes later... Grrr). As soon as I had the computer back again, DS2 came in ("Mummy, do we have any spare batteries?" Argh!).

Have now put DH in charge of DC and have shut myself in the sitting room. I need to plan my day, otherwise I won't get the important stuff done.

WhoKnows / Linzer - thanks for the info on tumbledriers. Will have to check my settings.

Linzer - I would seriously consider running to keep fit, but damaged my knee (torn ligament) a couple of years ago and am waiting for an op, so I don't think running would do it any good. I'm very impressed by your motivation. Do you feel fitter since starting?

Makingchanges - that sounds like a good plan. Hope you and DD have a fun day.

PA - am very relieved you haven't exploded (yet...). Working curtains in the bedroom sounds great! (For many years, the pole for our bedroom curtains was held up by a teaspoon which DH implemented as a 'temporary measure' ). I'm not surprised you are stressed by all that admin you had to do - it took six days (two people, three days each) and you tried to do it in one . No wonder you are tearing your hair out. You definitely need a holiday!

BlueEyes - I don't have a washing line . I do drape sheets/clothes over the chairs and table on the terrace when it's hot, though.

GivingUp - thanks for the links at that very early hour. Hope you get some sleep today .

Right, not such a great Flylady start to the day today, but hope to amend this shortly. Today's list:

Breakfast (everyone fed so far, except me)
Get dressed
Swish and swipe
Make beds
Put washing on (sheets first)
Room rescues
Kitchen hotspot
Unload d/w
Reload d/w with b/f stuff
Water next-door's garden and our own
Phone mad, sadist dentist to cancel appointment (as we now have a nice, kind dentist )
Renew tax credits (deadline 31 July!) - please note, everyone, in case you need to renew also
Post aunt's birthday card
Wrap present and write card for baby's b/day party on our return
Ring DS's friend and invite over after our return
Delegate to DH - ready meal for us tonight; return DVD to library
Take DC to playground
Washing - 2nd load
Dry first load and put away
PACK!
Dinner
Before-bed routine
Bed at decent hour

Have just been checking Flylady's website and see that she has joined up with Cozi to create an online journal. Has anyone tried this? I'm tempted. For one thing, DH never looks at our calendar in the kitchen (or listens when I tell him stuff - he is very difficult to impart information to!), but he might actually look at something online. I'm just wary in case it becomes just one more thing to manage instead of something that helps.

Right, I can see that's it's nearly 11am and, thanks to my lovely family, I seem to have done bugger all.

Back later to report on progress!

Good morning, Ellie. It took me so long to write my post that I missed you. My DS2's bedroom is a disgrace too. I tried to tidy it up with him yesterday, but have decided I have to do it on my own because he kept taking stuff out of the black bin liner, claiming it was 'his favourite'.

as usual I've been useless at keeping up over the week end as dh around and family things going on. Been mini flying as still having coil probs meaning I can't do much physically :( My dds bedroom a tip too an she doesn't even sleep in it yet as she's still in with us . we are using it as a clothes sort out room and stuff everywhere. DHs brother and nieces came over at the week end and the younger one asked to look around upstairs (she's 5) and announced that dds bedroom needed tidying . DH was really taken aback as he's not used to childrens honesty

toffee I at the idea of your curtain pole hanging up with the help of a teaspoon

I'm thinking of sewing a very basic cuddly toy for a friend of mines dds 1st birthday with some kath kidston fabric I have - does anyone know any web site with easy free instructions?

so far ta da -

dw emptied
online shopping arrived and put away
taken dd to baby class
washing hung up
had bath
bed made

Tis ok whoknows tbh i wouldnt have bothered posting the other steps if they were wishy washy ones. But the swish and swipe one is a stolwort of the fly system so thought it best. Also as no one else noticed it leaves the question does any of us actually look at the babysteps anyway i know i don't but that might explain the state of the house

8hrs sleep has been had, ds is staying with his dad for a few days. And my to do list is very clear for those days.

to do list
Sort out sleep deficit and sleep pattern
laundry
tidy room
tidy ds's room
tax credits stuff.

So today i am tackling the first thing on the list. . night.

I am being ridiculously productive today, am scaring myself a little bit . I know i can't abandon dc's to their own devices all holidays but i have today and they have been playing very nicely. Havecleared out 8 bags of rubbish/recycling of toys and clothes.

Ta da list continued:-

Washing x 5
On line x lots
Thorough clear out of dd's room
Thorough clear out of our room

Am filthy but feeling quite smug.

Those of you who have swimming lessons, do yours carry on in the summer? Oursdo and i wish they wouldn't because i cba to go, but will be missing the next two weeks so i suppose i had better drag myself up there! Back later.

Ellie - I'm of your productivity! I am having exactly the opposite sort of day. However, DS1 has a friend round and DS2 is watching telly now, so maybe I can get some of my list done.

List so far:

Breakfast done
Get dressed done
Swish and swipe done
Make beds done
Put washing on (sheets first) done
Room rescues
Kitchen hotspot
Unload d/w done
Reload d/w with b/f stuff done
Water next-door's garden and our own
Phone mad, sadist dentist to cancel appointment (as we now have a nice, kind dentist smile)
Renew tax credits (deadline 31 July!) done
Post aunt's birthday card (can't believe I haven't managed this yet - the post box is only just round the corner )
Wrap present and write card for baby's b/day party on our return
Ring DS's friend and invite over after our return he's here now
Delegate to DH - ready meal for us tonight; return DVD to library; visit MIL doing now
Take DC to playground done
Washing - 2nd load done
Dry first load and put away done
PACK!
Dinner
Before-bed routine
Bed at decent hour

The trip to the playground was a bit of a letdown as DS1 got panicky and was in tears because he wanted to go home and DS2 was in tears because he didn't want to go home. Once home, DH offered to take DS2 back to the playground on his own, but DS2 only wanted to go with me (poor DH) and I was busy by then. I almost wish I'd never bothered! It's easier to take DS2 on his own, but then DS1 doesn't get any exercise.

Time for a quick , then off to tick off some more things from my list.