Working our way through the babysteps - the new installment of the back to school flylady thread

[Carrotsandcelery]

Hello again everyone! This is the new thread for us as the old one was getting a bit unmanageable.

at my unintended double entendre (I seem to have a knack for them). Dump & run here is where I run around frantically, and everything just gets dumped wherever it lands - so towels on the landing floor, spare nappies in the middle of the kitchen etc. Afterwards it looks like a hurricane's hit.

I do do the shoving everything in one room and shuttnig the door thing too when visitors come though.

Hope you feel better tomorrow, Carrots.

To do tomorrow:
Mend DS's torn books
Remove sticky label gunk from turkey baster
Freecycle bras & stairgate
Put away dry washing
?Cook apples for crumble

Don't worry angeldog, amused the less mature of us here at the back of the class...

everthing gets dumped on our stairs waiting to go upstairs here, but actually, they are much more passable since flylady. I actually saw DH climbing over stuff to get upstairs one day, ignoring the fact it was all there. Could have happily murdered him. No court would convict me...

Really done now, have to get to sleep before midnight at least once this week. DD sounds like she has gone quiet now, hopefully

Hope you feel better carrots

the computers not well at all so I may have to leave you all for a while until its fixed, im running on 8% of battery could someone pm me the missions in case i manage to find another way of mning whilst comps at the tech docs please

missmakesstuff, I hear you about the stairs - each person has a step full of crap and not one bit of it will travel up the 9 stairs to their bedrooms unless I have a hissy fit.

Today...

I have done 2 loads of washing, hung out one,
Done breakfast/lunches
walked the dog
done the school run

To do:

General kitchen recovery
Upstairs bathroom
My bedroom - anyone ever notice our own room is the last one to get done??

I think I'll go for a walk, I may be some time...... happy flying ladies!

Morning all. I feel much more myself health wise this morning thanks. Ds did climb in but I wore my summer pjs so it wasn't so bad. I hope everyone else got a decent night's sleep.

Today I have:

washed and dressed to shoes
made packed lunches
got dcs to school
put animals back outside
cleaned out indoor cages and put them back in garage (Yuk!)
emptied and reloaded dishwasher
cleaned worktops
hoovered kitchen and hall
room rescued kitchen (still lots of mess though)
put a wash on and hung a load to dry

To do:
Today's babystep a lovely one
Today's mission which is here Dh did this at the weekend but I didn't get yesterday's mission done so I will do that instead.
Declutter kitchen table
Pack for this afternoon's activities
2 x 2min hot spots somewhere
swish and swipe bathrooms
more laundry and some ironing if I feel brave
put something on ebay

coffee break! Another load of laundry done, 2 loads on the line, bathroom done. Important phone call done. Important email sent.

Im now avoiding my bedroom which is a tip of the worst magnitude.

Glad you're feeling a bit better, Carrots. You sound like you've been busy.

Good luck with the bedroom, Hatti.

Tired here after I set my alarm wrong & it went off at 6 instead of 7. [grr] Just had a nap alongside DS which was lovely though.

We failed to get out of the house in time for this morning's activity. Any tips for how to get up & out speedily would be appreciated!

Haven't done anything so far so I urgently need to do:

• finish sorting dishwasher
• clean DS's high chair & wash up breakfast
• put washing machine on

Angel at your stage, if it is not essential that you go, and you are not managing to get ready, then I just wouldn't go. Once you have a school run to do everything is timetabled so I would enjoy the slow pace while you can.

Sadly, once you do need to be out fast I think the only solution is being very organised eg nappy bag packed the night before, clothes laid out the night before, snacks etc as ready as they can be the night before and so on.

It does get easier when they can take a bit of responsibility for themselves.

AngelDog I seem to be doing better at getting up and out now ds is back to school (not much help for you I know). I think if you know you HAVE to be somewhere on time it makes you more focused. Sorry if that's not much help but before ds was going to school I used to find it hard to get up and even dressed by 10.00am.
Today I have done:
breakfast
got showered/dressed
ds to school
have been out most of morning so not much Flying done
I bought a good book in town (haven't had time to read much of it yet though)
It's called "The yummy Mummy's Family Handbook" so I'm hoping it might help me in some way.

I hope you share any gems you find in your new Handbook LittleMiss
Hatti thank you, thank you, thank you - your comment about a phone call reminded me that I had to make one too. I have now done it and driven over and dropped off the related item for repair - Yay! One more job ticked off the list.

Carrots Yes if I find anything useful I will try to share it. I think I might go and have a read now as the strong wind has made me feel quite tired so I haven't got much energy to do anything else.
I hope one day I will feel a lot better and be able to catch up with everything.

Afternoon everyone. Just having a little rest before the list...hot spots out. sink shining.

To do list just seems to get longer :( mow the grass again, remove dying tomatoe plants from conservatory and clean up, but stuff in the loft ready for NCT sale, deal with decaying apples in bag left on doorstep by DPL.

I'd Better get on with it. AngelDog we're only up and out because of the school run, at weekends we struggle to ge DS to grandparents for 11 and always seem to leave the house in a tip even then. Like others have said when you have to be you just seem to get more focused. Try not to worry, give yourself a break.

Carrots and Missmakes Or anyone who was or is a teacher.
Just wondered if anyone can help me with this:
DS is a year 3 and has brought home his first piece of homework,
How long should we spend on it?
Do you think we should do it till it's all done?

We have given up on it now as he has been trying to do it since 5.30pm and it's now 7.00pm ish. ( it was a wordsearch) I think that is maybe even too long but he gets distracted quite easily.
Carrots is your dd of a similar age?
How do you deal with homework?
Do your dc get easily side tracked?

Another question for those of you with dc around 2yrs.
How do you get them to eat enough in a day?
My dd eats tiny amounts of food and it is worrying me that she doesn't seem to eat enough. She looks o.k. though.
I will have to come back later as it's getting near bed times.

littlemiss I teach the big ones, so yr 3 seems tiny, especially for a H/w taking and hour and a half! Ours do 30mins per homework per subject, think its up to three an evening in year 7, so it does sound a long time for your little one.

angeldog the whole holidays I could barely get out the door for 9am, however when at school I need to be in gone by 7:15, I am up at 6ish and I have everything set out the night before - even fill up m coffee machine so all I have to do is blunder past and switch it on. So far so good but it gets worse as the term goes on! I couldn't do it without everything being set out the night before, and Dh helps by getting DD up and changing her, however he starts a new job soon so will be out of the house before us, which will be difficult.

Done my routines today, no declutter or mission today, too tired and have work to do again, whilst being sucked into watching ridiculous US TV. Cupcake wars, fgs!

I'm back, my very lovely friend lent me her netbook, which under no circumstances am I allowed to let ds1 anywhere near it, which really doesn't bother me because he's got to understand that he's got to be careful with them, my laptop is in the technical hospital for three days, my rug came to day, and its been hoovered three times already, ds2 and crisps !

ohhhhh and I de-cluttered under the stairs and de-cluttered the coat rack hot spotted the hall table again, ds1 was off school again, i polished my telly and windows in the lounge :)

I've had a good think today and it's all starting to make sense!
I've realized that the house doesn't need to be perfect and it never will be!
It's a case of preparing for the next task in hand, if you get what I mean.
For example: if it's going to be dinner time you have to make sure the dinning table is ready to use, that you have enough clean plates etc to carry out the task that you are doing and not worry about the living room floor being full of toys.
It's all about preparation and forgetting the things that are not immediately important!

Sounds like a breakthrough, LittleMiss - exactly the sort of thing Flylady would say (only less twee )

Well done, Gossip!

Thanks for the reassurance everyone about getting out in the mornings. I think I need to do a time diary thing to see why it takes me so long. Before I had DS I couldn't get out & ready for work in less than an hour and a half (and that was with things ready the night before). No wonder it takes me 3 hours now.

On the food issue, LittleMiss, I try not to worry too much about what 20 m.o. DS eats. I offer him 3 meals and 2 or 3 snacks a day, and I make sure that at least some of it is something I know he likes. If we have something he's not keen on for dinner one day I'll try to have something he likes better the next day. All the advice I've heard is to let them listen to their body and eat what it tells them to.

I used to teach year 4 & then year 6, and I'd reckon no more than about 20 mins homework a night at that age - max 30 mins. It's 5 years since I left teaching though so standards might have changed!

littlemiss DD1 is almost 3. Luckily we've not had many problems getting her to eat at mealtimes, but some of her friends are grazers & they are just fine, it's just how they like to eat!

Have you written down everything she eats in a day/week? It all adds up & as long as it's all healthy stuff & she's full of energy I wouldn't worry too much.

Thinking about it, DD1 did have a bit of a funny time with food a while back, but I found she was much more likely to eat something she'd been involved in making, so I get her to "help" me by doing things like weighing the pasta or counting the slices of carrot. If we have salad she will dish it out onto our plates (although she always seems to get more olives & avocado than me ). making pizza is always good fun too, although she usually eats so much topping while we're making it that she's not hungry by the time it's cooked!

Morning all, I'm up way too early because dd kept disturbing in her sleep and dh was snoring again.
To do:
Wash up
Clean and set dining table
Breakfast
Get dressed
get dc up and ready
do some washing
That will do for starters.

Sympathies, LittleMiss. DS woke up at 5 but thankfully he was asleep again by 6.

To do:

• Mend another of DS's books
• Put out stairgate for Freecycle collection
• Freecycle bras & sunblind
• Make cookies
• Remove sticky stuff from turkey baster
• E-mail friend about lunch on Sunday
• Cook dinner
• Go to market
• Put away dry washing
• (if time) finish cleaning shower curtain
• (if time) sort out hayfever meds
• (if time) look up local neighbours scheme

I've realised that now I feel more on top of things around the house I can cope with a to do list of more than 3 items. It makes life much easier!

Littlemiss DD is just 2. She eats very well but I think it's the luck of the draw. The only thing I can think of is how much milk is she having at the moment? DD has one sippy cup in the morning - which is just under the recommended amount, and then I make sure she has either cheese or a yoghurt in the day to make it up to the amount

This morning dd has done well, she has eaten breakfast and had a flapjack so far. She loves milk and would drink it all day if I let her.(maybe she is filling herself up with it?) She also loves yoghurt. I might take her to get weighed today.
I have done so far:
cleaned table
done Breakfast
get dressed
make bed
ds to school
put one load in washing machine
changed ds bed
wash up
organised the bedding storage chest
dd wanted to play in her room so she is up there playing.
Angel glad you are feeling more on top of things

I still need to do more washing up and decide whats for dinner.
I think if ds is going to get homework, I need to try and get most of the housework done while he is at school.