October's Fledgling Fliers: Seasons of Mists and Mellow Flyfulness

[elliepac]

This is where from the 1st of the month, we attempt to declutter and follow the 30-step wisdom of Flylady (minus cutesy language and a surfeit of e-mails) with lots of chat and support and mutual motivation along the way. (More info available here )

Humungous thanks to our previous thread leader Blue for navigating us all through the August school holidays...and for doing it so consistently and well!!

As usual we will be following a three-pronged approach - and don't worry - we are all at different stages. Some of us (SC stares at feet) -are even embarrassingly stuck at decluttering stage after two years

• repeat or start baby steps (again!)

• repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone

or

• reinforce babysteps and do daily missions if you have finished decluttering.

Hi all,
Biblio I'm glad you are happy with the rain, you should move to Scotland, we get loads! Good progress: making space for the playmat. That should save leaving the baby in a cardboard box to play. Hope your chest clears up now things are cooling down.

Lot of people sounding a bit ill, Ouch and Costoon, hope you both feel a bit more human tomorrow.

Ouch I admire you for planning a huge list, but please don't overdo it and end up feeling headachy. I'm coming round there a cold compress and a mustard bath of the aches.

Ellie cool, a jammie day, feels so wrong it must be right!

Whoknows hope the school prep is going OK. I haven't started yet, but it will be minimal, sniffing things to see if they will do another day, that sort of thing. .

Toffee that sounds like a nightmare night, and the washing! Hope the rest of the day went well.

Linzer that sounds like a gorgeous day, conkers and the park. Lovely!

I've been at work so not doing much flying, and it only stopped raining at around 4pm. Have done a quick bathroom tidy and a sitting room rescue.
DP has not done anything in the kitchen all day and is now planning to make a cake, so I strategically bought pizza and salad on the way home, in a bid to keep the plate/pans/bowls to a minimum. Not too much to do when I get home on Monday, because I'm not doing it tonight! Well maybe a little bit...
Have to get the uniform ironed, clothes out, sandwiches made and fruit packed, and a water bottle filled for DS and fill his school bag with all the folders and flim flam the school sends home. And a little pedal and a bit of x-factor or a film.
There!

List for monday:

early training
bank
pester dentist
Finish project urgently and get in post.
make appointment to see doc.
research sport injury physio people
wash ds' bedding
try not to kill ds between now and the morning. I fear I am likely to fail this one on current reappearance rate and how cross and shouty I am alread. I have had to delegate dealing with him.

Wasn't going to post tonight, just popping in for a browse due to feeling like rubbish! Bed is calling, BUT I had to add my name to the Be-ro fan club!! Books and books on my shelf, but I stick to Be-ro, Good Housekeeping and Delia for 90% of my recipes.

A bit of a crisis with elderly parents here at the mo, dad has turned into the most cantankerous old git man that I always said he would. After spending hours cleaning up puke & shit a mess on Thursday because my mum had a bug, washing bedsheets ad infinitum, scrubbing carpets and cooking meals for my dad, he then moans at my brother that no-one has helped him!!! Fortunately 3x sisters and brother know what he is like, so we all communicate well now and have a general grumble between us.

Off to bed very soon. Washing machine is set to do school clothes overnight - nothing like leaving it to the last minute, is there? So I will be up early to dry and iron.

Ouch absolute nightmare the whole getting up thing! My Ds is an inveterate night and drives me insane. If you can delegate, definitely go for it.

DS2 still ill . After perking up for a few hours this morning, he suddenly fell back into bed again. Took his temperature and it was 101. Remedy: cool fan, Calpol and sleep. Then he woke up and was sick again. Poor boy. He's being so brave about it. He's sleeping again now, but I expect it's going to be another busy night, so I'm doing the before-bed routine and some ironing whilst I can.

DS1 has lost his dance kit - I'm amazed he has lasted three weeks without losing anything else, actually. Luckily, I have managed to find a spare pair of shorts and a white tee shirt for his lesson tomorrow.

Right, got to start ironing .

Ugh, I'm exhasuted. We've got through the "living in a building site" phase, and now it's just like we've moved house - everything in boxes, don't know where to put anything... Spent most of the evening cleaning up brick and sawdust...

Hope everyone else is OK. Will try to catch up properly tomorrow.

Morning all. I have nothing useful to say this morning except urgh .

List today looks like this:-
Shine sink
Washing on line
Change our bed
Washing away
Work
Lunch with BF
Tesco
Dinner (stirfry)
Cubs run
General tidy

Have a good day everyone. biblio hope you are feeling better this morning. toffee hope your night wasn't puke filled, and ouch RING THE DENTIST.

Better go and get dressed and get ds out of his pit.

Blardy washing machine didnt do overnight ........ok, I forgot to shut the door, but hey!??? Now DCs all moaning, I am stressed already. Why, oh why did I leave it til last minute......ok, that was because I have felt so awful this weekend. Hopefully a lesson learnt.

Today will have ot get better.

Toffee - hope you survived the night.
Back later........

Oh, PA, what an awful start to your day. Hope it does get better.

I survived the night and managed to get DS1 up and out of the house on time, as well as putting the rubbish out and the washing on, but have now crawled back to bed leaving DH to keep DS2 company. I am feeling sick - argh! I really hope it's tiredness and not the same bug DS has. He wasn't sick in the night, but is terribly weak and just lying in bed looking heartbreakingly waif-like.

Have left my control journal out on the kitchen worktop in the hope that DH will be able to do some of it. Today is his first day of self-employment, but it looks as if it will be a day of childcare for him, as he is looking after DS2 and has to take DS1 to his CAMHS appointment (for CBT) later.

Urgh - definitely feeling sick. Going to sleep now and hope it goes away. Hate feeling/being sick..

Oh dear pa. We have all had those moments and there is nothing worse than starting the day off in a blind panic/rage. At least things can only get better .

toffee glad your night was not puke filled but not glad that you are starting to feel sick. I can take any illness apart from puke. I am terrible on school trips because I refuse to deal with puke.

Was a good girl before I left for work this morning. I did:-

Washing on line
Dinner out of the freezer
Beds made
S/S bathroom
Breakfast pots washed
General tidy

Better get on.

I'm the same ellie - strangely enough, I can just about deal with the DC being sick but absolutely no one else. I was slightly consoled by the discovery a few years ago that I'm not alone and that I'm an emetophobe. Sadly, I do seem to be alone in my dead bird phobia - no word for that. Which reminds me: I sent DD2 to her room a few days ago to calm down as she was having an awful tantrum, but just had to giggle when I heard the threats she was shouting out to me from inside her room ("I'm going to jump out of the window!" - we have a child lock on it, so I wasn't worried - and "I'm going to bring you a dead bird!").

Oh no Toffee, hope the sleep helps and that you don't come down with the bug after all.

PA Sorry you had a stressful start to the day.

You will laugh ellie, but apart from one hour of trying to be a good FLYgirl (the washing seems to be never-ending atm), I've since spent the entire morning lesson planning - and am still on my first lesson. I only teach five lessons a week. But I keep telling myself that it will get easier and less time-consuming as I get more experienced.

Oh Linzer you remind me of my first school placement. Could spent most of a morning planning one lesson and it will still be in the most basic form when finished. You do get quicker. Only takes three hours instead of four now

Toffee sorry to here you are not feeling well. Hope it is just the tired. At least DH is around to help so you have been able to go back to bed. My DH would move the control journal to underneath something or claim he'd not seen it, hope your DH takes the hint.

PA Oh no with the washing (I do that regularly, put washing on and then walk away and the door isn't quite shut so it never switches on) I hope your day gets better.

Well I have had very little sleep last night due to DH and his current insomnia. I think its stress related and therefore trying to be understanding but he had the telly blaring in the bedroom at 2am this morning and kept throwing himself around to try and get to sleep - My patience therefore was wearing thin. In the end we all got to sleep but then slept through the alarm clock. Luckly with a surprise bit of teamwork from DH this morning we all got to school / work in time.

My list today

• DD to school
• Weekly shop - Done Have also bought ingredients for yeast free bread in my bread machine. I'm really hoping its going to be nice.
• Pet shop for Cats special cat food Done
• Dry washing that washing first thing this morning
• Tidy lounge that hurricane DD messed up last night
• Sort swimming things and take dd to swimming
• Find letter re permission slip and money request for trip and sort
• Tidy off shelf in bedroom thats a bit of a dumping ground and driving me mad
• S&S bathroom and en-suite that didn't get chance to do yesterday
• Tidy off back side in kitchen that is a dumping ground / kitchen hotspot
• Mission (Need to look it up as haven't even checked this out yet)
• Online banking

Thats it best get on. Hope you all have a lovely day and ouch DENTIST

Brill round up Ellie as ever, and thanks for the welcome back from SC, DWM Vodka (who are you? I wonder LOL) and everyone else

Been a bit lazy of late so am going to FLY a bit more so house is shiny again, but I never have time to keep up on here

Love SC Tada/ Todo list. So much more positive.

BTW, Linzer you def arent alone in the bird thing, but I did actually laugh out loud and DDs threat!

OK, home blessing - done. Phew. Took 2 hours though because I kept stopping to MN, make cups of tea etc and the floors had got quite untidy. The lounge looks worse than when I started because I dumped everything I picked up on the sofa and coffee table .

Sorry to hear about your sleepless night, MC. DH has a bad cold at the moment and so is breathing annoyingly loudly when he's asleep, but I just turn my iPod up and it more or less drowns out the noise (albeit with probable damage to my eardrum!).
Glad to hear that the lesson planning does get easier (and that it's not just me). It took me the best part of three hours to plan and prepare one half-hour lesson this morning, although I probably have enough material for an hour now. At least I managed to steal photocopy quite a few lesson plans from an English teacher friend on Friday, so that should save me a bit of time.

A slightly belated welcome back, DTG. Actually, I do remember your bird phobia from an earlier thread - and another friend of mine shares my phobia. I just need to campaign for it to be officially recognised with a proper word for it.

Off to pick up DD2 (couldn't persuade DD1 to do afterschool yoga, so she's already home) and then do the piano run. And then I have another lesson to prepare for tomorrow...

Hellooo everyone

Sorry to hear so many of you are ill/have had bad nights/or have family members who are ailing

Hope you/they all recover quickly.

Toffee hope you haven't succumbed to your ds's bug.

Ellie/Linzer I'm also dreadful with vomit. Can cope with my own but hopeless with anyone else!

I have definitely NOT been a good girl today and I'm so cross with myself. No excuse just sheer complacency after a productive weekend. So, other than do 'paid' work (which, confusingly, I don't actually get paid for!), I haven't done home blessing or washing (and it's the last day of good weather here apparently) or exercising or French study. House still in rather a tip from the weekend. Kitchen spick and span and supper ready in it's component parts but that's about it.

Why do I keep making the same mistake? Arrrgggh?

Now the opportunity to do all the above is gone because I'm just about to go and collect dd (late - she's been on a school trip)

Bum. But no one to blame but myself.

DTG can't claim credit for "ta da"/"to do" (agree - it's much more encouraging than previous version) Afraid I can't remember whose inspired idea it was - but it wasn't mine! We have also added the verb " to Nesbit" to the Fledgling vocab ie to procrastinate happily with the aid of bourbon biscuits

Got to go! BBL

so, today's mission is one that is really important chez mad, currently.

so, i'm going to get to grips with the damn hot spots in the hall, entrance and dining room. i am, i am. and i've got an unused file shelf (like an 'in-box/ pending system lol) downstairs that is going to be pressed into use to kill them stone dead forever. (well, y'know....) if it fits on the shelf, anyway.

so, today:

wm
dw
clean kitchen sides (sink is clean, but weirdly, sides seem really greasy, which is frankly disgusting... sunday roast yesterday i think!)
organise brownie craft for tonight
brownies
sew badges onto sashes (cubs and brownies - gah.)
e-mail ds1's teacher
school forms
get paint samples (oooo, man coming to do quote on weds!)

i should add that my Very Interesting post from yesterday has vanished. it involved an incontinent dog on steroids and an early morning for dd1 who woke to find the dog peeing on the bedroom carpet, and a major league flying session with the bissell. so last night we barricaded the bedroom door so the dog peed on the kitchen floor instead. so dh got a bit of early flying in this morning at 6am with the mop. he left me a note propped on the kettle thankfully, this is the last day of the steroid treatment!

I think Ta-Da is from the Flylady book? Can't quite remember. Yawns. Back later.

Evening.

list update:
early training FAIL
bank done
pester dentist appointment thurs
Finish project urgently and get in post. about to start work on it now!*
make appointment to see doc. got one for tomo
research sport injury physio people
wash ds' bedding in machine with uniform
try not to kill ds between now and the morning. delegating put stop to the up down. Ds is stupidly clingy atm not really sure why though
Meeting with teacher done and very productive
Ds reading done
5min room rescue on my room. done

Not been a good day. Will be lurking a bit but need to get this project done and tbh only want to go to bed right now.

Tuesday's list:
Up, ds up and to school - remember PE kit!
last few bits on project
wash project
wrap up and package for posting
post project
Lunch out with friend
Doc appointment
Ds training
Ds showered and in bed
Pass out for early night.

Big list of stuff to do has been put on hold. Frustratingly on hold :( But just not going to happen.

Hope those who were ill are feeling better and the fledglings have had productive days!

pointless giggle for the scientists amongst us, others might appreciate too

I think it was Blue who came up with the idea of ta-da lists, or at least introduced the idea to the thread. I have a memory like a sieve wrt certain things but at other times am a mine of useless useful information.

Have just spent 20 minutes photocopying 20-plus pages of DD1's maths book to help her revise for her maths test next week and now it's back to lesson planning, although I should probably have something to eat at some point. Minimal FLYing going on yet again.

Oh well, I ended up playing "Arabian princess and servant" with dd for 40 mins after school which involved sitting on a Laura Ashley throw magic carpet and pretending to be attacked by a tow rope giant cobra.

But she's was in a v. difficult mood after school trip - bouncing off walls - genuinely didn't seem at all tired (no maths today!) but could have been over-tired I suppose. Not sure.

She was also still mourning death of school fish "he was 47 you know"

And a bit deflated because (school trip was to Tutankhamun exhibit) she didn't actually get to see inside a pyramid or talk to a sphinx (imagination rarely lives up to reality!)

Dh has (heroically) volunteered for bedtime duty ....

I'm going to try and stir my stumps and tidy up the pitiful state of the sitting room and playroom

Hope those of you who are ailing feel better soon (including Madwoman's incontinent hound!

PA hope your day got better!

Mahoosive waves to all!

Evening all!

Phew, what a hectic day. My CM took ill half way through the morning which meant a mad flurry of phone calls, a run to pick DD up from school and deposit at BIL's and the another flurry of phone calls to cover CM's absence tomorrow. In amongst all this, I've done the cub run, cooked dinner and laid out clothes for the morning. And I still have schoolwork to do .

But what have you all been up to? It's round-up time. Short and sweet tonight. A little like speed dating...not that I've ever done that...or been on a date for a looong time.

sc has been wrestling with giant cobras, stirring stumps and mourning 47 year old goldfish, I do worry about her sometimes .

linzer discussed an allergy to puke, planned lots of lessons (my task in a mo!) and was pointing us in the right direction of blue's ta da genius moment .

ouch made her dentist's appointment but was also having a frustrating day. She pointed us in the direction of a pointless giggle. Which was not a pointless giggle but a giggle full of points.

madwoman was pleased to see us in the hallway and was planning on being a good fly girl in this zone. She is, she is. She also regaled us with tales of dogs on steroids and pee.

dtg was fessing up to being lazy and dreaming of getting back on the fly wagon . She was also trying to figure out who ouch was. There are some big clues .

makingchanges was bemoaning an insomniac DH and his thrashing but he pulled it back round with teamwork chez change this morning.

toffee had a puke free night but was starting to feel puky herself. I hope if she is reading this she is not pukiing and just feeling a bit bleurgh. Hope she feels better soon.

pa had a nightmare start to the morning with a washing machine fail and the consequent problems. We hope her day got better and console her with the fact we have all done it. And as for not getting the uniform done the night before, I have been known to sling uniform on a quick wash at 6.30, drier at 7.15 and on child at 7.54 before leaving house at 7.55.

And that's it. I had a bugger of a day and am glad it's over.

Back in a mo with steps!

*

The babystep today is to write routines down. The beginnings of our control journal!

The mission for today will appear here.

Have a good day everyone!

List update

• DD to school - done
• Weekly shop - Done Have also bought ingredients for yeast free bread in my bread machine. I'm really hoping its going to be nice.
• Pet shop for Cats special cat food Done
• Dry washing that washing first thing this morning whoops better do that next
• Tidy lounge that hurricane DD messed up last night haha set timer and get dd flying too
• Sort swimming things and take dd to swimming cancelled phone call from baths to tell me instructor couldn't make it
• Find letter re permission slip and money request for trip and sort done
• Tidy off shelf in bedroom thats a bit of a dumping ground and driving me mad nope
• S&S bathroom and en-suite that didn't get chance to do yesterdaydone
• Tidy off back side in kitchen that is a dumping ground / kitchen hotspot done
• Mission (Need to look it up as haven't even checked this out yet) done
• Online banking Done

Also did

• Job application as realised that needed to post rather than do it online. I've applied for the job I really wasn't sure about last week, I'm not sure I'm doing the right thing but DH believes that a job is a job
• Empty and clean cutlery drawer
• Clean out dumping cupboard

Was supposed to be at a guides meeting tonight but DH returned from work vomiting so had to cancel. That may explain why he didn't sleep last night. I just hope he keeps his germs to himself

Hope everyone feels better tomorrow