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.

MC I like your dh's confident tone re: job! I suppose he's right that vocations can be a bit exhausting
Ouch loving the scientists have delved further and further into that site. Particularily like the fact they can't draw.
Ellie sorry you had such a hard day,well done for organising everything nevertheless
PA you also need a for ungrateful Dad, who I am sure does appreciate you a good deal, and probably don't realise how unhelpful most people's children are

Toffee hope dh is lookign after you and control journal Sorry first day of new business was marred. As you say, at least he's now officially on the premises and sharing responsibilities.

done
spent day in school library sorting books
Twins off for FOUR WHOLE DAYS till Friday on school residential trip, only ONE moderately reasonable CHILD TO LOOK AFTER yohoo!
However, ds1 still not doing his homework without serious prodding [grr] and beginning to forget things too!!

I am looking forward to lovely restful week gatherign my wits and getting my voluntary slot back at school (in between other things ..

Linzer I am seriously beginnign to wonder about UK education system...tests running to 20 pages of revision at 9 years? I am not knocking it at all, just seems so far from what they provide here in terms of accountability. Dh now says the system here is a joke he is now showing me his Zeugnisse full of near fail grades and stern comments "Die Versetzung ist gefahrdet". (luckily he just scraped through every year, given a sharp kick!) As I've said before he seems both to relish harshness of old system and enjoy proving them wrong... as he ended up with a 2:1 in History from Kings.

SC Did you see Ouch's magic lamp cartoon?
I have a giant snowleopard in my playroom (dh brought it down from loft) to add to your mayhem.

Swan not sure if this is reassuring or just depressing Yep, can't draw and have a very twisted view of the world compared to the rest of us. Tis fabulous.

Hi all,
just popping in to say hi

Toffee I hope you are ok! Even if the bug took hold they are usually over fairly quickly. The plus side for chubbers like me, is losing a few pounds (sad I know).

I was thinking about the dead bird phobia (not for long I hasten to add) and I think it would be something like necroorniophobia or something along those lines? It's a start isn't it!

So the house is an absolute bomb. I must persuade DP not to cook a large family meal or large victoria sponge next Sunday, it is the worst day for me to cope with the mess.
Still, managed to get the washing in, finally dryish, in the drier now for a little while. A new load to go in, made dinner, went to the park with DS after school, did homework with DS, some stuff on the computer and that's it.
Am planning a bit of a pedal in the next 20 mins..
Back tomorrow...

Evening all!

Exhausting day with lots of running around and not getting much done. DS2 didn't have a proper nap because he's full of cold so my main "doing stuff" time disappeared...

Dining room definitely needs attention, but then the whole house is pretty much one giant hotspot at the moment. My new kitchen, however, is sparkly! However much everywhere else is going to CHAOS in a handcart, I am obsessively lovingly polishing all the shiny surfaces in the kitchen. We'll see how long it lasts...

Yes, it was me who introduced the idea of ta-da lists to the thread, but not my genius - shamelessly nicked from someone on another site.

Waves to all and yawns. See you tomorrow...

Good day,

Washing up to date and folded. Just needs putting away now
Both beds changed (oops so laundry no longer up to date!)
DW empty and ready to reload- made a luscious spag bol
Hit the hot spot by door- not clear but MUCH better- dinign table is work in progress tho as working out junior schools and that HAS to involve lots of laid out papers...
Just need to do before bed routine now, inc DS' lunchbox

Enjoy your (relatively) childfree time SR

Morning.

Don't. ask.

um. morning...

i'm off to bed though, i guess you tried that idea and failed...

Oh my goodness. We all had a pretty rubbish day yesterday, didnt we?

Who said my day could not get worse? It went from bad to worse. I wont bore you with details, but on after washing machine mistake disaster we had an dead pigeon in the kitchen (best sort in my opinion) Ooops sorry for the dead-bird-a-phobe! Fighting cats over the dead bird, a blazing row between me and dad, me walking out of parents house in tears and an hour late to staff meeting. All before 10am!!!

Today is a new day. Long day at work today, job No 1 and on to job no 3.
So today:
Clean shower filter done - disgusting job with 5 long haired people in the house!
S & S while I was there - done
Kitchen
Dishwasher unload/load
Pork in cider/mustard & Apple in slowcooker.
Top for crumble to make (apple prepared yesterday)
Work
hoover
Dish up tea
Eat
Collapse with a

Keep it simple and i am far more likely to succeed today!

Sorry, no time for personals, I have read through, just want to say that I hope everyone has a better day today and i hope Toffee is not puking!

Oh dear. Hope today is better for everyone who had a crap one yesterday. I actually had a really good day . Got everything on the list done including home blessing, Shred and running, also OT assessment for DS, basketball club and Beavers. Was too tired to post last night though.

Also - I checked my smoke alarms. That's an important one to have on your lists, I do it when we are in the hall etc Zone.

Morning routine is done, so I'm off to work now, see you later.

Toffee was puking, PA! Most of yesterday in fact . It's a miserable thing being sick, isn't it? Then DH came down with it and we had to cancel DS1's CAMHS appointment in the afternoon. However, as DS1 was home early for the appointment, he was able to take over in looking after DS2 (who'd I'd kept off school to convalesce) whilst DH and I fought over access to the bathroom.

I staggered down at around 6pm to suggest dinner, but the boys had pooled their money and filled themselves up with chocolates, crisps and fizzy drinks . DS1 took DS2 up to his room so they could sleep together, whilst I fell back into bed.

Woke up at 4am to find DS1 throwing up in the bathroom. He had left various trails of illness between bathroom and bedroom, but very sweetly hadn't wanted to wake DH and I because we were ill.

DS2 has now gone off to school with his CM, leaving me free to do copious amounts of washing (first load on at 5am and just finishing the second), tackle the sick on DS1's (new ) mattress with bicarbonate of soda (thanks for that tip, Ouch) and look after DS1.

Am feeling so much better now, just a bit achey and washed out. It's so lovely not to be sick anymore, though.

PA - sorry you had such a lousy start to your day yesterday.

Ouch and Mad - hope you caught up on sleep.

Dream - glad you had a good day yesterday .

rowing - you are right about the bug being over quickly. I can't imagine having to be that ill for much longer - it would be torture. I could do with losing a few pounds myself - will check later.

Blue - sparkly kitchen is the main thing. At least you don't need to shine your sink.

Swan - yes, not a very good start to self employment for DH. At least he didn't have to phone in sick to anyone. It's funny - he keeps thanking me for everything I'm doing in caring for the DC whilst they're sick. I'm just doing the usual stuff, but I don't think he's ever seen me doing it all before because he's always been at work.

Making - uh oh! DH vomiting? I hope you aren't going down with our evil bug.

Ellie - thanks for the round up. Sorry you had such a hectic day yesterday. Hope today is better.

Waves to SC, Linzer, WhoKnows and any fledglings I've missed.

oh dear Toffee. Makes me wonder how on earth out grandparents coped without washing machines. Hope you are all better soon. Another useful thing for sick DCs is pampers bedmats under the sheet to protect the mattress. If the mattress is already soiled they are good placed face down on it when you have scrubbed it with bicarb paste, they absorb the moisture back out of the mattress. Need to stick some books or somethi g on top to press it down.

Morning all

I'm in a rotten mood so I'm going to throw myself into putting my mood to good use cleaning.

Will return when calm (That may take some time)

Very quick and no chance to catch up on thread though washing machines and vomit seem to feature a lot

Survived Autumn Fayre which was very busy, very sunny and felt like a success. Think we have at least matched last year's total of £1000 but don't have final figure yet (will actually be slightly disappointed if we haven't made much more than that as it was heaving due to gorgeous weather)
Now need to catch up on 'proper' work and rescue the whole house which is back to CHAOS bigtime :(
I want to do things properly this month but it may take a while - may concentrate on babysteps and decluttering to start with whilst post-Fayre trauma is beaten into shape dealt with.

Today's list:
S&S - done

• WORK
• Washing out
• Soup out of freezer for dinner
• Nice bread bought (to tart up soup :))
• Last of Fayre banners taken down
• Reading buddies at school
• Make apple pies with DD (don't ask )
• DD to Brownies
• Ironing so we have uniform for rest of week
• 15 mins decluttering somewhere - to be decided

Hope everyone has a good day, especially those who had tough ones yesterday.

well Dh and I are basically on holiday!

Ds1 departed at 7.35 (to do his Spanish which he's left in his locker) and then Dh and I went back to bed...[only to be interrupted at 8.30 by a bright and cheery neighbour ringing to ask how I was filling my time now that twins were gone [ahem]]
He has only just left to go to visit some books in Stoke Newington at 11am...

So hopefully a good day ahead tackling various long running sagas headon...

It wasn't just my grandparents, WhoKnows - my parents got their first washing machine only two or three years ago. I can remember my mum washing nappies in a bucket. I'm still not sure how she coped.

Oh dear Toffee; I did suspect you might have come down with the bug when you didn't post again yesterday. Hope you're able to rest a little today despite the copious amounts of washing you have to do.

PA That sounds like an utter nightmare (even if you're not dead bird phobic). My phobia is one of the things that would put me off having cats. Hope today has got off to a better start for you!

Decided to go shopping rather than running this morning, but heard in the car on the way back home that we only have three nice days left, and then it's going to cold, rainy and snowy. So I decided I'd better get out for my run while I had the chance, and feel very virtuous now.

Not feeling quite as virtuous wrt the house, however. I'm not quite sure what I've been doing over the last two hours apart from MNing and drinking coffee but I need to be super-productive in my last 50 minutes before I pick up DD2 and five of her classmates for their English lesson. To be done as soon as coffee is finished:

Put washing away
Get living room ready for English lesson
Get bread out of freezer for lunch
Swish & swipe

And tbh, that will probably be about all I have time for.

PA poor you, too late to make parents see the light unfortunately
still you are doing the absolute best you can
Ouch and MC hope mornign brings some light relief
Nicknacks hope your baby daughter's ears are a bit better, or you get some feedback over hearing

Feet well done on Fayre. What sort of stalls activities did you have? Interested for our PTA.

Toffee poor you too.

swan I think some kind of middle way would be preferable - the DC seem to be under so much pressure here. I am also in two minds whether DH needs to put quite so much pressure on DD1. And don't get me started on Zeugnisse.

MC Hope the cleaning proves to be therapeutic.

feetheart Autumn Fayre sounds lovely (think the spelling of fayre helps too ).

WhoKnows - thanks for the tips. Unfortunately, I've just run out of those Pampers mats, but I'll see if they have any at our corner shop. I was thinking about the importance of washing machines as well this morning and how terrible it must have been without them. I would have spent all day today washing, rinsing and drying.

Linzer - can't believe your mum and dad only had a washing machine a couple of years ago!

Swan - grr to the cheery neighbour who interrupted your lie in and then stayed for over an hour.

Feet - glad your Autumn Fayre was a success.

Making - that's a very constructive use of negative energy! Hope you have a sparkling house at the end of it.

Am feeling so much better, apart from the odd stomach cramp. DS1 has stopped being sick and is quite chatty now, so I'm going to sign off and spend some time with him.

toffee neighbour only rang on phone! it was dh who hung around....

well I've done some essential emails I had been putting off
will continue upstairs now

Hi all
deary me it's been quite a 24 hours hasn't it! Rows, vomiting, dead birds, the lot!

Toffee I also suspected when you went AWOL. Good that it's over and hopefully you now have the immune system of an ox and will sail through the Winter, minus those few pounds you have dropped in the past 24 hours. Don't envy you the washing and am making a mental note to buy more waterproof bed covers and duvet protectors! Ick! Can you hang out stuff where you are? It's quite windy and dry here, good drying day.

Linzer is there a lot of homework for your DC's? We have just started a new literacy scheme here and the homework looks to be mounting up.

Blue lucky you have a beautiful, shiny new kitchen. Don't spend all day looking at it though it is probably tempting!

Feet that sounds like a great Autumn fair. Did you spend the whole day before baking?

MC hope the housework is helping you to channel the anger. [hides from MC] Anything in particular or just life in general?

PA what a revolting start to the day, things can only improve from here.

I've been beavering away and this flying lark is really helping me to focus. I used to fritter away the day and wonder what I had done then feel depressed. The list of things and routine is really helping me to focus and the house is definitely looking in better shape.

To do
washing out tick
morning routine tick
hotspot tick
vitamins tick
5 min room rescue - sitting room half a tick
water plants
declutter bookshelf
put some of DP's books on shelf
get rid of some boxes and packaging
put out paper recycling
lunch
meet friend at 12:30 for trip into town
what's for dinner?
phone community centre about party
check messages
phone active schools about activity for DS
that's all I can fit in just now.

Quick list update before I fly out of the door.

Tuesday's list:
Up, ds up and to school - remember PE kit! done
last few bits on project taking longer then planned
wash project
wrap up and package for posting
post project going to have to wait for tomo morning.
Lunch out with friend heading out for this in a mo.
Doc appointment
Ds training
Ds showered and in bed
Pass out for early night.

Have also managed to do 2 loads of washing an read a good chunk of book and grab a bit of sleep. So a productive morning I think.

Hi all,
I'm back to tick my list
Got to go out, but I must make those phone calls!!
To do
washing out tick
morning routine tick
hotspot tick
vitamins tick
5 min room rescue - sitting room tick
water plants tick
declutter bookshelf tick
put some of DP's books on shelf
get rid of some boxes and packaging
put out paper recycling tick
lunch tick
meet friend at 12:30 for trip into town
what's for dinner?
phone community centre about party
check messages
phone active schools about activity for DS
that's all I can fit in just now.

Glad to hear people are feeling better, I couldn't cope without my washer either. It takes me back to student days when I washed by hand or spent evenings in the campus launderette with a good book and some cheap booze. :) The laundrette wasn't that bad, but I hated the handwashing.

What a morning! I went to bed about 9 last night, I felt dreadful and couldn't stop coughing. Did sleep well but woke up at 7:20 when I heard the bin men! Dived out of bed (bad move) put both bins down, went back to lay on the bed and then overslept because my phone ran out of batteries.

Thankfully DD is a star. She woke early and had been quietly playing, then found her clothes that I'd got out last night so got herself dressed and thankfully we weren't late for school.

I'm feeling better than I was but I'm having lots of niggly pains, so it's been a slow day, but so far I've done.
5 minute room rescue upstairs & living room (more like 10-15 minutes per room though.)
1 load of washing done
2 loads on line (DH washed yesterday but too late to hang it out)

I'm not planning on doing anything else other than bring the washing in (or getting DH to) and sitting on the settee crocheting, I've got 3 weeks (in theory) to finish a baby blanket.

DH does all the cooking in our house, I don't even think about food, he's making pizzas tonight so he'll do the kitchen beforehand and I'll clean up after.

I'd also like to do some baking. The idea of standing up doing it though is too much, but feetheart mentioning brownies inspired me... I'll be making the chocolate kind though, not eating small girls :o

Hi all,
Biblio, that nesting is really kicking in. I agree the goals you are setting seem realistic, particularly when you also have to crochet a whole baby blanket . Hope your chest is clearing up a bit.
To do
washing out tick
morning routine tick
hotspot tick
vitamins tick
5 min room rescue - sitting room tick
water plants tick
declutter bookshelf tick
put some of DP's books on shelf
get rid of some boxes and packaging
put out paper recycling tick
lunch tick
meet friend at 12:30 for trip into town tick
what's for dinner? DP is cooking pasta, cool! DS will refuse the sauce because it contains mushrooms, so pasta and cheese for him.
phone community centre about party
check messages
tumble drying
put away clothes
new load on to wash
phone active schools about activity for DS done, still places on the fencing (?!) course so he can start next week.
DS Homework reading - 5 adjectives, 2 conjunctions, which are now called connectives? 2 'interesting' words etc.. plus handwriting he's going to love it.

that's all I can fit in just now.

Does anyone know if the school only means conjunctions when they say 'connectives' or does this term cover prepositions?