Remember, remember the fledgling Flyers: dusting, and decluttering a lot..

[DarknessSoothes]

Come one come all, fledgling reunite. 1st of the month and we survived the fright. Bonfire month and lets burn though the housework to prepare for the festivities of December.

As from the 1st we will be babystepping, mission and deep cleaning our way out of the C.H.A.O.S. (can't have anyone over syndrome).

For newbies and those who need reminding here is the principles behind the babystep system.

The basic is this:

1. Do the babysteps.
2. When you do the babysteps with consistency add in the missions
3. When you are doing the babysteps and missions as a habbit tackle the deep cleaning.

This thread is a mishmash of people at different stages. The lists can look long, but look carefully, some of us are reposting lists and parts of lists from day to day.

Our motto is this: Do not strive to be perfect, Progress is progress and anything is better then nothing and my personal favourite part of the fly lady system is you are never behind, just jump in and start from where you are.

So on that note here we go. With much thanks to Ellie who lead us with amusing roundups last month.

Day 1: Babystep 1 - How to shine your sink

Mission here - this will update overnight ready for the early fledglings

Tuesday's reminders are here: It's planning day

And for those of you who are eagerly awaiting christmas here is the flylady's crusing into christmas page. Personally i did some of this last year and done some this year and it does take a chunk of the stress out of christmas.

Well now that I have suitably scared you, see you all tomo!!

Hi everyone! A bit late posting, but it's the first chance I've had to get at the laptop. My 'get out of the house' playdate cancelled on me, so I've got no excuse now! So:
sink
breakfast
fridge
what's for tea?
living room hotspot
wm x 2

Think thhat's all realistically today. Get well everyone is feeling like crap, DB has just rang to say DNephew has started out in chicken pox rash, so I may well be getting a double dose soon. (sigh) Have told DH that if DD1 gets it he's booking time off work! I ain't dealing with her ill and a baby!!!

Yay for the key turning up swan!!

Now, the boys are safely deposited at school and the CM, and the kitchen is being tiled so I've got an excuse to ignore the zone and house bleugh downstairs...

List:
ironing
filing
bathroom
upstairs dusting
check out ITI
more CVs to agencies

That sounds very familiar Nettle! Good luck on getting through the day...

Hope your class goes well Linzer. Teaching is a string I could never add to my bow! I have no patience whatsoever... Thanks for the offer of the bulletins. I'll venture on to the site again now and see if I can make head or tail of it.

Linzer could you do action rhymes with them, singing or drama games involving English? I think little ones can't sit still for long, unless as you say it is a practical task they can focus on rather than just listening. Or puppets talking to them in English and they have to answer back perhaps?

Blue tiling sounds good, your kitchen will look very shiny after! It pulls everything together.

Now I must go to the bank/appt.

Blimey, I don't know what's going on, but:
sink - done
breakfast - done
fridge - done
what's for tea? - erm????
living room hotspot - done
wm x 2 - one down, one to go!

I may have to add to the list so I don't feel a lightweight! Did have a bit of a moment when I cleaned the fridge though.... Eww! Glad I did that!

I am really struggling with the meal thing. I don't want to pay some-one else, so can I pick your brains for free? What are you guys doing for tea this week?

Work done, sent off and invoiced, two English lessons prepared, and the room of doom (aka office/guest room/general dumping ground) has been tidied if not significantly decluttered. Just need to do the rest of the house now... although the other rooms aren't quite as bad.

Had a bit of a shock just now DD1 arrived home from school on her own; she'd forgotten to wait for DD2. I thought that at first they were teasing me and that DD2 would jump out any second, but no - she really had forgotten. DD2 never walks home on her own (more due to circumstances than the fact that she won't/can't) so I raced off in the car and found her halfway between school and home. She said that a couple of friends had waited with her for DD1 for "ages", but they'd given up in the end. It's at times like these that, as much as I'm against mobiles for primary school children, it would actually be quite handy for the DDs to have them.

Lorelais We are having meals from the freezer this week as I didn't get round to meal planning. The girls had Spanish chicken yesterday (with pasta) and today (with couscous) and I still have to find something for tomorrow. (DH and DS have hot meals at work and kindergarten respectively, and I usually eat something different from the DC as I'm vegetarian). My standbys, particularly when we have visiting children, are spag bol, pizza and fishfingers.

swan Yes, we start off with some singing and I round off the lesson with an action song too. I couldn't find an affordable puppet, but do have a bee that "speaks" to the children, asks their name and age etc. They find it hysterically funny to tell me that they're 110 or some other ridiculous figure [in German] but the bee doesn't lose patience and carries on talking to them in English. He can't speak for too long to one child, however, as the others will get up and run round in the meantime. I try to teach new vocab by having, say, plastic fruit in a bag, getting it out and passing it round or putting flash cards in the middle of the circle and getting them to touch particular cards, but maybe that's a bit too advanced for them? Or for boys of that age, at any rate... I have the feeling girls would be able to concentrate for a little longer than a few seconds (although do have a couple of 7 year old girls in another group who sometimes play up as well). And all the lolling they do - it drives me mad!

Blue As you may see from the above post, I don't have actually have unending patience...

Apologies to all those I've missed and for any mistakes in my post - no time to proofread as I have to go and pick up DS and a couple of friends (one of his, one of DD2's) from kindergarten now.

Lorelais - we're having veggie stir-fry tonight, and fish fingers for the boys. Probably with pasta as that's about all the carbohydrate DS2 will eat at the moment. Enchilladas/wraps with leftover chicken from Sunday tomorrow (goodness knows what DS2 will make of that!!), and pasta bake with more leftover chicken on Friday. Saturday is pizza day and I've got a gammon thing for Sunday.

Yay for finding the keys swan

I hope you managed to avoid chicken pox laurelais

Well not got much done yet and have new things to add to the list so it's looking like this:

Washing up/drying/shine sink (washing up done)
Wash kitchen floor
Yesterday's mission
Today's mission
Hoover
Wash windows (I found mould)
Research dehumidifiers (regarding mould)
Walk dog done
Food shop
Clean out fridge
What's for dinner? done -cottage pie
Tidy living room hotspot
Tidy bedroom hotspot
2 wash loads

I'm quickly running out of time!

Cheers guys. I'd got it all sorted for tonight, chicken splodge, and then hubby rings to say he's got some sausages and can I start the spuds off for mash?! Oh well, I'm a sucker for mash, the chicken can wait!
I've now managed to clean the microwave too, second load has just come out, so I think that's me done! Hurrah!!!

Hello

Have tweaked the babysteps - made a list of the ones I want to follow, and am ignoring the rest. Swish and shine (or whatever) yes, post-its and affirmations, no. Combining this with #30DayDeclutter on twitter, but still living in a mess.

Not been very sociable here - apologies - 9mo DD has dropped all her daytime naps which has ruined my mn housework time. Wave at you all though and pathetic yelp encouraging cheer to keep flying. Will one day get time to read thread properly and catch up.

Tonight bedtime comes early.

and that many are definetly warented today.

.

You ok Darkness?

Linzer - you sound like a born teacher (maybe the patience bit is learned )

Well, managed to get DS2 to school today, but then DS1 turned round and came home again because he had a stomach ache . So, yet again, we were not child-free. However, DS1 (12) is a lot easier to have around than my five-year old and so I did manage to tackle the washing, sort the kitchen and put out the fire in the corner (kitchen hotspot out of control). DH was busy doing a lot of DIY in the dining room.

Have to do some menu planning tonight as we didn't have anything planned to eat tonight and had to raid the freezer.

Hope you all have a lovely evening and that those of you who are poorly are feeling better (and children too).

Hiya all!!

darkness have a hope you are ok!

So DD is much better, which means back to work for me tomorrow!but my list looks like:
Washing up/dry/shine sink done
Yesterday's mission done
Today's mission done
Wash kitchen floor done
Wash bathroom floor done
hoover done with non electric one while other is being fixed
Wash windows i found mould -on tomorrows list
Research dehumidifier found one in garage
Wash dog done
Food shop done
Clean out fridge done
What's for dinner done
Kitchen hotspot done
Living room hotspot done
Bedroom hotspot - tomorrows list
2 wash loads -ongoing

Phew ill be in bed as soon as DD falls asleep!!

yeah am ok. just pissed off with the teenage level of attitude my not yet 7 yo is giving me. We have fallen out. Thankfully he went to sleep over an hour ago. So have been calming down by reading a contriversial thread. Why do they have to push the boundaries so much? Doesn't help that the ex is stirring shit up between me and ds.

Anyhows. had a complete flying fail day. tried to run a few errands but was failed by the shops. I mean serious skinny but long legged trousers are not too much to ask is it? A least it was a sunny day. Am seriously considering an early night for myself. Thus might drop the links about now:

babystep is the power of the 15mins

mission

Thursday is errand day

darkness bedtimes can be like a night at the opera in this house. Anyway at least he went to bed at 7.30, tht was good work! Sorry about bad behaviour of x, must be so dfficult to rch ground rules at a distance.

Toffee yes, the merry go round of needy children is whirling here too..anyway at least I have deflea-ed the cat. I set dd to work sticking flea treatments on the calendar and packing shoe boxes for Brownies. All hell broke loose when she returned from Brownies with a lollipop and ds2 refused to go to bed until about 9.30...Ds1 in good spirits, but tried to get a chat in at 10pm with his aging parents..too late...we were determined to get some child free conversation

I'm rambling.
done
Brownies
Beavers
Shoeboxes
shepherd's pie
football
cat
statement appt
cheque
basic housework
notdone
paid school dinners (engaged)
deep cleansing

Well, the kitchen is looking nearly done - still a bit of plastering, and DH pissed off because I didn't tell the tiler to do a bit that I don't remember discussing being done. Sigh. Still, it looks nice!

So, tomorrow I need to catch up on the house bleugh, try to raise some money by selling nappies at Nappucino - DS2 now refuses the lovely fluffy cloth ones. :( - and write the newsletter for our music group. Oh, and do the Aldi shop. Not sure it'll all happen, but hey!

Darkness - hope the early night helps.

Speaking of which, waves to all and retires, yawning. Night!

Lorelei - my menu for the next few days looks like this: oven-baked lemon chicken and broccoli tomorrow; sausages, onions and bacon cooked in the oven and served with baked potatoes and veg for Friday; seafood pie on Saturday; and something thrown into the slow cooker on Sunday. These are all from Menus4Mums, apart from the last one, but I have picked recipes from my backlist as I don't fancy this week's selection much.

Swan - sorry you have to go through the statementing process. Will the school SENCO be helping you with that? DS1's new school want to wait a year to see how DS1 copes with the measures they have put in place and as he seems to be doing OK so far, they will probably decide he doesn't need a statement. I'm fine with that so long as he continues to cope well.

Blue - Aldi has just opened near us, causing us an absurd amount of excitement (you can tell we live in a very quiet place ). DH came back with a weeks' worth of shopping for £52!

Darkness - sounds as if the males in your life are winding you up. Hope you managed an early night.

Managed to create a meal from stuff in the freezer tonight, so have just been menu planning (see above) and Dh is going shopping tomorrow. Kitchen tidy and washing-up done. Washing mostly put away, for a change. DS1's PE kit washed and put in his bag ready for tomorrow. Before-bed routine done. Off to bed now. Night night all.

Should be in bed!

Have spent today working and taking photos of teeny, tiny Polly Pocket stuff that was handed down to us about 4 years ago for DD by kind neighbour. DD had some of it but we didn't tell her there was more - its minute, there is masses of it and her ability to hoard is too great :) I'm now trying to ebay it without DC becoming aware. Mean, mean mummy. However I am going cross-eyed in the process.
I also bought these earlier in the week and used them tonight. They really make me :)

Lurgy is finally getting better I think so need to do some Flying tomorrow.
Hope all the other poorly people are on the mend.

Swan - our kitchen is from Wickes and still looking great 9 years later.

Darkness - hope you have wound down

Toffee - recipes sound lovely, may have to ask for chicken one.

Lorelei - couldn't survive without menu-planning. Have done it for 4 yrs now and most of the time it works. This week we have had home-made pizzas, toad in the hole and, bacon and tomato oven risotto. I try to do a vague 3 week rolling menu to include at least one veggie and one fish dish a week. Latest discovery is to cook BIG yorkshires for us all and fill them with leftover meat, veg etc. Works a bit like a roast (which we all love) but is quicker and easier and less washing up :)

Now I'm hungry I need to go to bed. Night all.

oops - was in the big smoke all day as dd2 had an eye appt, so no flying done save a load of laundry and the dishwasher.

i did manage to fit in a bit of retail therapy and grabbed some christmas cards and some books for presents though, as well as persuaded dh to make a long overdue visit to the car rack store for something that can take all of our bikes and a solution for dd2's sn trike, which has so far eluded us. but now we are sorted - roll on spring!

Good morning everyone.

Linzer - I hope you and DD2 were not too traumatised by her walking home alone. I bet DD1 felt awful, too!

Swan - YAY for the car keys!

Darkness - Today is another day and all that!

Nettle - I hope your day got better yesterday.

Catherine - I, too have a selective system with the babysteps. It works for me!!

Feet - good to hear that you are feeling better.

Lorelais -I love meal planning and always do it before I go shopping. In a normal week I have 1 mince based meal (lasagne tonight, others are shepherds pie, spag bol, chilli) 1 chicken based (last night was hunters chicken) 1 roast, always a curry on Saturday. Sunday is always a hit and miss, whatever is in the fridge type thing! Tomorrow we will have a slowcooker meal of pork/apple/cider/mustard. Another favourite is beef slowcooked all day in a gravy and made into a pie. DCs love stir fry and chicken biryani, too. Oh I could go on and on and frequently do according to DH!

So, day off paid work today. YAY!! Although DH is also not working, so I think I will send him out for a long wheel spin (cycle) - he will then think I am being nice to him but really he will then be out of my hair and I can tackle what I want to do!
Large job for today is to start sorting out a truly enormous hellhole are of 12 years of dumped stuff! All that stuff that you dont want to throw away, but you never actually use! I am going to be ruthless! and then will need something next week

Breakfast
S&S
Be taxi for DD3 for college (and pick up 2 hours later)
Chase up DWP for something they said had been sent 2 weeks ago and still not arrived!
A bit of cooking today - lasagne, chocolate cake, bread rolls, and waffles. mmmmm
Sort out mess upstairs and dump a load of it! (maybe I could persuade DH to go to the tip after his wheel spinning!)
Make sure I have a time with me + book
Meeting tonight.

Pretty good day planned then. I wonder how far I actually get???

Waves to everyone I have not mentioned - Blue, SC, Toffee and everyone else!

Wow - I can't keep up with this. Just waving a friendly hello. Actually all this flying is starting to make me stressed! I don't think I can even get started on the missions and babysteps, I can barely keep up with keeping the house within reasonable levels of hygiene.
How do you all do it!!!! My toddler will give me about 5 mins and then will reach me wherever I am and say ' carry me! '
And that is after I have actually dedicated a morning of activities to her.
I know it's a normal clingy phase but I can't wait for it to be over, and it's very bad planning on her behalf!!!!

BTW thanks Toffe for the menu link.

Wish I had time for more personals, sorry.

[SC waves from embedded prostrate position in naughty corner]

Hellooooo everyone!!

Frantic waves to PA

Must have been something in the air yesterday Darkness. DD had major break-out of shouting and rudeness just before we ate last night - same again when she was given opportunity to apologise - and so (first time ever) she ended up eating supper alone upstairs in her room (evil Victorian mother emoticon). Sadly, I am not sure this strategy worked as when I was tucking her in to bed later and all was calm once more, she said she had "quite enjoyed the peace and quiet" Thank you for links and hope you have a better day today and thank you for linkies.

Linzer your English lessons sound wonderful - really engaging and imaginative! Hope no lasting effects from dd2's adventure yesterday! Glad both girls home safely in the end!

Glad you are on the mend Feetheart and hope you are too Nicknacks and same to anyone else who is ailing

Lorelais - we try and eat vegetarian food two nights a week
Sunday = usually full roast with trimmings
Monday = cold cuts of said roast with loads fresh green veg and poss fried pots
Tuesday = 'start again' day with mainly veg-based pasta or rice dish or home-made veggie burgers or tortilla-type dish or spag bol packed with veg
Wednesday = usually chicken in some form (home-made nuggets, or satay or stir-fry or some such) or possibly oily fish based dish (salmon/mackerel) if it looks good
Thursday = always veggie day!! Pulse-based casserole (red lentil or chick pea for example), veggie lasagne, vegetable cous-cous and roasted root veg dish, home-made veggie-burgers, risotto, etc etc. I always cook for a couple of hrs on Thursday mornings and while I am chopping veg, make vegetable soup at same time for Saturday lunch and/or for freezer. Sometimes make Friday supper too.
Friday = always fish day! Fish pie, home-made fish fingers, roasted cod or alternative, salmon-stretched-to-go-further-type dish such as fish cakes or en papillote with boiled pots and parsley sauce or some such.
Sat lunch = home-made soup made on Thurs. Sat eve = takeaway night or egg dish or three-jumps-at-fridge-door-type-dish.
Weekday breakfasts usually = porridge because dd loves it
Weekend breakfasts usually = egg and/or fruit based
After school treats = pancakes with apple compote, yoghurt and berries, home-made flap jacks, home-made fruit salad, slices of pineapple with madeleine or some such
Puddings= trying to focus a bit more on these: in autumn/winter lots of apple and pear based dishes, baked, with sponge, pureed, with crumble etc In summer= melon/peach/berry based dishes

Swan arf at opera nights and good news about keys

Very impressed by all this talk of Penguin/igloo cakes!!!

Waves to Blue Whoknows Toffee Ellie Nettie Pushme MC Madwoman Lauren Catherine Mole Lady Mummy Justonemore and everyone else I've missed

I can't bring myself to post a list as today it would most likely be fraudulent!! Going through one big fat NESBIT!!!!

ooohhh Feetheart just spotted your cookie cutters

Wow sc that's an impressive menu!can we come to your house for our meals? I'm just getting my head round cooking so am just starting to stray from the safety of home pride sauces in jars

Hope things are happier today darkness and thanks for the linkies!

Today's mission doesn't apply as I do this 3/4 times a day out of habit anyway! I'm a bit obsessive about work tops!

To do today!
Wash inside of windows
Put away all of DDs shoes
Sort DDs wardrobe in the clothes side
Bedroom hotspot
Wash loads
Wash up dry and shine sink after DP has finished his breakfast!
Accounts from last month

I have people coming round to sign me up for Avon again, not entirely sure how much time I'll have for it but I might as well it's free!