Fledglings dreaming of a FLY Christmas - December's fledgling flyers thread

[BlueEyeshadow]

Welcome flyers one and all, old and new, to the December thread! As the advent calendars go up, let's beat the CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) and FLY through Christmas into the New Year (or have a go at it, anyway...)!

We take a three-pronged approach (and a large pinch of salt) to the FLYlady system:

-babysteps
-babysteps and 15 mins' decluttering
-babysteps and missions

The website is here: FlyLady - if you haven't had a look at it for a while it's worth a gander as the design and layout have changed for the better recently.

Whatever you do, though, don't sign up for the emails or your inbox will be bursting within seconds. Or so I'm led to believe... I will post the links to the babystep and mission for each day (the first ones to follow this evening) and there'll be plenty of chat, , and along the way.

A big thank you to Darkness for leading us through November with so much fun!

Good evening. Had a few glasses of this evening... DH and I have had my work Christmas do, which was lovely...
The boys have had their Christmas parties, I've been making mince pies and we're now officially in festive mode.

What has everyone else been up to?

Fuzzled was on the phone to avoid d4t4%$*&^ ... She had a successful start to the day and finished present shopping.

StNicks had her list upset by other people... Hope you were still able to get things done.

ChitChat was feeling virtuous and glaring at snow.

Lauren was gearing up for a busy weekend. Hope it all goes well.

OFM had a few childfree hours, wrapped presents, achieved stuff and enjoyed the carol service.

swan also really enjoyed the carol concert last night. Sorry you've had a trying evening.

MC popped in -

Toffee still has ill DC at home. Hope the hospital trip went well.

Ellie seemed mildly pleased to have reached the end of term...

Linzer ran away to avoid discussion of flying.

WhoKnows has been busy - I'm sure errands count as flying too. Hope you had a good evening out.

Ouch 's DS is growing and going through his trousers. She has also wrapped anything that holds still long enough.
[tangent] Have you seen this? How to wrap a cat for Christmas ? [/tangent]

Bird was making Christmas presents. Sorry to hear about the morning sickness. Hope it passes soon.

***
Links:
Babystep: Bed at a decent hour... Oh well.

No mission because it's Family Fun Day...

I've got a bit of shopping to do, and to wrap some presents, at least for the friend who's coming over in the afternoon. Better get to bed. Night all!

Well i'm a bit rubbish at joining in! Had meant to keep up, but have been doing lots anyway. Having moved into my new warehouse/ office recently lots of organising has been happening at work. The lists get made and completed and i've been trying to get home stuff done. The main thing is that for the first time in 9 years i no longer have a home office, so home is home! Hurrah!
I've been very inspired by the flying theory and will keep working at it.
The biggest habit change is the 'just quickly do this' thought. So doing little things to keep up rather than feeling you have to do big missions. I'll 'quickly hoover the sitting room while the veg is cooking' or 'empty the DW while the kettle is boiling'. My worse habit that i still have to overcome is not throwing things away. Its not that i aquire more, just struggle to part with any useful or emotion attached item.
I love having a shiny sink! And always go to bed early anyway!
So thank you all for making the thread i can lurk on and sorry i've not contributed!

Morning.

had an unber early night and feeling much refreshed today. So today's list goes like this:

Utility room
dining room
ds' room
decorations up in ds' room
knit scarf
finish parceling things up
laundry
and if i get time to go through ds' wardrobe and strip out more stuff that has been grown out of.

testing testing

Yay, it works!!

Sorry to have been absent for so long. Haven't been able to gain access to the Mumsnet site for the past eight days or so.

Changed my password to above (for Christmas) then saw that I had misspelt it - tried to correct - and from that moment on I couldn't even open up Mumsnet site, never mind log in. It just said 'connecting' at top of screen but never did ..

Finally got the Mumsnet contact address off my work computer yesterday and sent a message of distress to them and everything miraculously cured this morning. Haven't had a reply to e-mail though so don't know if this was their doing or happy coincidence!!

Has anyone else had any problems??

Hope you are all oK.

I've been having withdrawal symptoms ...
Having said that, my home office is looking considerably more orderly since access to Mnset was denied ....

Going now to:
(1) prepare for friends coming to lunch/dh returning from Dutch Antilles but later on will
(2) correct Christmas nickname - so if you don't see me again this month you'll know what has happened (!)and
(2)read back through thread and catch up with you all

Back later tonight/tomorrow

Huge waves to all fellow fledglings with tinsel on top!!!

oh and have to start do my Christmas prep too ....

Found my laptop cable (well DH's laptop cable really as my DF has my laptop!) so getting on with admin at the moment, but I can do my lovely personals for all you patient people.

Blue - Thanks as always for the updates, makes catching up so much easier!
OFM - very of your childfree hours. I have conned persuaded DH to take DS shopping today so I will also have some time to myself.
StNicks, swan, toffee - sorry that plans have been upset by DC's/other people, but hopefully you're coping with it all.
bird - kettle always boiled here, so you can have a with me anytime!
MC & Linzer - hello and hope flying gets better soon!
ouch - want to wrap my presents too?
ChitChat - hope the snow didn't affect your plans
Lauren - hope the weekend goes well
WhoKnows - hope you had a good evening and that the cold is better too.
Ellie - glad you got to the end of term safely
weevils - just join in when you can - all flyers welcome, especially in the naughty corner.
waves to anyone I've missed!

Today, if DH takes DS out, I hope to get the oven cleaner on and (while it's working) and then gut the living room at the same time - or at least move the sofas and coffee table and hoover behind them so that it's ready for the Christmas tree to go up tomorrow. Am a bit about the tree going up as not sure how DS will take it but we will see.

DS is moving now, and DH has vanished so must head off!

Have a nice weekend everyone!

Welcome back, Weevils and SC .

Thanks for the round up, Blue.

Ouch - glad the teacher loved her cookie in a jar. Congratulations on getting sleep. Me too (see below ).

Fuzzled - I still don't know where our Christmas tree is going to go. It always seems such a palaver when it's time to put it up. I hope your DS likes it.

I have had sleep! Booked a lie in this morning and slept till 10.15. Fabulous.

DS1 has a friend with him (stayed over last night) and they are playing on their computers upstairs. They play an online game and type messages to each other whilst they play - and they're sitting next to each other! Hilarious. I deliver food at various intervals and am lucky to get a grunt from them in thanks.

This afternoon, DH is taking the boys out to visit MIL and I am tackling our bedroom. This means I have to ignore the rest of the house, which will be hard, but it's the only way the monstrous mess in our room will be dealt with before Christmas.

Going out to a friend's open house this evening. I'm hoping my puffy eyes will have subsided by then (I thought sleep was meant to make you look better, not worse?).

Hope you all have a great day.

Toffee so glad you had a lovely lie in this morning! :) Enjoy your evening tonight.

SC Glad you're back!

My head hurts to go back too far so will leave personals and instead.

I've finally finished work and don't go back until the 3rd when the kids go back to school. Even then I have a quiet first week as several mindees aren't back with me until the week after.

TA DA list!

Bathed DS2 at 7am as he forgot to put a pull up on last night and wet.
Sprayed his mattress (see my other thread!) and now waiting for it to dry
Washed 2 loads
DW on
Visit mother
Bought a calendar
Filled in Calendar (so wonderful - I truly love this sort of thing!)
Fed DC's lunch/ DD currently napping
Good tidy up downstairs

To do list

Make up DS2's bed
Hoover
What's for dinner?
TD on
Empty DW

DH is at a football match so on my own today. DS1 wants me to thrash play him at mariokart so will go for now. BBL with tomorrows list.

quick hello to all
have spent most of morning finishing baking/defrosting/icing/sorting and packaging Christmas gifts(chocoalte almond and cherry brownies, ginger and orange muffins,cranberry and white choc cookies and ginger and cinamon stars) for several hundred teachers and nursery staff (well small exageration but have done a lot!!)
have then done major kitchen rescue and mopped hall and kitchen floors...
however rest of house is a disaster it is soooo never ending...sigh
REALLY need to go and tackle our room next I think...not sure I'm brave enough....may need to do it in 15 minute chunks....
must get in before littlies get back (DH has kindly taken them to softplay place so I could finish baking)
BBL

Tis the season to be jolly Not in this house. Much yelling and

List update:
Utility room
dining room
ds' room done
decorations up in ds' room done
knit scarf
finish parceling things up
laundry just put second load on
and if i get time to go through ds' wardrobe and strip out more stuff that has been grown out of. done socks need to buy 4more pairs of trousers before culling trousers

had a hideous morning trying to get something off to post office in time (but missed deadline by 5 mins , phone calls etc, table absolutely covered with wrapping paper presents, addresses. Posted parcel to Germany finally though (that was meant to be dh's job. He only has one present to post!)

However, the threat of my mum's visit prompted me to finally remove all the baby toys [shock - what were they doing here for so long...kept feeling guiltily that I should keep them available for baby niece) and PUT THEM IN THE ATTIC. Ha Ha! great improvement.
Ditto throwing away 3 cookbooks that were destined for charity shop. In the bin Ha Ha! And sortiing out various piles of cr&&p, music, office stuff

Mum said house was lovely and welcoming although the word "tidy" was not mentioned...

Kids had unexpected friends over so they played all afternoon, and now dd has been whisked off to carol singing and local pantomime.
Ds1 was sent off on an errand as he was too large for the premises and kept insulting ds2. He returned hour later in a better mood, delighted to be sent out to shops by himself.

Dh already exhausted by family life and is listening to Gershwin whilst boys play on Wii; there seems to be nothing else they want to do which doesn't mean a lot of parent participation I think I will take ds off to the pantomine too, just to get him out of the house again.

OFM I am still considering the baking option. Now that I have 50 cellophane bags with snowflakes on them....

SC nice to see you again. I felt a bit lonely without the internet for a week, it was odd...like losing a part of one's life..is that worrying or not?

holly I am reminding myself minute by minute that I MUST stay calm and keep smiling LOL

swan have now just found another 20 lovely cellophane bags bought in LAkeland sale last Jan....so may now need to bake more so I can use them LOL I go into TOTAL panic if I lose the internet! I have a dongle just to use when our connection drops (often due to crap internet LOL) Have thought before that that is probably not good.....

well, hoorah I have found my bedroom floor again have also remade made and dusted. Still a bit of sorting to be done in there but it is improving ....now need to fix hoover again so I can hoover .....
Now going to eat dinner...then what...not sure
BBL

re-made BED that is LOL

I think tonight alcohol is probably the answer. I have none so will have to make do with a peaceful house. and a todo list from hell.

Evening all. List managed today. Oven immaculate (racks still soaking), all corners and crannies of living room hoovered. Christmas stuff hauled out ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be putting up the Christmas tree which I hate and despise doing. Love it up, hate the actually decorating.

Fuzzled - as long as you don't might what it looks like this task can be delegated to children. Who love the task but leave interesting results

Annoying people went out, ds took himself to bed. (i stuck in pjs in bed with portable dvd player, he decided when to sleep).

I have had a big bonfire and cleared a load of sensitive paperwork, Could shred but tbh the fire induced calm was much needed. Now clean and off to finish tackling other jobs on list and cry because my office has been used as a dumping ground again and i have found a few things that escaped the mass wrapping that went on yesterday and i have still have stuff to wrap that isn't waiting to be finished being made

No festive smilies and I am too grumpy to feel christmasy. I sure this will change when house is tidy and people stop shouting but tonight I have got to the point where christmas now needs to be over.

I have already put the January Miltiary planning calander up as tbh there is little going on between now and the end of the year and quite frankly January is getting scarey with how busy it is going to be and i will end up forgetting something if i am not careful

Hope you are all having lovely relaxing evenings. Will pop back later with a done list.

Good evening ? round up time again!

weevils has been moving office, doing organising and getting things done. All sounds good, and do pop in and see us when you can! Don?t worry about keeping up with the way we all natter!

Ouch was feeling refreshed and then . Glad the fire helped a bit.

SC re-emerged from MN-less outer darkness. Hope your connection stays put this time!

Fuzzled was multi-tasking cleaning the oven and living room and getting ready for the tree?

Toffee had a lovely long lie-in and was planning to tackle the bedroom.

StNicks has finished work till after Christmas and was going to thrash play her DS1 at Mariokart.

OFM has been baking and has found her bedroom floor.

swan has been battling the post office, decluttered baby toys and had all kinds of family fun. I?d take ?welcoming? as a compliment!

I had quite a good day despite the stress of the boys being cooped up all day. It was lovely to see the friend who came round. She also told us that she?s PG so now I?m plotting how much baby stuff I can declutter by dumping it on her? Finally managed to do some wrapping while catching up on loads of recorded TV programmes too.

Tomorrow I?m supposed to be playing the flute at church, I think. DS1 seems like he might be coming down with something though, and his godparents are coming to visit in the afternoon? Could be interesting.

Link:
Babystep: Read the 11 commandments.

No mission just renew your spirit day.
***

Night all.

Right I have decided that I am going to post my done list and then anything else that gets done tonight can be counted on my ta da list for tomo. It's been quite productive in the end.

Utility room done
dining room done
ds' room done
decorations up in ds' room done
knit scarf
finish parceling things up
laundry 5th load on
and if i get time to go through ds' wardrobe and strip out more stuff that has been grown out of. done
Bathroom done
Big bonefire done
Clean up after bonfire done
Folding one load then up to date
Ironing all turn right way around
Correct an error with brownie in jars, (didn't put the normal sugar on the original list) done but they don't look so pretty now
Landing done
take bed apart and put card box in stoarge space finally done
My Bedroom half done
Test chocolate brownie recipie done and Yum

DH took the boys out to his mum's this afternoon, so I tackled our bedroom. We now have a tidy bedroom, at last . I even had another go at my wardrobe and threw out some more things that I'm never going to wear again.

Had a lovely time at the party this evening. Fell asleep with DS2 when I put him to bed, which is why I'm up again now. Am going to have a bowl of cereal, then go back to bed, enjoying the fact that I won't be falling over stuff on the floor, for a change.

DH has booked a lie in for himself tomorrow, which is fair enough after my lovely lie in this morning.

OFM - my own cookie-baking for teachers antics pale into insignificance compared to yours . How on earth do you cope with all those teachers? I thought of you today when I was filling in my calendar: I wondered if anyone does calendars for families with eight people, like yours. Mine covers six people, but I use the extra columns for meal planning and miscellaneous stuff.

Fuzzled - congrats on the clean oven and tidy sitting room .

Ouch - you've been very busy today! I agree that the chocolate brownie recipe you linked to is yummy (am still chomping through the leftovers).

Blue - thanks for the round up. Hope your DS1 doesn't wake up ill tomorrow and that you can play the flute at church and enjoy your visitors.

Swan - glad your mum complimented you on your house (maybe 'lovely and welcoming' implies 'tidy'?)

StNicks - how lovely that you've finished work till after Christmas .

Off to eat cereal and go to bed now. That is, if I can sleep with the loud, sweary, inebriated men who have just decided to have a loud conversation outside our house .

Sunday's Ta Da list
Knit scarf from scratch
Ironing.
wrap items found earlier in need of wrapping.
Catch up with a good friend in a different time zone
Find some new music to listen to
2 loads of washing
Folding up-to-date
Catch up on favourite radio show
Watch film
Change priority on film rent listal (adult not kid for next posting)

To do list
My bedroom
finish parceling things up
finish folding and ironing
clothes away
Put up remaining christmas decorations
Put new popper on ds' jeans
Name new school trousers
Bathroom
Study
Mince pies (although might leave this for when have had some more sleep and less likely to burn them )

Right I think i might grab a quick nap before getting on with the rest of the stuff on that list. Actually tired now. so a hours kip or so will do some good.

Morning to the early rising flyers!

Hope you managed your hour's kip, Ouch. Looks like you'll be needing energy for your long list.

Just sorting out the messiest kitchen in the world so that I can fix b/fasts. BBL with a proper list.

Morning all! I am sitting here happy in the knowledge that there is no work tomorrow for DH or I and we have two child free days as they are still at school until Tuesday .

Had a busy day or so since we broke up. In a moment of insanity, we decided to invite DS's BF for a sleepover on Friday night which seemed like a good idea at the time! Cue lots of giggles and non-sleeping children plus DD having multiple tantrums because the boys didn't want her to play with them (I think she is a little in love with DS's BF ).

Yesterday however was very productive on the flying front. Just taking the pressure of work off meant DH and I started to get round to jobs that normally get left. I hotspotted my way all the way round the kitchen and between us we had a complete clear out of DD's room. Rather like swan we finally took all the baby toys out of her room and put them in the attic/threw broken ones away. We sorted out all her clothes and put some new shelves in. We also sorted out all her toys into boxes of like minded stuff (ie one of peppa pig stuff, one of doll's stuff etc.) and organised them all on these shelves. She now has much more accessibility to her toys plus we have doubled the floor space she has in her impossibly tiny room. She played in it all day yesterday and put everything away meticulously .

We also went to a CHristmas party at the local community centre, did a small food shop and then DC's had a sleepover in DD's room and I collapsed on the sofa with Stricty whilst DH went out on works xmas do.

However, I am puzzled by the fact that for the last 2 nights in a row DD has woken up in the middle of the night and thrown up? She seems absolutely fine otherwise. She is fine during the day, eating and drinking normally, not complaining of feeling ill but then wakes up, throws up (proper throwing up, not just a little) and then seems perfectly happy and goes back to sleep. Very strange . I presume it must be a bug but then she would be sick all day no?

Today consists of getting on top of the washing and sorting our bedroom. We have decided to make the most the fact we have 2 days without the dc's and are relatively organised re christmas and do a couple of jobs round the house that desperately need doing. The kitchen ceiling is in a right state so DH is going to pull that bit down and replasterboard/plaster it today and tomorrow and then we are going to give it a quick lick of paint on Tuesday.
DS is at a cubs xmas swimming party this afternoon for an hour so a busy day all round.

Have a good one everyone!