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!

Everyone has slept till 9am including me.
More people (loads actually) arriving this afternoon.
Dh at work for another two days - so I have to try and outwit him...

So what do I need to do....

Go to shops and buy some provisions? Potatoes, apples, tomatoes
Make cheese scones? Easy Bread for sandwiches? All the bread in my freezer seems to be fancy.
Hoover bedrooms?
Hoover playroom
Hide craft stuff
Broccoli and blue cheese soup?
Foliage!!!!
Ironing a few items????
Sandwiches for lunch/leek soup

Icecool I sorted out dd's sewing drawer yesterday and thought of you!

just it is so hard to cope with sleep deprivation when they are little on a day to day basis let alone with xmas looming. Try and get some time for yourself today ifpossible. Do they nap? Maybe have a lie down then, you'll feel better for it.

toffee i am planning on hiding baskets full of non essentials in our room with a throw over them. Out of sight, out of mind.

ice i fucking love you too. You have come so far over the last couple of years and seem much more content of late . Will you ever go to fucking sleep then. Have you seen 'go the fuck to sleep', think it was written with you in mind. And yes i am going for flyer of the day. I am trying to make up a whole year of crapness in one week.

Ta da:-
Ironing
More washing

Next job is to sort out the pile of washing in the basket next to the machine. This consists of stuff that rarely gets worn so gets dumped there but never washed. Today it will be gone .

Ellie. if they ever fix this sodding wisdom tooth. Have rung dentist. They said they will ring back they have another hour and then I will ring them back!!!! this is getting stupid. Can't do anything cos waiting for them to ring.

Otoh got ds to draw a picture well he actually drew several but missed the point of the task with the first few Ah well a black and white masterpiece it is. it was a bit hard not to either dispair or laugh bless him. he tried so hard. Factual aspie kid with imagination task. Not best pairing. He will be no artist.

Wooo Hooo. Bloody marvelous. They rang back. Now i can do something with ds!!!

Afternoon All

Sorry more are feeling ill - I can't now keep up with which of us are poorly and which are well. I thought that my kidney stone may have gone as pain much better yesterday but it is back today, although not as much .

Well I have been to shop and got a few forgotten bits from my christmas order - that should be it now for main shop until after christmas. I've also been to shopping centre and bought DHs present from DD and some new baking tins for some baking I want to do with DD. Was in an out before 10am so impressed with that. 2nd load of washing also on.

To Do list.

• Another two loads of washing
• Post contract for new job - May not get there before christmas but will be on its way at least
• Baking - Banana and Blueberry muffins and apple and blackberry crumble.
• Tidy kitchen
• Clean bathrooms
• Attack spare room
• DD to Ballet tonight and then that is all the extra-curricular activities over until Jan
• Quick pop out tonight after DD has gone to bed for stocking chocolate.

That'll do

Oh fuckity fuck fuck. I knew things were going too wel. Radiator in front room has sprung a leak. Dh is mardy as his arse trying to fix it when he hasn't really got a clue and shouting at all and sundry.

Merry chuffing xmas.

Ellie - at least it is today and not christmas eve or christmas day. breath and hide the children. perhaps a walk to get out for half hour to leave dh in peace pieces?

Oh and remind DH to either isolate the radiator or drain the system down otherwise you will end up with a larger flood. Hopefully it is just an easily replaceable compression joint that needs tightening and fresh lot of plumbers tape that has fancy name that can never remember

Ice - I know just ow you feel re the drawing, DS really struggles with this sort of task too, really not interested in drawing anything other than the a few things that he does over and over again.

Ellie - hope you manage to fix the radiator.

MC - glad the pain isn't so bad this time round, hopefully it will ease off.

Has anyone been to see Arthur Christmas? That is on the agenda for us later.

I should be grateful that I am not feeling ill in any way, either tooth, organs or eyn. Nor have the radiators burst [yet] Although boiler making ominous clanking sounds - Dh always says whatever you do, don't switch it off, it may never come on again (it usually goes wrong when we come back from hols and have made this fatal error)

However, I am now beginning to feel mildly stressed by the fact that

a)ds1 won't stop eating (has sneaked an entire IL carton of smoothie and drunkit all) and won't exercise except under duress (had to send him for a long walk/errand, and for a run round the block supervised by ds2 who is superfit)
a) part 2 - he needs to do 15 bursts of homework every day and he needs supervision for this too
b) dd has "the look" again and may start demanding something/quarrelling at any moment
c) house is extremely messy to have 5 extra guests in this afternoon who will want to rampage up and down tripping over things...and the children keep making it messier and messier

done
scones x 2 cheese and sweet
healthy homemade pizza for lunch (v easy type)
fairy cakes that dd can now ice to take her mind off sulking
boiled potatoes for fried potatoes for tea...
persuaded all three to take break for screens for another two hours, although to be fair dd has been mooching around and not watching anything and ds1 has been out and about for a while before lunch..I seem to spend all my time saying NO WII!

todo
PTA nail varnish enormous box in shed
PTA flags enormous box in loft
another box away in my room
dry washing off the landing and into relevant drawers
tablecloth?
HOOVERING of playroom now becoming desperate

icn and Whoknows my ds2 (and ds1 too) would never willingly draw anything. Occasionally he draws something for a "task" very quickly and is v proud of it, but only interested for 10 mins max. They have always hated colouring in.

Colouring in? what's that?

Dare i mention jigsaw puzzles? In this house they are done once. Why would you want to do them again?
they are who they are. right now ds is fully in the middle of his obession with pokemon and enjoying free reign of the tv. he has training later so not too worried.

Whoknows Dh and DD went to watch Arthur Christmas (I went shopping ) Got rave reviews, both enjoyed it but DD did say she got abit scared at desert bit?? - No idea about that but they gave it a good review anyway

Ta da list:

Did not panic
Several loads of washing and tumbledrying
Took DC to dentist
Checked church times for mum
Collected prescriptions from chemist
Took DS2 to play with a friend
Cleaned dog poo off DS's shoes
Cleared out fridge and chipped huge ice block off the inside fridge wall
Collected Xmas Day shopping from Waitrose and put it all into clean fridge (and the turkey fits )
Collected DS2
Cleaned the windows
Polished the brass (door handles, mainly)
Wiped down the front door
Room rescue in the kitchen (aiming for clutter-free surfaces)
Made paper chains with DC
DC's dinner

Still to do tonight:

DC - baths and bed
Clean kitchen floor
Shine sink
Wrap Xmas presents
Put some of the laundry mountain away (I like your idea of covering non-essential laundry in baskets, Ellie)

Mum arrives tomorrow, which means I will spend the morning charging round, making beds and trying to get the house straight before she gets here. Some last-minute shopping to do too.

But right now I am drinking and have a 10-minute break before my dinner (DH cooking).

I hope all you poorly people are better by Xmas Day. The boys and DH all seem to have bad stomachs, but I've been OK so far

Evening all!

Checking in nished as a pewt slightly merry from my boozy Christmas lunchday at work, so no flying done barring a 5 minute tidy of the devastation in the kitchen caused by DH's care of DS!

However, in my deeply philosophical state (ie drunk! ) I have been thinking about houses and relative sizes for tidying. Let me explain (and please disregard the bits that don't make sense!)...

I live in a fairly standard housing estate in what I would term a normal house (excluding the fact that the master suite is downstairs!) with, as with all normal houses, no built in storage or large windowsills to stash stuff in or on. This being the case, my clutter seems to be on top of units, under tables, behind doors and in general just bad layout and organisation. I have two bedrooms, a study/spare room, bathroom, en-suite, toilet, kitchen, utility, living room, dining room and a sort of porch area with a coat cupboard.

I know some of you are not UK based, so things are slightly different, but I get the impression (probably false!) that you all live in mansions with rooms dedicated to crafts and laundry and other esoteric hobbies whereas I just have my stuff tucked away in corners. I therefore feel a bit guilty that my house seems to be a perpetual tip when I feel it should be easy to clean compared to my perception of your huge estates

So, can I ask, without asking people for specifics that will out themselves, what sort of houses do you live in? Am I totally wrong in my imaginings?!

Or feel free to ignore the ramblings of the woman with for the first time in about 4 months!

We've a drink/laptop incident and so it's phone only until it dries but I'm still here! Reading, flying and ready for Xmas. :)

evening all
ellie hope radiator fixed
ice how's your tooth? hope it's a bit better
swan hope boiler is holding up. Yes that was the Christmas I made sock monkeys for them all....have had vague intentions of making more every year since, but never quite managed it LOL. think I may have been permentantly traumatised by that Christmas tree incident though! Hope your guests visit went OK
mc sorry to hear pain came back...hope it is easing again now.

right, well, good day today I braved the shops with DD1 (meadowhell MC must be mad - right!) got there before opening...wasnt too busy initially. DD chuffed as she got a new out fit for Christmas day, and I got few last little bits and pieces I needed. Lovely Starbucks stop where I just had to induldge in an egg-nog latte and slice of gingerbread loaf.Yum
Then since I have been back I have:

S&S bathroom
load of washing in
gutted understairs cupboard of doom in kitchen
emptied and cleaned and re-organised large kitchen food cupboard
emptied and cleaned out fridge/freezer in kitchen
sorted out garage fridge/freezer
deep clean kitchen surfaces
swept hall and kitchen floors
tidied littlies room

am now awaiting Ocado food delivery....crossing fingers all major items are delivered......
.
.
.
.
Now delivered and put away mid - post!!!! Mostly present and correct - hoorah!

DD3 and 4 and ds2 now in bed....DD4 complaining of not feeling well though...has gone to bed clutching sick bowl...please,please,please don't let us be struck down with a sick bug over Christmas .......

right, going to chill for a bit before bed!
bbtomorrow

flying LOL hope you enjoyed your We live in a newish house, not a mansion at all. 4 bed detached, but considering their are 8 of us living in it it doesn't ever feel spacious LOL we have 4 bedrooms, main bathroom, downstairs toilet and en-suite, kitchen, lounge, dining room and stupid utility. Oh, and of course , The Garage of Doom!!Also am constantly in search of "the perfect" storage solutions - when really I just need to de-clutter more!!

Flying - glad you enjoyed your Xmas lunch! We live in a very small terraced house with three bedrooms (since we had a loft conversion) and one bathroom. No such luxuries as laundry rooms or craft rooms, I'm afraid. In fact, the tumbledrier is housed in the understair's cupboard that also serves as a craft cupboard, as well as storage stuff for DH's work stuff.

Re large houses versus small houses - at least in large houses it's easier to give the impression that things are tidy, as there is more space to spread stuff out and, usually, more space to hide things in. The trouble with small houses is that even a tiny amount of clutter makes your house look as if it hasn't been tidied for a month.

At least, that's my excuse .

Flying - we also live in a 3-bed terrace (Victorian), our storage isn't too bad, we have a boarded loft with a pull down ladder, a fairly decent understairs cupboard and a brick shed with electricity and lights at the end of the garden, the tumble dryer is out there. We lack utility room, 2nd toilet or bathroom, garage and enough living space (our stairs go across the middle of the house so we can't knock the two downstairs rooms through and neither they or the kitchen are terribly big). There are only 4 of us, but add a couple of visitors and it feels very crowded indeed.

I was visiting a friend with a vast house yesterday (5 bed farmhouse with cellar and will have 5 reception rooms, even the smallest of which is as big as our lounge), they are building a huge extension too and it is so easy because they just live in other parts of the house while the work is being done. Their utility is considerably bigger than our kitchen. I just console myself that their mortgage is probably 10x bigger than ours. That's no exaggeration either.

OFM - hope your Ocado turns up ok, ours just arrived an hour early with all essentials safe and 3 very reasonable substitutions. Just got to find somewhere to put it all for now. All fruit and veg is going in the car boot. Picking up turkey on Christmas Eve.

MC - thank you, yes the desert bit was probably the scariest bit, although the DCs didn't seem unduly bothered, that was the point that we all started getting a bit fidgetty though, the beginning and end were definitely better than the middle, which was a bit long drawn out. Got stuck in endless traffic jams coming home, big cross country detours due to crashes

Evening all.

Just been in the office finishing off bits so that I can now say I am finished until next Tuesday! YAY!

Poorly update from here - DD1, DD2, DD3, DS and DD4 all now unwell and now very grumpy with it! So we have a very grumpy - feeling sorry for ourselves household! No vom for 24 hours, though, so that's good.

I still have not wrapped one present - that is top of my panic list for tomorrow.

As for the house, Flying, ours was a 10 bedroomed old people's home, so when we moved in it was all over the place. That was nearly 11 years ago. Our five year master plan to have a luxurious mansion went out of the window when we ran out of money after just one year. Much has stayed the same since then! It is fairly big and spacious and I love having the rooms to lose a few teenagers in. We now have 5 bedrooms being used as bedrooms. There is not a lot of in built storage space and we seem to have just too much "STUFF". Having two large lounges is handy because if one is looking a mess i can dump "stuff" into it and make one good enough for visitors. Oh for a tidy decorated house!

OFM I read about your day on the 'Thursday' Thread and did wonder if you had braved Meadowhell. I thought about it for a few minutes but just couldn't face it. I did CP again instead but was in and out withn 30 mins.

Flying re houses. I live in a 3 bed converted barn, which sounds spacious, but all it means is huge glass arched windows that we can't buy curtains for, huge ceilings and no attic. We have a balcony, that is open and gets things dumped on but isn't hidden from view and would be better boarding out as an extra room or two. Our kitchen is tiny and I use the area under the stairs as an office which again is in full view of any visitors. No craft / utility and no storage. Not even enough room for tumble drier which lives in our garage.

PA hope that you all start to get better soon and in time for xmas.

Well I have been ill all afternoon. Not sure if it is the antibiotics which have made me nausious all week or my naughty treat reacting with my intolerance, either way its halted my progress this evening. On the plus side DD has been invited to fanily for afternoon tomorrow so I have a good few hours to get the present wrapping done, which is great as so far I have wrapped nothing.

Evening all. Radiator is diagnosed and remedied temporarily until new valve is fitted tomorrow by dh's friend. The same friend i told dh to call at lunchtime and was told he wasn't needed. Dh has profusely apologised for being an arse and is just about out of the doghouse.

What a shit day. Feck all achieved. Amhoping however that that counts for the traditional xmas row and it will all be plain sailing from here.

flying i live in small 3 bed semi with 2 receptiom rooms, a kitchen the size of a postage stamp and a pantry/understairs cupboard. We have a shed in the garden but had to knock garage down and still waiting to build a new one. My storage is exactly the same as yours, we have nothing built in bar a small airing cupboard. Minimalist chic will never happen here.