Baby steps leaving footprints in the Winter snow

[roastparsnipsandbrusselsprouts]

Good try black, but that just went to the fly lady home page, here is the link directly to baby step 4

scout we don't get dressed until after breakfast (& I only get dressed to slippers, not shoes)

Thanks Bessie, Haven't quite learned how to do that yet.

Right breakfast almost done (apart from DD taking her time!).
Time to get them dressed.

Hi ladies. Can I join too. I was on the other thread but I think they're a bit too advanced for me :o

So far
breakfast done & cleared away
shiny sink
bins put out

Not dressed yet as this is the last day before the kids go back so we are slobbing in front of the telly watching Polar Express for the nth time.

To Do
Sort out To Do list for stress-free getting ready for school.

Hi dlamis - you are already ahead of me, DD2 & I are still in our PJs eating breakfast!

black if you goto the page you want to do a link to, you can copy the URL (e.g. www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-4/) and paste it into your post (apologies if I'm telling you stuff you already know!!)

My sink was lovely & shiny when I went to bed last night, but by the time I came downstairs this morning, DH had filled it with stuff from making his lunch! I will be dealing with that & emptying the dishwasher after another

Hope you scots are all ok? It said on the radio that lots of you have lost power over night? We were woken by the baby monitor beeping at 5am this morning so we thought we might have had a power cut, but it turns out something in the house had tripped a fuse, but we haven't worked out what yet....

Hi Dlamis,

So far I have done:
Breakfast for all
get everyone dressed
and DS to school.

The school run and getting ready went fairly well this morning. It is very quiet here now (Just me and DD) she might be starting nursery next week (I find out Friday).

Thanks Bessie for that "how to". I think I will let you do the direct link to babystep each morning .(Sounds a bit complicated, I don't know how you paste things).

Right I'm going to have a before I do anything else.

Is today's babystep to write motivational messages on post-its?

Today, so far I have:
. breakfast
. all dressed and out by 8:30am
. dish washer/ washing machine are on

To do list:
Tidy our/ DS's room
Ironing backlog

Having a coffee break and will look at Boffin's meal plan and Family Cookbook.

I really need to sort the toy situation out. This is the thing that drives me insane. I need to embrace the 'you can't organise clutter; you can only get rid of it' spirit. This is one job that overwhelms me; it never ends.

Boffin is The Family Meal Cookbook by FERRAN ADRIÀ?

That's the one. The first thing I made was the baked apples recipe, even buying a corer from Lakeland especially. I used Golden Delicious apples and followed the recipe exactly apart from the brandy. They were fantastic and the presentation was good too. It was a very cheap pudding to make. I am a pretty OK cook anyway but it was fascinating seeing how they did things as well as their timings. And I got lots of good ideas for new dishes, especially Catalan ones.

Interestingly, DD works in marketing for a posh restaurant chain, where despite their outlandish meal prices, they apparently feed the staff comparatively badly during their 12 hour shifts, and she approved of this book as well. I think she plans to take over the kitchen before service one day to show what can be done in terms of improving the staff meal with the help of this (she is not trained as a chef but she is perfectly comfortable in a professional kitchen - a lifetime of me shrieking at her to chop and stir things obviously prepared her for anything!)

egg today's baby step is to write your fly-lady to-do list down, so that's

• get dressed
• shine sink
• go look at her website

You will be adding to this later (and turning it into your "control journal"), but for now I think she's just trying to get you used to looking at a list. This is one thing I am rubbish at, I am great at making lists, but I always forget to check them!

hi everyone.hellodlamis.glad to see school runs went ok.i practcally skipped home excited to be free to clean without interuption
sink still shiny
was up and sorted by 6(usually my kids are all marauding underfoot by then but typically on 1st day term no1 surfaced til 6.30)
fed up falling through front door coz of hall chaos so did 15mins and can now enter without breaking my neck.....how the hell did i manage to fill a carrier bag with rubbish,another with paper stuff to recycle and another with toys that had been thrown down the stairs/abandoned at the bottom of the stairs?does anyone else have this problem?its still not spotless as dont have enough coat hooksor storage for lunch boxs/book bags.suggastions on these points welcome.
having done checked in with you lot im now going to load the WMand try and decide what i can impact on most in 20mins!
i also have toy issues....3kids each got 40gifts for xmas(dad doesnt live with me although we are together and guilt buys).this is a year on year problem and im drowning so any ideas how to declutter through them will be greatly appreciated

I have claimed back 2 of my kitchen worktops The other one has clutter on.
Washing up done --till after lunch--
Anyone who knows me knows this is a massive achievement!
--I am normally a slattern in the kitchen--

I think next I may need to do a shopping list.

black did you get your meal plan done ok? DD2 & I are having this very easy tomato & courgette pasta for our lunch today

I too, feel like I am drowning in toys, although not to the same extent as liveinazoo!!! 120 new toys in the house? Next year, could you ask people to put money into their bank accs instead?

We put out 4 charity bags this morning, so now I have a bit of space I need to sort some toys out into boxes to go up into the loft. There must be some toys that DD1(3) is too old for & DD2(8m) is too young for???

speaking of which, DD2 has just woken up so we need to go for a quick walk to the Drs before lunch. fx it doesn't rain again like yesterday!!

Hi Bessie I have found an old meal plan that I had in my control Journal so am trying to match it to what food I have in the house. I will hopefully go shopping this evening while DH looks after the DC (I find it's easier on my own).
Thanks for that link to your Blog.
We are having an early lunch cause DD was asking for some food.
(Just sandwiches and snacky stuff here).

12 noon and I'm still in PJs.

Off for a wash - I need to put my clothes on ready for DS's/my nap at 12.45.

live, friends I know with lots of DC actually don't buy their DC anything for Christmas / birthdays as they get so many presents from other family members. Maybe for future think of setting a quota?

Thanks bessie26 that makes more sense (except 3 which will be make a cuppa).

Toy issue is a mahoosive problem. DS had a bike and 5 presents from us. I am not exaggerating - 6 bin bags full of toys came in from family and friends. Living room has had a post Chrimbo blitz and toys have been sorted (in this room)

Boffin That is disappointing, any clues? All teh fuss about tips and minimum wage really made me think a lot differently about where I spend my money. Pizza Express and others deduct 8% handling charge from tips from bills paid electronically. I tend to leave cash tips as a rule.

PS The book looks goos so I have added it to my Amazon wishlist. I have the Economy Gastronomy book already.

To do list still:
Tidy our/ DS's room
Ironing backlog (stuff in dryer now)
15 mins declutter in hall (this weeks zone)

still in your PJs angels ? I wouldn't bother getting dressed if I were you, no point dirtying another set of clothes now

live I keep a plastic storage box on the landing upstairs for throwing scattered toys in. Someone else once suggested putting a storage box in each room & throwing wayward toys in it throughout the day, then at the end of the day you can return them to their rightful homes, if the DC are old enough they could do this themselves?

Hello everyone.

I made an effort to get up earlier today as we had been getting later and later.

Dh is back to work today so I asked him to make sure I was fully awake before he left. I ended up with both kids in the bed with me and the dog on the top of us. Made it much easier to get up

I got washed straight away because I can't eat for a while after I get up but Scout I don't think it matters if you have breakfast first and then dress, as long as you do dress early on. A pj snuggle sounds a perfect way to start the day.

I got a shock this morning as I had forgotten that I had emptied the dishwasher before bed. It was great to be able to put the breakfast dishes straight in.

I have been taking down Christmas decorations. I have done the lounge and the hall so there is just the tree in the kitchen/family room to do. I am a bit as I was still enjoying them.

I have also hung a load of washing, put the bin out, hoovered the hall and lounge and sorted and folded the dry laundry.

We went for a walk this morning. I thought we all needed some fresh air and exercise and since it was finally dry and not windy I thought I would grab our opportunity.

Boffin thanks for the links. I am working my way through them. I especially like the home cleaning routine. It is a different approach to Flylady's blessing and zones but it might work for me. I also liked the idea of not washing more than I can dry, sort and iron that day and having days for particular types of laundry like bessie does.

Thank you BlackCat and bessie for today's links. I still have my notes up inside my cupboard door so I am going to read them today.

bessiethe storage box idea works for me and at 4,6,7 and 17 they can bloody well start helping.i need to start training them to be tidy so any ideas on that front will be good
as for the toy deluge thats purely dad going ott despite my complaints.i have now threatened to dump all future skiploads at his house in the hope thatl make him think before he buys!!!that just leaves me to sift though what we have.....the kids rotate things so play with a suprisingly large amount of things.might be too late to start launching loads as its what theyre used to.what do you guys think?
decided to use 20mins had spare before collected youngest from nursery to find bathroom
will now retreat to do some ironing and try and reclaim a bit of the kids rooms before time to go and get them back

Yeah, my laundry schedule may make me a saddo, but it's really helped me get on top of it. Not only does it mean I can get it all dry, but because it then becomes a habit I don't have to think about it - I just know that on fridays I wash light stuff (mainly DH's work clothes), and on wednesdays I was the kids towels - DD1 swims on mon, DD2 on wed, so it also minimises the time I have soggy towels in the dirty laundry pile!

I'm glad I didn't get round to mopping the kitchen floor yesterday, DD2 has just covered it in pasta sauce

egg am impresssed by your zone work! I must try to do some this afternoon once I've finished my home blessing...

p.s well done black cat on the work surface front!

Afternoon!
I feel like I am falling by the wayside but then I tick one thing off my home routines app and think its not so bad-we are all off until Monday, DH complaining about a sore back, dd wanting in the computer all the time so I've escaped to the bathroom and I done my S&S while waiting for the bath to run.

boffin thanks for the links off to read them now

Well done to everyone who has achieved something today :)

I have a question about these post-its/notes. Are they an actual to do list or are we "supposed" to put post-it notes around random bits of our house with reminds? To me that seems to be creating more clutter.... I have a notebook that I do my to do list, weekly menu and shopping list in.

Unfortunately my washer/dryer is on the blink (grrrr think it's the dryer bit but it means I can't wash, either) so need to haul Toddler, bag of laundry and detergent into town to the laundermat. MrScout doesn't get home from work early enough for me to be able to go, sans TS, in good time. While TS is very good, the laundermat is not the most exciting place for a small boy. Unfortunately I can't put off washing the work/dress shirts as MrScout is down to one clean one left. I have to wait for him to wake up from his nap (went down late today as we were grocery shopping and having lunch) and pray it doesn't rain like it's threatening to. Did several jobs this morning and having a pause while TS naps (find it's the only way I can function during the witching hour if I don't rest/stop for a few minutes when he's down I'm as miserable as him during that awful hour/two hours in the evening).

Toddler cuddles in the morning are the best. Started when he was a baby -- I was undergoing some medical stuff that left me exhausted and not feeling fab, especially in the mornings, so I'd bring him with me, we'd "watch" cartoons or play with toys and eat dry Cheerios for breakfast. Now that medical stuff is done and I feel human again he still comes in with me but we have a cuddle and read books, sometimes play with toys, then go downstairs for breakfast and more "structured" play (like paint or glue). THEN we get dressed and do whatever we're doing for the day.

bessie, well the PJs was only because DS had me up 5 times in the night. And he was very into reading / playdough but wanted me to help.

I did make some soup for lunch though. It was parsnip & pear, but it was a bit too sweet.

Getting dressed definitely helps get things done.

I agree on the laundry schedule. I'm slightly out of the loop with mine, but now I know without checking that I change handtowels on Tuesday and Saturday for example. It doesn't always go in the WM that day, but it usually does.

Just finished decluttering my Christmas chocolates.

Angels I like the decluttering chocolates idea. I might have to join you in that zone.

mmmmm chocolate :-) DD2 is napping & the kettle has just boiled, so I might have to declutter the hot chocolate

scout If you already have a list you look at, I wouldn't worry about doing the post-it notes unless you think it might be useful?

angel sorry to hear you had a disturbed night, any chance of a nap this arvo?