fledglings falling out of the nest thread

[IceColdBitchy]

Ok So a new year a new thread.
You know the ropes flying the fledgling way.
Decluttering 15mins at a time in each zone.
Babysteps and missions.

Sunday is renew your spirit day and seeing as today is new years days I hope there aren't too many evil hangovers in existance.

Babystep 1: shine you shine. yes we know this one but do you shine it the fat fairy way? cant remember? check here

And for a treat as it is sunday no mission.

Oh and can i just may 2012 bring you productive decluttering and flying so your houses step closer to those of your dreams and house work no longer be that evil monster that dominates.

Hi al!

Feeling decidedly tipsy after a night out with a friend at our local ? really shouldn?t be in charge of a laptop, who knows what damage I can do??!!

Swam- yes, hemp is well and truly cannabis!!!!
outofbody - eyeing off the Pax wardrobes myself ? they look very useful!

I?m soooo surprised by FIL?s ?herbal? medicine. He?s usually so careful with things. I can?t believe he has been using this stuff for so long. Granted he can?t have used very much at any given time for it to have lasted so long, but.... really??? I?d love to be a fly on the wall when he reads DH?s email . Someone?s in for a VERY big surprise!!!!

I had a good day today. DS2?s nursery settling in session went very well. Was quite bored as clearly superfluous. If I had been the only new parent I would probably have been told I could go home. DS2 didn?t pay any attention to me until carpet time at the very end. He had so much fun!

Got lots of tidying and cleaning done this afternoon. Then out for a catch up with a friend. Determined to do more of these. DH works such long hours that I?ve let catching up with friends slide.

Will get back to proper flying next week. (Hmm, what area are we covering???)

erm zone 3?
unhelpful
and totally fuzzy headed with meds
and had a weird night

RL has become even more frantic so flying routines went out of the window - result total chaos! So... last summer I did an excel spreadsheet with morning, afternoon and evening routines down the side and the days of the week across the top, so I can tick off tasks (no laminater here) which really helped. Last Monday I printed this out again and started using it. I can now see what I have and (more importantly) have not done, and this reminds me to go and do them. Also, if something doesn't get done one day (eg a s&s) I can make sure to do it the next.
I still find decluttering very hard and am having to break it down into miniscule tasks around the main problem, like clearing out the drawer some of the stuff will go into, thus nibbling around the edges to reduce the size of the main task iyswim.
I have been reading the thread all along and its really good to know you are all there - I feel less alone doing this. DH is now very disabled and soon we will have a massive building upheaval so the decluttering becomes more important. I have a knot in my stomach whenever I think about it as it is a massive project and all down to me. Just breathe Honu, just breathe....

Oh Honu, how difficult for you! We had major building work done. A lot of it was done before we moved in, but it was absolute chaos when we moved in (builders locked our movers out for 1 hour!!!). I also had to run it all, very scary but I did it. Now I'm picking up the pieces of it - pretty much all the decorating has been left to me, my DH works long hours and travels a lot. I have 2 DSs, 4 ys and 2 1/2 yrs. Not much decorating gets done in any week and I feel as though I'm living in chaos (hence my name!!)

PM me if you want a bit of extra support.

Oh bloody hell. I am fecking useless at flying and posting in the week. I am so sorry. Had a bit of a crap week. DH's van blew up, Dd has conjunctivitis and an ear infection and DS has been in tears saying he had no-one to play with at school. One of those weeks i am glad to consign to history. Only positive thing was that stepbrother has become a dad and therefore me an auntie again. Lovely little bundle of joy to snuggle. Very though. First pregnancy, early but not too early andonly 2 hours in labour! I was practically 3 chuffing days with ds! Anyway, am going for suggles tomorrow. Unfortunately this has made mum a bit upset as lovely stepdad isn't here to see it as he passed away over 3 years ago so she is happy and sad iyswim. Not helped by the fact it is the 12th anniversary of my darling dad's death soon as well. So she needs snuggles too.

Busy day today. DS is at the panto with cubs and need to do washing, food shop etc. and i don't know about you but it is bloody freezing here.

Am going to try and catch up now.

Honu, you can post on this thread even when flying is failing. that is why we have the naughty corner bar. It was invented for those days/weeks which are going to hell but just need the comfort of knowing the others are about. You dont even have to explain you can stomp in and open up if needed. It is essentially a metaphor. One that simply says rl is not going quite how i want it.

Best advice is this "The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time". You can do this, but one piece at a time. The big picture is scary so break it down. Good luck. Be strong.

Late night. Forum invasion fun. Suffering and lack ability to make sense. Hope you all have good days. Fuck late already. Bollocks.

Have a good one!

Bitchy sounds like you are getting back to your normal self
Ellie congratulations!
Honu Don't expect too much of yourself, the world won't fall apart if your house is more cluttered than you like.

Can't scroll back more than that, two little people across the room being very needy, (obviously being 2 and 4).
Now, one wants to go outside, the other one doesn't want to leave the house.. DH lying in bed hungover after his birthday drinks.

This is going to be a fun day......

Morning guys

Popping in to say hello and post a list to motivate me. Hardly any housework done since started new job so need to get on top of that this weekend. I hope you are all well, too much for me to catch up on though.

To do list

• washing - at least three loads today
• dd to dance class
• library to return books
• food shopping for week
• declutter hallway of bags and other bits and bobs
• return some items to shops
• look for a new outfit for my graduation that will look ok under my cap and gown on Friday
• menu plan for week
• marking
• lesson planning
• alcohol

Waves to everyone. I will try to catch up with you a little whilst it's quiet here.

I slept all night last night as DH was up with DS (and okay some might have helped ). I feel amazing and motivated and... I'm really sorry that I'm so up when it seems that others are having a bit of a crap time so I'm sending lots of positive vibes to you all as I appear to have some spare.
Bitchy glad you're feeling better
MC good luck with the outfit shopping
justone hope your DH stops feeling fragile and can help - you could always send the kids in to "cuddle daddy coz he's not well" but I guess if it was his birthday you can't really do that. Probably
Honu sorry to hear about your DH. I can't really offer any advice, but I can empathise and support on here. Just keep taking it one step at a time, and feel free to open the naughty corner bar at any time - first round is on me!
Ellie very of the snuggles. I definitely (at the moment!) don't want another, but I do like a nice newborn snuggle Hope your DC feel better soon too.
Waves to Blue, Linzer, swan, laure, Toffee, Outofbody, ChitChat and anyone else I've missed.

Well after a nice sleep and a long lie (until 7.30am ) I have got a few bits done.
Up and breakfasted (not dressed yet )
Dinner made and in the slow cooker as we're all out and about to different places today
Downstairs hoovered
Windows (inside) washed
Bread in breadmaker so we have some for tomorrow
DH dressed.

I need to iron a blouse for this afternoon as I'm meeting a friend for coffee and she's always immaculate, so don't want to let the side down. I may even break open my makeup bag

Anyway, hope you all have a good weekend!

Morning everyone (just!)

Well DD is still asleep from last night so instead of being resourceful with my time I slept til half 10

List dump as I'm on my phone but have read the thread and honu we are here for you to vent even if you haven't flown!( or is that flew?)

So list (not much as its weekend and my house is quite sparkly already [smug face])

To do:
Hoover
Paperwork
Declutter bedroom
Sweep and mop kitchen floor
Put up new hooks
Go to see my mum
Evening routine

I might BBL!

honu the only thing I would say is that decluttering although it seems time consuming will in the end reduce the amount of housework...
the problem is that in the meantime there seems to be a bottleneck where the house gets dirtier and dirtier whilst one sorts out drawers and feels miserable about all the things not done whilst decluttering, but IT REALLY HELPS TO DO A LITTLE, ANY...

ice is right that you have to nibble at the problem, sometimes it can take years to face up to the fact that some clutter is "clutter". A particular skirt has been at the back of my wardrobe, in the hamper, in the loft, in the mending pile, in the diet pile, now for three years waiting to be mended but also too small for me..I can just cannot decide whether to hold onto it or not (it really was a very nice skirt in its day) Anyway, I am definitely now going to bite the bullet and chuck it, that skirt has wasted hours of my time...

done
took ds1 for a longish run (I beat him)
reenactment of Battle of Hastings with sons as ds seems utterly confused
earlier - Catechism class - went alright, they were v subdued...used to a livelier fidgeting group lot
Music lessons etc
lunch pre-prepared, what a difference
tidied kitchen
typed up some Space with dd

DH in a very grumpy mood this morning - I think he's suddenly fed up with livng with 4 selfcentred people, but on the other hand doesn't quite know what to do with himself and how to enjoy being selfish himself!

ellie your poor mum, hope baby gives her new lease of life too

right, I have done absolutely nothing useful in the last two hours, except
the dishwasher done
piano practice dd done

ds1 is still pratting around over homework...
dh putting kids to bed...time for an early night and give up methinks..

will attempt to rescue hall before I go to bed

I'm shit.

I'm tired.

House is not good.

Have done some decluttering but can't see any improvement.

I think I've lost my way with Flylady. :(

Anyway how are you all? Busy by the sounds of things!

I had lovely squishy little people cuddles today, met up with some of the girls and laughed til our sides hurt. Twas fabulous. I have done fuck all flying. And i am in bed already. half the threads i posted on last night have evaporated still fun at the time, although goodness know what happends when the daytime crowd got their mitts on them.

**
linkies

First things first - NO mission

Sunday is renew your spirt day

Babystep 15: make your bed

right off to catch up with mn world and then early night. shattered.

Thank you all for your messages of support. To DH I have to be positive all the time otherwise he frets about not being able to do anything, so it is really good to be able to voice some negative wobbles. Having the printed tick-list has definitely helped me keep a bit of focus on the routines, but the decluttering is soooo slow. Still, I must be getting somewhere as the general dustbin is more than twice as full as it usually is and I took a couple of boxes to the charity shop. A skip is more the scale of what is needed, but babysteps, babysteps...

Have cleaned the house. The stuff is back in the loft. The spare room is clear - in fact my desk is hurting my eyes with its shininess! Now I just need to keep it that way until tomorrow evening and make the bed up...

Realised that I will have to tackle the Boxes of Doom at some point soon. But not yet.

Good night.

nicknacks hope you get a good night's sleep with dd. I think after xmas is a pretty low point from every decluttering point of view....bet mindees won't mind though AT ALL.

ice I need more cuddles from little people [possibly cat can oblige] although I have to say ds1 is very cuddly unfortunately not so little

blue well done, a shiny desk indeed

done
second wind - swept floors downstairs
worktops
wash hung out
dishcloths on express wash
sink shone (well in low lighting it looked alright)
food compost emptied
PE kit removed from plastic bag
hall minorly rescued

the whole house needs to be vigorously hoovered/mopped, there is mud everywhere

chitchat glad ds enjoyed nursery settling in so much, and well done on all the things you got done

Just popping in briefly to see how all you lovely Fledglings are. Sorry to those who are feeling disspirited with the state of their homes. We all know that feeling so well, but, eventually, you will break out the other side. It has taken me about a year to get to the stage I'm at now, but I can honestly say that Flying has made a difference. Decluttering and routines are the key.

Today, I spent ages having my hair done, followed by shopping in town (child free - bliss!), then arrived home with only half an hour to spare before MIL turned up for tea. I hardly had to do a thing to get the downstairs sorted before she arrived - just because I had been sticking to my routines this week and we have thoroughly decluttered downstairs. Once, I would have needed a couple of hours to rush round getting the place respectable.

Anyway, I have given my lie in tomorrow to DH because he's starting his new job the next day, so had better get to bed now.

Goodnight all.

Morning all,

I'm another one who's very dispirited about the state of the house at the moment. DH offered to take the DC out to the zoo yesterday so that I could get on with things, but I reminded myself that it was Family Fun Day and went along too. I feel guilty as it is about how little "quality time" I spend with the children (there always seem to be more pressing things to do in the house, although surely spending time with the DC should be most important). Anyway, had a nice but very cold time there; we left when it started snowing and then braved Ikea (generally a nightmare on a Saturday and impossible to find a parking space after about 10 am).

Got v. down about how little I managed to get down at home in the afternoon and about the general chaos (I really, really need to find the ice rink tickets by next Thursday; I worked out that losing them is equivalent to losing about ?40), but was too tired to do anything in the evening. Instead, I set my alarm for 5.30 this morning (yes, I probably am completely mad)... and was too tired to get up, so lay in bed awake until about half an hour ago, when DS got up.

Toffee I do feel as if I have too much to do, but it's really not a huge amount compared to a lot of the others on this thread - I'm not working full-time (haven't actually done any work this year other than teaching for a few hours a week) and have the mornings to myself. I think I just need to find a way to get more organised (have been reading the organised thread for ideas, which was very inspirational).

swan I spoke to my friend who's teaching the FC class and she was quite down about how chaotic is was, how unruly the children (with a few exceptions) were, etc. Apparently the worst offender is the daughter of the other mother (plus her younger brother, who was there too and wanting to join in), so she didn't feel like she could say anything. Teaching the classes must be hard enough work as it is without having to worry about keeping the children under control as well.

outofbody Am not sure yet - a few others on my C25k thread are planning to start again, but I don't know yet whether to join in (will pop over in a minute WhoKnows, DC permitting!) as I'm a bit worried about the jump from running 8 mins to running 20 mins at a time wrt my knee; I think I'd have to modify the run times if I did start the programme again. I've started more or less from the beginning anyway, but according to my own plan; I've been running for 1 km, and will increase it to 1.5 km next week and see how it goes.

Waves to everyone else; apologies for no more personals, but will be on the computer all morning otherwise.

Morning ladies.

First, Honu come and vent all you like on here. It's hard always having to be the "up" and positive person, so feel free to grumble to us. I think I can safely say that you're not alone in needing to moan sometimes - I know there are days when I want to scream, but I don't want to let it out in real life coz it would affect others. I work on the principle of "in cyberspace, no one can hear your scream"
Outof & Linzer I am very fo your running abilities - I can't run (knee issues) but am conscious that I do need to do something to sop me piling weight back on.
swan good luck with the FC class
Toffee yay! On the not panicking re MIL arrival. I wish I could be like that, but sadly I'd need PIL who actually wanted to visit
Blue can you come and do my desk? My issue is computer stuff and DH grumbles when I move them. Think I'm going to have to ask fo his cooperation as I really do need to organise the desk so I can work there properly.
nicknacks have some and a shoulder. Nothing much I can say but you have my sympathy.
bitchy what have you been up to? I'm very curious and will now have to stalk you look up these threads.
swan hope you got the hall sorted
ellie hope everything went okay and the cuddles were lovely
And waves to anyone I've missed.

Yesterday was good as I got some cleaning done and then had a coffee with an old friend while DH took DS to the park. The friend is having real issues so glad I could have time with her and it made me much less stressed about DS not sleeping - this too shall pass etc. feel very sorry for her though although there is nothing I can do to help, and feel a bit guilty that she chilled me out, but not a lot I can do regarding that.

Today I've told DH I'm going to shower upstairs before DS naps so I can gut the bathroom properly while little hands can't get at the chemicals. Then as it's never used bar DS's bath, it can just be dusted/S&S daily. Think we're planning a family walk this afternoon, so will dig out my thermals (and I know where they are! ) so have taken a chicken out for a nice roast dinner to warm us up.

Hope you all have a good day.

Hi all
Another one going round in circles here. I blitzed the flat (very un-fly lady like) the other day and now it's just a muddle again (weekend syndrome).

I feel constantly guilty leaving children to it while I 'get on' with things.
But then when 2 year old comes up to me asking for something I get exasperated because I just want to finish what I'm doing.

Waaaaa!
She is so whingey this morning!

Thanks flying and swan Ds2's turn last night to wake the house as he was sick. Mostly managed to get to the bathroom but at half 7 it was in his bed so we all got up.

Mindees are fab as usual. Two new ones starting over the next few weeks so I hope they settle well.

Supposed to be going to my mums for lunch today as my brother is back off to uni but I will have to see how ds2 is.

So...

Ds2 bed washed
School uniform wash
Dw on and unloaded
Bags packed for tomorrow
Homework with both boys
Bath and hair wash all
Sitting room hotspot
Mop kitchen
Hoover whole house
Clean bathroom

Have a lovely Sunday everyone!

Linzer glad to hear that teaching the FC class is challenging! So we must be doing something right atm...After two years of it being a bit touch and go, we now start off with Rules (putting your hand up, listening) which the children suggest. Also we get them to stand up when reading the Bible story as it is a change from them all sitting still (the deacon gave us that tip) This week we coloured in candles with their names on them. We also have an book published by the Parish with bits for them to write/colour in. And we try to get the children to do most of the talking
Ds2 once came to one of my FC classes when Dh was not able to mind him; it was an utter nightmare,never again, and he had done the FC class himself the previous year with another teacher and had been as good as gold. Sometimes your parent as teacher sets you off!