Flinging our way through the chaos: February’s Fledgling Flyers

[LinzerTorte]

Welcome to the February edition of the Fledgling Flyers' thread.

If you're living in CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome), this is the thread for you! We follow the tips on the FlyLady website in an attempt to restore order to our homes, but advise against signing up for the e-mails; all the information you need is on this thread.

Each day, I'll be posting the links that will enable you to do any of the following:

• start or repeat babysteps

• repeat babysteps and do 15 minutes a day decluttering in the current zone

or

• reinforce babysteps and do daily missions if you have finished decluttering.

More information about the babysteps is here.

So please join us - there's always plenty of chat, , cake, encouragement and the occasional to help us on our way!

Perhaps whoever is running next month's thread should have absolutely no interest in linguistics.

Honu - that is so great about your DH

Linzer - or they should have built ins!!!

Blue - I so want to put gardening on my to do list.

Off to an ok start this morning. Really trying to focus on my routines, don't want all this work to go to waste.

Ta da
Showered and Dressed to socks
1 load of wash on
overnight wash load transferred to dryer
dryer load on the table awaiting sorting and ironing (didn't take everything out in time so more of it needs ironing )
Unload dishwasher
Breakfast with DSs

To do
swish bathrooms
Sort and iron wash load
declutter for 15 minutes
What's for dinner
Research on computer for DH
Sort through at least 2 boxes of dining room 'stuff'
Tidy DSs' bedroom in time for playdate

Well, that's the thing ChitChat - our house was full of built-in cupboards when we lived in the USA, so we had no need for a dressing table/chest of drawers in the bedroom. Or a vanity, wherever that would have been. Which means I never noticed what they would have been called.

Morning all,

ChitChat - this is the Magic Eraser Magic Eraser. The one I bought in Homebase was much smaller and £1.99, this looks better value.

Interesting point about Lent, as a non-regular churchgoer I have always tended to think in terms of giving something up, and I feel a bit hard done by as my birthday is normally in Lent, so don't want to give up the usual candidates of chocs, alcohol etc). I saw a vicar speaking on TV about it a couple of years ago and saying why not do something positive instead, like commit to eating your 5 a day. I hadn't decided on anything by Shrove Tuesday this year but DS came home from school and announced he was giving up toast (he has a slice every morning after his cereal) so I have decided to show solidarity and give it up too (hard for me as I have it for lunch a lot of the time and a breakfast treat at weekends). Flying better is an excellent candidate for a Lent commitment I think.

Honu - well done to DH. My DH has been known to lie to Drs and pharmacists too, he is supposed to take cholesterol lowering tablets and he ran out for a few weeks, then surprise surprise his cholesterol went up and the GP decided to put him on stronger ones, I made him email her and confess that he hadn't been taking them, what are they like!

Springer 4 month baby (well I would say he is more of a beefy 9 year old!) is lying under my chair. Owners gave me brief instructions to walk him, then leave him to sleep most of the day...I fear I have not got my ignoring skills down to a fine art. He is curled up under my chair looking ominously like he might chew the computer socket, but here's hoping he may now fall asleep. Ignoring ignoring ignoring. I think I may have to sit still for a while....
We've been for a good walk, not too long of course the joints....I've been runnign with dog too It is absolutely lovely having a dog in the house, although he is not yet housetrained and of course I'm not sure what his habits are - everytime I move he moves!, and he definitely needs a crate if he comes here again...and some chewy toys...[have given him an old Croc]

Idea of leaving him a room by himself to settle down has gone completely out of the window, he definitely does NOT want to be left, only reasonable of course as he doesn't know me or house very well.

Honu re:why people don't do what is to their benefit, simple, it's like piano practice really, but worse, no obvious result to doing exercises, just long term intangibles, I think that is certainly why ds1 found it so boring to do physio. My mum was much better at doing her physio exercises, I think it was because she was task orientated, whereas ds is not, unless you present it as some sort of challenge or game, or else turn it into a totally ingrained habit so he doesn't even have to think about it.

Ds went to school this morning looking like a complete scruff. Dh and I organised nothing for him and it showed! His tie was awry, his hair was standing on end, he had one white sock and one grey sock (meant to be black) he hadn't remembered to get us to sign his homework diary, he lost his lunchcard. DH was saying he must organise himself, whereas I take the long view that no-one of 11 is especially organised. After all why else do we get up at 7.00am to wave him off if not to remind him of all the things he forgotten?

Dd took in space project this morning Tin Can Planet. She opened the front door and nearly sat on it as door stuck; luckily all those layers of papier mache proved very robust, although she had to sit down and have smelling salts administered with the shock of it all. All the kids were carrying in large mobiles and shoe boxes to do with space this morning; for the first time we have enjoyed doing the project and it hasn't been torture.

Morning all. Am still one-eyed and was feeling very sorry for myself this morning because my eye is still swollen and weepy. Also, my vision is blurry out of the bad eye and I'm not sure if that's normal (could be all the ointment, I suppose). It didn't help that a tall and attractive gardener was coming round this morning to give us a quote for sorting out our messy garden. I thought of cancelling, but, in the end, I just dangled my fringe over the bad eye and tried to pretend nothing was wrong. I don't think he can have been fooled . Am now resting because doing anything is such hard work at the moment.

Ta da list:

Up and dressed
Lotions and potions for sore eye
Listened to DS2 reading to me
DS2 - breakfast, dressed, packed lunch made
[DH did school run so I wouldn't frighten the children )
Washing up
Wiped kitchen counters
Washed stairs
Emptied bin
Put recycling out
Dried plates etc and put away
Waved off DH (gone to a meeting)
Meeting with sexy gardener
Listened to DS1 reading 'Holes' to me
Reminded DS1 to study solar system and do some maths on BBC Bitesize
Came back to bed
Ordered a couple of things from Next online to cheer myself up

I don't have to do the school run this afternoon as, hopefully, DH will be back in time and if he isn't, DS2's occasional childminder will do it.

ChitChat - yes, it is a good thing I cleared my bedroom floor! At least that's one source of stress (and injury) out of the way. You are doing fantastically with all your decluttering and cleaning - it must feel wonderful to see the difference it makes. Re: our stove - it really is a thing of beauty, even though we haven't been able to use it yet. You should try again with another firm, especially as it takes a while for them to order the parts in. We ordered ours in October, so it has taken four months from ordering to fitting (although Christmas slowed it down, as that's the busy time).

Honu - that sounds like a breakthrough (that your DH went to his exercise class). I hope the welcome he received will encourage him to go back again.

Linzer - what a very stressful day you had yesterday . I hope you get good news about your son's school. I think you're amazing to be working and managing your three DC when they don't even go to school full time. I have to say that I haven't been advertising for work at all as I just don't think I could cope with it on top of everything else at the moment. I do work with DH, but that is so flexible that it doesn't worry me. at your linguistic puzzles.

Jax - I hope your DD had a good trip.

Blue - impressed to see 'gardening' on your list. Flylady doesn't seem to do gardens, unless I've missed something.

Not meant to be reading, so I'm going to listen to some Radio 4 downloads now.

WhoKnows - that is the same Magic Eraser block we use. Wonderful stuff.

Swan - of you having a Springer curled up under your chair. They are such lovely dogs. How long are you dog-sitting for?

I still daren't move incase the dog moves. Linzer you may have said this already, (re: linguistics)I always thought a "dresser" was something you had in your kitchen. And in Ireland it is called a "press"

toffee hope eye feels better soon.

Whoknows no idea how they compare but Asda?s £1 for 4 small magic erasers do fall apart, but seem to work very well for the price.

Swan I?m also envious of you. Dogs bring so much joy with them. Laughing at the decision to shed an old croc for him. (Don?t know if it works for you, but I find life always sounds better to music)

Linzer how very frustrating for you knowing your son?s readiness.

Feetheart you do wonder what parents teach their children about others homes. Glad it went well overall.

Lauren you sound like you?re doing well. Am glad for you, you deserve better.

Blue I?ve made the garden one of my zones in desperation. Have so far managed to get spuds and some onions in but that?s been it.

ChitChat afraid it gets threats of suicide from friend 1 (afraid her o/h did) and threats of child into care, by friend 2. (I used to remove child from situation, but recently less available)
It?s emotional blackmail and I can see that, and know enabling isn?t the answer. Friend with hoarding issue does accept it but abandons hope and slowly drowns. (in front of me)

I want to make ours into a better home too, what a brilliant idea to give up not having control, or develop control over one?s home for lent. :o Please can I borrow it too?

Toffee arghh! I got a corneal scratch through an ember in the eye which was horrible, but it did heal fast. Do hope yours heals quickly.

It would be in British English swan (dresser to me means a Welsh dresser), but it definitely seems to be something you'd have in the bedroom in US speak. I used to subscribe to the UK FlyLady e-mails; I wonder whether they ever mentioned what it was in GB English. (Although it's been cleared up by Blue and possibly someone else on previous threads; it's only really me harping on about the fact that it really ought to be a dressing table. )

Toffee Poor you, that sounds awful particularly the fact that you weren't able to leer seductively at the gardener. (And is it just me or do you have a higher than average ratio of attractive workmen and neighbours around your way?) Hope it gets back to normal as soon as possible; it's only when things like that happen that you realise how much you normally take your sight for granted.

WhoKnows People here don't seem to give anything up for Lent (or maybe they just don't talk about it), which is quite strange considering that Austria seems to be a much more religious country than the UK. DH did tell the children a couple of days ago that they shouldn't be eating any meat that day, but they didn't take any notice of him.

I do seem to have done well on that score, Linzer .

JustGetting - ow, an ember in the eye sounds awful! Does that mean you had a burnt cornea ?

re Gardens, I haven't made mine a zone, but I tend to find kitchen week relatively easy (it's the one part of the house that is properly decluttered and needs a fair amount of work every day anyway, so kitchen zone week is not all that much extra) so last summer I adopted the garden into kitchen week, not so much for actual gardening, which has to be done as and when but for going round picking up all the footballs out of flowerbeds, taking the garden waste to the tip etc.

Just - no Asda near here, but I will try and remember to look next time I do go to one. No helpful suggestions re friends that take your strength but feel free to lean on us for a bit of support.

Toffee Yes, I was terribly lucky. I was working at a firework display when we got wrongly herded into the drop zone, and I was looking up at the display, and there was just sudden pain and something in my eye. Luckily I had the presence of mind to tip my head downwards and let the tears flow, and poured water into it, so the worse damage was to the inside of the lid. I was blue lighted to hospital terrified of what the damage would be because I could only see bright green everywhere, but it passed and I was relieved to be told by lovely consultant that I'd been incredibly lucky and might need an op on the lid only, but didn't in the end. It all healed well with no noticable lasting effects.

Thanks who knows. Just admitting there's a problem has been helpful.

The Asda magic erasers are in the £1 items section, not cleaning btw.

Honu, well done to him. He has my sympathy over swimming but I have to say, the indignities become less significant when no one stares, and you?re confronted by children with c/p, m/s or missing limbs, at the beginning of this journey next to you feeling the same. It?s why disabled only sessions are so important. You get better at the faff and coping by doing it, but it is very hard to find the motivation at times.
(guaranteed warm pool and hot showers would help)

Apologies if this is no use to man nor beast, but thought I'd mention I can only really use my right arm and leg, (natural circles) but I now hold up my left ankle with my right, (crossed feet make a tail) and trail my left arm as a feeble flipper, and a float down my cossie. (so elegant!) End result?s what you?d expect from an unfit mermaid, but in two years I?ve gone from a few strokes to being able to go to the aid of a child in trouble. (which restored my confidence in my competence as a parent, however wonky, and that was one of the things I didn?t know was holding me back in trying to deal with myself.)

Waves to everyone else apologetically, but my lunch break is rapidly becoming my ?just not getting on with it? break! :o

Sorry Toffee :o wasn't the intent.

Just DH seems to have a very strong sense of preferring not to try something rather than being seen to fail at it or need help. Male ego???

Swan Do you have any redundant plastic plant pots for the puppy to play with? My lab has always loved them, although has been known to ditch any plants inconveniently occupying a pot she fancies

Indoor flying abandoned for a bit of gardening as it's been lovely here and washing is all dry.

justgetting on with it at your firework in the eye incident! And wow at your ingenious swimming technique, I shall remember that for my patients.

honu Hope dh survived his ex class and can keep it up. Some people hate physio/exercise because it emphasises to them what difficulties they have . Other people like physio and feel that it is a way of taking control of their situation. Most people have times when they are up for it and times when they can't face it.

linzer when do you here re Ds and school? I agree shyness does not = not ready. My DS cried every day when I took him to school until Y2
and he loved school.

Have been to work. No flying.

Also chitchat Thankyou I have written Fenugreek down and will search it out .

scatty We probably won't hear until mid-July. Now just keeping our fingers crossed that he won't get the teacher I've heard lots of negative things about (they have the same teacher for the whole four years) and that he's in the same class as his best friend.

JustGetting That sounds like a lucky escape. It must have been very frightening at the time, though.

Toffee I'm currently considering what other parts of the house we can have (re)tiled.

**

Saturday's links

Babystep: read FlyLady's personal testimonial

No mission as it's a Saturday - Family Fun Day.

It's been a very exhausting day here somehow. Probably raking all the concrete out of the lawn from the wall being done months ago had something to do with it... I've also been reading the thread about washing machines and am contemplating washing something at 90 now!

Waves and yawns. Good night!

sorry that I have been absent and not doing personals. I have been busy in the house though and keeping on top of everything.

Spent a long time on M25 yesterday stuck in traffic, collected my Mum from aunts house and drove home again. Was in bed for 10 last night and out like a light until 6.45 this morning. Feel much better now and ready to face the day.

Happy Saturday, not sure what we are doing today.

Still a one-eyed fledgling with a weepy, sore eye. Rang the eye hospital this morning as there's no improvement and I was worried that the nurse had missed something in my eye, but the nurse at the hospital said it's normal to take at least four or five days (not the 36 hours mentioned in the hospital leaflet I was given) to recover from a scratched cornea and that my symptoms sounded absolutely normal.

DH has gone out for the day with friends, but only because I insisted - he's been looking forward to it for ages, but thought he should cancel. I'm afraid the boys are having rather too much access to their computers today and DS2 has just discovered moviestarplanet, which I'm not sure is suitable for a six-year old . At least DS1 has a friend with him, so he's socialising as well.

Anyway, I have had coffee, taken lots of pills and potions, so am about to start my chores. To do:

Dry washing (already washed this morning)
Sort messy kitchen
What's for lunch? (think it's going to be a frozen pizza and easy pasta day)
Take boys out for a runaround if weepy eye permits

That'll do for now.

Hope you all have a good Saturday. Apologies for being so pathetically sorry for myself when several of you have real health issues (JustGetting - am even more impressed by all the help you give to others considering your own issues!). It just shows how I take my health for granted and it's a shock when I'm less than healthy.

Just popping in to say hello. Hope everyone is OK (sorry to hear about your eye Toffee) and hope anyone else who is poorly feels better soon

Thank you for keeping us all on track Linzer

Sorry to read about your news earlier Lauren - I hope things are getting a bit easier for you

Justgettingonwithit your swimming achievements are v. inspiring!!

I'm a fraudulent flyer atm. We've had a grim start to the year (bereavement, 2 weeks of really hideous flu, followed this morning by euthanasia of guinea pig ). I'm really going to miss her because she was such a character ...

The entire house is a dusty, messy chaos-ridden hot spot of clutter. Haven't done any washing for over a fortnight either. Today is the first day when I've felt like I've had any energy to tackle anything... but it is going to take ages to get back on track.

Can't believe it's nearly March and house is in such a terrible state (and I haven't started my Lenten diet/exercise regime as intended. HOpefully will be able to get back to a bit more of a normal routine when dd returns to school on Monday (even though both of us are still coughing for England)

Heigh ho, c'est la vie ....on the positive front, it's a lovely sunny day here. Going to set my timer now and do just 15 mins of crisis cleaning ....back to basic principles and small steps etc

Humungous waves to everyone ...