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!

Hiya all!

This thread is moving really fast so I apologise for no personals but I've got way too much paperwork to do! I'll just dump a ta da list instead

Ta da:
Walked dog
DD and mindee to playgroup
Hoovered
Deep cleaned bathroom
washed down doors- how do they get so mucky in a week?!
Whats for dinner? Cottage pie from scratch
Had tea with friend
indoor rabbit cleaned out
Laundry washed dried and put away *2

Now about to do some paper work before an early night (10:30ish)

BB in morning after school run!

Evening all,

This would ideally be my bedtime, but I'm just starting work for the evening. Am not sure whether I'm going to be able to concentrate for very long, however, and there's little point in proofreading when I'm tired, so I don't think it's going to be a very late night.

Neenook Hope your DH's appointment goes OK tomorrow.

WhoKnows I'm already worried about how cold it's going to be when I go for my run tomorrow, as it seems to be getting colder by the day here! It was -10° this morning although I didn't go out until lunchtime, when it had warmed up to a positively tropical -2°.

Dedalus Am very of your American style fridge. I was at how tiny the fridges were when I first moved to Austria, after having got used to US size fridges. Mind you, the biggest size container of milk you can get here is 1 litre; I used to buy a gallon of milk in the USA, which would take up half my ILs' fridge! (I insisted on a slightly bigger one, but it's not huge by any means.)

Jnice Baking soda mixed with vinegar is supposed to be a very effective cleaner, although I haven't tried it. White vinegar on its own is supposed to be good too, but I haven't been able to find it here. And lemon juice is good for cleaning chrome (but not plated) taps. Since the initial clean I've been using an e-cloth to clean my sink, which is very environmentally friendly as you just need water.

swan We had a plumber round to look at our boxroom this evening with a view to converting it into a minuscule bathroom, but I'm in two minds about whether I want three loos - all that extra swishing & swiping!

Flying Hope your DS is better soon.

Bitchy The magic tape looks good. I'm always fiddling about with little bits of paper to label food for the freezer and stick them onto containers with sellotape, so must see if I can find some.

slowburner Hope you have a better night's sleep tonight. It's always nice to know that you've got a clean and tidy house awaiting you - I hate leaving the house in a mess, esp. when we go on holiday.

Blue Excellent idea to deal with paperwork on anti-procrastination day - I may have to steal it.

Waves to everyone else. Back to post tomorrow's links once I've done a bit of work.

Off topic: Just back from a presentation at DS1's school (on careers), which reminded me why it would be good if DS1 went back to school again - ie. it is full of dedicated, knowledgeable teachers (like Ellie) who have all the resources to teach DS1 at their fingertips. The evening made me feel like a pupil again (we had to attend a 'lesson' in a classroom and do ice-breaking exercises ), which helped me to empathise with DS1's anxieties at being in the school environment. So all in all a very useful evening. And DH had coped perfectly well with DS2, who I left in tears because he had something in his eye (DH let him watch telly for a little and it cured him!). Am now sipping and relaxing ....

The big Flying news from the Toffeewhirl household is this... ... I have done my ironing! It was dull and time consuming, but it had to be done and the other Flyers on this thread shamed me into dealing with it (by reporting on their laundry prowess ). However, I will do my utmost to remember to take laundry straight out of the t/dryer and hang it up, so that I can minimise ironing as much as possible.

Am surrounded by old books that need valuing, so I can see that I'll be busy tomorrow. Will try to fit in some Flying as well.

Aiming to get to bed at a decent hour again tonight, as it was so nice to get seven whole hours' sleep last night (with apologies to those who are struggling with sleepless children, eg. BlackCat).

Linzer - poor you, starting work at your bedtime . As this month's leader, I think you have to follow Flylady's commands, eg. 'Go to bed at a decent hour'!

I think I would like to be in bed right now too, just had some prawn crackers instead

List for Tomorrow (nothing like being prepared, and I do like a good list )

Get up
Get DS his bottle
Get dressed to shoes (Babystep 2) only perhaps to slippers instead
Make a cup of tea
Laundry
Breakfast for everyone
Wash up (and so it begins)
Get kids dressed
DD to school
Pop to town - Marigolds! Softener and washing up liquid
Make some cakes to take to friends
Phone some insurance companies for trailer quotes
Pick DD up
Lunch
Laundry
Horses - ride
Go to friends for early dinner
Kids bed
Laundry
Shine the sink
Shower and bed

thewaffler Well done on the Shred. I think Day 15 was about when I gave up...

BlackCat Fingers crossed for a better night for you as well.

Toffee Rather like role play, the words "ice breaking exercise" send me into a slight panic! Sounds like an interesting evening, though. We sent DD1's secondary school enrolment form into school today; her future career seems a long way off atm, but she'll probably have to start thinking about the direction she wants to take in a few years' time as middle school only lasts for four years. A big WELL DONE on the ironing, btw!

Dedalus You sound very organised - I never get round to writing a list until the morning (although I do like a good list too ).

Back in a mo with the links.

Sneaking in to confess to Linzer that I procrastinated the filing! Waves to everyone else, yawns and retired. Night all.

Thursday's links

The second babystep is a slightly controversial one: get dressed to your shoes. You can interpret it in your own way: I don't actually own a pair of lace-up shoes and just can't wear shoes indoors (I feel very uncomfortable wearing them in other people's houses too, which you'd never do here) - so to me, this babystep is about being up, dressed and ready to face the day.

I think most of us ignore FlyLady's advice about putting post-it notes on the bathroom mirror to remind ourselves to get dressed.

Thursday's mission is to put away all the coats, books and jackets that are lying around in the hall.

Finally, Thursday is errand day - this is the day for anything that needs to be done outside the house (shopping, appointments, library, etc.).

**

And now I'm going to take your advice Toffee - even though 11 pm isn't really a decent hour for me. But it will be even less decent if I don't switch off the computer now. Night all.

I saw you sneak in there, Blue! How can you procrastinate the filing on anti-procrastination day?

Good evening fellow flyers!

This evening turned into a cooking bonanza. Have made spanish chicken, bolognese, meatballs & tomato sauce. All cooked and cooling ready to go in the freezer in the morning.

Just taken a few mins before the final push for today - uniforms, sandwiches, wipe down kitchen, s&s, bed by 11.

Goodnight

Today was a complete washout. Have been busy with mindees all day - 3 under 3's and then collect 4 more from school (includes my own DC's) but I'm shattered.
DH is on a late shift so he went food shopping this am whilst I was at toddler group. When I came home i saw the nappies for DD and asked if he remembered bedtime pull ups for DS. Argument as follows...

Him- 'No, I didn't know we needed them'
Me- 'Well there's 30 in a pack so we need them every big shop' (The pay day shop is our big shop)
Him- 'Well I didn't know. You should have said'
Me- 'Why should I always have to tell you, can't you just look. I only know if i look and you're in charge of shopping so you should look too!'

Blah blah blah...

I don't know who was right or wrong but the crux of it is i feel pissed off with having to remember everything and delegate. If I don't ask/say something needs doing, then it doesn't get done. He admitted he doesn't see what needs doing and thinks i should the most as I work from home. As a rule i don't disagree that i should clear up after the mindees and I build this into my working day so it gets done. The up side for DH is that he's left with very little to do with regards to our own children. I do all the school runs, keep DD with me at toddler groups etc so he gets full mornings/days off with no childcare to do. I don't ever get that because when he works on my days off (ie weekends) then i have all the childcare and housework still to do by myself. When we are both off he plays golf/ badminton/ pub/ lie ins due to previous nights late shift. All kids meals are taken care of as i have to feed the mindees anyway. So so so tired and fucked off with it all.

So sorry for the back language but needed to get it off my chest. :(

FFS nicknacks if the newbies can't hack the swearing they are going to have a problem. and it sounds like you have every right to vent using what every language you chose. It's a difficult situation and wouldn't like to be in your shoes. Being a single parent is hard but there is a break on contact wkends. You don't sound like you get one at all. :(

Ok, just catching up with what happened on Tuesday, will get to Wednesday later.

Honu I love your Flying report. I must do something similar, at least in my fledgling CJ.

Toffee I am with you on the not going to bed at a decent hour. For me that would mean bed at 10.00, lights out by 10.30. I really need 8 hours, and we get up at 6.30. In fact that needs to be my focus for February (but not tonight ).

I don't iron either, and I'm proud of it . To be fair, I have no school uniforms to worry about, and when I was working I used to get round to ironing my blouses about once a month. Needless to say, I wore the other tops far more frequently.

Nothing done here today bar the baby steps. DD seems to have given me her germs so I've had blocked sinuses resulting in a headache and the ice cold weather caused havoc with my breathing and coughing. I am even contemplating bed - which is a shock even to me as my normal bedtime is 2am!

The plan for tomorrow is to do the food shopping (list written), plus DD has 3 upcoming schoolfriend birthday parties so I'll be present hunting whilst I'm out. What do I buy for 7yr old boys??

DS is coming home with DH tomorrow. We phoned to see how he was getting on, but he just broke down in tears . Our gut reaction was to get him home sharpish. I think we will just have to take the decision of whether he returns or not out of his hands. {To those of you not on the old thread -he went to uni with his GF last Sept but they have split up (sharing a flat!) and his course is not for him either}.

Nicknacks - your DH sounds like my DH! He has noticed the improvements around the house but still doesn't think to clear up after himself. We have been in this house over 2 years and he has only recently found out that the cupboard in the cloakroom holds clean towels and replacement toilet rolls When asked what he thought was in there he replied that he had no idea and hadn't even been curious enough to open the door to check!

Thanks for all your kind thoughts. I was less weepy today about my lovely friend, even had a long chat to her poor husband who is doing great in the circumstances. It is just so tragic that her poor children, only 10 & 13, are going to grow up without their mummy.

Flying flew out the window - managed to dry the early morning load of washing and unload the dishwasher. And thank the lord for frozen pasta bake for tea. And that was about it. DH came home and made me a killer G & T and that was me done for!

Must try and do a 15 min declutter tomorrow. Kitchen is disappearing under piles of stuff again. Where does it all come from?

Thanks for the tips honu and lizner

It's still feb 1 here, nearly 9pm. On hopefully the last bf of the night and then...

Shine the sink!
Lunch prep for tomorrow
Launch pads
Pump for tomorrow's bottle
Glass of wine ;)
Bath & bed

My goal is bed before 11pm.

Actually, shine the sink is last since I will need to wash the breatpump. Probably my glass of wine will help

cq I just read your post. So sorry, how awful. Didn't mean to post flippantly like that straight after your post.

Morning all..I have been awake since stupid o'clock. My nose is a tap and there are 2 children in my bed. So instead of lying thinking of what I need to do I got up to do it. Have emailed Aussie friends, made tea and am sitting in my TIDY kitchen
cq I am sorry about your friend and her poor children. Thats tough for her and for them.
Sooooo, flinging for February- one day down and nothing done. I did drive to the charity shop with a bag (packed in January) but as the council are putting in a lovely new path (not needed and thats the priority????) beside the shop,there isn't a smidgen of parking there. I drove home again with it.

I am so grateful that I found these threads...it really inspires me to get flying. Ta

Morning all, I stayed in bed till 6.00am Woohoo! (sorry MegMarch). DD had a whinge at around 2.00am but managed to settle herself back to sleep .

I will try to pop back in later on as I need to get things done for the school run and don't want to be late (We were late to nursery yesterday).

So I should have read the instructions first. Didn't start shining until 10.30pm and now I see that you have to leave it an hour. There goes my early night! Or maybe I just leave it until morning and finish then.

What does anyone think?

Forgot to add, my DH thinks I've lost it completely. He thought shining the sink was a euphemism and then did a double take when he saw me pouring bleach into two full sinks.

Morning all,

Tis absolutely freezing here: -14° at the moment, so I've postponed my run. I don't actually have to go out until lunchtime as DH has done the school run. Theoretically I don't have to go out until ice skating mid-afternoon, but I told the DDs to phone if they found it too cold to walk home from school - and I suspect they will.

cq So sad to think of children growing up without their parents. A good friend of mine died a couple of years ago, leaving behind a 10 and a 7 year old, and I still well up thinking about them.

Jnice I would probably be tempted to leave it until morning - or not to wait the whole hour; I'm sure half an hour would be just as good. Hopefully you're in bed now anyway. Btw, if your DH already thinks you've lost it, it's probably a good idea to avoid the post-it notes bit of today's babystep.

Must get on with some work - back later.

Good morning :)

I am up and I am dressed and I have had a cup of tea (and some sudafed) sadly, my planned quiet time was scuppered by the evil genius toddler who decided he didn't want to go back to bed with his bottle but come downstairs with me and poke me repeatedly in the eye whilst laughing manically. Thankfully Bob the Builder is now on :o

Just off to bed now, no bath but a shiny sink. Hoping for a good night with my 3m old.

'night all!