Fledglings “March” 31 steps away from CHAOS and mess towards domestic success...

[sanguinechompa]

... well, a shiny sink at least!!

Welcome to the March 2012 Fledgling Flyers thread. Park your mops, buckets and microfibre cloths here!!

A huge "thank you" to Linzer for steering us all through February - not a small achievement Linzer considering your school run/teaching commitments and with your dh travelling so frequently.

If you're house is a mess and you are strugging with C.H.A.O.S. (can't have anyone over syndrome) and S.T.U.F.F. (something that undermines family fun) then this is the thread where we (loosely) follow the step-by-step Flylady housekeeping system (in our own, unique, relaxed style) with lots of chat, whinging (in my case anyway ) and support along the way.

We advise not signing up to receive the Flylady e-mails as you will be inundated! All the information you need will be linked here on a daily basis.

From the first of the month, we will be following Flylady's tips on restoring order to our homes, and as we are all at different stages we will be using one of the following methods:

Here you can, for one month:

• repeat or start baby steps

• repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone

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

More info here and here!

All long-standing members, intermittent returnees, lurkers and newcomers welcome!!

Well, got my own back a bit on DH for not putting the clothes out when he put the DCs to bed. Normally when this happens I just go in and do it before I go to bed but he never learns, so I told DH he would have to sort it out in the morning and went to bed knowing that most of it was in the dirty laundry basket because I haven't had time to do any washing for 2 days. Cue the most enormous panic from DH this morning, running around trying to scrub mud off trousers, DS getting upset because he didn't want to wear wet trousers and kind Mummy producing a pair of school shorts from the back of the wardrobe. Hopefully he will remember next time.

PA - hope you get your bookings sorted out, it is very easy to mess up on the internet when you are tired

Got to go, lots to do before going to work see you later

Whoknows I will email you about OT. That sounds very energetic - I think I used all my walking energy first thing yesterday morning - at least 3 miles I reckon shopping/errands
We have the clothes putting out in reverse - ds1 blithely puts his dirty clothes (all of them)on his chair the night before, and then next morning attempts to put them on again tries before they wrenched from his hands by his screeching mama, and replaced with beautifully folded clean clothes from his uniform drawer.
I also took about 100 kg of unneeded exercise books from his knapsack this morning so that he would deign to bring the violin home too heavy apparently

Dd is at home today,having suffered a mini-collapse yesterday after being told off for being mean to ds2 in the playground. It is very difficult for her sticking up for him as he tries to gatecrash all her games, sit on her, hug her in front of all her friends, and his teacher is v supportive of him so she gets the short straw I think today we are going to visit grandma and generally get a bit of tlc and perspective.

done
beavers helping last night - lots of energetic games
delicious sweet potato etc cottage pie
but not a very productive after school, as children fighting over screens. Dh had to do all their homework with them as they refused to do any didn't admit to having any till he came home

Swan - your poor DD, it must be so hard for her. But at least you are aware of what is going on, so hopefully it will all be ok.

WhoKnows - Love it! Hopefully your DH will have learned his lesson.

PA - hope it doesn't cost you too much money to sort out the mistake - so easy to do!

Coost - not quite, but it feels like it. Hopefully people will want to buy it now.

Linzer - crashed and burned on my diet yesterday, anyway. It's not easy limiting carbs when making nice things for the DSs... Sigh...no will power.

Nice start to today, up early enough that when DS1 asked 'where's MY play dough' we had time to make a batch of his choice of colour (pink!). Of course after school pink will be boring and he'll want blue, or any other colour that would mean I would need to make it.

Lots to do today, but lacking motivation. Sigh... will set the timer on for 15 minutes in the kitchen and see how I go....

WhoKnows - would love to hear more about the OT session, please. Your solution to DH's failure to lay DC's clothes out made me laugh.

Swan - your poor DD . Good for you to keep her at home today and make a fuss of her. Maybe if you take her to grandmas in shoddy clothes, she will get a free shopping trip too .

PA - my goodness, what a day you had! I hope you manage to recover today (lunch out sounds a lovely idea).

SC - thank you for the links. Am failing miserably at the steps at present .

ChitChat - can't believe you made play dough before school ! That is impressive.

Have had a broken night, but actually managed to get a lot of sleep in the end. I slept with DS2, who was very poorly and is wheezing a lot now. He woke me at 3am and told me to take his temperature - it was 102. Dosed him with Calpol, gave him some Ventolin, then we cuddled up and I read to him until we both felt dozy again. Nodded off until 9am . He is now tucked up on the sofa with DS1, watching children's telly. His temperature is back to normal, but he's obviously not going back to school this week. Apparently there are another four children in his class off with the same bug.

There was a knock at the door just after I'd woken up. It was the man who's going to decorate our sitting room in a few weeks. He apologised for catching me in my dressing gown and, when I mentioned that the DC were sick, he obviously assumed that I was sick too. I let him believe that, rather than point out that this was what I always looked like first thing in the morning .

To do:
Get dressed and plaster on enough make up to not look sick
Sort out messy kitchen (no shiny sink in there this morning)
Home ed
Cleaner will be here at 1pm - eek!
Put feet up and admire tidy house

Thought I had been on today and said morning... must have vanished into tinternet ether.

Rough as anything today, but have fed children, dogs, walked DD to school, met friend for coffee, hoovered and washed downstairs floors, put soda crystals down bathroom plug holes and swished some bleach around both bathrooms.

That is it for me today so far.

Quick fly-by... this morning was taken up by coffee with friends followed by teaching, and I'm busy working this afternoon (only possible as DS isn't around). Am enjoying the calm before the storm, as tomorrow afternoon looks like being a little hectic to say the least.

PA I did indeed. I knew that her friend's parents were renovating a house and more or less where it was, so drove over there and wandered round inspecting postboxes for their surname (which they conveniently hadn't got round to putting up yet). Discovered that I did in fact have the mother's phone number after all just as said mother arrived home and the father appeared outside the house, but I wasn't in the best of moods. Was perfectly polite to the parents but ended up getting very impatient with DD2, which she really didn't deserve.

Toffee Is it my imagination, or do you often open the door to men in your dressing gown? Completely unconnected to the surfeit of attractive men in your area, I'm sure.

ChitChat Very impressed at you being up early enough to make playdough. My aim is to be up early enough for us all to cycle to school, but I haven't managed it so far this year.

swan Your 100 kg of exercise books inspired me to weigh DD1's school bag (yes, I probably do have too much time on my hands. ) 4 kg - although it did seem lighter than usual today. I'm sure that some days she carries the equivalent of a toddler to school.

Linzer - well, I would have frightened off any man this morning, attractive or otherwise . Hadn't realised I keep doing it - am obviously not following my 'get dressed to shoes' first step .

Jax - well done on doing all that when you're feeling so rough. Hope you feel better soon.

Well, the new cleaner has been and gone. She was absolutely lovely and did a wonderful job. And I was shamed into tidying up before and whilst she was here, so the house is looking very nice now.

Afternoon! Picked up a couple of boxes of eraser sponges in Aldi this morning so have been wandering round the house looking for mucky things to clean with them! :) also wondering if I can get away with flinging a couple of DH's horrible shirts... Better not.

Waves to all and proffers

Toffee glad cleaner worked her magic, you deserve it after an exhausting night. I find dressing gowns a mistake, as they reduce the likelhood of me gettng dressed at all!
And no, sadly, Grandma didn't finance yesterday's shopping trip (Grandma has opinions, but is a bit sartorially challenged and doesn't believe in spending much on clothes I did it to restore my good humour.

today
I went to Grandma's sorted out lunch, few errands there,drove back with dd again, and now knackered again after driving and dealing with family members Grandpa questioning dd as to what "Stream" she was in, and whether she was reading Homer yet.

ds2 in a very good mood when I picked him up,and I think feeling a bit sheepish about having upset dd. Dd now playing up again - I need to find some more images with her for her project on Ireland...

Toffee - I answered the door to our rather attractive postman at 2pm in my dressing gown the other day, probably bright red in the face too, heaven knows what he thought, truth was that I had been out for a run and just got out of the shower.

Evening all! Just flying in under a pile of work. Am currently attempting to shortlist for a vacancy we have in our department at school and trying to whittle down 14 applications to 4. NO mean feat seeing as at least 8 of them are quite decent. I think I have to be more ruthless.

No flying done but have managed a quick tidy up, a trip to the shops fro Sport Relief stuff for DC's and a dinner made from leftovers. Most I've done in weeks .

toffee glad the cleaner went well. Ours is away at the moment and dear Lord do I miss her . I wish I had an attractive man to answer the door to .

Evening,

Out all day again, the house is deteriorating rapidly and friends are due for coffee at 10.30 tomorrow, gulp.

Ta-da!

4 loads of laundry, washed, dried and folded to put away
Normal routine stuff
That's about it for housework.

It was a beautiful day today, I took the DCs into town after school to get their hair cut, which is always a bit traumatic, especially for DS. Unfortunately our children's salon with DVDs to watch is closing down next week so that will be our last visit. I can see why though, it was a big unit with 6 or 7 chairs but they never had more than 2 staff on, so if you turned up and there were a couple of people ahead of you you had quite a wait and all those empty chairs. Anyway, we then did a bit of shopping and went to the park before pottering home for tea and some games (I'm having one of my periodic crackdowns on screen time, which is resulting in more mess all round, I can see why the viewing time always creeps back up again).

We are loosening the apron strings for DS (8) at the moment, giving him a bit more independence, which is nice but a bit unnerving. I let him leave the salon by himself while we were waiting, go two doors down to the newsagents to buy his football stickers and come back by himself today, he was fine. H also goes to school by himself now (I follow a couple of minutes later with DD and check he's arrived OK, there are no roads to cross). He's growing up fast.

PA - hope you had a nice lunch today with DH

Swan - my MIL considers anything more than about £2 for an item of clothing to be a hideous extravagance and natural fibres are not permitted as they need ironing, needless to say we don't shop together very often.

Blue - they are addictive those eraser sponges aren't they? I've even taken some to work (tatty building that badly need redecorating)

Jax - hope you're feeling a bit better tonight

Right better go, really must do some tidying tonight.

whoknows ds is the same age as your ds and we too are experimenting with a little bit of freedom. He's allowed to the corner shop (no roads), to the park at the end of the road and to play out at the other end of the street with his friends ( we do live on a cul de sac though). I hate it. They grow up too fast. Next year he will have to walk himself half way home from school as cm will have to pick up dd. It's along a busy road so am a bit worried. I want him to be 5 again and need me . The other afternoon he spent 3 hours playing out. He loved it, I felt redundant.

Just time to check the thread before I go to bed. I've had some rare computer time this evening as a) I've had to work, and b) DH is ill, so came home from work and went straight to bed.

WhoKnows Giving them more independence is quite scary at first, isn't it? I don't worry so much about DD1 walking home from school on her own any more but still worry a lot about DD2 on the rare occasions that she walks on her own. She hardly ever needs to, however, as I either pick her up from school with other children for the English classes that I teach before lunch or she walks with DD2.

ellie I thought you were going to write that you wished you had an attractive man to come and clean for you. Now then I really would enjoy having a cleaner.

swan My parents don't believe in spending more than about £5 on an item of clothing for the children (possibly stretching to £10 for adults). I've ordered a couple of dresses from Matalan and asked my mum to send them on, and am keeping my fingers crossed she doesn't look at the price (she would think I'd gone completely mad if she saw what I've spent at other shops).

Toffee Hope you're still enjoying a lovely clean and tidy house.

Waves to Blue and anyone else around.

After a work-free week, two jobs arrived today - one due tomorrow morning, the other on Sunday evening, so I expect I'll be working for quite a bit of the weekend. A friend's children were supposed to be coming to stay while she and her H went to Spain, but her younger son has come down with a bug so she's had to cancel. I don't think she's hugely disappointed, more worried about how her H (who's already there) will react.

Anyway, must go to bed as I can't concentrate any more and I want to be able to concentrate tomorrow morning.

very quiet on here today...

(not that I've done anything [blush)

well, have now added to my pathetic list,
done
potato gratin for supper
finally insisted ds1 started his long overdue English project
started reading a book to both boys but fell asleep in the middle (this was at 5.oopm, so slightly lost control of the troops then...)
served supper including protein, and special courgette salad
left kitchen in hideous state and ran off to catechism meeting when dh appeared - he was not best pleased
slightly revived by seeing and talking to other people than my own family
worktops, dw, laundry, red cabbage boiled, uniform out
read something

Goodnight folks!

Still enjoying my clean and tidy(ish)house. I feel as if a burden has been lifted. It means that tomorrow I can just concentrate on DS1's home ed, without worrying about all the other stuff that needs doing.

Had a conversation with DS1 about school this evening. He is adamant that he never wants to go back to school - any school. He is being referred for online teaching run by the LEA, with the intention of moving into a pupil referral unit and then back into mainstream school, but I think we may have to duck out of this process at some point and de-register him, ie home educate for real, rather than doing it whilst maintaining links with the school. It's a terrifying thought.

Blue - we've run out of eraser sponges and it's so frustrating. I keep seeing marks that would come off so easily with them. They are hugely satisfying to use.

Swan - sorry you didn't get another shopping trip. And at your Dad questioning your poor DD. Have had the same from a certain relative and it's so wearing and unnecessary.

WhoKnows - at your dressing-gown story. You will get a reputation! Sorry to hear your favourite hairdressing salon is closing down. I remember you enthusing about the idea of having TVs to distract your DC. My DS1 hasn't been to the hairdressers for months now (absolutely refuses) and is sporting a very obvious mum cut, but I seem to be the only person who minds it.

Ellie and WhoKnows - sympathies re loosening the apron strings. It's so scary letting your DC do things on their own. I am still terrified at the thought of DS1 crossing the road alone, even though he has done it hundreds of times now.

Linzer - hope your DH gets better soon, especially as you have work to do this weekend. Am feeling very sorry for your friend and her DH, especially with him already out in Spain waiting for her.

Swan - did your DH deal with the kitchen's hideous state for you despite his displeasure? I left my kitchen in a hideous state last night, but it was still in the same state when I came down this morning. When I pointed out to DH that he was supposed to wash up if I'd cooked, he said he was so frightened by the amount of mess I'd made that he'd run away .

Not sure how it's got so late, but I really need to get myself up to bed now. See you all in the morning.

*

Good morning! It's the end of the week!

Baby step number twenty-three for today, Wed 23rd March is

adding an afternoon routine to your morning and evening routines Examples of fat fairy routines can be found here

It's the last day in Zone 4 today here - detailed cleaning list contained in that link too if you are at that stage

Today's mission is taking 15 mins to put away laundry and, if you have time, flinging 5 more items of clothing or putting away more clothes

Friday's daily focus is declutter purse and car

Today's reminders

Go for it fledlings!! It's nearly the w/e .... and as the Fat Fairy says "later is now"!! Have a good one ...

*

Hello, hello. Hope you are all Flying high (unlike me!)

Sorry not to get back on here yesterday. And hope those of you who like the steps the night before will forgive me for posting them in the morning 3 days runnng!

Had an event going on in the office this week (fairly routine, not particularly big or onerous, happens at least x4 a year) but dh had to go on emergency business trip to put out his equiv of a hot spot, then a member of staff went home sick, so it was all hands to the deck which went fine during school hours. However, arranged an after-school baby-sitter for dd who then decided to make things more 'interesting' by developing tummy ache which mysteriously disappeared when the time to go to tennis had past but not before she had involved me in all sorts of shenanigans with arrangements (don't like leaving a sick child with a baby-sitter) so I was rather cross with her and we were not happy bunnies in chompa household last night.

On the positive side, and rather wierdly, because I had more office work to do, I have been much more pro-active at home which is just as well as cleaner is off with broken ankle (have found temporary cleaner for office but not for here) and brand new dishwasher which dh bought not long ago at vast expense has broken down...

Glad this week is nearly over. Very sad atmosphere over here with two massive state funerals of the coach crash victims (prior to indiv families holding their own private ceremonies) attended by Belgian and Dutch royalty and pms of Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands, each family giving a personal tribute/testimony of their own child . Both were broadcast on national tv and it was almost too painful to watch. The death of one child would have been bad enough but it was the sheer number of coffins that was absolutely heartbreaking What those poor families have been through in a week is inhuman frankly And the fact that somehow it is spring and the sun is shining and flowers are coming up etc and all those lovely dc are not there to enjoy seems so profoundly wrong. [Forgive me for venting on here about this - I know it's probably not the most appropriate place - but it's all so horribly sad]

Anyway, hope you are all well and yesterday went well and that those who are ill, or whose dc are ill, are now feeling better. Got to get dd off to school now, then to office, and then back for personals/catch up later in the day.

At least the weekend is nearly with us!! Have a good day!!

Good morning.

Lovely day yesterday. thank you.

Toffee - Good for you having a lovely tidy house to enjoy. When I used to have a cleaner I spurred me on to keep it like it.

Blue - Where do you get eraser sponges? Never heard of them, they sound intriguing and just what I could do with.

Linzer - Hope DH is better soon.

Ellie / Whoknows - I remember having to let go of the DCs, it is a scary time. On the other hand, last weekend DH and I were off out for an evening. All the DCs were out apart from DD4. As we left she suddenly had a panic about us going and she shocked me by explaining that she had never been in the house on her own for an evening before (and only during the day for 30 minutes max and on a handful of occasions). At her age we would have left DD1 in charge of her 4 siblings!!

Brain is exploding this morning. I have just read an email that has sent me into a spin about a work situation. I am absolutely fuming. Deep breathes before I respond, or open my mouth to anyone. I just cannot believe some people!!!

Now I am too wound up to think about a list for today, so will sign off and get breakfast instead.

Toffee - sick DC, right when the weather is getting nice . How scary to contemplate Home Ed, such a lot of responsibility.

Jax - not bad going for feeling rough!

Linzer- Hope you made the most of your ?quiet? day!

Blue- Good work with the eraser sponges! You could always have an ?accident? with the shirts ? wash them with a brand new RED top......

Swan -Aaaah family, you gotta love ?em, or else you?d strangle them!!!

Ellie - Must be hard to whittle down applications when there are so many good ones.

WhoKnows - I would recommend a barber for DS. My hairdressers, while lovely, just took too long cutting his hair and he would get so distressed halfway through, they kept wanting to use scissors rather than clippers even when I asked them to use clippers, it was as though I was suggesting they weren?t good enough with scissors or something . Barbers are faster, and mine are surprisingly great with the DSs.

SC- Ooh, naughty DD! What a sad day it was for everyone there. So hard, but hopefully the mass grieving helps the families to heal.

PA - Hope you get the work situation sorted, not easy to step back ukntil you're calm enough to deal with it rationally.

An awful day lined up here. Have to get the place tidied up for a friend to visit tomorrow AND work out where they can spend the night (can I get our room completed enough to get us back in and give him the spare room, or put him up at the pub a 2 minute walk away ? they have very nice rooms so will see if that?s possible I think). He?s the DSs? Godfather, and is the one who helped me paint the lounge room. He wants to come and celebrate DS1?s birthday tomorrow.) The only room relatively decent is the kitchen with my shiny sink, the entrance with frequent decluttering, and the bathooms with the swishing and swiping.

I also need to bake a cake for the fete tomorrow as well, pick up DS1?s birthday present, wrap the presents my DSis sent via Amazon, make sure I have enough supplies for our stand at the fete. HELP!!!!

Morning all,

Another quick fly-by before I start work. DH has made a miraculous recovery and is back at work - I was keeping my fingers crossed that he wouldn't be ill over the weekend so that we wouldn't have to cancel on our friends again (I feel bad enough about last time, when I had to cancel at the last minute when I came down with a stomach bug).

SC Just so, so sad. And I know exactly what you mean about the weather. I remember the morning of 9-11 was absolutely beautiful with clear blue skies; I'd just got home from an ob-gyn appointment (I was pregnant with DD1) and was thinking how much we were enjoying life in the USA, only for DH to message me that one of the twin towers - which we'd only seen a week before - had collapsed. So difficult to comprehend tragedy on that scale, but the fact that it was such a beautiful day made it seem all the more wrong.
I don't think I'd have been able to watch the funerals of the coach crash victims; we didn't have a TV in the USA, but I couldn't even listen to the radio as it made me cry whenever they started reading through the names of all the victims.

PA Hope you've managed to calm down a little now. Deep breaths!

ChitChat Good luck - I feel exhausted just reading about your day! Having six children here this afternoon (or even seven, as it should have been) seems like a walk in the park in comparison - especially as it should be sunny enough to take them all to the playground.

Re leaving children on their own (I really will stop procrastinating and get back to work in a minute!), I spotted a note on DD1's teacher's desk yesterday with a list of children who go to the after-school club, have an au pair - and the third heading was "regularly left at home alone for 2-4 hours". As far as I could tell, it was just one boy - there was something covering the bottom half of the piece of paper and tempted as I was, I didn't dare move it (even though the teacher was out of the classroom) to have a sneak peek. Was slightly shocked, though (he would be 9 or 10).

Very sad indeed , the coach crash has completely gone off the radar here now, but will be thinking about those poor families today

Good luck with your day ChitChat. Unfortunately DS is terrified of the noise clippers make, so it has to be scissors. The other problem with women's salons is the sound of dryers going on and off suddenly also upsets him, although he is much less sound sensitive than he used to be. One of his friend's mums used to cut his hair and he doesn't mind going to their house, we just have problems finding a mutually agreeable time in between all the after school activities our various DCs do.

Better go, see you later

SC - goodness, you have been having a hard time of it! Thank you so much for still managing to keep up with the links in spite of RL going pear-shaped. And vent all you like about those poor families . It is utterly heartbreaking.

PA - poor DD4! I hope you were still able to have a nice evening out. Hope you can get the work situation sorted out - sounds like a very annoying start to the day.

DS2 is very grumpy this morning - I hope he's not going to be like this all day, as I'm keeping him at home again today .

To do:

Get dressed before anyone knocks at my door
B/fasts
Load d/w
Load washing machine
Hang washing out (lovely sunny day here)
Home ed DS1
Ironing (in 15-minute slots)
Tackle our bedroom (DH has promised to remove the desk that is causing the main problem in there because it takes up so much room and attracts clutter - yippee!)
Take DC out to enjoy the sunshine