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!!

Morning. Hope those that can have a lie in had a nice one
DS slept through again and woke at 6:30 which is a 20 min lie in for me

To do:
Washing
Ironing (DH cleared a massive pile yesterday)
Declutter medicine and cereal cupboard
Messy Church
Not necessarily in that order

Have a lovely Sunday

Quick list as I have to get cracking for a parent meeting at 10am.

Homework with DCs
Pack school kits
Wash ds2 bed sheets
Hoover stairs
Clean clothes away
Today's wash and dry
Rescue wet washing on line
Dinner and clear up
Bath and bed DC
Paperwork for parent ready

Be back after lunch!

Enjoy your Sunday lie ins everyone!

Morning all,

I'm home alone, DH has gone to a convention for hi-fi geeks in the Midlands and taken the DCs with him to spend the day at his parents nearby. I can't remember the last time I woke up alone in the house, it is a very weird feeling and a bit lonely if truth be told.

So, I've got up to make a cup of tea and take it upstairs to read my book. I did spend some time yesterday thinking about all the jobs I could get done round the house while they are out but decided I didn't want to kill myself doing that, it is Sunday after all. So I'm going to read for a bit, do a bit of tidying then go shopping. This afternoon I have to do some of my OU studying and hopefully go for a run if it stops raining.

Fuck just noticed Dd has a heap of discharge coming out of her ear :(

I have ceased flying once again.
In fact I'm not even gliding
I have crash landed.
I hope for better things in March

Afternoon already!
SC thanks for the links. Whoknows hope you have a productive day and I am sure you will be pleased to see DH and DC when they get home.
Hope everyone has a productive/restful/rejuvenating day - whatever you are wishing for.

DH made breaakfast, a real treat. So I have cleared up afterwards, filled and emptied DW, made beds and tidied around the house.
This afternoon DS has a friend round, I need to prepare for a meeting tomorrow and get a load of washing done, dried, ironed and away.
Dinner - chicken pie.
Inspired by ?someone up thread, I need to declutter the freezer as I had to cram yesterday's shopping in. So also some menu planning to use up whatever is lurking in said freezer.

Well, thanks to a sterling effort by me and DH yesterday I can now see the carpets again

So far today we've had family service, Ds2 has been to Karate while DH played squash with DS1 and we're off home now for a roast and and afternoon watching the Rugby!

Will post again later on but to do list is...
Clean bathrooms
Hoover landing and DS2's room
Get uniforms and bags ready for tomorrow

Hi all.

blue both mine also noghtmare at hairdressers so Dh does DS with his clippers and I do DD (long hair). Actually DH and I also often do our own. We are not very stylish here .

nicnacks oh no .

Still snotty .

DS has a friend coming over. I have made a shoe box room with DD (Charlie and Lola comic) and am about to tackle ironing. Dh is in the garage listening to the football on radio. It is raining.

Missed my lie in because DH was sleeping so soundly, but have had some time to myself this afternoon as he took DS2 out. They have just come back and I have a friend calling round soon, so need to get my arse into gear. However, I have had a good time planning a schedule for DS1 who, as from next week, will not be allowed to sneak onto his Minecraft game during the day. If he can't get to school, he has to do schoolwork. Flying will just have to fit in round the home ed for now.

Very dull, rainy day here today, but not cold enough for our woodburning stove, alas .

My lounge is now visitor-ready.
Kitchen is ok but has a paperwork hot-spot which is HUGE I am going to tackle it now

Toffee in Ireland we have the woodburner all summer - it is really that cold most of the time still all those lovely flames are worth it! Well done on planning for next week. Hope home edding goes well, and enjoy the flexibility, although I know it is not quite so flexible knowing you have to pick up ds2 at a certain time every day.

Dd has two friends round, and owner of dog I borrowed/am borrowing has brought me a box of chocolates and some dog treats . Little/big girls are running up and down the stairs, playing piano, giggling. I suspect no-one has had enough exercise today

Ds is watching Rugby. They have played Monopoly all morning and Dh has cooked a nice stirfry.
done
some rescuing
worktops hot soapy water
dusting in playroom
sent back forgotten tax return to tax advisor, but not even sure whether I've incurred penalty or not, as they HMRC owe me £714. Probably have

otherwise not much really - a short run round block in rain.

my brain is really like a sieve at moment, but I feel more cheerful so that is good

Nicknacks has an abscess burst? oh dear, hope it can wait till Monday. At least your dh is in the house on Monday?

Scatty that sounds very peaceful rainy afternoon. I love the idea of the radio in the garage, my dss like to listen to football matches on radio too, very clear picture in a funny way.

Burst eardrum :(

She's not too bad now but we saw the OOH doc and he gave her antibiotics and paracetamol seems to have done the trick.

My achievement of the day/week/year was I cooked my first roast dinner today. Not much compared to you lot but it's usually dhs domain and he's out of action so I gave it a go.

Of to watch dancing on ice, have lovely evenings everyone!!

Oh dear nicknacks sounds painful .

Done:
ironing
buy food
made sandwiches
reading books
kids washed

Hello everyone. Hope you are all having a good Sunday.

Sorry to hear about your dd Nicknacks Glad the antibiotics are kicking in. well done on having such a productive day.

Same here MembershipC I'm flying so low at the moment, I am barely skimming the ground. It can only get better for both of us Well done with your lounge though.

Swan pre-dd, dh and I used to stay at a hotel on Skye that had 1.5 m thick stone walls, and a full fire always blazing in mid-July. Was wonderful!!!

Hope you managed to enjoy some "me" time today Whoknows

Apologies - only a few personals tonight as I have been up to my neck in dd's exam revision all day - didn't even make it to church/and had take-out pizza instead of proper Sunday lunch. I swear I've learnt more about isoceles triangles, polygons and Roman numerals in the past 6 hrs than I ever did during my entire schooling! (There again, I attended a woefully bad convent school.) Really had to wrack my brain to work out 1845 a la romaine* (Of course there is the distinct possibly that I am just being really thick about all this... !!! )

Now got to go and continue breaking all the Flying tenets that I've been occupied with today ie washing and ironing uniform at last minute, scrabbling around in laundry pile for one decent item of clothing to wear tomorrow etc etc (yes, it's that bad atm!!) and rooting around in fridge for something decent to give dd for lunch tomorrow.

Huge waves to everyone else though and here's hoping for a bit of gentle gliding tomorrow for all of us (if not full flight)!

Back in a mo with steps.

* In case you were wondering - the answer is MDCCCXLV btw!!

Forgot to say ...

Many congrats on your first roast lunch Nicknacks too!!

Get well soon Scatty

OK lovely fledglings, here we go, starting another week:

Baby step number five for tomorrow, Monday 5th March 2012 is here consolidating what we have already done and banishing all negative thoughts from our minds: Neenook Membershipcard and Grownup please note!! (Have to work on this myself too!)

We will be in Zone 2 ie the kitchen for the whole week. More details and missions for the week can be found here

Monday's mission, should you choose to accept it, is scrubbing down counter tops.

The daily focus for Monday is the "home blessing hour" (what we call the home bleuuggghhh!!! ) More details here. Apologies if this has already been discussed but I see the Fat Fairy has finally admitted that it might take more than one hour! Ellie have you been in touch with the mother ship????

Hope all newcomers are OK - any questions - don't hesitate to ask.

Have a good start to the week everyone!!

nothng much achieved here, except to be very firm with dd at bedtime
and search in vain for my passport still can't find it a year after I last saw it. May now have to apply for new one. The Irish passport office is soo strict.

A load of washing on
Washing hung out again
table cleared
dear twins in bed, asleep I hope
a very nice afternoon had by all with visitors

nicknacks oh poor little one, she is suffering a lot with that ear I hope tonight is not too broken, and well done on your roast dinner, it really is quite a quick way to bung lots of things in oven serve a delicious Sunday feast, only the washing up is a bore ! And lovely leftovers for Monday, bonus.

Homeland now! although I have to run away at the gorey bits.

Hello all - was it a good weekend? I spent the entire time transferring the contents of my kitchen and utility room into the kitchen-formerly-known-as-dining-room prior to start of building works. Still haven't finished but builder phoned at about 6pm saying they were starting outside and wouldn't be attacking the house until Wednesday - so, of course, that was me finished for the day!

Nicknacks that's very painful! Hope she's OK.

Toffee I tutor maths, both privately and, wearing many hats, for the local authority. With one of my LA hats on I tutor pupils who are not in school due to illness, either physical or mental. One of my current pupils has severe OCD and anxiety. If your child cannot attend school through illness then it seems you are entitled to at least some one-to-one tuition. I think the school has to pay for it, so they don't offer it that easily, but it might be worth asking.

Right, get DH ready for bed, quick shower (would fall asleep in bath) then be-e-e-d!

Well no bathrooms cleaned but have started on the great mound of ironing by the side of the piano

sc Tomorrows baby step sounds like it was made for me. It is getting there though, if someone came round unexpectedly I might cringe a bit but I wouldn't die of embarrassment like usual

hi everyone! I havent been on all weekend, but that is because I have been busy - not because I have done nothing.

DD had a sleepover Friday evening, DS and I went to visit a friend of DS who had been in hospital. Was a nice evening, came home and zonked out.

Saturday, didnt do much in the house, some laundry, hoovering then collected DD, DH changed light bulbs in car and then DD and I went to get some shopping bits that I needed for the house. Then it was Disco time at DD school, so went along and helped there for a couple of hours.

Today we went to the cinema and not much done in the house but it still looks ok, as we havent been in much there isnt a lot of mess but still the dog hair floats around.

So tomorrow I will get back on track and all will be lovely again here.

Looks around the door surreptitiously and creeps towards the beanbags in the naughty corner dropping off and on the way!

I somehow fell off the flying wagon at the end of last month. I have kept up with shining my sink, the laundry, and preparing for the next day but that's about it! My sister came to visit last weekend so DH, DD and I all rallied round to make the house presentable so the place was dusted, hoovered, swept, loos cleaned etc. This week has been a bit manic so again nothing but the basics have been done.

I did decide to jump on the clearing-the-freezer bandwagon so we have a variety of ready meals for tea tomorrow at present defrosting overnight! A couple of been-in-there-much-too-long-items have been binned and will use what's left in there for meals for the rest of the week. I'll then have to go shopping to refill

Hi Everyone. Had unexpected visitors today - and of course my kitchen was a mess, with the breakfast stuff still stuck to the counters and the lounge an explosion of yet-to-be-folded laundry. It is time for babysteps. I have been fluttering for a few years, but never done the 31 steps. I will jump in where we are, as Flylady says. Glad I found this thread! Thanks sc!

Hmmmm - got up this morning, made bed, wandered downstairs in dressing gown, made coffee, looked at kitchens both old and new and the amount of stuff just not yet assigned a home - and retreated to the PC!

To do in next hour or so -
Wash & dress
Move cars to car park up road
Dig up daffodils I have suddenly realised digger man will need to drive over and store in wheelbarrow for replanting later today
Walk dog (sorry dog, not a long walk this morning)
Breakfast (to sustain for what may be a long day)
Hope caffeine kicks in soon!
Hope DH wakes after I have done all this

BBL

Morning all! Been absent over the weekend as we went to the caravan for the first time this year. Weather was shite but managed to squeeze in a walk to the beach in amongst the rain, there's nothing like the sea air to blow out the cobwebs.

Back to reality this morning however and a busy week ahead, starting with a meal out to celebrate one of my dn's 18th birthday. I am sure it will be lovely but i hate doing things like this on a work night, sets me right out of kilter, misery guts that i am. Lesson observation by the powers that be tomorrow. I've been teaching 12 years but i still crap myself about these things, so today will be spent furiously trying to come up with an inspiring lesson on roman public health. We have a trainee teacher in the department at the moment and he is teaching my lessons this morning so i have all morning to get myself sorted.

Flying is happening but nothing spectacular to report as have been away all weekend.

nicknacks poor dd. Hope she is feeling better soon.

whoknows hope you enjoyed the quiet. Am very . Can't remember the last time i had a full day to myself.

sr dh's family is from ireland (northern half) and it is always freezing there, always. His gran used to have the aga on no matter it was august or december!

Better get cracking and sort some washing out.

Have a good day everyone!

Morning
SC - thanks for the links.

Dressed to shoes - school run at 8 am
Morning bits done.
Two loads laundry done, one to go, then drying, ironing and away - it's the away bit I need to get better at.
Work for meeting this afternoon to complete.
DD has decluttered her room so several bags for the charity shop and errands in local town.
Will try for the day's mission but Home bleurgh may get missed today.

Hope those feeling poorly or looking after poorly ones have a better day.