April Fledglings Fly into Spring, Get That Clutter into the Bin

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Welcome to the April 2012 Fledgling Flyers thread. Come and join us for a bit of chat and a lot of housework (or possibly the other way round).

A huge "thank you" to SanguineChompa for leading us through March

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 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. Feel free to browse the Flylady website as well, links below

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:

• 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!!

Hope you got some sleep Nicknacks or a nap today. Lots of chocolate, painkillers and hot water bottle needed. And a duvet day.

I'm feeling as grumpy as hell today, the above has reminded me I could be turning hormonal so that could well be it...feeling irrationally angry, and cross and ranty. Lucky dh and kids . Will keep it under wraps. And instead of feeling I'm going to do bugger all in house WILL BLOODY WELL DO IT. No one else will I really need a kick up the arse today...

Done
Washing on (well the must be 2 to 3 day old washing now...)
Drying on (2 to 3 day old drying)
Made beds (Flylady lied when she said the kids would respect my bedroom more...went up last night to find 1 x tent, 2 x dolls, 20+toys, 15 to 20 items of plastic food, assorted cutlery, pots and pans) and 1 x tablecloth)
Collected in wash basket laundry and toys to come downstairs.
Mouse moved from livingroom to dd1s room.
Mouse lost x1 and found x1 but that was by dh.
Fed cat and dogs.
Answered emails

To Do
Coffee (in microwave now) and chocolate to give me va va voom back
Personals!
Picnic
Dog walk
WASHING UP!! Probably the main reason I feel so crap about today.
Decide what to do this afternoon. Sunny but looks like more rain.
And todays steps...

Hope you all have a good morning, oh its bloody raining now. Feck and arse. Can we take a tent with us to have picnic in?...Hmmmmmm Takes 5 min to put up...no forest wardens ever around...would that be bonkers? Yes would have to dry the fecker then. Umbrellas and stood up picnic and bin bag to sit on log. Joy.

must pull myself together

Sorry, late links

I got into my bed to read the DCs their stories last night at 8.30 and never got out again.

Anyway, here are Fridays Links

Babystep Do a Mission

Mission Mop your kitchen floor thoroughly

'Mop your kitchen floor throughly'

No dog poo this morning though!

Sounds like a good night Whoknows

I'll be back

Just realised I feel a bit not doing personals. But I'm not doing personals as I'm trying to pretend to all you lovely ladies who I've never met, that I'm actually flying instead. Then give the game away by updating I'm mumsnetting instead...so double

Who else is mumsnetting instead of flying? am I the only one?

Name displacement activities here...

oh and DONE
washing x 1 into drier
New load washing in, forgot to put in dog wee cushion cover (I know should have done immediately but I get so used to it...)

TO DO
Will put away laundry NOW WILL NOT GET DISTRACTED
Picnic
Dog walk

ffs. How hard is it to concentrate on one thing at once. Concentration span of a goldfish.

Trying welcome to the true fledgling way of flying

I slept through my alarm. I must need it as i was shattered and required rediculous amounts of sleep despite the fact that I am drinking stupid amounts of caffine. I think i might have to brave the teetotal caffine approach headaches next weeks it is getting stupid. Today I crave chocolate. Tis as AF here too and it is surprising how quickly the normal urge to kill people disappears when there is no one about. I am turning very antisocial and grumpy in my old age.

House looks like a bomb has gone off in a fabric factory and someone thought fuck it and threw the laundry pile up into the air so it landed randomly over it.

I would like to say i had no idea where to start but that would be a lie. I know exactly where to start. Breakfast and gettig up. Then my room. why do we promise our dc things that seem a good idea at the time but then turn out to be a complete disaster to put into practise. Must must must get it tidy. the wii is going in there. Only place it can go to prevent the but i want to watch something arguements when the people come back. I have zumba for it perhaps starting the day with that will motivate me in the morning. although i think that will take a small explosive charge the way i am in the morning atm

Hmm mind splat. been a while.

Good luck and no doubt i will be back with a long list of little ta da stuff so that I dont go completely crazy, feel like i have made progress really.

I hear you Bitchy (on the promises thing)

Do you think I'll ever hear the end of it from dd if I swap a hot-cross bun making extravangaza with a Gruffalo snap tournament this evening???

I think that one is going to bite me on the bum. Will try and make up for it at the w/e but know I won't have energy for baking this evening (and kitchen will be all shiny once lovely cleaner strutted her stuff)

I'm just keeping two hoover sweeps ahead of her atm btw. Have decluttered two large carrier bags full from playroom and moved lots of things around and it's looking much better now.

Fortnightly ironing lady hasn't shown again ....and have done piles of washing to damply coincide with her visit ... so that's my evening taken care of.

Huge wing flaps to one and all!

Afternoon all! I've decluttered a few toys from the sitting room but am still feeling unfeasibly cross about everything... :( Hence hiding from the boys up on the computer.

Maybe a will help. Anyone else want one?

Would love one Blue. Half term is nearly over....
As much as I enjoy child free time I will be glad to have ds back now. Even if I can see him with his hands on his hips with that disaproving look that he has perfected when he tells me off for having been crafting rather then tidying up.

ssssssssssssh not here really.

Oh and SC probably not. Although I hope you are spared the I am disappointed in you mum speach.

Cheers Blue Thank you for !! Hope your day improves.

Keep strong Bitchy If you are anything like me then crafting is necessary for the sake of one's sanity. So it comes under the heading of "essential"!!

Have mopped the kitchen flioor - once I was certain the boys weren't going to traipse any more mud across it! Kicked them out into the garden and spent the afternoon MNing sending important emails. Now planted them in front of Finding Nemo. Again. Hey ho, last day of the holidays! Off to cook dinner in a moment.

To do list.

Get up done
Tidy my floor 30mins done
Put my clothes away done with exception of vest tops which currently have no where to go (need to add clear non clothes items out of wardrobe)
Laundry 1st load on
Make ds' room look posh 30mins done- just need to put plastic sheet on bed and remake it.
Tidy kitchen 15mins done and it looks a lot better
water plants done
PAPER WORK hahahahahahaha
A nap after the initial start to my day this was considered essential despite the over sleeping
Training - ready to go.
Recycling out done
rubbish out done
Panic done some of this
Find some seats in the lounge one found
put some crafting stuff away The not actively in progress done although there is about 6 projects mid flow atm so there is still rather alot out
Panic some more
More paperwork see above
Consider plan of action for saturday. it involves panicking and collecting ds
Retape stick
Hide. this seems like the way to go
cause cereal to explode all over kitchen ffs. :(
Eat chocolate not nearly enough of this has been done considering
Feel like a shit mother - promised ds would speak to him and forgot :( done
Speak to ds - he wasn't bothered i forgot and didn't want to speak. [reduntant]
Stage two of four of great clothes clear out done
5mins decluttering old uni files done
attempt to edge something and run out of a critical colour of thread. done

Right going to pop to thread shop on way to training. Have good evenings.

Wow you've done well bitchy

Another day at work.
Dh sent me a text to say he found more nits on dd [sigh].
Done:
tidy kitchen
DW on
laundry
ds reading

Thats enough for now.

Well done on getting through the Easter Holidays everyone .

all round!

Evening all,

Well, a good Flying day today, DH (prompted by me) did a lot of tidying (so did I, but he did the heavy stuff as my back is still delicate). He also did a huge tip run, which has made the garden look a lot less cluttered and hoovered the house.

DD spent the afternoon at a friend's house, while DS had a friend to play here. They spent the afternoon alternately playing football, playing football on the trampoline and playing with the Wii for a bit in between to "rest". They made me go and play football with them on the field over the road and ran me ragged. I dread the day that it rains heavily on a day when DS is hosting, trying to contain that much energy in our small house is a scary thought! Am hopeful that it isn't too long before having your mum play football with you in a public place becomes uncool.

I'm tired now. Not only did I fall asleep at 9pm, the DCs both fell asleep in our bed too, which was nice (DH came up about midnight muttered, "oh, a bed full of babies" and went to the spare room). We had a snuggly night, but I was awake between 2.30 and 4. 4.30, which is catching up with me now.

Back later with some links etc. If I forget, well Saturday is Family Fun day!

hope people sleep better tonight. I've had a crap day, not even basics and gone to bed with washing up not done or new load of ironing tackled. Since ds started on solids, dining room requires more than a weekly, if lucky, mop, its truly filthy, had planned to do that too. Not quite sure what I have done today come to think of it, not much, got distracted a lot. To top it off, not taken make up off either and now in bed.

On plus note, have watched grand designs with dh, I have found if make some 'innocent' comment about how amazing it is that people manage to renovate whole houses whilst living in them, prompts him to think about our never ending, hall, stairs and landing project. I just want some fecking paint on the walls, maybe tomorrow will be the day. I honestly can't wait to watch paint dry, I would find that quite exciting, much more so than rubbing down, filling and sanding.

Oh, the chicken lives another day!

Still up here, been watching a bit of telly with DH.

Sorry you've not had a good day Waffler. Our house maintenance never gets done unless it is at the emergency stage, DH is quite happy to live with the decor the people before us left and I feel that I manage the entire day to day running of the household, children, finances, everything in fact plus paid work and don't see why I should sort out all the renovations/decoration as well. So it never happens.

Sorry the nits are persisting Scatty, the first time we all got them it took us weeks to finally eliminate them. Hedrin did the trick in the end.

Bitchy - I know what you mean about redundant. Not too many years ago if I went out for the evening they would press their faces up against the window and watch forlornly as I went off, now they sit on the sofa and grunt without even making eye contact as I go out the door. I bet DS will be pleased to see you tomorrow though.

Blue - thanks for the earlier, hope you are feeling more cheerful now

SC - did you get out of the hot cross bun making?

Trying - I love having you on this thread, your posts make me laugh. Thanks for the tea this morning too. Fingers crossed for another poo free night for your floors!

Toffee - the plan sounds like a good system to help DS1. Although my DS isn't anything like at that level of anxiety, I could see it happening to him, he is very prone to saying "I can't" and just not trying things, or giving up, it is hard to be patient sometimes. I worry that I step in and help him too easily because he does find it hard, but what I need to do is step back and enable him rather than doing things for him. Not easy though. You must let us know how you get on.

OK, tomorrow is Saturday. Family Fun Day. DH is going to work so I guess I get all the fun.

No mission, but we do have a Babystep Using a Calendar. I know, we all know how to use a calendar, don't we? Maybe not in the Flylady way.

No no no no no, I don't want to be up, I want to be tucked up in bed like dh, I'll struggle to go back to sleep, rubbish. Lack of sleep means I struggle to get up, definitely means I won't do my exercises, which entails getting up at 6 to fit it in, which in turn means I feel shit....knock.on impact on flying then ensues.

Ds deciding to wake up again, thought was teething, now think its habit, its exactly the same time on the dot each night, tonight thought would that we need to break the habit and should let him cry and 'self soothe', 40 minutes later he was still going strong and that's about my limit. Dh solution to fetch industrial strength fan to drown him out, not sure this is responsible!

See you in morning for A

Trying I so understand the distraction bit. I have the concentration spa of a gnat where housework is concerned and setting the timer for 15 mins only means that, 15mins later, it vibrates in my pocket while I am doing something that is definitely not what I set out to do. 10 mins is my max and I often set it for just 5 mins. The trouble is that, instead of 3 x 15 min per hour of housework I manage 3 x 5 min . The only thing that seems to work for me is the daily routines list I have where I tick things off, and this helps avoid such embarrassing conversations with DH as 'I can't go to bed because you haven't sorted the sheets from last night out yet'

Morning all!

Its pouring raining and its cold. Guess where my waterproof coat is. In yesterdays wash.

S'pose I had better take dogs out then

for you lucky indoor people...

And I can smell mouse. He's upstairs with a shut door. So house now smells of cat, dog wee/poo and mouse wee/poo.

...

Will reply later to personals [optimistic] thanks for sharing honu...I do the 15 min later doing something else entirely should have flying for knat brains!

Morning
I've been lurking and flying but haven't really had much to say
My back has been bad this week so I was off work (but did some work from home).
Every bone in my neck, spine (ribs) and pelvis was out of position... Osteopath has got most of them back in their proper places but I really hurt!!! Tablets from GP have put me in a slightly vegetative state so I'm struggling to do anything meaningful

But have managed to shine my sink (from scratch again) and swish & swipe each day. Have dusted and hoovered twice this week!
Just pottering and keeping on top of things.

Must start decluttering again... But I really struggle to motivate to do this. I do about 1 hour a month, when I'm in the mood, child & husband free and there's nothing on fb tv to distract me... Such specific needs means its a rare occurrence

Still, house is reasonably clean and the washing is up to date

Not a good start to the day. DS2 started wailing for his potty (he's six and I said he needs to use the loo now), then complained - on seeing the cluttered dining-room table - that I like MN more than tidying up (can't argue with that ). Packed him off to watch telly whilst I continued catching up on MN started tidying, only to have the peace disrupted by bad-tempered DS1 complaining that his little brother was 'fidgeting' (pot calling kettle). War broke out, telly was turned off, DS1 was banished to his room, DS2 was comforted, etc etc .

So, I need a list (or maybe I just need to move away from the computer. I only wanted 10 minutes' peace though whilst I drank my morning tea).

WhoKnows - thanks, I will let you know how the new system works. The programme does emphasise that you mustn't do things for your DC that they could do for themselves, so you are right to be concerned about helping your DS too easily. I have started saying no to DS about all sorts of things he is perfectly capable of doing, such as pouring himself a drink of water (sets off his OCD, but he has to learn to fight it and I'm not helping if I do it for him). The programme also stresses that you stop thinking about your child as an 'anxious child' as they pick up on this. Easier said than done, but I have started to see DS's anxious state as a blip, rather than the way he will be forever.

Scatty - sorry you are having nit wars. Like WhoKnows, we found Hedrin was very effective.

thewaffler - sorry for your rubbish day yesterday and your early start this morning . It's so hard when DC are so little and keep waking. I hope you managed to get back to sleep again.

Bitchy - where do you get your energy? (Coffee? ) Am exhausted, but inspired, by reading your list.

Blue - you sound like you need the school holidays to end! Not long now...

SC - I know what you mean about wanting to get out of baking. I have a few packets of cake mix in the cupboard for times like that when I just can't be arsed. Just don't read the ingredients list first! Sorry your ironing lady stood you up again. That is so disappointing.

Trying - we are planning to get a dog in July, so any advice on Flying with dogs in the house will be gratefully received!

Honu - I don't think not managing your 15 minutes is about a poor concentration span - it's about the repetition and monotony of housework being boring. Often, I cba'd .

Right, need to get my arse into gear. Hope you all have good 'Family Fun Day' today!

Mummy - sorry you've been having a rough time. Sounds like you are doing more than enough considering the pain you have been in. Hope you feel better soon.

Good Morning Ladies

I'm sorry I have come on here to read and catch up every morning this week and then got distracted by children or DH and never actually got around to posting.

Have had a busy few days though , job application in the process of being completed, housework being sorted, errands run, had an eye test yesterday and now need glasses for computer work so had to pick those out too - I spent 2.5 hours at the opticians.

Today I am off to find a school I am trying to complete an application form for and am trying to find where I am supposed to be for my weeks supply on Monday. I've also got to take DD to dancing, wait for a delivery and do some shopping. Add to that DH has the grump on and its going to be a fun day.

To Do list

• Get DD dressed - She has been up since 7.30 but announced a pj morning
• Hope delivery here before 12 - especially as they rung at 9.30 saying they were 30 mins away
• Take DD to dancing
• Drive to local school to locate
• Find location for Mondays supply
• Shopping
• Finish decluttering under stairs - Other rooms have been done this holiday but this is my nemesis
• Sort out paperwork that needs completing and sending back
• Find all bits and bobs that need to be put on ebay this afternoon
• Find DDs library books and try to get time to drop them back at library
• Hoover throughout downstairs
• email dds ballet and see if timetable change if from this week
• Sort out childcare for late nights this week
• Last two loads of washing
• strip and clean bedding
• update and charge TomTom sat nav for next week
• Update calendars and diaries
• Finish off two applications that are dur in over next week

That will do. I think that'll last me all weekend

Toffee Your mad. Don't do it.
Mummy Been to osteo but never had that many things out of place. I can sympathise with you...do you not dare turn your head incase something goes 'click'...

Guests for dd bday (actual bday this time) arriving in 22 min. Pile of washing up. Upstairs neat. Need to vacuum living room. Need to move the mouse out of childrens way in cloakroom. One of the kids is a little sod darling and will insist on doing head locks with the dogs while mum (good mate, BUT!) looks on and smiles indulgently. Dogs should accept being mauled around by small children as we are the boss of them you know :) so spend time supervising any contact, ffs he will get bitten and it will not be my dogs fault or any other dog that bites him!!! And when they come round something always ends up broken. Once a £45 lamp. Mum just laughed and told kid to run away as I was cross. She's not usually like that, we have such a laugh but I wish she would parent instead of kids going partially feral. Does my head in!!!!

And breathe.
18 min now.