Fledglings Fly into July!

[BlueEyeshadow]

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

A huge "thank you" to SanguineChompa for leading us throughout June!!

If your 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, support and wine 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:

• 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.

All welcome!!

Apologies for starting the thread so late - it took SC lobbing the duster at me to make me remember it's July tomorrow (and I've blatantly cut and pasted her OP too)!

The first baby step is to shine your sink! See here for the Fat Fairy's tutorial...

No mission because it's Sunday. But here's the flight plan for established flyers

Shit, fuck oh bloody hell. missed training :( Not a good way to start the week!

Need to add go shopping to the to do list.

Thanks for the new thread Blue and for all your hard work last month SC .

The school holidays have started here and DH is away so I'm not sure I'll have much time for lurking, let alone posting, but I'll try to keep up. And to FLY, of course. Waves to all (and an unMNy hug for ellie while no one's looking).

I'm back the stone roses were amazing

There's already 50 posts so I'll just jump in here! Thank you sc for leading last month!

Just to do for now!
Walk dog
Home bleugh
Laundry
School run pm
Shop for essentials
Unpack DD bag
EYFS course tonight

BBL!

Ooops, I forgot my manners. A big thank you to SC for leading the thread last month and another big thanks to Blue for picking it up this month.

DCs have been packed off to school and it's pouring with rain :(.

Need to make a list, but before that I need to make a phone call.

Is it too late to join? My house is horrific at the moment, and feeling really overwhelmed by it all, don't seem to ever be able to get anything done with the DC rampaging around the house (3 yo and 9 month old whos just started cruising and is into everything)

Been meaning to try fly lady for ages, and have started on a couple of threads but not managed to keep up

It's never to late to join, ThisTime! That's one of the best bits of the FlyLady's system (aka the Fat Fairy) - you can always jump in where you are and start with the babysteps. Just don't sign up for the emails or you'll be swamped!

Waves to Ellellie too - would advise unsubscribing to the emails and following the links from here.

Bodyclutter round-up

Swan weighed in at 77.5kg
Lauren lost 1lb :)
Carpe was arguing with the scales but eventually settled on 157.6lb ? only a slight increase so not worth worrying about!
Blue has lost another 2lbs :)
Kiwi had fallen off the wagon ? it?s not compulsory, so don?t fret?
OFM was feeling unmotivated ? you don?t have to join in with the weights if you don?t want to. :)
Sanguinechompa declared 79.8kg but that?s still under where you started so don?t feel too down on yourself.

oh what a disorganised person I am...

there I was in a complete state of anxiety about clash of cleaning lady and money counting rota for church, and cleaning lady has no key etc...
dd has changed my gmail setting so I couldn't find cleaner's no, just found it and phoned her to cancel cleaning (and paying her as well for today

Then sent just at last minute a text confirming I was on my way to count, and they have enough people already today!!!Aargh!

I suppose I have to just laugh at my own idiotic antics and contortions, all of which could have been solved by giving cleaning lady a spare key...and communicating better with all parties concerned..(although the rota does seem to change with alarming randomness)

So to look on bright side I now have an entire day to clean the house my way with nothing to distract me. YAY!

3 children at school - 2 last minute refusers got to school on time. Dd said her shoulders hurt and forced me to write a note to excuse her from putting her hand up in class and ds2 said he wanted to stay in bed till tennis time at 3.20 . Ds1 also said he was feeling ill when he set off, but Dh firmly despatched him at 7.40, saying "tough".
Football has ended YAY YAY YAY! no more late nights and grumpiness.

Right, so I am going to take this golden opportunity to start with simple
Routines
then do Zone cleaning
calendar dates
write cleaning lady no in my phone book/phone
then continue to tackle paperwork piles, as per the organised desk thread with some new box files
another run at lunchtime
rest after lunch so I can deal with after school positively

Done
food for the next few days...What's for dinner - lamb chops and potato bake
scones for tea, banana cake to bake with ds2, green beans, tomato salad

The other amazing thing Body Clutterers is that I weighed myself and I've lost yet another 800g (down to 76.6), it must be just from running yesterday So running is obviously a miracle weightloss method...

swan that sounds exactly the type of thing that I would do (cleaning lady, not lose .8kg ) Well done on the running.

reweighed myself and only 100g difference, so have in fact put on 1.5kg in a week

However, am not going to wallow, it's a new week, a new month and I'm on summer holidays for seven weeks (must be worth at least 2 calories?).

have been working like a demon for the past 2 hours this morning...

Ta da
wiped down back door (which we use as our "front" door)
emptied out front hallway (we don't use our front door so it gets jammed with lots of junk and you can barely reach the letter box)
hoovered and dusted and wiped down floor,inside of front door and skirting (found many many cobwebs)
sorted out my coats (wash, storage for winter coats, emptying out of pockets)
DHs coats waiting to be sorted
shoe rack separated and half carted upstairs under attic stairs for winter shoes
threw away 2 pairs of shoes
wiped down bannister (this was till on my list from when I started maternity leave LAST SEPTEMBER!)
cleaned big buggy, ready to be stored in loft (as we have a shiny new maclaren that actually fits in my boot)
moved piles of stuff upstairs ready to go in loft to be stored

DS is sleeping o I should push on. heading to intake meeting for nursery this afternoon. DS starts for 2 days in August when I go back to school.

Still to do.....
put buggy in attic and everything else that is sitting under attic stairs
go through DS clothes and decide what goes into storage and if there's anything that needs to be given/thrown away
start packing for holiday!
spend a few minutes (at least!) on hotspots (dining table, kitchen table, kitchen window sill)
clean front door
attach doorbell that we meant to do when we bought it A YEAR AGO!

Time to crack on!

Oh engels has just reminded me I had a question about school intakes! There is 3 primary schools in my catchment area and DD is 18mo, when do I start being a pushy parent and putting first/ second choices forward, who to and also do you think the schools would mind if I asked to visit the nursery to see what it's like? There's one school I did a teaching practice in and I wouldn't send a dog there, which is why I'm worrying in advance, not pfb much, honest

Fraid I can't offer any advice lauren . We will be looking at the same thing ourselves over here at some point soon (DS is nearly 9mo). Seems crazy that I should be thinking about this now!

Lauren, I don't know about nursery intake, my two went to a separate pre-school, none of the schools here have attached nurseries, but for reception they start the September after their 4th birthday. You have to apply for your place by sometime in the winter beforehand (used to vary from LA to LA but think there is a single date now). So you need to be looking/deciding in the summer/autumn of the year before that, ie the summer after or of their 3rd birthday. The first thing you need to be certain of is the catchment areas, they can get changed from year to year.

So, you have plenty of time before you actually have to do anything, unless it's for nursery. The best thing for now is to get your ear to the ground and find out as much as you can about your local schools. They probably have websites. Your local authority website will have all the details of how and when to apply for nearer the time.

when I nursery I mean purely in the childcare sense, not pre-school or anything like that - don't think any nurseries are attached to schools over here (in Holland!).

Oooh, I have a lot of body clutter to get rid of too, I took the '9 months on, 9 months off' to mean I didn't have to start getting it off for 9 months

Weighing in at 11.3

Actually been pretty motivated today, have done dishes, put two loads of washing on, went through my wardrobe and got rid of loads of clothes that I never wear

Planning to do a massive car boot sale some point in the next couple of weeks, so it's a good incentive to clear out loads of clutter. We have a very small house, with four of us living in it, so can't really afford to keep hold of crap that isn't important

what is Zone cleaning?

done
decluttered three handbags full of junk sorting coins atm - found spare key!! Immediately attached to large vulgar keyring and hung on hook!

routines:stripped pillowcases off three beds
washing downstairs
loaded dw
rubbish bin
recycling
milkbottles
clean laundry upstairs
minimal ironing pile created
rescued playroom (still more to do there though)
cat litter rescue
added any groceries we have run out of to wipe board

zone cleaning - decluttered hall table, and sorted mini-drawer thing, hung up coats, shoes in rack, sorted post - no chance of any deep cleaning too many other rooms in this house chaotic

and I'm starving

Rodney if you go to links at beginning of thread that will explain zone cleaning. House is divided into zones so each week you tackle a different zone, rather than feel you have to tackle whole house every week. It enables a bit of deep cleaning to creep in. At beginning though Flylady encourages you to just get used to babysteps, which include a routine way to keep whole house tidy too, rather than worrying about zones in any detail. Otherwise, it can get a bit pearshaped.

list dump

ta da

2nd lot of washing on, 1st lot outside drying
DH has joined the declutter and has emptied pockets of winter coats for washing and thrown away 2 coats which were last fashionable in the 80s
cleaned floor, skirting and doors in kitchen
moved a few boxe up into attic

going well today! bbl

Good god, but you lot can list for Britain/appropriate foreign locations

So, I've read everyone's posts and am now at list dump stage.

To-do/Ta-da list:

• Morning routine - done
• WAH job - done, but more required tonight
• Home Bleurgh - done, as had spontaneous playdate this morning
• washing into machine
• wash bathmats
• trip to local town as I need to

- visit library for new books - return dress that isn't quite right - buy sausages for dinner

DS is asleep just now, not sure when he'll wake, but not letting him go past 1.30pm; I'm a bit concerned that this may be the reason why he was awake early this morning - too long a nap yesterday.

Right, need to stop prevaricating and get on with the washing.

Thank you whoknows and engels, I have taught in one of the schools, which is why I know I don't want to send DD there if possible. I called my first choice school (bottom of my road) for advice and they were lovely, have put DD on their list and have asked my preference about mornings or afternoon sessions and they will write to
me just before she is 3 to tell me if I have a place for her, we are going to visit and have a look round and meet the teachers Thursday! All very accommodating so fingers crossed!

Ta-da!

School run
Phone call
Text's to DS's friend's mum
Cleaned bathroom, including the yucky plastic basket full of bathtoys
Emptied DW and refilled with breakfast stuff
Dusting (minimal)
Mop kitchen and bathroom floors
Hoover dining area
Pilates class
Lunch

OU work now, then need to tackle the massive washing mountain in my bedroom and maybe some ironing. I've got an hour extra today child-free as both DCs are doing stuff straight from school.

I have just read through the thread and now have no time to post - you lot talk too much :o

Ellie - you have been in my thoughts a lot, I hope today goes as well as it can (when it involves tiredness, emotional exhaustion, sadness and teenagers!) Make sure you take care of yourself in amongst it all.

PA - only 2 weeks, that has come round quickly. Hope it isn't too manic

SC - thank you so much for leading last month and Blue thanks for taking on July.

Bodyclutter - I have lost 1lb but am struggling with the snacking which is always my downfall (so true Swan about being unaware how much you are eating).
Sorry to disillusion those who thinking running might be the answer - it is if you don't then feel justified to scoff your own weight afterwards as I did when I first started Couchto5k . Unfortunately running and monitoring your food intake is what really works :(

Quick list:

• Make quiche/coleslaw/etc for dinner
• Watch tennis
• Take snacks to school to fortify DD on the walk home. It is only 10mins but she is SHATTERED after a busy w/e
• Homework supervision - could be hard going due to above!
• Early bed for DC
• Ironing

Best get on.........

Could I just thank whoever it was that recommended the Pledge feather duster things last month, was it you Carpe? I bought one and it is brilliant, get the dusting done in half the time and without moving so much stuff, very good buy.

Yup, was me. Love mine - especially as DS thinks it's great and "plays" with it; so I can train him up