October-fest: a fledgling (at best) might spruce up its nest (then take a rest?).

[strictlycaballine]

Welcome to the October 2012 Fledgling Flyers thread. Park your mops, buckets, microfibre cloths, golden dusters and spiders-web-removing-implements here!

A huge "thank you" to Whoknows and Pushme for leading us throughout September!! (Hope you are recovering well Whoknows - take it steady!)

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 along the way.

This little-and-often system is designed so that you can follow a series of steps and routines each day (which gradually become second nature) in weekly designated zones of the house; defining and minimising housework - which in theory should leave you with more time to do other more interesting things instead! At the same time it is intended to reduce that panicky "rabbit in headlights" feeling when you are overwhelmed and everything needs doing all at once. No problem if you miss a day or two; just jump right back in and it will all come around next month again anyway!

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 steps and routines using a three-pronged approach (dependent on the stage everyone is at):

• start or repeat 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.

[And if you are really enthusiastic and have finished decluttering - you can go on to detailed deep cleaning in each zone.]

More info here on getting started, and the flylady system here and here Don't be put off by the barf-tastic language of the site - the underlying system is sound.

All welcome!!

The problem is that there is no obvious solution to issues. Still thinking about it. But am grateful that his teacher is very very on the ball and ds came out of school in a good mood. which is a major improvement. Will continue to mull over the situation. And ds is on half term so there is chance to sort things out.

Sorry about the school issues, Bitchy. That's so hard, particularly when you thought it was all going reasonably smoothly there.

Just - your foot sounds very poorly and the situation with the flood really can't be helping it to heal . I hope things get better soon. You are right about DS not getting the chance to bunk off education! I have warned him that he will still have to have his Maths lesson tomorrow morning because he can clearly handle a one-hour lesson in his own home, even if he has to go back to bed later . He is handling XBox Live with his best friend at the moment, so not that ill!

Gossip - sorry, but I'm afraid - as dizzy said - we also have had videos rejected by charity shops and had to take them to the dump.

dizzy - how old is your DS? That's a fab meal he cooked you!

madwoman - relieved to see that you are not beating people up when not on this thread.

WhoKnows - I did have a nice sleep, thank you, although I only woke up just in time to rush up to school and was a bit late. DS1 reminded me of the time I was pregnant with his little brother and fell fast asleep for four hours, only waking up an hour after pick-up time when the phone was ringing and ringing from the school .

Have run out of energy for Flying this evening. This morning's tidy up wore me out. And it is so dispiriting to see how much clutter there still is to deal with.

Dp had to take video's to the tip, he's gone to pick the dishwasher up !!!!

sorry for lack of personals. throwing down a to do list for tomorrow to motivate me as have been very lax today

• load of washing
• DS hospital appt...the helmet is toast!
• polish shoes (and lovely new boots I bought yesterday)
• find a place to stash my supply of christmas paper and cards...need to do some christmas flying
• food shopping

-put garden furniture cushions up in loft -tidy lounge so I don't have to do the whole thing on Saturday for DS birthday party number 2 on Sunday -do some writing...time to get creative.

have been really good this week at writing in my journal and even done some creative writing. was looking at the "writing for Children" on Mumsnet academy and would LOVE to meet Meg Roscoff but have realised that at the moment I don't need someone to tell me how to write, I just need to actually write rather than procrastinating.

On a completely different note, I am trying to make an iPod playlist to get me really singing and dancing my way round my house when doing my home bleurgh, so I wanted to ask you all.............what song gets you in the Flylady mood?

Bitchy - heh heh. You use it round the stick for your bottom hand, supposed to improve stick control by forcing you to use the top hand... Or something.

Ta da:
Morning routine, work, homework for my piano lesson, piano lesson, another quick grocery/errand stop, dinner cooked, flopped on couch for half an hour....

To do:
Drop cat food up to DMil so that DAil (who will be minding her while we're away)can feed cats (x2).
Tiny bit of school paperwork...
Iron clothes, pack, general tidy around.
Shave legs etc, fake tan, early night....?!

What's a clog cannon?

My understanding is that it is a device for clearing slow-running drains/sinks ie. a glorified plunger.

we loaded the dishwasher !!!

Yay to dishwashers, Gossip!

Trazzle - oh how dull, a clog canon sounded much more exciting than that!

I've wasted way too much of my evening failing to find a couple of very specific toys that DS1 wants desperately for Christmas. Thread here if anyone would be so kind...

Anyway, night all!

Hi all

I am still here but basically can't type at all. Have horrendous shoulder pain, v trivial prob rsi from too much mn but numb hands and very bad aching so seriously affecting my typing abilities. Too painful to type more but am reading and back better when it eases a bit.

Ohhhh... so it's an "un-clog" cannon [understanding dawns] thx Trazzles never would have guessed!

Evening all. [Glugs glass of Toffee's white wine ...and thanks for earlier Whoknows]

As Toffee and Justgettingonwithit have already posted very thorough personals I hope you will forgive me for cursory messages + links tonight. It's been a long day...

[hic]

And verily, God stroked his beard and looked down and said "ye who have not heeded the Flylady 11 commandments and the 31 babysteps (or missions) this time shall be blessed with an unexpected visitation and thus shall spend the fullness of the day running hither and thither like a blue-arsed fly preparing thy dwelling place."

That just about sums it up really

Oo, but did just want to say to "thank you very much" for the Internet safety tips *Ellie Q" - much appreciated

Can you call in any helpers at w/e JGOWI? [Sends healing vibes to foot]

Will ponder and get back to you about Fly songs Engels (I mainly listen to Radio 4 podcasts because I am old and boring) Well done you re: creative writing.

Have fun tomorrow Castlelough safe flight!

Whey hey re: dishwasher Gossip (first thing I would save in a fire - inanimate thing anyway ... rabbits of course come first ) Well done sorting cupboard. Sorry you had such an up and down day. Hope it ended on an up!

Dizzy your day (and grub) sounds fab! Pls send your ds around to us immediately!

Madwoman still sounds stressful - hope it's all sorted soon

Whoknows wise words from other fledglings about not setting your recovery back...taxi sounds like a good idea

Toffee hope your ds1 feels better soon and ditto re clutter busting by Xmas

Lauren yikes at meningitis scare - hope it is contained ...
yes was wondering about Nicknacks myself ... [SC tries to restrain herself from asking but can't resist ..."go on then, is he a good cook?" ]

Swan hope the visit went OK in the end ...

Take it steady Issima

Enjoy half term Bitchy hope you can resolve some of the school issues

Huge waves to anyone I have inadvertently missed ...

x posts

Yay Gossip

Doesn't ring any bells but will have a surf Blue

Ouch Pushme [hands over muscle embrocation] that sounds painful. Do you have good physio nearby?

Thank you again EllieQ for Internet Safety tips (your name came out unemboldened below]

[cackles- have just seen Toffee's comment about Madwoman "not beating people up when not on this thread!*

yes sc he is! He had marinated steaks and everything, I was very impressed but I'm not a great cook so that's probably not hard to do he spoilt it though by being an hour late and not staying. But I can't complain really I was fed, and showered with gifts all really thoughtful ones that linked to conversations we have had too

[waves frantically from upper circle]

sorry, not keeping up, but
Toffee Aristotle and science sounds v advanced stuff, is that the same as Archimedes [wot said Eureka?]
Just poor legs, you are brave to go swimming
Ellie thanks for tip
Castlelough I love the way that you think London is a place full of glamorous types

Baby visit went very well, after all my whinging. I went to Tesco's and bought them four bags of groceries so that went down very well indeed! I think it is actually so boring to go shopping for basics that it was much appreciated. A very happy family, and peacefully sleeping/eating baby!

So what have I done today after pickup?
cooked venison sausage casserole (everyone scraped sauce off
dd to Guides
got rather cross with all my kids and felt exceedingly tired
washing
wiped table
dw
food compost
brief fridge clearout

The house is just such a mess atm, don't what I'm waiting for...the cavalry perhaps Voluntary work tomorrow, so I can't see mess receding. Maybe a few newspapers will get picked up Dh and I just need to do a complete clearout and that will have to wait till he is in the mood, and is getting bored by his new business...

*

Crikey that week went fast (again)

Tomorrow's/today's (depending on your time zone) baby-step no. 19 for Fri 19th Oct is yuck barftastic testimonial ignore!

Friday is our last day in Zone 3: the bathroom and one other room here

Try and spend 15 mins decluttering in this zone per day.

Once you have decluttered in this zone, you can go on to detailed cleaning

Don't forget your super fling boogie in this zone this week in preparation for the Christmas holidays!

Friday's mission is here mop bathroom floor + hot spot drill in dc room

Friday is declutter car and purse day

The habit for October is:here Try and shred/recycle/jettison papers you no longer need, 15 mins per day.

If I've missed anything, have a look at Friday's http://www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-120 flight plan which should update automatically with date.

Reminders (because it's the end of the wk) are here

G'night all!

*

x post

Waves frantically back to Swan so glad your visit (and presents) were appreciated. Taking them shopping bags of necessaries was an inspired idea!!

Ooohh Lauren he sounds lovely (and thoughtful to boot)! I will forgive him the hour this time .... only this time mind

[Might just go and check out naughty corner before bed ...]

Sorry [hic] shall just re-do that flight plan link ...

hope it works this time

Ahhh Madwoman. You are wise. Also as it slides up and down the stick it is supposed to get them changing their hand positions as it is needed. Not entirely certain why they had chairs and a bin on the ice but the kids were having fun.

un-clogging cannon

I think it would be a real hit in my neighbourhood

Or at the very least a cannon that blasts the clogs out of the way. That would be fun.

Three kids in school
dh to work
tins for harvest festival display dispatched
ds2 numeracy
dd piano scales
wash on
table cleared

So todo
wipe table
wipe worktops
get dressed
duvet cover downstairs
s & s loo[s]
go to school library
drop off one batch of Supplementary Application Forms to Greenford
and to school round corner before next week's deadline
Meals for this weekend/next week plan: macaroni cheese with bacon and spinach,
roasting chicken from freezer, vegetable soup, chicken and leek pie, tuna pasties? bulgar wheat with something or other, tomato and anchovy pasta, plum crumble, plum cobbler, apple tart, cake of some sort I can see a theme of Magimix pastry emerging..

done
finished a novel on Biafran War called Half A Yellow Sun which was very good (book club book although I missed the evening due to dh being ill!)

Morning all

Grub sounds delicious Swan ! 'Speaking' of novels, isn't it great that Hilary Mantel won the Booker again?

[visualises Engels on top of roof shooting clogs at random targets throughout neighbourhood]

Despatched dd on "all-day forest walk" this morning wearing almost too-small wellingtons. School said no trainers, but to wear walking boots or wellington boots. Well, we only have the latter and they gave us two days notice [grrr] (haven't bought this winter's wellingtons yet and didn't have an opportunity to do so yesterday) so hope she is not hobbling by the time she gets home (put trainers in her bag just in case). Why can't school give adequate notice for this sort of thing[grr]?

School can't win though because I'm always grumbling about how unimaginative the curriculum is (lots of rote learning as per French system) - so it is good the dc are going out and doing something different for once!

Apart from basic routines, I really haven't made any new progress in the house. It's been one of those weeks where we have been doing a lot of friend and dd friend and godchildren related things and the same goes for this weekend (Sat and Sun). I know the whole point of Flylady is that you do the decluttering in small amounts as part of basic routines, but I am not even managing that.

Medical appt this afternoon (that I'm a bit nervous about) so only have this morning to get stuff done.

Not even going to write a list because it's all the same stuff as before

Heigh ho ...onward and hopefully upward and all that ...

Sorry - that wasn't a very inspiring thread-leaderish motivating post was it ??

Hope you all have a good Friday though!!

One good point - because of unexpected visitors yesterday - have cooked for 5,000 - loads left over - so won't need to do much more food shopping or cooking over w/e. That should buy me some much needed time.