Fledglings Remember to FLY through November...

[BlueEyeshadow]

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.

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 Flying lessons. Here's the launch pad for more experienced fledglings. Don't be put off by the barf-tastic language of the site - the underlying system is sound (and you may discover a few of our subversions of the vocabularly along the way).

Many thanks to SC for leading the thread through October (and for such a good OP, which I've blatantly cut and pasted) - - and I'll post the first babysteps and mission tomorrow evening.

All welcome!!

Up early too.
Ds1 off to school; he's in a very good mood because he's in the concert this eve, playing a Queen solo (just a little twiddle he said!) for violin, and singing in two choirs. His music homework (something on mixer decks) is so tidy and neat Made him a packed snack for afterschool.

Twins are lurking...

DH still away...I feel very tired already, not good at managing my bedtime when he is away. Went to bed far too late, pootling around.

Kitchen is still chaos, full of bin bags and piles of root veg.
Tonight is helping at Ds concert, up very late, horrid journey
and then tomorrow dd has volunteered me on a school trip to Science Museum Yr6... not looking forward to it at all..but will have to go.

Hope I can get a sleep in today afternoon.

Blue - hope you are OK.
Gossip - you sound cheerful this morning.
Swan - hope you catch up on some sleep, I'm a bit like that if DH goes away, I don't have the rush to get to sleep before he comes up to bed and starts snoring.

Ta-da!
I have just booked a cottage for us to go away for a few days over New Year. The DCs don't go back to school till the 7th and I find those days after New Year a bit of an anti-climax which is usually swerved by getting back into term time routines, so thought we'd make the most of it.

Need to get to work now, back later.

Morning all

I'm finished work now until this afternoons school run easy life so am meeting my mum at lunch time to go shopping for flooring for the summer house!

DD is calling me by my actual name rather than mummy though I keep saying "I'm called mummy" and she's just looking at me like I'm stupid as if to say "no you're not"...

Just basic routines today, going to take dogs on a long walk now and have another go at sorting my bedroom!

date night tonight, so ill be lurking through the day but probably won't be back with lists!

Yes, cold has gone thankfully, so as I'm feeling better, I thought I would attempt to make myself look better too, which includes eating better and drinking less coffee to lose weight, at the moment I weigh 75kg ( 11st 12lb) and I'm aiming for 67kg, which is exactly 10 and a half stone, I would look ridiculous if I aimed any lower than that though, as I am fairly busty and I wouldn't want to lose much of them. However two sizes smaller would mean that I could finally buy cheap bra's out of every shop.

So my morning list is the usual, if I have time I will attack the bedroom, which will probably mean that as soon as I clear some space, dp will fill it with more of his shit.

lauren - both my two went through a phase of doing that. Felt odd but it passed quickly enough. I think they realise that you can be more than one thing at a time and are experimenting with it. Still call me mummy at 7 and 9 :)

Ta da:

• All up and out plus 2 extra on school run
• GP appointment for DS
• Quick air of house - we have quite a condensation problem and one of the tips I read was to open all windows for 5 mins to exchange air then shut them again.

To do: (power of 3 again though at least one is from yesterday's list )

• Write report
• Contact DJ's
• Morning routine finished

I have an hour until I have to pick up DS so better get on...

Thanks WhoKnows - yes fine, just one thing after another. Ended up driving home from Zumba thinking the car felt funny. By the time I got home there was a completely flat tyre (clipped the kerb earlier on but had thought it was ok). DH reckoned I should have called the AA from the roadside as it would have been cheaper. Didn't think of it though because I had a friend coming over and just wanted to get home! So then friend arrived while I was still cooking dinner (DH had started it but got distracted by the tyre!), eating, chatting, catching up with Masterchef, and suddenly it was rather late!

Upshot is, DS2 has had to go to the CM rather than playgroup. Mobile tyre people coming about 12.30 so will have to do the Aldi shop after that.

To do:
Washing out
Clean inside windows
Hoover
Aldi
Work
Remember right time to collect DS1 from cooking club!
Chase up newsletters

Waves to Lauren, Swan and Gossip - tray of on the bar if anyone wants one.

Holiday cottage sounds lovely WhoKnows - handy the schools going back later. It means we can put off heading down to my parents until New Year and then stay till after my mum's birthday on the 6th. Everyone's a winner!

well a five minute rr on my room turned into an hour of sorting the airing cupboard out looking for 2 pillow cases that I couldn't find and eventually changing the bed, having a quick break then will get on with the rest of it.

WhoKnows - glad your op was a success, but sorry you have another one, albeit minor. Thanks for the reminder on Pelvic Floor Exercises (I never remember to do them). That's a fantastic idea to go away for New Year!

I have both DC at home and poorly today. At least, DS2 says he's poorly, but he's very lively . DS1 has taken himself back to bed and is sleeping, so I believe him. I have managed a bit of a house bleugh this morning, in between getting b/fast for DC, reading DS2 a story, soaking DS2's foot (splinter, but he won't let me take it out), doing mental maths with DS2 and checking on DS1 in bed. MIL is arriving for tea shortly.

Ta da:

Dishwasher unloaded and reloaded again
DS1's pillow soaked in cold water (nose bleed)
Dark wash on
Dark wash put into tumbledryer
White wash on
Kitchen surfaces wiped
Washing up put away
Hoovered downstairs
Floors mopped

MIL here. Got to go...

Blue - I've driven home with a flat tyre before, the tyre man said if I had stopped the minute it happened and changed the wheel or called the AA, the tyre could have been repaired but driving on it wrecked it. However given a choice of sitting on the side of a dual carriageway in the freezing cold and pitch dark on my own in the rush hour and waiting for the AA to come out or getting home and waiting safely there but it costing more, I was happy to pay a bit more to be honest.

This is the first time the holidays have finished this late since my DCs started school. We are somewhat stuck in our Christmas arrangements WRT visiting parents/ILs, the choices are stay at home and have my parents over or visit one set, but the catch is that it is MILs birthday on Boxing Day and we HAVE to visit them for that day (100 miles from both us and my parents). If we go to ILs for Xmas Day as well we don't get to see my parents and have to eat ILs Xmas dinner which if it is anything like their Sunday roasts is well worth avoiding. If we go to my parents one of us has to drive home on Xmas Day (ie can't drink) or we have to pack to stay the night there and then go straight off to ILs for 2 days, which is way too much rushing around and packing. So we have my parents over Xmas Day (mum doesn't mind driving home) and head to ILs on Boxing Day. We only ever stay 2 nights because their house is tiny and there isn't a lot to do in the middle of winter. So, we have a whole week free over New Year. Sorry, bit of a ramble.

Ta da:
Washing out and back in again
Hoover (downstairs)
Mop hard floors
Wipe counters
Shine sink
Empty hoover
Aldi shop and stuff put away
Get veggie casserole in slow cooker
Work
Chase up newsletters
Clear up cat poo and sick from front garden. Next door's cats.
Put pepper on cat toilet flower bed - see if it works!

To do:
Clean inside windows
Remember right time to collect DS1 from cooking club!
Hoover upstairs
Put laundry away

Get well soon to your DSs Toffee. Hope tea with MIL went well!

Feet - I remember a friend's landlord in Germany being obsessed with "Lüften" (airing). He insisted she opened the windows for 10 mins every day even when it was below zero outside and they immediately steamed up on closing! Agree that it's a good idea in moderation though.

I've been here all the time....honest. I definitely have not been absent all month and more and I definitely not have completely descended into chaos..... honest.

Hello ellie - it's all right, I saw you right there all along! :)

Quick linkies and then I'm heading back to my crochet snowflakes which are not yet coming out quite right...!

Babystep 23 - add in a home from work/school routine.

Mission Tomorrow's is ackcherly the chest of drawers one I mentioned yesterday, and today's was bedside tables, but hey, they're all on the same link! Hope that's clear...

Crochet hook is now calling. See you tomorrow!

Whoknows I would do as you did with the tyre...Glad you are feeling better. It has been a long haul for you, but so glad it has worked. Like Toffee you have put the fear of God into me over PF exercises in future. Please don't do any heavy lifting in garden club next year.

ta da
concert for ds1
helping at concert
loads of hoovering and sorting downstairs of my house. Some inroads. 2 bags of rubbish is good.
Dh returned, in a good mood, but mildly irritating.

And tomorrow I have to help with the school trip. I am sooo not looking forward to it, did everything I could to get out of it, but everyone else has the same idea. Howling gales, rain, tubes

Our family Xmas looks as usual confusing. I know from experience that I hate packing up straight after xmas, but also from hideous experience that by Day 4 everyone has cabin fever and I wish I was roaming some heath. Not sure what to do, except find a heath nearer home! Ireland is lovely but too far for New Year, and lots of politics in family situation. I think my mum has decided to go to Egypt to escape from us all!

Thanks Swan. I have to say that compared with a lot of the ladies on the prolapse threads I have got off pretty lightly so far, it is absolutely shocking what some have had to put up with, both in terms of their actual conditions and their treatment at the hands of Doctors. They are a lovely bunch, my second favourite lot of MNers.

I was supposed to be having an early night but I've got my OU book by my bed and have been doing some work, it is very interesting (Intro to Social Sciences). I got the DCs off to bed nice and early (their bedtime has slipped lately and DD's teacher has commented on her yawning), mercifully both their activities after school were cancelled today, but can't seem to do the same for myself. My next child related mission is less screen time, wish me luck.

Ellie - hello :)

Whoknows - re screentime. We have a 4.30pm rule ie no screens - DS, Wii, computer (unless for homework) or TV before 4.30pm As we get in at about 4pm from school DC have to find something else to do for a while. Often they become so engrossed in whatever it is they forget about the screen - they haven't worked this out yet :)
At w/e and holidays they can have up to an hour in the morning and then 4.30pm rule applies again.
Seems to work for us but was introduced a week after DD got her DS nearly 2 years ago, don't know about imposing it retrospectively.

Swan - I have buried my head in the sand re Christmas and Ireland this year - it is going to cost me.

Need the Power of Three again today:

• Bath and hairwash
• All up and out plus pick up one extra
• Coffee morning with Head

Have a good day all.

Thanks feet it's good to know it might not be forever! I've got visions of the Simpsons in my head!

Me and DD are under the weather today so just going to stick to routines and be a bit lazy!

BBL!

Next Three:

• Scan pictures in and send to t-towel company (School Assoc related!)
• Text friend re lunch and change location
• Menu plan and shopping list

Thanks Feet - I think one of the reasons I am struggling with it is the after school activities make it hard to stick to any rules, some days we come home and stay home, others we go out again any time between 3.45 and 5 for either one or two activities. I was doing it the other way round, screen time is from 3.30 to 4, but it gets complicated on activity nights as DS is allowed to take his DS if he has to wait around for DD which is twice a week. They also pester to go on while I am making tea and it is easy to say yes for a quiet life. DS also has a tendency to get up before the rest of us and sneak some time on the Ipad. In mitigation they hardly watch any telly now. I think I need to make a timetable, laminate it and stick to it.

Hello my lovelies. Just flapping my wings from the naughty corner. [Hands empty wine bottles to Ellie to hide. Keeps full one back for later ]

Wrote a long message yesterday and it was so self-pityingly whinge-ful that I decided it was not fit to post! Can't guarantee will be much more chipper today though!

How did it get to be the 23rd November already? Yikes!!

All my plans seem to be thwarted this week. Managed to launch myself for a bit of low-level Flying on Wednesday, but dd was off school yesterday (my only free day [sigh]) and is still at home today with a horrible cold. It's a bit of a disaster in terms of upcoming exams (ridiculous to be worried about this at 9yrs but such are the school pressures here unfortunately). I hope she will be better by Monday.

Added to that, I have been swimming in a sea of nesbitting can't-be-arsed-ness. (I know this is really 'old' so will leave out five paragraph rant on the freezing cold, the holes in the walls, the falling plaster, the missing floorboards, the gloom, the general lack of comfort). It's just so hard to keep motivated when nothing fundamentally changes. I wonder if a marriage ever broke up over a house???? [Dh was brought up in a medieval hall and thinks is is perfectly normal to have a force 2 gale blowing through the landing and rain coming through the roof.] I was brought up in a big old Victorian house that had ice on the bathroom tiles in winter so I am not exactly wimpish when it comes to home comforts, but this place is really wearing me down.

Heigh ho, onward and upward as they say. Have recently given the rabbits' winter quarters a makeover and they are now the proud owners of a warm, indoor house that they can access at will, a small wooden bridge, a basket made of dried meadow hay, a plastic tunnel, a soft dog bed and some rabbit-friendly games such as a ball with a bell (a real favourite) and a wooden climbing frame. I think I might move in .

Whoknows glad the consultation went relatively well and that the op was declared a success. Sorry to hear about second prolapse though and poor treatment of other ladies which is scandalous frankly!

Sorry no more personals - promise to catch up with everyone later. Must must turn on my timer for 15 mins and force myself to do something constructive while it is still light.

Dithering over Christmas plans here too Swan Must make some decisions!

Whoknows - I'm just mean most of the time and insist on 4.30pm regardless of after-school stuff but it does mean that they see me as super-nice when I do say yes :)
DD also does the 'sneaking on early in the morning' too sometimes, I tend to turn a blind eye then.

SC - sympathies re Groundhog Day re house. It really gets me down and I have no-where near as much to cope with as you. Bunnies winter quarters sound lovely, can I move in with you too?
Am now going shopping to distract myself from state of house :)

Next 3:

• Hang up towels
• Straighten wild hair
• Ring t-towel company to check they got email

And then:

• Town - bank, buy hair stuff and funky, sparkly eye make-up for DD for dance show on Sunday
• Buy elf
• Food shopping

Arf at luxary rabit palace SC not surprised you want to move in though.

I lack motivation today. Was very under the weather yesterday and stilldont' feel right today. However, there is stuff to do. Including clearing my car out in the cold --although thankfully no where near as cold as madwoman has it.

madwoman what stick does your' ds use and how do you pick a new one? Ds has a basic wooden stick but has been given money for a new one for christmas. Needless to say it is a bit outside of my area of knowledge and I am jerseys' I can manage without too much hassel. But sticks well it's like trying to get a hockey player to explain which toe pick is used for what purpose.

ta da
parcel in post for toffee - finally, sorry about that.
Baking batch 1 in oven
quilt washed
ds' kit on to wash
make list of what has to be done today
drink some but clearly not enough coffee

Ooo, thanks, Bitchy. Had forgotten all about it myself too, so please don't worry. You have enough on your plate anyway - sorry you are feeling under the weather. (How is DS this week?).

SC - lucky rabbits . Sorry you are feeling overwhelmed by everything at the moment.

Have spent all morning in nearest town with DS2. He has been complaining of double vision, but it turns out he has absolutely perfect sight and was either trying to get cool glasses like his big brother, or was confused about what double vision actually is. He does also claim to have X-ray vision - the optician was very impressed by that!

Anyway, I have only just got back from dropping DS2 off at school for the afternoon. The house is a mess and I have someone coming over for lunch on Sunday, so I need to do a huge crisis clean sometime, but right now I have to prioritise home ed.

Sorry, I have to be rude and dash off now, but waves to all.

Ds is calmer this wk, not hard when compared to last week, but still not great. but we have some much loved visitors and that is helping to distract him, especially as there has been a promise of a game of chess.

More baking done. Just some cookies to finish off.

Glad to hear that, Bitchy. Are you sharing the cookies with us?