The Fledglings' nests will be clean in 2013!

[superfluouscurves]

(With many thanks to Jdub for title inspiration!!)

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 (although some Fledglings find the compilation e-mails helpful)! 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 vocabulary along the way).

Huge thanks to Lauren for being our incredibly reliable and organised shining star in the East and leading us throughout the very busy month of December!!

Happy New Year Fledglings!!

All welcome!!

How are your bruises now, Just?

Double - sorry about your iced kitchen . I hope the cakes are appreciated.

lori - hope the playdate went well.

Lilleth - that looks like a productive day.

Have booked the holiday flat and am now cooking dinner before rushing off to my second pilates class. DH has lit the log-burning stove in the sitting room. Going out into the cold is the last thing I want to do, but the pilates will be a Good Thing.

Toffee the main one's quite unnerving apparently. I effectively have a second pair of buttocks protruding about an inch, above my natural ones. It's the part of my back that hit the deck first and I've a drain imprint on the back of my shoulder, but it is all on the mend, just uncomfortable.

Just Oww that sounds painful
SC hope everything goes well
Bitchy hope things look up soon

Done
Beds
Windows
Wash load on
Ironing
Dyed Dh hair
Cleared off grotty filler in bathroom (just need to replace it now)
Cleaned bathroom door
Mop kitchen & bathroom floors
Baked dozen small cakes & 1 big cake (all chocolate) -small cakes in naughty corner
Batch prepare vegetables & freeze
Wash up x 3
Collect Dd
Bank
Dinner
Wash up, including giving stove top fittings a good clean
shine sink

to do
Put dry clothes away
Unload washer

Evening.
TaDa
made beds
swish and swipe
laid out and cleared breakfast
went to work
15mins detail
hotspots
cooked dinner
cleaned kitchen
laid out clothes
shined sink
homework with ds1
stray items away

am now soaking 2 acrylic nails in acetone(?) after breaking them at work. tut.
I found today's flying better by doing the detail clean in the morning. going to try to keep that up.

Blimey, Just, that sounds terrible! If it's any consolation, I slipped on the ice a few years back (fell backwards onto my buttocks, landing on an unright wooden edging to the path) and ended up with a whopping bruise that, according to DH, looked like a map of Gran Canaria! I can't beat a drain imprint though.

Seriously, have you been checked by your GP? I also had a dreadful bruise once from tripping over a wooden stump in a playground (rushing to help DS2) and ended up with a bruise with a swelling the size of a tennis ball on my shin. The GP almost sent me for surgery because it was so bad and I was sent to bed for two days to avoid it getting worse. If your bruise is that swollen, it should be looked at.

Evening everyone. Hope you have had a reasonably good day.

Back on here late again!! Bit of a pressured day but urgent work conveniently put to bed in good time for procedure tomorrow afternoon. Speaking of which - thanks for all your good wishes - much appreciated !!

Justgettingonwithit ouch and ouch at second pair of buttocks and drain-shaped bruise!! That sounds v. painful indeed. Take it steady. Wishing you a VERY speedy recovery!!

at Toffee's wood-burning stove and Lauren's wintery hack ...

Toffee and Lilleth well done re: your lists

Toffee If I forget tomorrow, how you have a fab birthday!!!
Might pm you about RaspberryPi later in the week if I may (thinking of introducing the concept to dd's class at school) And re: your ds2, I currently have "Bedtime Meditations for Kids CD" by Christiane Kerr in my Amazon basket atm - hoping it might calm dd down a bit before bed - don't know if that or a similar (relaxing) audio book would be any good???

Bitchy so sorry you are having such a tough time atm and hope you return to thread soon x

Silvery don't worry - this has always been a supportive thread and I would hope that everyone feels free to vent as and when they need to I spend my life venting on here for example Glad you are having a better day today. Thanks very much for agreeing to lead thread in my absence - much appreciated.

Goth sorry you had a stressful morning too - hope yr day got better!!

Doublemum oh dear at Flying cake ingreds!!!

Loris hope you and your house survived the play date!! And well done re: your completed list.

And yours too Jdub And aw at your ds2 - hard to say 'no' to that, even at 4 am!

Snowgirl enjoy your night off and thanks but pls don't be in awe Have only one dc and a dh who, despite working long hrs, has arranged his office life so that he helps a lot with dd when he is not travelling. Also - I normally only work about 11 hrs per week on average (this week is exceptional) so I probably have a lot more time on my hands than the majority of flledglings on here. Also, also, I really believe in the system, but I am a very intermittent and not terribly good Flyer if I'm honest!!!

MrsPennyapple when you look back at the end of your life, I think you will be very pleased indeed that you allowed yourself to be distracted by things other than housework (esp as your house is already in pretty good order!) so out of that naughty corner girl - good enough is good enough - and have a glass of instead!! [My dh is obsessed with anchovies btw - he says the theory is that the fishy flavour dissolves with cooking and becomes just a generally salty, savoury flavour - but I'm with you - to me they still just taste fishy!!]

Feetheart yum at minestrone soup - it's certainly the weather for it. (And oh yes I am certainly recognising the beginnings of teenage stroppiness in dd too - only 9!!] Hope list went OK

Waves to Madwoman and eveyrone else ...

Back in a mo with tomorrow's steps ...

x post

Silvery and Goth am v. impressed by both your lists

Wise words from Toffee

Baby-step no. 16 for Wed 16th Jan is one to ignore imo (reading fly-lady e-mails)

We are continuing in Zone 3 this week - the bathroom plus one extra room here

Try and declutter for 15 mins in the current zone per day.

If your Zone 3 is already decluttered, you can progress to here detailed cleaning

Tomorrow's mission is washing down front of bathroom cabinets plus 5 min kitchen holiday room rescue

Wednesday is anti-procrastination day here
Do something you have been putting off (I shall be doing just that! )

The habit for January is keep shining that sink!

And if I've missed anything or you want a quick reference to tomorrow's tasks, have a look at tomorrow's flight plan which should update daily.

And thanks again Silvery for taking over tomorrow. I'll be gone from noon onwards - back Fri am, all being well.

Keep going everyone!!

*

oh *°§¨%£&!!!! DD has just come downstairs and says she feels dizzy and ill

[There is no school here Wed afternoons but we have booked her in to craft workshop while I am having mini-op. If she is ill don't know what we will do tomorrow Can't really inflict sick child on friends and too late notice for baby-sitters. Aaaaggghhhhhh!!!]

Oh SC I'm sure your friends wouldn't mind given the circumstances. Hope she's ok.
I'll try to get on before tomorrow lunch time, but if not, I'll be thinking of you, good luck.
For everyone else, I will summarise and post links between 7 and 8 tomorrow and thursday evening before sc is ready to re-join us on Friday.

I have literally just this minute realised it's my mums birthday on thursday! I am the worlds worst daughter!
I can't even interflora some flowers as my bank account and credit card are completely dry! shit

Toffee - have you seen this thread sleep problems.

SC - hope the procedure goes well, fingers crossed that DD is well enough to go ahead with craft camp.

Silvery - thanks for offering to stand in.

Busy day here.

Ta-da!

Morning routine
school run
get petrol
take car for MOT
go to work
fetch car after work
pop to supermarket
school run
prepare dinner from Hairy Dieters book
take DD to ballet, poor DS, we took the Ipad for him to play with, got there and the battery was flat, he was not happy and let me know it (unexpected changes of plan are not his cup of tea).
Get home, feed DCS, both hated the meal so ended up with crackers and cheese, but at least they tried it.
DS sent to Cubs, he's just got back.

DS has just announced that he wants to join the chess club at school, so DH is hurriedly teaching him how to play (they are expected to know the basics before they start).

I must do some OU work tonight, have been slacking again

MFP is going well, I have cut out about 95% of bread/crackers etc and it has made a big differernce to the amount of calories consumed (probably something to do with using less butter too, I am truly shocked at how little the butter has go ne down in the last weeek compared to normal).

Evening All

Silvery hmm sorry to hear that you've forgotten your mum's birthday. I remember once reading someone saying that when she was broke she wrote poems for people.

SC hope DC isn't sick tomorrow. BEST Of luck with your mini-op tomorrow.

Done
Cycled to work and back
Rebooted laundry X2
washed bathroom floors x 3
told DH to make bed and do dishwasher (!)
took DD to Brownies and back
visited mum
did supper
loaded dishwasher
All this in spite of being woken up at 5.30 by DH grumbling at my snoring!

Now off to shine sink and do bedtime routine and get to bed at a decent hour! (My favourite FL phrase)

Silvery trouble is, eveyrone else's children are busy doing scheduled extra-curric activities on Wed afternoons too, so friends tend to be dashing about or have nannies doing that for them - will have to see what I can sort out if worst comes to worst.

Whoknows you sound as though you have had a stressful day as well. Arf at chess lesson 101 though! And well done with MFP - carbs are my downfall too so thanks for the tip. Thought I was doing very well today - ate brown rice salad for lunch with cold chicken - then idly consumed four oat cakes (slightly sweet variety) that were being passed around office this afternoon thinking they were healthy. Only then checked pkt to find they were 145 kcal per 30 g portion (that's each right????) Really stupid (and hugely calorific) mistake!!!

Thanks Cuddledup and well done with your list.

DD has been persuaded back to bed so fingers crossed.

Arf at "decent" hour...one minute past ten and you are entering "indecent" territory don't you know

Hope it goes well tomorrow SC and that DD is OK.

Sorry you're having a tough time, Bitchy.

DS2 did indeed get to nursery and had a whale of a time. The snow came down again in the afternoon. Not much, but enough to cause complete mayhem and gridlock, so hopefully everything will be back to normal tomorrow.

I even managed to hoover while he was out - first flying I've done in ages. And I've got the computer back, yay!

Silvery- if it makes you feel any better, my Df still laughs about the time when on the phone to me he says, " sorry, we haven't posted Dh's card until today, so it will be late" to which I relied " oh bugger, it's tomorrow isn't it" As Dh was sat in the same room, there was no way I could get away with it!

Haha Goth I'm normally quite organised, can't believe I let it slip!
Dp will buy a card and chuck some money in it today and I'll see if she wants to go for dinner when I get paid.

Is it really only Wednesday?
Good luck sc with the op and hope dd is ok.
See you Friday.

Hump day people, get over this one and we're on the home run for the weekend. Wingspeed ladies

Morning all just a quick list dump before mindee arrives!

Ta da yesterday:
Deep cleaned bathroom
Deep cleaned kitchen
Routines
Walked dogs
Picked up dog poo

To do today:
Work
Paperwork
Routines
My bedroom hotspot

BBL!

Morning! Quick list

Done
Beds
Dd to school
Windows
Hand warders boiled to reactivate
Washing up

To do
Wash load on
Dry washing away
Ironing
Mission
Dinner - just needs heating up, 2nd portion of casserole made the other week
Wash up & shine sink

Hope everyone has a good day

Morning all! According to my phone, it's -10 here at the moment! Doesn't sound right, but it's certainly chuffing cold. Not forecast to get about freezing till Sunday either.

School closed but the boys are at the CM's so might actually be forced to intersperse computer work with flying to keep from freezing solid... Now hoping they'll get to school at some point this week, that the roads will clear enough to get to the shops, and that we won't have to cancel the party on Saturday.

Very hard frost here (beautiful) but no snow. Stayed at school after dropoff for an hour to help with reading, now home, heating back on, cup of tea made, washing on and laptop ready for some paid work. Planning to work till 12, have lunch, OU till 1.45, have a break watch Doctors then Flying for 45 mins till school run time.

Morning all, I passed both my exams last night (did 2 modules as I missed one before Christmas due to being rained in) so only have 2 more modules to go now

tada

• turn on washing machine
• Wash up
• Hotspot
• Make my bed in the morning
• Wiped condensation of windows

to do

• Shine Sink
• Fill Washing Machine for tomorrow
• Wipe bathroom window sill as that is our cabinet so have no doors
• Dry Laundry
• Put Laundry away
• Wash Towels
• Wash Up 2X
• Sort out coursework

Hope your DD is better today SC or that you have found a solution.

Happy Birthday Toffee

Hi everyone else. Happy flying.

Hi all! After my guilty conscience attack yesterday I had a fairly productive day, even managed to get some baking done, and used the mincemeat! I out some in scoes in place of the usual dried fruit, they are lovely.

To do today:
Take rubbish out
Bring some wood in
Meal planning
Dinner prep
Tidy kitchen
Mop kitchen floor
Shine sink
Wipe back door (it's white uPVC and filthy)
Clean bathroom
15 min tidying DD's room.

Hope everyone has a good day, sorry for no personals but I was determined to get started good and early, came on here to check the links for today and got distracted by the "strange noise from next door" thread. Better crack on!

Goth - glad you?ve got hot water! Sooo uncomfortable not to in this weather.

Just - Ouch!

SC - hope everything goes well

MrsPennyapple - I?m one of the ?can?t stand anchovies? people!

Toffee - What?s your bedtime routine for DS2? If my DSs haven?t had a bath, story, etc then they don?t settle as easily. Perhaps a solid 45 minute bedtime routine? 30 minute bath, into pjs, 2 stories (1 chosen by then, 1 chosen by you ? or 1 longer one), and then into bed.

A rubbish week of flying for me already, and we?re only half way through! Saw the physio yesterday, and I have apparently torn 3 ligaments in my ankle, and it looks as though one of my toes got broken and has rehealed, but looks slightly odd/different now! Physio was veerrrryyyy painful but did loosen things up a little bit.

Have just spent the whole of the morning on a conference call, so will now try to do a few 15 minute sessions on different spots, and then hit the shops while I?m DS free.

BITCHY - AVOID THIS POST

Silvery - those tantrums are the worst!!! Congrats on keeping as calm as you have. I agree with Toffee - remove all attention. The negative attention just keeps dragging it out with my two. Fortunately my DSs don?t tend to throw things, but I usually just plonk them in the corridor when they are tantruming so that I can keep an eye on it from a distance, but they don?t have access to anything to damage.

I?ve just started on ?choices? with DS1, actually. He started yelling that he never gets to choose and I make all the decisions so I?ve started to let him choose certain things, timings, etc, but then explain what the consequences of bad choices could be. Early stages yet, but some of it seems to be sinking in.

Speaking of tantrums ? DS1 has been really bad straight after school. If I don?t greet him with what he considers an appropriate snack in hand he kicks off big time. Quite embarrassing having that happen constantly at school. Have had no idea what?s been causing this, but now finally think I know why. Apparently he has been barely touching his school dinners, which means when I pick him up from school he?s barely eaten since breakfast ? no wonder he goes into melt down!!!

So now he?s on packed lunches. Sigh? was so hoping I had got rid of lunch making for him as a morning job, and was looking forward to not making lunches for DS2 when he starts school in September! (I don?t like making sandwiches the night before.) Hopefully we can build on our ?choices? theme, and he will need to help me choose lunches that are healthy, and that have a certain amount of vegetables and fruit in them. He was really excited about having a sandwich for lunch today (vegemite, wasn?t prepared for this!! )