Remember, remember to Fly through November, but Fledglings will chatter a lot

[BlueEyeshadow]

If 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 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 zones of the house which are designated weekly; defining and minimising housework - which in theory should leave you with loads more time to do someting more interesting 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!

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!

Humungous thanks to SlimChance for leading us through October and such a copy-and-pasteable OP....

All welcome!!

Yesterday started with me tackling DH's spotwelded pans! He will soak them if they are empty but if there is leftovers he tends to leave them whilst I will put the extra food into a dish for the fridge and then soak straightaway as they are easier to clean the sooner they are soaked but he wouldn't know this as he doesn't tend to wash them up! So 2 soaks and a whole brillo pad later the gunk is off

Rest of my Ta-Da

• Our bed stripped and remade
• Washing load on and hung to dry
• 15mins ironing and putting away
• More photos of DD's outgrown clothes taken - must get round to selling them now!
• DD to swimming club
• Tea made

I was a naughty girl and didn't shine my sink last night so will start with that today!

Toffee Congratulations on the job. I am sure you will get all your juggling balls in place to make it work

Ta-da!

Checked water meter, it is not spinning round, phew! What a relief.
School run plus 1/2 hour meeting with SENCO and both DCs teachers, very reassuring.

Vacuumed round downstairs.

Rowing - totally agree with Bitchy about strategies to stop the paper clutter building up. We both used to open mail and dump it all on the coffee table for weeks on end, now it is opened, 90% thrown away immediately (I no longer need to shred as I have one of those rubber stamps to obliterate data so it goes straight in the recycling). The rest does tend to get left to fester a bit, but as there is so much less of it that is not really a problem. Also, once you have started decluttering and getting rid of old stuff, you find that the stuff you do need to keep gradually finds sensible homes in drawers and cupboards so it becomes much easier to tidy up and also to find again. There is a special Flylady Christmas section, hang on a minute.

Flylady Festive page

Blue - good luck with your campaigning and SC - thank you for offering to take over.

Am still green but now I have now 2 DS joining me.

Ta da
Made bed
Delivered 2 DS to school
Cleaned kitchen
2x washes
D/w

To do
Ironing
S&S x3
Ironing
Put away clothes from 3 washes
Unload d/w
Reload d/w
Put alway pre ordered food

Afternoon on sofa with boys watching film.

Collect from school
Dinner
Evening routine

Day started badly with DS1 refusing to go to school, but the prospect of no access to computer/phone/TV seemed to sort that out and he's gone in (albeit late).

Am just dropping off forms at the residential home, then going to see my poorly friend. They have found a tumour on her lung, but she is still awaiting the result of the biopsy. I just hope it's benign.

Then home to work alongside my cleaner on our messy house. Dental appointment is tomorrow, not today (good luck with yours, Alice). MIL is expecting to drop in after her hair appointment, but I have no idea if I'll be here, so she may just have to make herself a cup of tea and call herself a taxi.

Rowing - my clutter has been diminished by Flylady, but not vanquished, sadly. As WhoKnows says, it tends to creep back if you don't watch out.

I did some exercise yesterday. Yeah my muscles now hate me. Not exactly helping the motivation thing.

ta da
internet stuff
DW on
Cancel today's original plans.

There is a vat of Bitchy's special brew extra strong coffee on the naughty corner bar.

to do list is long and excessive. So going to find my timer and just try to find a get going kinda feeling.

step 1: plan of action
step 2: more coffee drinking
step 3: In ds' words 'do an impression of sonic' ie a lot of stuff as fast and as productive as possible.

Can I join you in the naughty corner with the coffee Bitchy think I need it? I promise to wear a face mask so you don't catch my bug!

Banging my head against the wall!!! My son counsellor has gone on holiday for 3 wks, we have a bit of a small crisis here, the head is to busy to phone me back but will the new form tutor do??? Argh!!! Don't have much choice, though he know none of my sons history so will have to start from scratch!!

Feeling like the world is working against me this week!!

With PLeasure Buddha Although annoying as it is to have to do now, the new form tutor would have to be brought up to speed anyway at some point. Perhaps having to do so now might actually help them to be more helpful in the future? I know what you mean though i have had a couple of weeks like that recently. It completely kills all motivation to do anything else doesn't it.

Thanks Bitchy needed the positive aspect .

Hi everyone

Thanks for the warm welcomes.

Toffee sorry to hear about your friend, I hope they'll be ok.

BitchyI might be weird but I love a muscle ache after exercise - shows I've done something. As long as its DOMs not pulled something!

Angry hope it works out with your son.

Yesterday I did nothing around the house in the way of cleaning (except DH hoovering at my suggestion!)

Today have done:
15 mins exercise
Bathroom inventory
Eaten breakfast and lunch - I count these as to do because breastfeeding and looking after LO makes it challenging sometimes!

To do;
Swish and swipe
RR kids room (thought for a second 'don't need to do that one' but remembered DD!)
Wash up
Dinner
Load of washing

ta da
internet stuff
DW on
Cancel today's original plans.
2x loads of washing
Oatmeal bread through bread machine and resting
Rye bread in bread machine
2hrs work on my room
Write shopping list
Collect together old jeans for upcycling
Sort out stuff for kit bag
Stretches and strength work
write to do list
Collect together recycling, shredding and rubbish for putting out
Collect together christmas bits and bobs for wrapping up
Email Dsis re presents
Sort out plans for sat
Open tins of golden syrup and add make biscuits to to do list
Put stuff into office for dealing with in there/putting away
Put my clothes away
Collect together a mountain of paperwork ready for dealing with tomo

roller yesterday's exercise was flexibility based. In the words of some one else at the training. People aren't really supposed to bend like that. It is a fun class but it does hurt the next day. Gentle stretches today have helped and the strength work has made other muscles hurt. No pain no gain right?

oh ouch. Nothing done today. Nothing will be done tomorrow. The extraction went very badly and I'm now in pain, with my jaw throbbing, waiting for a call from the oral surgeon's office for an urgent referral, apparently to have the tooth roots cut out? I'm not happy today.

Bog - moving ta da def counts!!!!!

alice ouch :(

ta da
internet stuff
DW on
Cancel today's original plans.
2x loads of washing
Oatmeal bread through bread machine and resting
Rye bread in bread machine
3hrs work on my room
Write shopping list
Collect together old jeans for upcycling
Sort out stuff for kit bag
Stretches and strength work
write to do list
Collect together recycling, shredding and rubbish for putting out
Collect together christmas bits and bobs for wrapping up
Email Dsis re presents
Sort out plans for sat
Open tins of golden syrup and add make biscuits to to do list
Put stuff into office for dealing with in there/putting away
Put my clothes away
Collect together a mountain of paperwork ready for dealing with tomo
Laminating
Consider the stuff for the science box
Turn rye bread dough into rolls
Cook both batches of rolls
make biscuit dough - needs to rest for a few hours before turning into biscuits.
Fold first load of washing and put away

well, this is fun. I've just spoken to the dentist and because it's under NHS, they'll refer me to the hospital but it'll be probably a few weeks before they can even get an assessment appointment. So even though the tooth is now broken into bits and embedded into my jaw, it's going to be quite awhile before I get this fixed.

Alice - sorry . That sounds awful. I hope you have some strong painkillers to take.

Ta da :

School run
Took forms to new job
Saw MIL briefly
Visited friend
House bleugh with cleaner's help
School run

DS2 came home from school very upset because of a film they'd been shown in assembly about 'Children in Need'. I'm quite angry about it, to be honest. He needed a lot of cuddles and reassurance, but there was nothing I could say to undo what he'd seen .

Alice - just seen your update. That's unbelievable . You poor thing.

Toffee I was a little shocked, as the dentist said they were hoping I could be seen to have it all completed by tomorrow. Now he's saying because it's on NHS that they've told him it'll be weeks just for the assessment, maybe months for repair. I don't think he was pleased with that.

The NHS dental service is wretched, I'm afraid, Alice. Is there any chance you could have it done privately or is it prohibitively expensive?

I can't imagine it would be cheap, as it is most likely going to involve GA. The words "cutting" and "bone" were mentioned (I was already in la-la land at that point and getting a bit freaked out), so I think it might be a costly thing. I'll have to wait it out for the assessment and hope that the fact that I am not working and can literally get it done at the drop of a hat will help get it done sooner. When I had to have my gallbladder out, they told me it would be a minimum of 6 months, unless I was willing to take any last minute surgical cancellations that popped up, and within 3 weeks I had it done. Fingers crossed.

Fingers crossed, indeed.

Alice - so sorry to hear about your dentistry woes, that is shocking. Hope you can cope OK.

Toffee - poor DS2, my DD (same age I think? Yr 3) has more than once come home from school upset by a film or similar, she is very sensitive, the schools really ought to be more careful. DS is stressing about global warming because they are talking about it at school, it is hard to inform them without scaring them sometimes I think.

*Bogstandard - yep, all I've done tonight is cook instead of chores, who wouldn't want to hang out with the DCs in a warm kitchen on a cold evening like this?

So, ta-da!
Not a lot really since this morning. I did spend quite a lot of time studying and washed, dried and sorted 3 loads of washing, just need to do some ironing next. We had a baking evening tonight, since DS gave up football a few weeks ago Thurs is the one evening of the week when no one is dashing off to activities around 6pm, so think that needs to be a regular cook with the DCs slot, it's nice being able to do it without an eye on the clock. The DCs have decided they want to enter Junior Bake-off when they are a bit older!

So, tonight, baked cakes for school cake sale with DS straight after school. Then picked up DD from rugby. DD announces she doesn't want curry for her dinner and could she cook something? A pie? Well, DS loves curry but hates pie, so it was going to have to be both. Got the curry going while DD prepared her pie filling (cheese, ham and mushroom seasoned with a little oil from a jar of olives). Then DD made pastry from scratch, with very little help from me, just guidance, rolled it out and made her pie, which was delicious. As was the curry. Bonus - we had enough pastry left for 12 jam tarts. Even better, DS asked to try one (he hates both pastry and jam normally) and really enjoyed it! Then DS iced his cakes for tomorrow. Lots of washing up to do, but DH is going to do that in return for me doing his ironing.

Evening everyone

[Snaffles a jam tart from Whoknows's kitchen]

Just back from impromptu meeting with friend and haven't eaten yet (and need to liaise with dh who is just off to bed and off travelling again at crack of dawn) so just going to post links now (standing in for Blue who is up to her eyes lobbying MPs) and will catch up with thread properly in the morning.

Alice poor you, that sounds so painful - hope treatment comes through more quickly than anticipated.

Blue¨hope meeting went well today!

Toffee hope ds1 got thorugh the day ok!

*

OK everyone- congratulations - you are half way through the Flying month! Yikes is it really less than six weeks until C**?

Baby-step no. 15, for tomorrow, Fri 15 Nov, is about making your bed every day.

This week we are in Zone 3: The bathroom and one extra room (Nov 10 – 16) here. Declutter in this zone for 15 mins every day!

Once Zone 3 is clear of clutter, you can go on to detailed cleaning.

The mission for Friday is cleaning bathroom skirting boards + 5 mins declutter in other room.

Friday is the day when we clear out our cars and handbags here.

November's habit of the month is menu planning.

And the flight plan which provides a summary of the above, will update itself daily.

I hope that is everything; mind's gone a bit blank! G'night all!

*

Hi all,
Thanks for the tips!
It's good to hear that you guys are getting on top of the clutter with flying. And looking forward to Friday now Bitchy, didn't think fly lady could be that much fun!
Who knows the stamp sounds excellent. Where did you get yours? I need one! Well done on the Christmas planning, are you the host this year?
Where are you holidaying next year? I need to book something in Yorkshire

Slim are you baking a Christmas cake? I made a pudding one year, which was nice, but it probably cost more than one from lidls! Erk!
I'm with you on the online shopping, where would we be without it? Do you do your food shop online?

Blue that sounds very busy indeed! Exciting times!

I did the work flying thing where you stop ten minutes before the end of the day and get your things out of the fridge and prepare a bit for the next day, which was great! We are so understaffedip it is impossible to do everything we should in a day, so flying is bound to help.
A lot of the pressure is self created so scaling down the expectations is helpful.

Alice poor you. I see now I was v lucky with my three extractions .Dentist gave me antibiotic prescription which I didn't need this time, so it is clear that extractions don't always go to plan. I had one v bad flareup with first extraction. Nurofen is the best, but I'm not sure whether it increases the bleeding?

toffee it must be very unnerving when he refuses school again - I think you did the right thing to send him in confidently.

Whoknows did the pie have white sauce in it, or was it just grated cheese...I know that ds would love love love making pies. Today we had a megabaking session from dd and her friend (she has friends who just come here to bake endlessly..I'm afraid I always end up with the washing up though.. as it clashes with ds2's homework struggles and too much supervising them too at the last minute)
Good session with our SENCO too, signing of on the CAF form from FT he said ds2 was larger than life and fitting in well [or is that contradictory?) Anyway he is loving school atm, so that is the great thing. Ds1 is the problem atm because I've realised he is not going to get very good GSCE's if he continues like he is, and I'm afraid school may only be interested in him getting C's and not pushing him to get B's (which might require a lot of effort on both sides) mutter mutter mutter - when do we ever stop worriting about our children.... Also tutor has flagged up again that my eldest has no special friendships in his class, although he never really discusses this with us. Generally he seems pretty cheerful and just bumbles along, enjoying music and rugby..and endlessly discussing film reviews.

done
calendar
baked fairy cakes for dd after her brownies burnt for school fund raising
found buttons for dd's sewing project at school (decorative scattering no less)
made large batch of chilli with ocado mince
enormous Ocado order delivered 20 loaves of bread etc (dh thought I was completely bonkers) but still, freezer now well stocked for first time since last year
had friend over for drink

and DH was a star when he woke up as usual at crack of dawn and despatched dd/helped get everyone off to school, but now he's being a complete tiresome old ranter - and I wish he would go and live somewhere else!!!!! These business lunches do not agree with him just make him thoroughly discontented and hungover. And he is aggrieved because I haven't yet read the latest Tartt novel which he bought me four days ago- "and you never stopped talking about the first one when I met you". No, now I just want to read chick lit and popular psychology and it looks too taxing