December already! Fledgings will sleigh the pre-Christmas clutter (and eat all the mince pies)

[GoingGoingGoth]

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 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!

Thanks to BlueEyeshadow and SlimChance for the November thread.

All welcome!! And remember that December is the new January!

Back from an amazing Christmas show. So proud of all the kids. But now.....sleep.

Dizzy I missed your post earlier about snow angels, great idea definitely doing that tomorrow. Wish I had seen it earlier as spent the last 20 minutes setting up a reindeer race across the floor, Reindeer jocks are an Angel, Halo and Captain America...

Going to bed with a semi cleaned house, amazing how much more I get done if dh is out.

While laying in bed, remembered they are called jockeys not jocks [idiot smiley].

Angry - I keep pinching ideas of some friends of mine on F/B who have elves too. Timothy (our elf) and Teddy will be playing poker tonight!

Gossip - my sympathies over the earache. I perforated an eardrum when we were on holiday this year and in the lead up to it I have never known such pain. I don't think I slept for 4 days!

Today's Ta Das

• D/W emptied
• Outside lights repositioned (as fell down in wind overnight)
• Nip to shop for needed basics (coke and chocolate!)
• Finished bunting
• Wrapped birthday presents for party tomorrow
• Wrapped some more xmas presents
• Washing load in and hung to dry
• Flour swept up and elf repositioned

Apologies - that should say Merry not Angry - have you name changed or am I just confused?

Final ta da for today :

Cleared hotspot
Returned toys, odd socks, bank letters, etc to their rightful places
Put breadmaker away in cupboard under stairs (thus clearing worksurface )
Ironing
Put all our cards up
Dinners
Bedtime routines
Wrapped teachers' presents for tomorrow
Laid out clothes
Emptied and cleared out DS2's lunchbox
Put some more Christmas jokes in the lunchbox (DS2 enjoyed finding them today)

Tomorrow, I will finish the kitchen, then start on the dining room. Luckily, we are managing to keep our sitting room tidy, so that doesn't need much more than a quick room rescue at the end of the day.

Off to bed now. Thank goodness it's the last day of term tomorrow. DS1 says he will go .

Yeah last day of term!!

Feeling sorry for my hubby who went to work at 6am yesterday, got home at 6pm to go back out at 7pm work until 4am this morning and then went back to work at 6am this morning. I know he will be fit for nothing tonight!!!

Will try to fit in some flying today but don't hold out much hope, as have a Christmas Dog walk this morning and a Christmas coffee this afternoon.

Dizzy yes a festive name change, also the last one was quiet negative, though when I chose it, it was meant to be with irony, as you don't see a upset Buddha!!!

ã??sneaks inã??
Hello. Is there room for one more?

I used to be on Flylady threads on MN years ago. dd2 has been off sick for a week and rather than use the opportunity to sort the house I have crept back onto MN after quite an absence. This might help me multitask

Welcome Eustacia - you've beaten the January rush!

So happy it's Friday, and the last day of school (work!) for a fortnight! We finish at 12 today and I need to steel myself to go to town and finish Christmas shopping!

Toffee what lists you posted yesterday!!!!
Bitchy have you many squares left to finish? Is it an Art of Crochet type blanket? I still have an Art of Knitting one on the go, for the last 3 yrs or more ...

Come on in Eustacia

Last day of school! Yay! Toffee hope DS1 goes. DD very excited, she took her toy fox.

DH about to head out, so I think I've got a couple of hours without anyone underfoot plenty of time to MN tidy up.

Had a quick card to write this morning, an ex-work colleague from years back, we've always exchanged cards, but this year have 'friended' on FB, he's an absolute arse (his wife is lovely)
I was going to slowly de-friend and not send card, but got one yesterday from them her with photos. Now I feel awful. Will just ignore him on FB. He was an arse at work too, but I'd forgotton that.

Hi Eustacia I remember you from the days of Madhouse

done
drove ds2 to school
chatted to Dh this morning

yesterday Carol Concert at Ds1 school. I was watching Ds play the violin in string ensemble , thinking oh how proud I am, only to find out that he had been miming as he hadn't roisined his bow (whatever that means) and it made no sound when it scraped against the strings.... However, I could hear him singing above all the others in the Chamber Choir and he was fabulous!!!! It was a great evening, not too long which is always the mistake with these affairs. Only five "lessons" not the obligatory 9 or whatever it is; I think last year SLT must have complained My favourite hymm at beginning which no-one next to me had ever heard of, O Come O Come Emmanuel, so I was singing alone

This morning is a nightmare of my own making, as usual. Cleaning lady clashes with an apt in town, children all coming home from school straight after lunch, dd is bringing a friend and has ordered me to tidy her room I'm dreading seeing the cleaning lady as everything is so disordered, and I have to rush off when she arrives, rather than organising in the background. But no doubt she will leave the kitchen looking beautiful, so that is a gifthorse I shouldn't look in the mouth.

An enemy cat has sprayed the playroom/utility, and it smells awful in there

Thanks Goth
I have done my morning routine.
However, I look around and see nothing but clutter and dd keeps moaning she is bored

Thanks Castle

Amd Swan >

Helllooooooo lovely Fledglings!!

Hope everyone is surving the madness!

Unbelievably, I'm still wrapping and writing cards! Why does it all take so long?????? [groans]

Mixed bag here. Last of parcels went off in good time Wed. And enjoyed dd's school carol concert on Wed eve. DD sang in a trio performing a traditional Flemish carol and then had a one verse solo singing Adestes Fideles [proud ma emoticon]. Still can't adjust to their more 'continental' approach to these things though. So strange, school almost suffocatingly strict when it comes to studying, but for performances and plays etc, they let it all hang out! Mahoosive background noise from parental conversation, screaming babies and there are at least four or five tinies running up and down and around the aisles doing a good approximation of kung fu, and a few doing forward rolls down the altar steps and no one pays a blind bit of attention!! (Quite lovely really! ) But then it all goes on too long and too late and the tinies get fractious and there are an increasing number of fatigued looking husbands in suits rocking babies at the back of the church with a toddler or two attached to each leg... and so on ... .

House, having been relatively clean and orderly on Monday, has exploded! Every room is a mess - cardboard cartons and bubble wrap have taken over.

Felt very tired yesterday so took it gently and continued to wrap, write cards and do laundry.

Today have woken up feeling shivery and odd with a bad sore throat and stomach cramps (again). Bum! Determined not to be ill for Christmas (that is usually dh's prerogative!!) And certainly don't want dd to be ill for Christmas so wiping all door handles with Dettol!

Just trying to get as much done as possible before dd breaks up at 4pm today.

Also feeling a bit stressed because we had planned to travel to France to be with fil and sil and sil has now rung to say that fil is in such a bad way that it may not be a suitable environment for dd, so could we play it by ear? We wanted to go to offer moral support, and the last thing we want to do is add to her stress, so we didn't tell her we already had booked (expensive!) flights but dh has also bought insurance so hopefully will be OK. Just waiting to see what is happening and planning for all eventualities ... .

A very warm welcome to Eustacia!

Mahoosive waves to Castle! Will be thinking of you this Christmas - know it will be a tough one for you and your family x

MerryBuddha ditto here - dh working all hours - this time of year is always horrendous in the office - he is horribly stressed and tired and has literally nothing left when he eventually gets home. (I would have fallen on your duck dish btw - sounds delicious!) Btw - also thought the thread about the husband whose house-keeping skills have improved by very small degrees over a decade or so was also v. funny - will try and find. And thanks for Christmas jokes - dd will love them!

Toffee Mahoosively impressed by your humungous lists!! Sorrya bout unsympathetic dentist - I would have socked her one!

Well done re: Christmas show Engels!!

Bitchy are you sure you were entirely clear-headed when volunteering for January???? Incredibly noble if so!! Will be able to lend a hand, if required, after the 7th (if dd and I go in the first place that is - see above) More power to your crochet needles and hope abs kicking in!

Goth top marks for the carol singing and dd also mahoosively tired - white with fatigue in fact. She receives her report today (last day of term) containing exam results - yikes! Sorry about job btw but glad you have been saved horrid commute.

Toffee and Gossip we resorted to the good old fish finger last night -

Gossip arf at the origami swans! (V. impressed by your ta da lists too!)

Dizzy I virtually do all my shopping on-line (poor pickings here) and hardly ever visit a shop in rl!!

Another household here where we don't know the current songs Blue! Sorry to hear about the car - hope you can get it sorted without too much expense involved.

Whoknows hope your back is improving

Big Christmassy wing flaps to Trazzles Pa Ellie Honu Just Stillwearing Ëlliepac and everyone else I have inevitably missed!

And hello to Lauren if you are lurking. (Hoping to watch Olympia on the telly soon - thoughts always turn to all things horsey at this time of year!!!)

x posts Swan Ha! Have jsut posted about carol concerts being too long - well done to your ds1 in the chamber choir! (We had very "interesting" solo from diminutive tuba player - who could only play one note - but played it with great gusto and not entirely at the right moments . Instrument was nearly bigger than him!!

No one had heard of O Come O Come Emmanuel? What's the world coming to!! Actually, watched a University Challenge earlier in the year where two teams from some quite high ranking universities couldn't identify very standard hymns, so prob not that unusual ... .

Am in entirely same situation with regard to cleaning lady today. House is a wreck, and instead of helping her (or clearing paths through the chaos in advance) I am going to be locked in the office still frantically wrapping in time for office do this afternoon.

Big wing flaps to one and all!

SC - really sorry you're feeling ill. Hopefully, it will either not come to anything or be over by Xmas. But, of course, you have too much to do to be ill now - argh! Loved your description of the carol concert . My dentist isn't usually unsympathetic, by the way, which is one reason I stick with her. Maybe she was pushed for time or something.

Swan - well done to your DS1 for his beautiful singing (quite funny about the violin playing, though). Can't believe nobody knew 'O Come, O Come Emmanuel' .

Welcome, Eustacia and well done on doing your morning routine. I find the crisis cleaning bit of Flylady's website very helpful if you are feeling overwhelmed, by the way.

Goth - sorry about the arsey former workmate.

Good luck with today's Christmas shopping, Castle. Good idea to get it done today, not on Saturday.

MerryBuddha - your poor DH! He's going to be exhausted. Am intrigued to know what he does for a living that requires working without sleep.

dizzy - ow, that perforated ear drum sounds awful. I remember DS1 not being able to lie down and wailing when he had an ear infection as a baby. It was awful.

Gossip - hope the earache is better today.

Am so, so thankful that today is the last day of term. Managed to get DS2 to school, complete with teachers' presents and one for the utterly lovely school secretary/mother hen to all the children.

However, I returned to discover that DS1 had been brought home by DH . DS1 had complained so much of sickness and stomach ache that DH had turned the car round and driven him back home. Not only was this disappointing because we'd hoped DS1 would end on a positive note, but it also meant he hadn't taken his Secret Santa present in to school for the class party and that one classmate wouldn't get her present. So then I had to walk all the way to the school to deliver the present (as DH had driven off to work by then), which wasted an hour of my morning. At least the walk gave me the time to burn off my anger and I was a bit calmer on my return.

Why DS1 and DH couldn't have remembered that this present needed delivering even if DS1 didn't go in, I don't know. DS1 said he just forgot, leading to a lecture from me conversation about responsibilities.

Anyway, he's now cuddling a hot-water bottle and I am about to start more tidying, so expect more lists...

Thanks Toffee. I remember the crisis cleaning. It's just impossible to do much with a needy 7 yo hanging on to you

Toffee at the waste of an hour, although I bet you walked fast! DH always knows if I'm cross as I speed up.

He finally went out about 10:30 (and took the rubbish to the bin on the way) so I'm having a lovely morning pottering about.

Done
Beds
Laundry on
Washing up (left it last night )
Dd to school with box of tablet & cinder toffee for teacher (gift bags STILL not arrived)
Dry laundry away
Small batch ironing
Draped laundry to dry on clotheshorses
Wrapped another parcel (sure this is the last one)
Litter tray
Tidied random bags of tealights away
Washed candleholders
Rang Council Tax -I've overpaid (my fault) and will get a refund in January
Bit of decluttering

I am now being stared at by GothCat. His favorite throw (mine too) fell from the back of the sofa into the seat yesterday and he's been nesting in it every chance he gets. I'm having 5 minutes and sat on it (he was on 2nd breakfast) and he wants it back. He can wait.

Eustacia every time dd complains of being bored give her a job to do to help. If she complains tell her she can either help or find something that is non messy that will keep her busy as otherwise she will just keep getting stuff to do to help the house to work after 3 jobs and complains ds usually gives up on this approach and hides out in his room with lego/a dvd. leaving me in peace to get on.

Castle it is something ds requested. Squares are very basic crochet grannies. will try to put a picture up at somepoint. if i can remember my mn login

Chicken noodle soup (from a pkt) break:

Dizzy and Gossip sorry - missed you both had earache - that's horrible - hope you feel better soon

Toffee so sorry your ds1 couldn't make it in for last day but he's done brilliantly well overall and maybe he will feel better for having a proper stress-free two-week holiday. Hope he feels better soon anyway!

Sympathies over Secret Santa present - sounds exactly like the sort of thing my dd and dh would do - finished dd's this morning at 1am! Made a hanging stuffed heart thing (which I don't go for usually but had a kit someone gave us) in Christmassy cotton. (To be fair dd did cut out a green felt heart to decorate, then sewed some buttons on that and did actually stuff the whole thing!) And she had previously made a wonky sort of miniature chest of drawers from stuck together matchboxes - covered in Christmas paper - with every drawer containing a friendship bracelet she'd woven - so hopefully all eventualities covered!

Noticed a few references to NY diets (and pre-Christmas diets) creeping in to thread. Will definitely be diving back on to MFP come January - back up to 80 kilos [sob]

Bitchy - she has helped with the washing and is now watching Bargain Hunt

Slim - I have a stone to lose (2 to be right weight for my height)

Don't seem to have achieved much, thanks to phone calls and various family members coming and going, but have a small 'ta da':

Another kitchen cupboard cleared out and wiped down
More old packets, etc thrown away
D/w unloaded
D/w reloaded
Countless saucepans washed up, wiped and put away
Lunch made - reheated some carrot and coriander soup

Off to visit friend now, then doing the last school run for two weeks - joy!

SC sounds like a typical Catholic church service to me!!! (lots of screaming tinies) Wow, a solo! That is a proud mum moment. Our concert was in the school hall, so possibly a bit more intimidating.

I am ashamed to say I cancelled today's apt in the end and will have to pay for it, so impossible did it seem to leave cleaning lady to deal with the muddle (also I had unaccountably failed to get any money for her)

As a result I earned the brief reward of properly sorting out dd's room, which now looks very beautiful and fresh for Christmas, dusted and hoovered and cleansheeted and also getting out money, and some groceries for snacks etc. But I do feel an idiot for making that appointment on last day of term...what was I thinking of?? Better to accept one's limitations than assume one will manage to pack it all in.

Ds2 seems to have fallen apart on the last day, apparently he was kicking ds1 in the shins at school because the Casino Royale DVD was not the box (they are allowed to bring DVD's to vote for). Ds1 just casually mentioned he was excluded for the last two lessons on Wednesday for insulting someone in Art.

Dd is here with a friend now. I am going to tidy my room. [ever hopeful]

Have finished off a bit of work, been to get a quote for the car, done some shopping and loads of baking.

Time for a !

Need to completely rethink present for DH's grandparents. Had bought them wine but his Granny has just been diagnosed with a tumour on her liver. :( No idea what to get now. Doesn't seem like she's got long so don't want to get anything that will seem like they won't have time to appreciate it, IYSWIM. :(

The Eagle has landed -well DD collected from school, in tears because her lucky bag had an crocodile ruler in it and she has 4 rulers already. This was quickly counted with the 'don't be ungrateful' lecture, and if you have too many rulers we will pass some on! now she's quite happy and it's a marvellous ruler. I though tantrums would/should stop by 9yo.

On the plus side Done
Cleaned windows & bleached/toothbrushes horrible black bits.
Stopped cat licking slightly bleachy clean windows
Replace curtain wire, so we now have full set of curtains hanging
Vacuumed through
Re-arranged furniture ready for tree tomorrow.
Blutacked Christmas cards to wooden panel at sides of windows.
Folded & put away dried towels

Made an executive decision that we're having take away tonight.

Am now sat in front of fire with tealights lit, enjoying the peace and relative tidiness.