Fledglings don't makes resolutions in January, they fly through the babysteps.

[BitchytheGreat]

So here it is the dreaded January thread. The thread of resolutions and good intentions for the year that you are lucky if you see through to the end. Welcome to the start of 2014!!

A quick note for newbies, this is a long running thread. We do like new blood around here. However, we do ask you to be respectful that for a lot of us just getting off our arses is not going to help and to avoid suggesting this. We all know life is more complicated then this. So here we do things a little differently. A little bit of flying and a lot of chatter and moral support. Feel free to jump on board and join us in flying.

For those who are new to fly lady she recommends a three step program:

1. Get those babysteps into a habbit
2. Get rid of the clutter.
3. Get that deep cleaning done.

Don't worry if you think you not doing it right but not getting up to it. Some of us have been here for years and we are still decluttering. Because clutter has a nasty way of multiplying if you take you eye off it, especailly if you have kids.

Fly lady ethos tells us a few things that I want you to remember:
No perfectism this is harder then you would imagine
You are never behind just start where you are and anything you do is progress.
It didn't get into a mess overnight, it won't get tidy over night accept it will take time to get on top of things and you will be happier.

So jump on board and lets get started.

Oh and I forgot the proper introductions. "I'm Bitchy and I shall be your guide to the fly lady system for January" better buckle up as things normally get a little crazy when it is my turn to take control. good luck

Evening all. No flying here, and house still post-Christmas tip. Did get some work done though. And found DS1's PE kit, which it transpires he left at after-school club before the holidays. Nice.

Great list, Merry.

Glad DS1 had a good morning, Toffee.

Waves to Cheerful and everyone else. Night!

Blue DD brought her pe kit home today, need to get it washed before Thursday, and I used the last of my wash liquid this morning, so quick trip to the supermarket in the morning for me.

Been trying to finish off a baby blanket today (just an example, using up old wool) so not that much flying done, although I did help DD make scarab beetle amulets this evening.

Thanks for links who knows - think i will try to do the fridge its basically empty anyway

toffee sounds like you have a lot going on, def enough to knock on the head charging round doing housework .

wow merry that is a mega list!

Have so much to do tomorrow need to be a machine! Tax return has to be one of the main things. should get ahead and do lunches for tomorrow instead of being on here but sod it bed now I think!

Right! Own Up! Who's silly idea was it to run????? Oh yeah. That will have been mine then!!!

I (stupidly) decided to start the C25k programme with DD. How hard could it be to run for 1 minute walk for 1.5 minutes 8 times? Ruddy hard I say!! But I am having to cart about 2 average sized people so it serves me right I suppose! DD was a superstar and I really couldn't have done it without her. I downloaded the podcast onto her ipod so she gave the running (see what I did there?) commentary of what we had to do accompanied with chants of "You can do it", "You are a Champion" etc . I must admit bizarrely run 8 was easier than run 1 but I am as stiff as a board now. Heaven knows what I will be like in the morning!

Ta Da

• Soaked to the skin on school run
• Meals planned and ingredients bought and put away
• Cleaned 2 bathrooms
• Ironed DH's work shirts for rest of week
• DD's ironing put away from yesterday
• Washing load in and hung to dry
• Exercised for 30 mins
• Made tea
• Pots etc washed up and sink shined
• Name labels sewn on to DD's new football kit

Now off to crawl upstairs to bed. Hope you are OK Bitchy

Actually i feel ok and like I can on what the world has to throw at me including child who is not feeling so great.

to do
make doc appointment
load of washing
speak very nicely to gp recptionist to see if can get ds' his sleep meds more urgently then the normal 48hr turnaround for prescriptions as we are one short
coffee and catch up with friend
meeting in next town
banking jobs
pack ds' training kit

Morning all :)

Done most of my morning routine, was going to wipe fridge out, but not able to go to the supermarket until this afternoon now, so that can wait until after the school run. Got to wait in for a parcel for DH He didn't ask me, he just sent me a text from the delivery company saying when they were going to be there

Both boys are in bed, sick. DH and I are going into work, so MIL is staying here again. She's delighted.

One bloody thing after another at the moment!

Oh no Toffee, what a week you're having, bless MIL, thank goodness she is able to help.

I've got DS at home too, he has been feeling "weird", unable to eat much breakfast, is very pale and says he has tummy ache. This is not like him at all, he is very rarely ill, so he's at home which means I can't go to work. THe house is a tip, so I will have to do some Flying, but will also have to do some work on my laptop.

Oh knowToffee, hope your boys get better quickly! Sounds like Mil is going to have her feet firmly under the table!

Hope your DS gets better quickly too WhoKnow.

Ta Da
Dressed
Cooked breakfast
T/d
W/m
School run (2 schools 6 boys)
Applied for a job eek!!

To do
D/w
15 minute declutter kitchen
15 minutes put away laundry
And repeat!!

Am having the most procrastinatory anti-procrastination day ever ATM... far too much time looking at potential holiday cottages, planning DS1's birthday party and generally faffing around online.

Got myself a so I'm going to see if I can kick myself off and get some work done!

Whoknows thanks ever so for posting the links last night. much appreciated!!!

ta da
sort ds' kit out
hunt through 2 piles of paperwork for something that is missing
Pull said piles out of office and into box so can be properly sorted at later date
check have everthing needed for this afternoon

Right coffee with friend time.

Toffee it really isn't your week!

Dizzy so lovely your DD helping with the running, I think my DD would like me to (so I'm not going to tell her)

Done
Beds
Pack lunch
Boiled hand warmers -obviously didn't do them long enough last night
Dd to school
Supermarket

We're now all stocked up!

To do
Put away remainder of shopping (chilled & frozen done)
Complete blanket
Collect DD from school
DD & DH to dentist
Dinner
Woodcraft Folk planning meeting tonight

Already done 4,000 steps so will easily make 10,000 today which will make up fro being a slob the last few days.

Hope your boys are better soon, Toffee and Who!

Having my routines written down definitely help, I have just been shamed into doing S&S by it being the last thing on my morning routine list that I hadn't done :o As usual, it took my less than 2 minutes... So why do I moan about having to do it?!

Busy rest of the day now, got to pick up DS plus friend from preschool, take them to a session at our children's centre, also watch another friend's DD while I'm there, then go to Tesco. Then ring my mum when I get back as she is going on holiday tomorrow, then do my 15 mins in focus zone. Then cook dinner if DH isn't back in time. Phew!

Hello everyone.

At work again and dashing this off so no personals today.

Still feeling crappy, despite a long nap with DS yesterday and my standard level of sleep.

Nevermind, tomorrow is my WAH day when DS is at nursery so I have a long list of things I want to do... on the other hand there is a comfy couch, stuff on the Sky planner and a stash of Xmas chocolate... Decisions, decisions!

S&S is my favourite Flylady routine, Whispers. It takes a couple of minutes, but means that my bathroom always looks nice.

Who - sorry your boy is ill too and I hope he feels better soon. How awful for you having to cancel work. I hope they are understanding.

Doris - sorry you're not feeling well.

Goth - am very impressed with your 4000 steps.

Bitchy - hope you have a nice time with your friend.

Blue - that's not procrastinating - that's planning .

Merry - yes, MIL had settled in nicely (see below) .

giraffe - good luck with the tax return (or maybe now...).

dizzy - well done on the running. My best friend runs and she said she always finds it difficult at first, then it gets easier as she runs more.

Am very suspicious about DS2's 'illness'. When DH and I arrived back from work (we had to go in for the morning because the orders were piling up), DS2 had eaten four sausages for lunch and MIL was about to give him an ice lolly, which I'm afraid I whisked away, much to her irritation. I explained that if DS2 was as ill as he said he was, then I was suprised he could eat so well and he certainly wasn't being rewarded for staying at home by having his favourite lolly. MIL was not happy about this (lots of comments were made), but didn't dare go against me.

The one good thing about DS2 being at home all day is that he has read the entire text of 'Matilda' by Roald Dahl, so at least he has used his time productively.

DS1 slept all morning, so I'm more inclined to believe that he's ill.

Waved MIL off after lunch. She didn't want to go home at all. She has been fantastically helpful, but she drives us all slightly potty after a while, so there is no way we could cope with her full time. The house feels like 'ours' again now. She has no idea what we're really like, as we all spend our time being polite and listening to her wittering on telling us all about her ailments/her friends' ailments/ailments of distant relatives/ailments of the local taxi driver, etc etc. At least she will have a lovely time telling all her friends about DH's emergency visit to hospital.

ta da
sort ds' kit out
hunt through 2 piles of paperwork for something that is missing
Pull said piles out of office and into box so can be properly sorted at later date
check have everthing needed for this afternoon
try to make doc appointment but need to ring back tomo
speak very nicely to gp recptionist re ds' sleep meds
coffee and catch up with friend
meeting in next town
pack ds' training kit into car

Right off to throw child in car for long drive thing tonight. be back much later with links.

toffee thank you for the wine now feel really guilty as havent started tax return doing great at anti procrastinating

ta da (I haven't been very good as a machine).
filled dw
hung out washing
Sorted out play school fees being paid by work funding stuff - well spent ages working it out only for dp to decide we would do it another way....
sort of shreded but achey back so quit after 15 mins
shower
collected dd from ps, went to cafe then took dd shoe shopping - tried loads on none fitted
spent ages queing in new look to return jumper
got some books ready to take back to library but que (sp) for lift was so long we didnt go...
mini grocery shop
school run
children have practiced piano

to do
tidy
play game of life
s&s
hoover d/s
dinner stuff
dps lunch
bin
put a wash on
spend time with dp ;)
de holly the wreath ring
packaway lego advent cals
maybe try tax return this eve

Bitchy why are you going on a long drive? Sorry i am incredibly nosey you dont need to say!

oh Toffee you made me laugh with MIL's going home happy with a new" ailment" to add to her conversational repertoire. I often think that is what chatting is, you just meet up to get information which you pass on the next person you meet

done
gardening
sheets
wiped kitchen table and sides
recycling out and rubbish
decluttered some stuff to playroom
clothes upstairs
2 washes on
s & s
library books back and bought 5 new books for £1. (Arthur C Clarke and Erskine Childers ex-lib...they were decluttering too at library and I couldn't resist)

Stew for supper, I found it in the garden in a saucepan...lucky that, as I had nearly forgotten I had made it Froze half.

all very random...

Dh is cross because we received a call from Ds1's English teacher to say he was not impressed by standard of ds's work, and he had failed to do something from last term which he had been given an extension for, , over the holidays. After all that Shakespeare, it turned out there was something else. I wish I had talked to the teacher as dh was pretty curt. It is clear that ds1 is just NOT doing much work, and finds it all very unappealing (the thought of work I mean) He does Homework Club so I don't not quite what else we are meant to do, apart from chain him to the table and insist on seeing every word he writes I feel like saying to them, if you want me to supervise two lots of homework for TWO sons the homework the school is setting is clearly inappropriate beyond them . Unfortunately I asked the English teacher to tell me when ds1 was slipping so I suppose I cannot complain when he does TELL ME...

It's 7.30 and I'm already in my pjs and dressing gown. I think that's all you need to know about my day! ZZzzzzzzzzzz. Night night fledglings.

hi all. have been working. will try and catch up tomorrow

Swanhilda must be so hard to keep up with homework when they start secondary. We are def on the black list with regards to homework and dds was just to make a christmas dec!

tada - quite pleased with progress!
hoover
bins
dinner
load dw
dp lunch
game of life

Bitchy - hope long drive goes ok.

Swan - you are right about the purpose of conversation, certainly for some people . Sympathies on the homework issue - especially galling after you'd been so conscientious about getting your DC to do it.

But why on earth was the stew in a saucepan in the garden?

giraffe - I expect a tax return requires extra wine .

Felt overwhelmed with tiredness this afternoon and fell asleep next to DH. He had to wake me up hours later so that I could cook dinner for the boys. I had loads of sleep last night, so can only assume I'm tired because of the drama of recent events and coping with having MIL in the house all the time.

DS1's teacher rang. Wants us to have a meeting without DS1 present, so that we can discuss his long-term prospects, as he is finding school so difficult . Am wondering again if I should apply for a statement. I think I still have my notes from that workshop we went on, Swan and WhoKnows.

The washing up has piled up since MIL left. Unfortunately, I also have to redo all the washing up that she kindly did for us, as it still has bits of food stuck all over it. I asked her to leave it for me to load in the dishwasher, but she thought she was being helpful by doing it herself.

Am putting DS2 to bed early because he is so ill . Definitely a school day tomorrow.

I, too, am intrigued about the stew in the garden

Toffee - that's the thing, I KNOW it is the quickest easiest one! But it is also the one that doesn't really get any worse if I just leave it til tomorrow

Done most of my routines, just the 15 mins in focus zone that I didn't manage :( Ah well, tomorrow is another day :)

Just remember you are never behind and the fat fairy is realistic that sometimes life just gets in the way. Cut yourself some slack get rid of the :( face and be proud of what you have done.

still trying to get one giggling child to stop giggling and go the fuck to sleep. boys are horrid!!!!!