Feisty Fledgling Flyers flutter through Feb with flair, finesse, flaws, failures, fortitude, feedback, fiascos, fabulousness, friendship and fun!

[sanschocolat]

[The fiascos are all mine btw !!]

And just for Just, February is the new January that was the new January before

If you are struggling 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 and cake 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 something 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!

It’s up to you, but 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!

Points to keep in mind:
(1)No perfectionism allowed - this is harder than you would imagine
(2)You are never behind just start where you are and anything you do is progress.
(3) 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.

Humungous thanks to Bitchy for steering us through the hectic January thread and for the wise three-line mantra above.

All regulars, lurkers and newcomers welcome!!

Thursday's Done:
S&S
Hoover and mop downstairs (had to do as Pooch muddied the entire house)
Laundry load and dried (still in TD)
Put away dry clothes from the clothea horse
Recycling out instead of building up indoors

To do:
Phone British Gas.... Still.....
Clean down kitchen work surfaces
Start searching for car insurance as due end of the month (hate shopping around and the time/faff of it all)
Put done ironing away
Another laundry load
Will attempt 15mins on the car whilst one child naps although in reality this task is closer to needing 15hours
Tidy kitchen from last night (why do men never finish anything? Pots in a sink of grotty water soaking, because I've got lots of time available in the morning, what's another job?)

What do you all do with artwork that comes home from nursery? We have a pile accumulating in the kitchen which is going to spiral out of control any day with the amount of "art" that is being sent home.

SC where in the world are you?

Happy Friday Flyers!

Good morning fledglings. Hope everyone OK.

Crikey! Weather as foul as foul can be here. We are in the middle of a proper storm, strong winds and rain lashing against the windows.

Dh went off to London before crack of sparrows and dd off to school two hours later (thankfully it's a fellow classmate mother's turn today). Suddenly feel liberated!! So I am going to try and profit from everyone's absence and dance naked around the sitting room to a Maître Gims cd ¨ tackle this wreck of a house. (Ground floor ok but floors 2 & 3 need sorting.)

Still feeling grim but going to get to that concert tonight if it kills me .

How are all of you?

Patty [swigs gin] that's a very good list you got through there! Well done! I'm guilty of keeping dd's art work for far too long but basically the system here is: artwork comes home and is displayed for a bit (I have something similar to these although mine are white and open from the top. (A friend of mine has painted one of her kitchen walls with magnetic paint and displays stuff on that.) After a month or two, they are either thrown away or are photographed or scanned and stored on computer or original goes in treasure box/file (but quite judicious about what I keep). Same system with 3D stuff, but that is usually displayed on sideboard or mantelpiece. (I'm not far away by the way - only an hour ahead - in the lugubrious lowlands [Belgium] - I just appear to be keeping wierd hours at the moment!)

Hope you enjoyed a good pub lunch yesterday Toffee

Goth sympathies re: stroppy tweens! It's not petty at all. Have been there - actually I amthere right now! Have to deep breathe sometimes before asking dd to do the simplest thing because she is so spikey. Bravo to you and your dh for following through! It is energy sapping.

[Hands honey and lemon drink to Eustacia [and gin for when visitors arrive] hope you feel better soon]

Humanordancer at being haunted by mother's voice - same here!!

Swan hope you feel less tired today. I am very of you having your cousins so close by. I miss mine! Didn't all the girls in the Ingalls Wilder books wear red flannel underwear?

You look very on top of things from the look of your list Not2nitedarling

Bitchy hope you are feeling better and arf at zombie army!

Ellie I'm assuming no posts means you were operated on yesterday. If so, hope all went well

Just thinking of you too!

Cheery wing flaps to Castle Thinking101 Blue Feetheart Whoknows Engels Honu Nicknacks Pushme Alice Merry Spranged Dizzy Silly Pictures Whispers Cybermam and everyone I've inevitably missed!

Have a good day everyone and TGIF!!

[leaves strong coffee on naughty corner bar] Help yourselves!

thanks for welcome sanchocolat

tentative list for today

DS/DD/me brk, W&D Sch/run (DD is at home with me)
Clear dishes and oh yes shine the sink (its that bad)
Clean work surfaces
Put Tesco shop away
Make base for cheesecake (essential as its for someone else)

I would like to declutter one area

Good luck with the decluttering thinking101 - just do 15 mins and no more!

Missed out Giraffe!! [waves]!!

i have my original timer!

Early start today as DD is at training. She is off to my sisters for the weekend tonight (for residential trip sleep training!) so i need to spend today getting all her stuff together and blitzing the kitchen which is a right heap!

Thank God it's Friday at last! :-) Am so looking forward to resting and blitzing the house in equal measure with a spot of knitting thrown in! Quiet weekend planned - can't wait!

Blimey! The weather's so bad it's darker now than it was three hours ago!

Your relaxing weekend sounds luverly Castle

Hope the sleep training works Dizzy

Good luck with it thinking101 - less daunting in 15 min bursts - I'm doing exactly that in boudoir right now ...

Good morning.

I am grateful to be feeling slightly better. Still a touh feverish but no longer have screaming earaches. Need to be careful about not doing too much because whilst i feel better I am clearly not better yet so risk relapsing if i am typically bitchy in my approach to life.

Short to do list
drop prescription off
hope ds hasn't realised that he is currently on a sleep med break (poor kid)
load of washing on
work
blanket gate work with colours that have
Banking
Drink plenty of water
Get ass back on restricted diet as suffering from eating stuff shouldn't be

First job coffee and breakfast

Morning all!

Peanut - I surruptitiously recycle most of the artwork otherwise we'd drown in the stuff. Particularly nice bits get stuck on the fridge or the cupboards and I have an ever-expanding folder of things that have got moved off the fridge and cupboards! Not ideal by any means...

to Bitchy

To Do:
Laundry out of drier and put away
General tidy up
Hoover
Trip to Hobbycraft - apparently they've got Anchor embroidery thread at 25p a skein...
Finish 1st draft of fun project
Dinner prep

Better get on.

Morning all

Erm would have reported for duty earlier but it's Friday and I got "ambushed" by DH when I got home from school , so my list is a bit small.

Done
Beds
Packed lunch
Washing up
Knocked bread back
Dd to school
Shop for milk

Anyway... Hope all the poorly people are feeling better.

Peanut DD puts her favourite art in her room and then I photograph the rest (and delete a few months down the line) Just need to work out what to do with the models now, in the last week we've got a Chinese dragon and an Eygyptian mummy.

Just in case any crafty types are interested - Hobbycraft do indeed have some Anchor threads at 25p, but in our branch at least, they were just bunged in on a clearance rack. It was labelled "Everything 89p" but actually there were a whole range of prices, which you couldn't tell till you got to the till... Helpful!

here again, thanks for mention sanschocolate,

ta da

chased up pay roll re missing pay
made brekkie and lunch for me and dd
washed dishes and put away
emptied bin
emptied cat litter
walked dd4 to nursery and picked her up
checked e mails regarding reunion.. its been 20 yrs!!
popped to shop for bread, and gas

to do

take dd out for a bike ride
cook tea
declutter 15mins

Afternoon all!

I am home. Woooohoooo. Have lots of drugs and am slightly spaced out. Op is scheduled for 2 weeks time. Back later when have slept off the drugs.

Yay! Ellie

So what's happening in the next 2 weeks, have they got you well supplied with painkillers etc?

Finally had a reasonably productive day! Yay! [Contemplates why it is so much easier to get stuff done with dh away ]

Ta da:
waved dh off at unearthly hour
waved dd off
dw, wm, rabbits
dining room table hot spot
slightly more thorough s&s than usual
carried boxes upstairs
carried other stuff downstairs
carry used bed linen downstairs
carry clean and ironed bedlinen upstairs
2 x 15 mins boudoir
clear double bed we don't sleep in that gets used as dumping area
hang up blue wash
more laundry
long talk with sil on phone
rabbits again
tidy up ahead of cleaner
wrap birthday present and prep card
pick stuff up off boudoir floor
put away clean clothes
strip and re-make all beds + 1 extra
action list for tomorrow
chat with cleaner about "men" and male inadequacies in general
wrote dd action list for tomorrow
wrote dh action list for tomorrow (hoooh- haah)
emptied bins in all bedrooms
money for baby-sitter
snack dd

To do:
clean out ruddy hamster again
on-line shopping returns x 2
last of letters/photos > post
clean out fridge (yes, I am behind with missions!!)
supervise dd dressing up and out
get myself gussied up and out

Oh that's fab Ellie! So glad you are home for the weekend!
(I was convinced you had been operated on yesterday!) Sorry you have to have op in a fortnight but I guess it's better to have it in a planned way. Hope you are feeling much, much better anyway and make sure you let everyone spoil you rotten this weekend! How is your dh and his family doing? I hope they are bearing up x

Glad you are feeling better too ¨Bitchy

Congrats on your list not2nite

Arf at finding somewhere to store Egyptian Mummy Goth hope its life size Broom cupboard?

Waves to Blueand everyone else!

Just have half an hour before I have to supervise dd getting ready for her evening out and then I must get ready myself for a rare night out without dh - whoo hooo!

So going to post links early and will be back late tomorrow morning to catch up with everyone!

***

Baby-step no.8 for Sat 8th Feb, is : starting to write down your routines if you can be bothered.

Saturday is our last day in zone 2: the Kitchen here.

Declutter for 15 mins a day in this zone.

Once you have decluttered, you can if you wish go on to detailed cleaning.

No mission because it is the weekend.

The daily focus for Saturday is: having fun with your family.

The monthly habit for February is: decluttering 15 mins a day.

A summary of the above plus reminders can be found here in the flight plan which will update itself daily.

Have a lovely weekend everyone! [proffers Castle and Ellie bubble bath and gin]

***

SC yay to liberated feelings in the absence of men
and I remember the red flannel underwear only in the beginning of the Long Winter...when they nearly get lost in a blizzard on the way home from school. I was worrying about dd recently who sets off for the busstop at 7am, stands there in the freezing cold for ten minutes, in a very short thin skirt, and tights, and wishing they would bring back regulation bloomers in winter. (They are not allowed trousers)

Had a lovely morning at my cousin's house, brought lunch with me (so simple when you bring a picnic to someone else's house, I wonder why that should be, compared to the same picnic in your home which somehow seems lacking and not good enough!) She was having her garden assessed by an expert eye, so we talked a lot about sentimental attachments to plants that were in the wrong place, in her case a whole raspberry patch and an iris bed.
Then we discussed writing poems! So it was all very enjoyable and like going on a day out to the races.

Oh, ds2 back, better dash.

Ds is in an mood tonight. Things are different, different is bad. And thus the whole world needs to know about it

Oohh Swan plants, poetry, picnic ... sounds like a perfect afternoon!
[Arf at bloomers] We live near lots of secondary schools; teenagers seem to wear very few clothes in winter - not even coats! They are always shivering in pairs in the entrance to our garage/office doorway.

DD has just told me about her lesson in 'personal health and relationships' this afternoon which consisted of the headmistress telling her class (a) that their hormones will soon be dancing (cue drawing of wavy line on blackboard) and (b) that the Pope said "no not be afraid". Oh well, that's alright then

Right, I'm off to plait my mane, oil my hooves and trim the fetlocks!! Yeeeh hooor!

anyone???

Oh sorry to hear that Bitchy [offers more virtual ]

aaargh "do not be afraid"

I have whizzed through the kitchen Fly missions so feel virtuous

still need to chang spare bed and hoover prior to guests.

To do list
drop prescription off
hope ds hasn't realised that he is currently on a sleep med break (poor kid)
load of washing on
work
blanket gate work with colours that have small amount of progress and returning to this evening
Banking ran out of time in the next town
Drink plenty of water not as good as should have been
Get ass back on restricted diet as suffering from eating stuff shouldn't be failed
Sort out the broken camera issue
wash car look i sorta did the daily focus, kinda, perhaps maybe
5 mins decluttering car
not kill ds who is very fragile
eat own body weight in chocolate and settle down of watching stuff on tv

Still just treading water here. I wasn't working today so I had originally planned to catch up on kitchen and general bleurgh but DS2 got sent home sick yesterday, and DS1 decided he was ill too this morning so I ended up waiting on both DSs all day instead. DS2 seems to have recovered now and DS1 is miraculously improved so I'm planning to take them out for the day tomorrow to visit DM so I don't have to look at the state of the house