June 2014: half way through the Flying year, fledglings get themselves in gear!

[slackcabbage]

Heartfelt and huuuumungous thanks to Goth for being such a superlative, consistent and professional thread leader throughout May (and wow to all those fantastic round-ups every night).

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.

Flylady link here.

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):

1. start or repeat baby steps

1. repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone

1. 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!

Three key 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.

If you are new then trying to spend 15mins decluttering and the babysteps is the most. Some of us (mentioning no names!) can have scary looking lists but don't let that worry you! Do what you can, anything is better then nothing, and don't judge yourself against others.

If all else fails, a + the power of three technique + a bit of support on here can work wonders!

Oh and don’t let it put you off if we appear a bit cliquey – some of us have been on here for years – but all lurkers, oldies and newcomers very very welcome!

I need an edited to do list so i can see what is left to be done.

Wednesday's to do list

laundry - kit load plus 2 loads ish
put ds' clothes away
declutter the lounge in progress
hoover the lounge
confirm thursday's plans - sent text await response
clean the bathroom
declutter the landing
hoover landing
Tidy ds' room up
clean ds' room
fold washing
ironing

Hmm ds is in the bath and will be heading to bed shortly, so his room will bea no go and thus need doing tomo. can't hoover anything as it is too late and would be inconsiderate to the neighbours. So that leaves me with lounge and laundry kinda stuff which is possible to be done. the landing stuff can just be shoved into my room whilst ds' friend is here.

Why is constant noise so draining. Ds is driving me mad with constant noise and challenging behaviour today. Is it bedtime yet?!?

Ta-da!

Morning routine etc
Took DF to his outpatients appt at hospital, a very nice doctor (who looked about 15) talked him through all the options for medication to try and prevent any further strokes, answered all our questions and was generally very helpful.
Dropped Dparents home
Went to Garden centre and shopping and McDs for lunch
Gave blood
Picked up DCs from school, DS was fuming about a perceived unfairness by his teacher today.
LEt DCs play on Ipods to unwind, but they continued antagonising each other for most of the evening.
Took DD to Brownies and DS to trampolining
PTA meeting
A bit of laundry sorting etc in between all this
Plugged in steam cleaner and then unplugged it again 2 hours later without having used it
Need to do a bit of ironing now

So glad to hear your DF is getting meds and looking to the future, WhoKnows. What a scary time you've all had.

Quiet day here, until noisy, whirlwind friend visited DS2. We all heaved a sigh of relief when he'd gone, including DS2.

done
been to Book Club. Very cosy as not too many people - good discussion, and we all laughed a lot. A friend had heard her ex was remarrying, so that was a bit upsetting, so we needed to laugh a bit I think.

Dh did the evening slog completely by himself so I could finish the book; I've returned to piles of laundry hanging out to dry, supper all finished and put away, and sleeping children.

However, I did walk ds2 back from the station at 4pm, that's something.

And washed a big batch of towels.

Hello Castle
Whoknows that must have been another tiring day.

Evening! Been up late watching repeat of Eng match with dh (who himself was back late from business dinner). Great way to celebrate 30 yrs since we got together at a friend's party at uni

Funny sort of day. Had huge mahoosive rain storm which caused a leak down one wall. Got held up by Obama motorcade on school run. Hamster confirmed as a male by vet!

Great that your father is getting good aftercare Whoknows

Hope baby recovers soon Castle

Proffers ear plugs to Bitchy

Proffers foot spa to Mummy

Waves to Toffee and everyone else.

*

Tomorrow's baby-step no. 5, for Thurs 5 June is here continue to do previous steps and banish negative statements from your head.

We are in Zone 1 all this week: Entrance, Front Porch & Dining Room here.

Declutter in Zone 1 for 15 minutes a day!

Or, here's the detailed cleaning list for those at that stage.

Tomorrow's mission can be found here. Take 15 mins or less to put away any books, jackets or shoes that have accumulated near front door/in entrance hall.

Thursday's daily focus is: errand day ie grocery shopping, hair appts, taking parcels to post office, retrieving clothes from cleaners, buying presents in advance.

The monthly habit for June is drinking more water.

To summarise the above, Thursday's flight plan can be found [[www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-120 here]]

G'night all!

***

x post

book club sounds lovely Swan (even lovelier to come home to completed chores)

Yesterday I got a bit of long overdue sewing done and sent it off to its intended recipients.

DD's foot had been hurting her all day (but she wasn't really keeping off it!) so we nipped up to the hospital to get it x-rayed and thankfully there is nothing broken so we just need to wait for it to heal now!

I spent the morning just looking around at the mess in the lounge and wondering why although there was nothing of mine strewn everywhere, it is always down to me to clear up and put stuff away! But just staring at it wasn't going to get me anywhere, so:

Ta Da

• R/R lounge - everything not supposed to be in here dumped in other rooms where they belong!
• R/R kitchen - see above!
• Washed mountain of pots and shined sink
• Swept kitchen floor
• Emptied kitchen bin
• Laundry load in and hung to dry
• D/W unloaded

Sorry for being awol yesterday. I had a migraine so went to bed just after the dc . Thankfully it has cleared as I am back in school today to begin my final placement.

Carpe your cross stitch looks great. I haven't done one for years but they are very relaxing. You have inspired me to start one over the summer holidays

I am glad you have found a good vet SC

Yesterday was a write off in terms of flying, although my dm who now does my afterschool care for the dc did a pile of ironing which was fantastic

To do
Packed lunches
Dw unloaded/ reloaded
Breakfast
Wm reloaded
Dry washing off airer and folded
Ironing put away
Make beds
Hoover downstairs

Have a good day fellow fledglings!

Carpe cross-stitch looks great and yes I also do weird crisis cleaning.

Last 2 days we've been at the plot/croft/allotment, the circus is opposite us this week, so DH has got the pm dropping off the horse bedding/manure, so yesterday I was up to my knees in horse shit! We've filled 4 builders bags. The day before I helped build a goat pen, and we're still clearing brush from the site.

Am gutted as we didn't do the Treasure Hunt last night at Woodcraft because of the rain, so that's been re-scheduled for 2 weeks time. At least all the preparation work is done.

Hopefully today will be a bit easier (as I'm knackered) but I'm sure we'll have a walk down.

To do
Ironing
Missions
Paperwork
Baking

BBL hope you all have a good day

ta da
shove clean laundry into study
shove balloons into study
shove laundry waiting to be done into washroom
shove landing boxes into a not to be accessed bedroom
fill two boxes with stuff from ds room and add to bedroom
collect ds' friend
make cake

about to make ds' bed and then sort some lunch out for the boys.

Done
Beds
Packed lunch
Dd to school
Bank
Washing up
Unsuccessful search for tent
Dozen each lemon curd & bramble jam tarts
Sour dough loaf rising ready to in oven
Casserole shimmering
Washing up

Simmer nor shimmer

Goth - please may DS and I have your hints, tips and recipe for the sour dough starter. Tried one a while ago but didn't get very far. We all love sour dough, DS especially, and he really wants to make some. We are having an attempt at Paul Hollywood's Spelt and Rye loaf this w/e having visited a lovely local mill last w/e and bought spelt to try :)

Been working with DH today to try and sort out accounts between current and new company and now my brain is fried. I've had but could do with inspite of rarely drinking. Best to not show up at school squiffy so will leave it until later.

Flying today has consisted of:

• All up and out
• 2 loads of washing done and on line

That's it!

I now have an hour before school and diving. I could:

• Sort out stuff for new reception parents for PTA at school tomorrow
• Sort out Father's Day craft stuff for next week
• Sort out inventory for new rental house
• Do stuff in garden
• Sort out paper work and filing - HUGE fail yesterday as hadn't filled in or returned DD's Guides stuff so she hasn't got a place on the over-night camp this w/e. Feel dreadful about it as she really wanted to go and isn't doing her Yr6 residential this week (due to cost and bad reports she had heard back about last year's trip) Had to confess this morning and she seemed to take it much better than I did. At least I was able to tell her about a Yr6 Mums and girls camping trip we are planning for July :)
• Sort dinner
• Carry on working
• Do a million and one other Flying related things

Think I'll try Room Rescue in kitchen and living room, sweep hallway and then sort out PTA stuff if there is time. At least that way I will come back to downstairs looking as though something has been done!

Finally made it to June... the dc's only went back to school yesterday as we had 2 inset days so I'm still catching up and getting my head round book bags, packed lunches, swimming kit, school fair on Saturday, home clothes tomorrow etc etc. Will go and read what I've missed now...

List completed and dm cooked us all a roast and steam mopped the floors. I have sorted a washload to do tomorrow. I have some schoolwork to do after putting dc to bed.

Tomrrow I am going to my new school for training, which is both scary and exciting so I need to make sure I have an outfit ready!

I will be back to catch up later

Evening [hic]

Another funny old day [hic]

Had impromptu child's choir practice after school followed by take-out with lovely friends [hic] and er some faux-bubbly we had in fridge from party last week [hic]

Sorry, not doing very well with the round-ups atm [hic]

Good luck tomorrow Mercury and may the force of the fledglings be with you

Sympathies Newlark we've had so many school holidays in May it's been ridiculous!! And a long weekend this weekend too!! Seems like dd has hardly been at school since Easter!

You sound as if you are juggling a lot of things at once Feetheart would love it if you could report back on sour dough experiment ... wd like to try with dd in holidays

What a shame about the treasure hunt Goth after all of your preparation but lemon curd & bramble jam tarts sound divine! Nice to be able to throw goat-pen-building in to a casual conversation too Hope you have had an easier day today

Dizzy ditto re staring at heaps of clutter thing; I'm really good at putting it away in my imagination Glad to hear dd's foot not seriously hurt.

Big waves to Bitchy and everyone else!!

***

Tomorrow's baby-step no. 6, for Friday 6th June is here learning about hot-spots!

We are in Zone 1 all this week: Entrance, Front Porch & Dining Room here.

Declutter in Zone 1 for 15 minutes a day!

Or, here's the detailed cleaning list for those at that stage.

The last mission of the week can be found here tackle ceilings, light fixtures and window sills in entrance hall and dining room!

Friday's daily focus is: here declutter your handbags and cars.

The monthly habit for June is drinking more water.

To summarise the above, Friday's flight plan can be found [[www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-120 here]] and will update itself automatically.

G'night all!

*

Er yes, and virtually NO flying to report on my part here save for a bit of hand washing-up and hoovering for 10 mins. Half-filled washing machine at one point, was interrupted and never made it back to laundry at any point in day.

hmm i think i need a list for tomo:

Laundry
folding
ironing
ds out to do something - weather permitting
finish packing last few bits for ds
ds dropped off
put my clothes away
some crochet work on one of the current projects.

And whilst I am at it a list for Saturday/sunday:
Paperwork pile in my room
plant up sweet pea plants
tackle the floor in my room
tackle the chair in my room
Get first coat of paint
2nd coat of paint
finish a project - crochet
sort out ds' school bag for monday
check his pe kit is ready to go
watch frozen
sort out some paperwork for work
look for a new job!!!
Update CV
get rid of a box from the landing

Ah well that kinda looks like i am planned for the next 3 days, lets see what happens.
Night

Feet I think I started using this site

I think I'm getting there, it's taken a lot of attempts to get an edible loaf, but I find there's more flavour. I've started using the dough hooks on my hand mixer rather than mixing by hand, it felt like a cop out but I can't get it stretchy otherwise.

Ta Da

• Loaded D/W, put on and the unloaded
• Nipped out to buy DH some work socks - as his drawer this morning was empty
• Bought a couple of bags of compost
• Cut out bunting flags
• Watered veggies
• Went for a run

Our potatoes are going absolutely wild leaf-wise. Some of them are starting to grow flower buds so hopefully it won't be long before they are ready to eat (I thought you had to wait for the flowers to die before harvesting )

Ta da
insomnia
work on a crochet project

Perhaps now sleep is possible?

Dizzy i thought that too

Wishing you all good fridays. Car and purse clear out day and Date night. tis always a busy one. Personally I am looking forwards to an early night. Just got to survive until 8pm perhaps a mid afternoon nap will be in order Got to get this sleep pattern sorted!!!!!

Spent yesterday morning out with DH and DS2, enjoying the seaside. Beautiful, sunny day.

Came home to a phone call to tell me that one of my closest friends had just died. She had advanced cancer, but thought she had months to live. We had lunch together just before half term, then she went away to see family and we agreed to get together when she came back.

Can't believe I'm not going to see her again. And she has two children - those poor children.

Oh Toffee so sorry to hear about your friend. Cancer is a complete and utter bastard It does put everything else in perspective though.

I managed to get a bit of flying done yesterday - not totally in the flylady weekly schedule, but I did the kitchen and hall, plus 5 loads of washing . Then collapsed and caught up with stuff in the TV planner while cross stitching. Was very calm and peaceful; and then I picked DS up from nursery and the calm and tidiness vanished!

Can I just have a self-indulgent moan about my body now?

My bloods came back (re hair loss & stress) and yes, my iron stores are again low. I can't take iron tablets as the last set caused a major IBS flare up (signed off work, flat on my back style). So this time they've tried me with liquid iron. Started it last night and I can already feel my side getting sore, which is usually a precursor to an attack - I'm not even going to risk taking more today and just hope it goes away.

I'm so busy getting ready for my holiday (14 sleeps and we'll be away!), working and sorting other stuff that I've made an appointment for when I'm back. It isn't going to get worse, and I'll start multi-vitamins with iron so nothing falls further. Still don't know what they're going to do now...

On the happy side, I submitted my CV to a recruitment agency on Wednesday night, and they were on the phone first thing on yesterday absolutely desperate to see me... so yay!

Good morning! Beautiful day here!

Feeling surprisingly chipper despite more than was good for me last night. Dh and dd off to school/work looking a bit pale and wan (for different reasons) but hopefully everyone will recover this w/e.

Going to try and make a concerted effort with Flying today before watching The Oaks as we will probably be travelling to visit pil and sil this long weekend but owing to work pressures, dh can't tell us exactly when or by what mode of transport.

Ta da:
rabbits
empty dishwasher
clear dining room table from last night
stack dishwasher
stain stick tablecloth
glass recycling
water seedlings
tidy up downstairs
spoke to friend on phone

To do:
air second floor
office desk
quick supermarket shop
chemist for dd
take down final bits of party decorations
find appropriate box to store them in
clear bed/strip bed/make bed in boudoir
continue laundry
sort rest of boudoir
hoover boudoir
start decluttering one corner of boudoir and keep going for as long as poss
The Oaks
photos
healthy supper
evening routine

At least your insomnia is productive bitchy, frustrating though it must be! HOpe you can catch up on sleep tongiht! Good luck with your list today!

Dizzy thanks for reminder - must wash dh's socks today or he will go on strike!

Goth very impressed by your baking techniques!

Have a good day everyone and enjoy the lovely weather!

x posts

Oh Toffee¨that is so terribly sad about your friend, and such a shock for you despite her poor prognosis. And although never a good time, it's particularly poignant to lose someone close to you at this time of year somehow just as the summer is starting. Those poor dc indeed.

Carpe Congrats on successful flying yesterday and sympathies with the iron situation. I remember being deficient in it at varous times but like you, I can't ever stomach iron in any shape or form. In the end, I bought Floradix and it worked fine. Also ate shed-loads of broccoli which has more iron in than spinach (apparently). Good luck with job hunt!