Fledglings polish their pumpkins and do their best, it's time for a Fling Boogie Octoberfest!

[Stewedcoot]

Heartfelt thanks to Engels (and Bitchy!) for leading the thread throughout September (Sept always being a busy one) despite feeling a bit poorly and despite being pregnant. Hope beneficial effects of injections kick in soon!

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 daily and doing the babysteps is a good way to start. 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 brew + 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, intermittent returnees, oldies and newcomers very, very welcome!

SC

Paid work has appeared in droves, putting paid to much child-free flying. What a shame!

Had a lovely night out with DH last night - saw the Jeeves & Wooster play and had dinner in the theatre restaurant. It's so funny, really enjoyed it and the dinner was good too.

Back to earth with a bump this morning as have tons to do, just had a phone call to say DS1 forgot to pack any trousers, and just discovered serious mould problem in one corner of the dining room affecting various bits dumped stored there. Have tried to clean the boys' rucksacks but may have to chuck them. Also need to figure out how to solve the problem long-term...

Ta DA!
Recycling out
Put various stuff away
Wiped surfaces
Swept floor
1 x laundry in dryer
1 x laundry in machine
Applied mould killer
Washed boys' rucksacks.

To do:
Rinse off mould killer
Post card to friend
Wrap present
Get suitcases down
Pack
Sort out email on laptop
Finish accounts/tax return
More tidying
Work!!

Alice - there's usually guidance online from relevant authorities about how long you need to keep various paperwork. I always err on the side of caution though probably why house a tip

no no no!! You're supposed to say "bin it all!"

Okay. I'll go do some digging. Sorry, thought maybe someone very organised on here might be in the know.

sc that is a mammoth list! Hope you're feeling better soon - honey and lemon I think!

blue - hurrah to lovely night out but boo to mould. Hope you can salvage the bags.

has been a busy morning of tidying, sorting and a wee bit of decluttering so far, so now sitting down for a break while DS watches a film.

ta da
-cleaned shower and then showered (in peace before DS woke up)
-folded and sorted yesterday's last baby wash
-baby wash #1 drying (coats and the like)
-baby wash #2 in the machine
-emptied tall cupboard in DS's room whihc is moving to the baby room tomorrow - managed to declutter a few knackered bits, sort some things for toddler DC2 for the loft, and fit everythign DS is wearing in his new chest of draws
-Moved playmat up to DS bedroom with a small selection of toys (all cars) along with fold up garage, and built car thing he got for his birthday last year from BIL and SIL but has been sitting unopened in his cupboard for a year Tbf it was 3+ and I don't think he would have appreciated it last year. Very chuffed I managed to assemble it myself!
-Put out new smaller playmat in lounge that we bought from ikea yesterday
-did online return for the maternity coat that was too big (I ordered 2 sizes to see which one was best) and sent form to DH to print

Going to have a good half hour hot chocolate break now while DS watches film before doing some tidying downstairs. Will get back upstairs a bit this afternoon to look at bedroom.

Morning all

Done

School assembly - Dd getting a certificate for playing in netball team.
Homebase to get the roses for wedding present for both parents.
W/m on

To do
Town
Dd's wedding present
nails done
..... = loads more can't remember
lunch
DP Mum and Dad bringing wedding dress over
Re-write song list for my brother, whos working the CD player!
Pack clothes for kids for 4 days away.
Pack something for us to wear sunday morning.
Relax!

Got to go and wash my hair.

probably back on Monday. Will try adn put a photo on here.

SC impressive list, and very funny accountants. I know I would have just cracked up right from the "so long"

Alice I only keep my final tax credit documentation. Have a box in a top cupboard for that kind of stuff. I think I do the 7 year thing with tax documentation.

Done
Beds
Packed lunch
Washing up
Litter tray
S&S
Went to croft, harvested 1kg salad (not a big batch this time)
Went to shop, bagged it up and bought veg
Laundry on

Now having a and considering food before heading out to Art Village for more paper mâché.

Ta DA!
Recycling out
Put various stuff away
Wiped surfaces
Swept floor
1 x laundry in dryer
1 x laundry in machine
Applied mould killer
Washed boys' rucksacks.
Rinse off mould killer
Finish accounts/tax return (Woohoo!)
Work

To do:
Post card to friend
Wrap present
Get suitcases down
Pack
Sort out email on laptop
More tidying
More work!!

Enjoy your day tomorrow Shanna

Impressive lists ladies [smiles]

ta da
cleaned rest of upstairs bathroom
handwashed nets from baby room - just need to spin and hang to dry
Baby wash#1 away
Baby wash#2 in td
Put away ikea bits from yesterday
collected bits and bobs to make baby present for friend's newborn

Our bedroom is still a mess as are the bathroom cupboards and the dining table. Still, now time to sit back. Will be putting dinner on soon so definitely staying downstairs for the rest of the afternoon rather than up and down.

Morning all! Very impressed with everyone's long lists this morning!

Dh flew back on the red-eye this morning and despite having been awake for approx 15 hrs consecutively... went straight in to work ... oh well.

Did a mini-restorative home bleugh on the ground floor this morning, did one load of washing, ironed ballet kit for tomorrow, fed hamster and have just enjoyed lovely 'stitch and bitch' session followed by lunch with friend.

Cold seems to have abated for now but I can feel it waiting in my temples, ready to make itself known this evening!! [Swigs Engel's honey and lemon drink gratefully.]

Sounds ridiculous after such a leisurely morning but feel tired now so going to laundry to drop off dh shirts, then quick supermarket shop to buy something to accompany baked spuds tonight (bad planning this week) and then school run and I think that will be it for me today.

Shannara Many, many congratulations in advance!! Wishing you and your dh-to-be every happiness this weekend . Hope you and your respective families have a truly fabulous day and can't wait to see the photo!! Good luck!! [SC proffers something old... something new ... something borrowed ...etc etc etc.] (Oh and last but not least, congrats to your dd for netball certificate!)

Blue sorry about the mould (hope you can get to the bottom of it). Congrats on such a productive day, you are on a roll!!

As are you Engels!!! A veritable whirling dervish of activity! Take it steady!

What are you making at art village Goth if you don't mind me asking? Congrats on long list and glad weather allowed some crofting.

Alice hope paperwork archiving/shredding going OK

Hope list going well Bitchy and you are managing to fight off the fatigue

Speaking of which, falling asleep here at computer so had better get out in to the fresh air!

Big waves to eveyrone else!

x post ¨Engels you certainly deserve some time with your feet up now after all that lot!

to do
drop ds' samples at doc
work
load of washing on
bedding washed
folding
ironing
clothes away
change hoover bag
hoover lounge
finish spiral square In progress
finish cream squares of christmas project
finish mostly cream with touch of blue square
sort out time to meet up with friend
Pot up chutney - someone put the jars in the dish washer they were clean! so have to wait until i can do that.
Drop off letter
Important phone call

I really really can't be arsed! I think i am going to shift a load of stuff about priorities wise and do the sitting down crafty deadline kinda stuff today so that I can do the stuff that requires energy tomo morning when i am more likely to have the motivation and will power to do it.

Ta DA!
Recycling out
Put various stuff away
Wiped surfaces
Swept floor
2 x laundry washed and dried
Applied mould killer
Washed boys' rucksacks.
Rinse off mould killer
Finish accounts/tax return (Woohoo!)
Work - one job sent off
Post card to friend
Wrap present

To do:
Get suitcases down
Pack
Sort out email on laptop
More tidying
More work!!

Home ed football today. Ds2 played beautifully afterwards with five boys his own age - they are all quite good at accepting odd characters - there seems to be very little pressure to be cool. I met another two mothers (who live a bit further but have older children too)

Knackered now though. Cleaner has cleaned downstairs. A spat with ds2 earlier - he doesn't like doing handwriting on football days. So we agree to have a more formal timetable for that day so he knows what is happening. He says he looks forward so much to the football he cannot concentrate on "anything" beforehand, besides getting dressed I pointed out to him he used to get dressed every day for secondary, go to handwriting club, then have 7 hours of school and come home on the tube, and how was this different? [to do 1 hour of work before football I mean) He said it was. Will have to ponder.

Ta da
roast chx for dinner
washing up
baby wash #2 folded and upstairs
wash#3 on
nets hung up to dry

now going to put ds to bed then come downstairs, light some candles and read.

Bum, just written long post and lost it! Perhaps because I am already on the . [Offers bottle around.]

TGIF!!! Tired tonight! Haven't seen dh all week so we're going to watch a family film now and then have early night.

Sounds like a lovely evening you have planned Engels Profitez!

Lack of emphasis on "coolness" a marvellous thing Swan!

Blimey Blue! Whatever you are on, I want some ! Congrats on such a productive day!

A bit of crafting at the end of a long week sounds just the thing Bitchy

Big feathery waves to everyone else!!

G'night all!

Well done on surviving such a busy week Fledglings and for getting such a lot done!

Baby-step no. 25 for Sat 25th is here. A bit of a mish-mash step about reading Flylady's personal testimonial, not being a perfectionist, and about developing routines/CJ. Ignore if you want!

Tomorrow (Sat) will be our last day in Zone 4: the boudoir here. Declutter for 15 mins in this zone.

The detailed cleaning list (if you are at that stage) for Zone 4 is here.

No missions because it is the weekend!

The daily focus for Saturday is: family fun. Certainly will be for Shannara this weekend !!

The monthly habit for October is getting rid of paper clutter: www.flylady.net/d/habits-of-the-month/october/ .

For a summary of the above, see the flight plan : www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-120 which should update itself daily.

Have a great weekend everyone! You deserve it!

**

Nothing too exciting at the Art Village, just balloons so that they can be painted this weekend during the children's craft sessions. I think the plan is to turn them into skulls/shrunken heads/spiders etc. Anything Halloweenie that we can think of. We're also making a caldron, have already done the eyeballs to go in the witches brew.

The thing I'm really excited about helping with is the life size baby elephant. And once that's done, we're going to make a Toothless dragon!

Have a great time this weekend Shannara

Ta DA!
Recycling out
Put various stuff away
Wiped surfaces
Swept floor
2 x laundry washed and dried
Applied mould killer
Washed boys' rucksacks.
Rinse off mould killer
Finish accounts/tax return (Woohoo!)
Work - one job sent off
Post card to friend
Wrap present
Get suitcases down
Pack
Sort out email on laptop
More work!!
Cook dinner
Clean up
Watch DVDs with DH

Only thing on the list that didn't happen was the more tidying. Hey ho.

SC - tis a wonderful combination of being sans garçons and getting ready to go away for half-term - picking them up from ILs tomorrow and heading down to my parents. Taking the laptop and working though, and DH is coming home again for the week, so goodness knows what we'll come back too... I just hope my parents took in the "I'll be working so you can go out and do stuff with the boys" part...

Lifesize baby elephant sounds cool, Goth. DS1 would love the Toothless too.

Oh yes, meant to say, have a great w/e shanara - hope it all goes wonderfully.

Popping in late, have been to the theatre with DD, just wanted to say hope you have a fabulous day tomorrow Shannara - this is our first thread wedding as far as I recall, there have been a few babies but no weddings.

Toffee / Swan - and anyone else home edding, there was some sort of feature on home ed on Radio 5Live today, I only caught part of it, it was the Peter Allen show if you want to try and find it on Iplayer.

Sooo tired. Night all.

Best wishes for a beautiful day shannara!

BlueEyeshadow we had a mould issue yesterday too! We keep bedding behind the sofa for when people stay over or if I can't manage the stairs at night, but the huge sleeping bag was absolutely covered! We chucked it straight out as it's too big for the washing machine. Thankfully the other stuff doesn't seem affected but I'm washing it all anyway. Uggggh. We have so much bedding scattered all over the place and I've only just sorted a place for it all, but I'm washing everything before putting it away because even though much of it was washed, it's musty. Fail.

Apologies for my absence, I haven't done any flying the last few days! Foot isn't broken but was hurting a lot. Not so bad now but being careful for a couple more days.

Anyway, we are both off for most of next week, so won't be flying really. Going to try and take a leaf out of DH's just-getting-on-with-it book, so although we have a rough plan in place for what we want to achieve, I won't be writing long lists I don't think.

DH had yesterday off as DCs had inset day (the downside being he has to work next Friday morning instead) and while I was at work they did lots of tidying. DCs' tidying was rather superficial :o but I can see the floor in our bedroom now thanks to DH! I'm so glad he's made a good start as it was just so overwhelming.

He's working today so I've got a small power of three list (is it cheating that they are all laundry related?)
Hang out all wet washing
Put away all dry washing
Gather all dirty laundry together, separating out uniform/whites as I go.

Off to an art event later too, and will go via the park if the DCs are good. Currently they are on the bed with me watching a DVD on the laptop while I laze - happens so rarely they think it's a real treat!

Shannara - hope you have a wonderful day today

WhoKnows - thanks for the tip about the R5 item on home ed.

fuzz - poor you, nursing a painful foot . Hope it mends soon.

Blue - hope your parents took on board your not-so-subtle hint .

Goth - am very impressed at all your Halloween creations. How do you make a cauldron? DS2 is so excited about it all, has already dragged the Halloween boxes out of their cupboard (Halloween stuff all over his bedroom now) and is planning to hold a Halloween party with his two best friends. Am feeling exhausted just thinking about it.

SC - hope your cold has gone by today. And that DH has slept at last (can't believe he went into work after 15 hours awake . I hope that means he was good at the night wakings when your DD was a baby ).

Engels - glad to see you are fitting in relaxation as well as nesting .

Swan - the home-ed football sounds like a wonderful activity for your son, especially with its lack of emphasis on 'coolness'. Re: timetables. I do a weekly timetable for DS2, which I stick up by his bed every Sunday night. It is as much to remind me what I have planned for the week as for him. I started out by putting times on it, but that was obviously crazy (I was constantly behind ), so now I just write down what I'm planning for us to do each day, without being overly specific. This gives me the option to do as much or as little of each item on the list as we want or need. DS2 likes knowing what we'll be doing ahead of time too. I find that if I don't have a timetable, I start drifting and we don't get much done. But that might just be me. (Mind you, I ignored our timetable completely yesterday. See below).

Bitchy - very good idea to concentrate on crafty activities when you're feeling rough and defer the more active stuff till later. It must be really frustrating to cope with the ups and downs of your condition. I hope you're feeling better today.

Alice - I used my shredding scissors for the first time the other day (bought thanks to you!). DS2 was very excited by them and I've had to hide them from him.

Really, really couldn't be arsed with our routine home-ed stuff yesterday, so decided to spend the day with DS2 just reading and cooking (he was more than happy). He reads to himself now, but I suddenly missed reading to him and announced that I was going to read him one of my favourite books. So we curled up on the sofa together and I read him the first few chapters of 'The Magician's Nephew' by CS Lewis. We read it on and off all day and I've been reading more to him this morning. It's lovely for me to re-read an old favourite and to see his enjoyment in it. We also did a lot of cooking, which actually took longer, in terms of help and clearing up, than sitting down to do some 'lessons', but DS2 loved it: today we can have our homemade vegetable soup and vanilla biscuits for lunch .

Has anyone read 'The Life-changing Magic of Tidying'? After reading some of the thread on it, I have ordered the book from Amazon. I will probably just add it to my collection of books on decluttering, but thought I'd give it a try. And I really, really need to do more decluttering.

Off to get DS2's hair cut this morning, then I'm planning to focus on the house and get it tidied up (that Groundhog Day feeling again).

Hope everyone has a good weekend.

Toffee - yes, a few of us were talking about that book on here a few weeks ago, I was on the first of those long threads about it but dropped off. I still haven't read the whole thing but I did buy it on Kindle so at least it isn't adding to my clutter. It did push me on to doing a big declutter a few weeks ago. It isn't really written for households with children IMO.

Ah, I thought it was the kind of thing we fledglings would know about. Good to hear it pushed you into doing a big declutter, WhoKnows. I hope it does the same to me.

Good morning! Hope everyone OK! Felt very relaxed this morning as it's the start of the holidays and we all had lovely lie-ins ... followed by a cooked breakfast. Then watched some recorded bits of that amazing new David Attenborough prog.

Then we had the big "half term report" talk. Teacher has absolute measure of dd down to a tee; and has suggested two things: one hour's homework every day without fail (atm she does minimum necessary) and the playing of mental arithmetic games three times a week. This didn't go down terribly well.

(Then relaxing atmosphere diminished further when I found dh serving dd a pre-ballet snack of packet noodle soup veg (which actually tastes ok but on closer inspection only contains 3% veg) when there is a huge vat of home made veg soup in the fridge. And then both dd and dh were wandering around the first floor saying "where is dd's tracksuit?" and "where are the hairnets and hairpins?" "where are my trainers?" "where are the ballet shoes"? when they were set out (literally!!!) right in front of their eyes!!! Yaarrrggghhhhhhh! V. minor trivialties I know but irritating nonetheless when dh volunteered to be "in charge" this morning!! Should have left the premises but was required for hair-bun duty!!)

Shannara Thinking of you today Good luck!! Have a wonderful day!!

Toffee yes, if you look down the thread you will see various references to Marie Kondo. I found some of it made absolute sense (especially the bits about how you live, the amount of clutter you have and the sense of control you have over it, having a significant effect on your mental and physical health). Other bits, I have to confess, I found absolutely barmy! Totally agree with Whoknows in that I think she has no clue what it is like to live with dc (even as a mother of just one child, this is completely apparent). I was speculating the other day that a huge Kondo-esque clear out + Flylady-esque maintenance, could be the perfect combination!!

And yes, thank-you, cold seems to have been very short-lived thankfully! And yes, dh was (I have to admit!!) totally brilliant about getting up and doing night feeds, and even before that, getting up in the first 10 wks of my pregnancy and making me ham and cheese sandwiches to eat at 4 am (I was so hungry I couldn't get through the night without food!). After long flights involving time-changes, his theory is that you have to arrive at your destination and stay up until it's the natural time to go to bed there, which is sometimes a bit gruelling, but you adapt faster to current time zone apparently. Seems to work and he often has a nap between 5pm and 6pm on a Sat and Sun to catch up on shut eye.

I love the 'Magician's Nephew' btw!! Haven't read it for years!! Must do so again!

Fuzzpig look after that foot and glad your dh is getting on board Flying-wise!! Def NOT cheating when power of three involves one task. My 'ta da' lists are deliberately broken down in to lots of detailed parts ie 'carry hoover upstairs', 'clear floor', 'hoover' because sometimes that is literally the only way I can keep myself motivated.

Wow Blue you are nonetheless certainly making the most of your child-free time! Hope it continues this wk! Safe travelling!

Goth at life-sized baby elephant!!! Fantastic!!

Big waves to Whoknows and everyone else!

[Sorry for thread hi-jack but if anyone has any views on 11 yr olds and self-motivation and hwk, please post here Thank you!!]