Bitchy takes on the January Fledgling Thread. Buckle in and enjoy the ride...

[BitchyTakesOnManagement]

Ok. Welcome to the January Fledglings thread. Before we get started we have Some important notices

1. The fledglings are a long running thread, We are might seem clicky but that is what happens when some of us have been on the same thread for up to 5 years
2. We are rather partial to new blood Pull up a seat in the naughty corner
3. Don't assume you can march in and impose your way. We follow the fly lady way and we adapt it to suit our lives and needs. You are welcome to come join us for support and chat, don't assume you know best.
4. There is more to us than cleaning. If you want to be obsessive about cleaning you will find us and and our interpretation of fly lady frustrating. You might be happier else where.

Right, as harsh as it might seem, it is important to get that out of the way as we expect this January thread to be busier with newbies and there has been problems in the past.

So the fly lady system there are rules and we have adaptations.

1. NO perfectionism!!!
2. Something is better than nothing and sometimes good enough really is good enough.

3.This is not about the housework, it is about having more time to do fun stuff. Don't ever feel guilty about doing stuff with the kids over doing the housework. The kids are more important.

And the practical adaptations. We have discussed the Marie Kondo book and the approaches within on previous threads. We are all agree two things: the author does not have kids and that the principles are very good for decluttering and that they can be used to in conjunction with the fly lady system (Marie Kondo to get in control, and fly lady to stay in control). As for the fly lady system there are some of the babysteps and things that are advised that are either "huh, why?" or just don't fit in with the household. We advise a pinch of salt and discretion with a dash of reality thrown in. E.g. if you are a no shoes household then clearly the wearing shoes in the house part of babystep 2 is going to make you go This is where adaptations come in and if past threads are to be gone on this will be discussed and there are various takes on it as and when they arise.

Also for the over enthusiastic newbies to the fly lady site and system everything you need will be posted here in the form of links. There are 3 levels:
Newbie: babysteps - get into these habbit
student: Missions and babysteps once the habits are habit the missions are a piece of cake.
Expert: deep cleaning, missions and babysteps - forget this if you have clutter, seriously.
Oh and for the love of all sanity do not subscribe to the email alerts. Seriously. Just don't.

Jump on board, buckle in and lets kick the butt of January.
Bitchy special brew on the naughty corner bar, natch
do we warn the newbies about the special brew or let them find out for themselves?

How sad Grey. I have 2 DCats and, I have today, as much as I love them, I could regime them if I thought that either they or a member of my at-home family was unhappy. Don't beat yourself up about it.

I feel your cat wee pain though - that stuff is damn near impossible to get out.

Sorry about your DS, swan, the whole situation sounds incredibly stressful :(

Shannara - ah ha, a fellow PTA hostage member I'm the PTA secretary for our school, I only popped along to the AGM in September to see if I could help at some events and I somehow ended up being nominated for secretary I couldn't say no to it really, since my background is admin and I am a SAHM with spare time in the day. I am getting out of it as soon as I have got a job though!!

So, tadas:
Morning routine
Have moved DS's room out and sorted all toys, although still need to clean in there

To do:
Finish sorting where toys are going in the living room, they are down here, just not put away yet.
Hoover DS bedroom and living room
Dust in living room
Type up letter for PTA
Afternoon and evening routines

Grey - missed your post. Have you tried feliway? It's a cat hormone thing that is supposed to calm stressed kitties. We used it when both DC were born, no idea if it worked as we don't know if they would have got stressed without it IYSWIM But we certainly had no problems with them with a new baby in the house both times, so I would use it again. You can either buy it as a spray to put in certain spots, or you can buy a plug in diffuser that will 'treat' a whole room.

Here is a link to the website

Whispers - I said that sbout the PTA, only going to do it till I go back to work. Been back at work 4 years now and still doing as much PTA as ever.

Who I am sure I will end up still helping out a bit when I can, but I will probably have to get a full time job and they have the meetings during the school day, so I definitely won't be able to be secretary :)

I've ordered two Feliway plug ins to try.
I love my boy to bits, have had him since he was 12 weeks old, he's just a bit high maintenance...

I'm the secretary and I miss nearly all the daytime meetings, but we alternate ours with evenings as most of the committee work. We never get more than 50% attendance as a lot of people have evening childcare issues too, it's tricky.

Let me know how you get on, Grey :)

Who - Many parents don't work at the DC's school, so that means that none if the PTA do, so there have never been any evening meetings. The latest thing they ever do is the school Christmas fair and that is 5.30 - 7pm, so not exactly late! Everything else is done during school hours, they don't even do anything on weekends here So I will be able to help out at the Christmas fair next year and pretty much nothing else!

I need a kick up the bum a little help .

I have a set of measuring spoons, but ages ago lost the 1tbsp one (the one most used, of course). Yesterday I finally got round to buying a new set. Now I am in a dilemma about throwing away the remaining 4 spoons. The clip that held them together is gone and the printing of the size is faded or gone, so they're not good enough for the charity shop, but it is still hard to just chuck 4 perfectly good measuring spoons. What shall I do ?

Oh, you're just like me Bless. I would put them in a drawer then throw them away in a year or two never having used them again, so I'm going to recommend you either chuck them or relegate them to the shed as gardenin utensils.

Whispers we are guilty of doing nearly all PTA stuff in "working hours", the Christmas Fair is 3.30-5, the only exception is the summer fair which is 6-9 on Friday night. Although pretty well everyone works, most families have one part timer and or flexible jobs, it's one aspect we've never had complaints about. I must admit there's no way I'd want to help with school things at a weekend.

I am in the rare position where the PTA will never ask me to do anything. It is bliss.

Ds is in a vile mood and currently roaring at me. It started off with there being no ice lollies in the freezer. No idea what the issue is now but he really is perfecting a good roar.

[lets hair blow back in wind from Bitchy's roaring ds

I am afflicted by the neo-Rodrigo strumming of dd. She has learnt to play a song which consists of saying O Why Are We Pretending O O O. Actually I am impressed rather than afflicted Without lessons - just youtube.

Ds1 was in suspension today which of course means he had most of the day off so is in a calm mood.

Ds2 had friends over this morning, dh ended up giving out the cups of tea and chat as I had to take car for an emergency MOT and then pick up dd from busstrike. Which all worked out quite well as the garage turned out to be between a garden centre and a catfood mecca. I only bought catfood though very dull - need to go back.

Oh dear dd is very loud close up and she is approaching now singing Michael Jackson with some sort of alien twang Time to go to Morrisons.

I suppose it is what is called a Mash up.

Throw the spoons away Bless .
(It's easy to say that sort of thing when you're not involved in the relationship ).

And re singing or roaring children , all I can do is applaud their captive audiences. (And wish you both a peaceful night Bitchy and Swan ).

Grey, please let us know what happens with the beautifying cat powder. I'm very intrigued.

Tadas (not including the ones before last update :) )
Hoovered DS's room, living room and landing
Finished sorting toys in living room
Afternoon routine
Most of evening routine
Typed letter for PTA

Tomorrow I have got to finish cleaning the living room a little, wipe around bathroom and finalise letter and print. PTA chair is coming round to help me stuff envelopes in the afternoon (hence the non zone extra cleaning ), one nice thing is that her DD is around the same age as mine, they go to preschool together and will be in the same class as school together in September, DD is very excited about her coming to play

There was shouting and a lot of tears. And then the roaring stopped. Hopefully it will stay that way. But now is bedtime.

Today has been a right off. And i have logged into my email account 4 times already and only managed to send 1 of the emails i needed to.

Will be back in a bit with the links

Sorry for being largely AWOL for the last week or so, I have been working long hours on an OU assignment due in this week. I got very behind during December, luckily the essay was based on work from November so I've managed to do it but it has been really hard work. I have also given myself backache from so many hours slumped in front of a laptop. Anyway, it's gone in now, I'm going to have a couple of days break before getting back on with the studying. In the meantime everything's gone to pot a bit around the house and I have two birthday parties in the middle of being organised. Oh and my tax return to do.

So, today was my day off work and I had allocated it to the essay, but miraculously managed to finish it by about 10am.

Ta-da!
School run
Essay
4 lots of washing
Hoovered round downstairs
Swish and swipe
Batch cooking of pasta sauce and soup
Pilates class - was great for backache
Shopping and unpack food
Bake a cake
School run
Pick up DD's friend and take them both to ballet.
Home
Tea
General faffing about
DCs to bed

Also went to the allotment, having neglected it totally since about October. Didn't do anything, just pulled up a seat and basked in the sunshine for 20 mins, our garden gets no sun to speak of at this time of year but the allotment does, so that was nice.

I'm off to have a bath to relax my back, then an early night, had a lot of late ones doing the dratted essay and am very tired.

Sorry to hear of DCs roaring, being poorly, getting suspended, cats pissing on things they shouldn't etc. Grey - have you tried one of the covered litter trays that they have to go inside? Might contain things a bit better if he'll go in it, and he might feel less stressed if he has a nice private place to wee in.

OK so the links:

Wednesday is anti procrastination day.

missions

flykids

babystep 14 is how to use a calendar. You might think you know but Fly lady has her own view on a perfectly working calendar. There is a link within the babystep to investigate. I still do things my way on my calendar but that is what suits me. Read and adapt or read and ignore. Make flying fit you.

launch pad

Oh, thankyou , thankyou Bitchy.

I do hope you have a well-earned rest tonight . Sleep well and see you tomorrow .

err not sure what I did that deserve such thanks but err, thanks?

I should be asleep but my brain is a bit too active atm. However, ds has passed out into a puddle of snores. Normally the sound irritates me. But tonight it is most blissful.

ta da
sleep through most of the day
evening meeting
send important emails.
sort out some arrangements for the weekend
find to do list.

Whoknows I think you must be like the woman in the Bible whose price is above rubies - everything that could possibly make one satisfied in one post - sun work cake ballet and helping others

Bitchy dh and I are getting more and more relieved that the children actually go to bed at all these days. I am still feeling that invigorating roar though; like a bracing mountain wind your ds is! Am going to replace the word screaming in my vocab with roaring - so much more robust.

done
actually quite a lot and the car is at least MOTed
my driving is getting better and better too
and groceries picked up

and tomorrow is my easy day because it is meetup in the park (foolproof)

However have school meeting for ds1 to face at 4pm. He really wrote something awful so I don't quite know how I am going to get through the meeting except to hope it will soon be over. And if they tell me he is going to be excluded I will just have to face up to it.

Ta-das:

Put clean washing away
Urgent emails
Meal plan
Tesco order
Washed 2 dirty coats
Made quick but healthy dinner
Got DD2 bathed and hairwashed
Sorted out best order for morning and afternoon routines
Updated HomeRoutines app
De cluttered bathroom cupboard
Decluttered my least favourite tops after buying 3 new ones yesterday.

Not done: apply for dissertation extension (though did print off the form)
Work on dissertation.

The roaring today was just that level above screaming iyswim swan ds does scream and will do often but that was something different and he was completely incapable of words.

Bless you have just given me a flash back of my uni years when a large essay or a set of exams would always see me cleaning tidying and the only occasions when I would iron. I was doing every thing I could to avoid the task. Good luck with the dissertation!

Having a very therapeutic catch up with a good friend. I have the s

We have snow.