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?

Morning all. Busy couple of days but nothing of import to report, nothing of import to add to thread and not much flying. Nothing changes really.

grey we had a cat that pissed everywhere. I see the feliway plug jn thing has already been mentioned. It works. It really works. We invested in the spray and the plug in and he stopped. It was like magic.

swan hope the meeting goes ok.

Better go and get moving. Back later when i maybe have something interesting to say.

Morning all

I'm not really here yet.
Will post properly later when not on phone.
What is the home routine app and where can I get it from?
Have to ask as soon as I think of something or I instantly forget it.
Back later, have a good morning

Sorry to have been absent for the past few days - work is getting in the way of flying and decluttering (but am itching to get back to it).

Shannara The home routines app enables you to set up checklists for your daily routines, weekly tasks, etc.; it fits in very well with Flylady as it divides your house into zones. It's fully customizable so can take a while to set up, but I find it very motivating to be able to reward myself with a star once I've completed a task. I think you probably need to have an iPhone or iPad, though; AFAIK it's not available for Android.

Morning fledglings, thanks for links bitchy. Just re-read the stuff about calendars, I have an 'organised mum' calendar, diary and all the stickers. I love stationary and because I have nice stuff, I want to use it IYKWIM.

Thanks to WhoKnows, Ellie, Saymwa and Swan for cat sympathies. I have ordered two Feliway diffusers to try out. DCat has the biggest, hooded litter box I could find, it looks like an igloo in my entrance hall! He has lots of room inside to move and plenty of privacy. Little sod.

Swan, hope your meeting goes well, sounds like it will be hard though.
Shannara, I use the home routines app and like it a lot, it follows flylady quite closely. Like Linzer says, it's fully adaptable to you, and also has a 15 minute timer and to do list.

Ta da
Washing on
Two beds made
Both cats fed
Second cat flea treated
Three loads of laundry folded and put away
Doctors appointment made for DS

Got to run now to take DS to doctor,

BBL

Morning all.

at Bitchy's snow, I want some!

Swan - hope the meeting goes ok, it must be so stressful for you :(

I love the HomeRoutines app, it's great, but took a while to get it properly suited to me :)

Not a great start to the day, DS woke up saying his tummy hurt, so I have let him stay off school, there's loads of bugs going round, and I was fairly sure that school would just ring me to collect him anyway. I was happy not to have to leave the house today too
About to enforce a nap for everyone! DD woke me at 5.30 to tell me something about her toy dinosaur

I have done morning routine, but not much else. Not sure if I'm going to plan much else beyond basic routines, will see what happens later.

Bitchy You spotted my cunning procrastination method!

Ta-das:
Morning routine
Long mediation between Dd1 and DH over DD1s refusal to go into school because she was late because he took forever defrosting the car. Long history on this one ... Now DH is annoyed with both of us! Tough. DD1 takes lots of careful handling (serious anxiety issues) and he was being an arse.
Sent dissertation extension request form to my supervisors for approval.

The Home Routines app is available on Android too, but I didn't download it because the Fat Fairy was complaining about copyright infringements so I thought better safe than sorry.

The window cleaner turned up unexpectedly this morning and the sunshine showed up all the smeary handprints etc so I did the insides of the windows to match. Hoovering involved clearing the floor, but all the stuff still needs to go back in the right places. So, in summary, the house is still a tip, but at least the floors and windows are clean!

Ta da!
Beds stripped
Laundry done and dry
1 load of laundry away
Work
Hoovering
Coffee with friend
Windows cleaned

To do:
Anti-procrastinate
Cooking
Remake beds
2 more loads of laundry away

My cleaner did the insides of our windows the other week Blue, and it just showed up how grubby they we're on the outside!

More Ta dahs
Hung up wet washing
Put in second wash
Dishwasher on
DS taken to doctors then to soft play he'll on earth
Lunch
DS put down for a nap
Big sort out of all toys and books, stuff to go listed for sale on FB pages
Sewn in ends of crafty project

Now off to drink coffee and read until DS wakes up. TTFN.

Ah, I didn't realise that Blue - I did google earlier but it says on the HomeRoutines website that they don't know when they'll be producing an Android version so I assumed it was still only available from the iTunes store.

Bless Sorry to hear about your stressful start to the day; hope things have improved now.

Whispers Hope DS is feeling better now and that you all managed a nap.

Grey I love my Organised Mum calendar (and all the stickers!) too. I also used to have an OM diary - actually two, as I had the family and pocket versions - as I'm a bit of a stationery addict, but felt I couldn't justify the amount of time I spent copying out information so just use the calendar and my phone (as I can set myself reminders, which have saved my skin several times!) now.

Ta da:
English lesson
Work
Mending
Cooked lunch (for once, rather than getting something out of the freezer)
Filing (very small amount)

To do:
More filing (a never-ending task)
Buy school slippers for DS, as he's just informed me that his current pair "broke" this morning
Take DS to scouts

Hello everyone! Hope you are all surviving and that those who have had broken or disturbed nights are able to catch up on sleep soon and those who are ill (or whose dcs are ill) recover soon! And hope all cats who are misbehaving change their ways soon!

Respect to those of you on PTAs, and/or who are studying and/or exercising and weight-watching! Puts me to shame!

Sorry to have been awol. Nowt much happening here. DD has 'proper' flu poor thing and isn't very well at all. She's sleeping on and off on the sofa in the play room as her bedroom is very high up the house. So I've been tiptoeing around trying not to disturb her but not getting much done (that's my excuse anyway) despite enforced confinement to house, which should really have offered me opportunity to Fly high. I haven't though . Got no get up and go. Keep sitting down on sofa opposite dd to read to her and falling asleep myself. Hopeless!! It's as though we both have sleeping sickness! Desperate to go out for brisk walk but can't! Feel like a mole in a hole!

Feeling rather stressed about all the school work she is missing (they plough through so much in a week) and hoping that dh can get back in time tonight (from travels) to baby-sit so that I can attend important school meeting about end-of-year exams (and hopefully pick up missed work although dd's in no fit state to do it atm) as don't like leaving dd with baby-sitter when she is this ill.

Totally coincidentally, visitors that were coming to stay tomorrow night rang to postpone, owing to work overload. Good in a way given circs but still have it looming as it were... . Can't quite face calling them back to re-arrange as yet!

This thread has reminded me that I desperately need to find a decent window cleaner and can't seem to track one down for love nor money ... .

As for home routine apps, I must confess that I don't know what 'android' is or means oh dear

Ellie as you can see from above, I never let not having anything interesting to say stop me from posting

Trazzles hope ds improving (and your dh)

Swan so sorry to hear about school issues with your ds1 and attendant stress and hope meeting today not as bad as you had feared x

Bitchy think snow and roaring are a fine combo

Hope your ds recovers soon Whispers

Blue clean windows and floors is good!!!!!!!!

Linzer wish I was itching to get back to decluttering and Flying. What is your secret?

Blessthismess oh that is so sad about your bun they have such individual personalities, it is so sad when they go... .

But that is very cheering about your pony and gives me hope for the future that there is something suitable out there!! (I was beginning to lose hope - particularly by the number of 4 and 5 yr olds described as suitable for novices/dc or as 'schoolmasters'). Please would you kindly pm me with dealer details if anywhere near Kent/S. East (Chunnel), East Mids or Suffolk (which are our Uk stamping grounds when visiting). (Hope that doesn't sound too wierdly stalkerish but pursuing all leads possible as have very limited horsey contacts over here!)
Oh yes, would definitely chuck measuring spoons unless of huge sentimental value!
Wow at tricep dips!!!

Look after your back Whoknows!

Greymalkin hope Feliway works!

Toffee hope you and ds2 feeling better. And how are your kittens btw? (I seem to recall they were causing you a bit of stress before Xmas.)

Shannara glad school are sorting things out and are being supportive/positive

MrsMook arf at hypnobirthing tapes etc - I still have plastic potties in the roof and dd is now 11 yrs!!

Hope you can catch up on shut eye Saymwa

Waves to threeislovely Engels Feetheart PA Makingchanges Castle and everyone else I have inevitably missed!

Had better go and check on the patient and see if she wants to eat. Have a good evening everyone!

Ah, maybe it's a different app then Linzer. If you put "home routines" into the Play Store on Android there's a Fairy Fairy-based one that comes up.

Sorry to hear about DD, SC. Hope she's on the mend soon, and if you keep falling asleep, it sounds like you need rest too after all the recent stresses and strains!

Links:

Launch pad

Thursday is errand day

babystep make your bed

missions

Evening all.

Busy day at work and rather frustrating re one pupil who I could have punched. I didn't . That is success in itself.

This evening has mainly been consumed with rowing with DS over homework. Culminating in a mahoosive argument which led to tears and confessions that he has been sneaking his phone upstairs and playing on it after lights out till midnight. Needless to say the phone is now in my possession of a night time.

Yet again...no flying barring the getting of dinner and clearing away.

sc i bloody love reading your posts. Do not change....ever.

Evening all

elliepac we had same problem with the dc's nintendo DS. They're now removed at bedtime.
Slow hope Dd gets better soon.
Bless it's difficult for other people to understand our over sensitive dc's. Ds is so much happier and more relaxed when DH is home. Dd is much better with me, I think we both understand our dyspraxia issues and over sensitivity.

Good day here today FLYing wise (won't mention diet though)

Ta Da

2 loads of washing done and put away!
Top of kitchen cupboards and doors scrubbed clean
Living room dusted
Bathroom quick wipe round, will do tomorrow.
Dd's cupboard sorted - found 2 missing chess pieces. Haven't told Ds though because he'll then want endless games.
Dd has agreed to get rid of her tea set, toy food and kitchen set! Ds has also agreed to get rid of duplo!
Have just downloaded the FlyHelper app onto my android, thanks everyone.

Ds's asthma is abit bad at the moment. Trying to give inhaler every 2 hours to keep him ok. Luckily he's good at remembering at school

Have a good evening and hopefully a good nights sleep everyone.

SC I am just more and more FED UP with school and I'm sure they are fed up with me too Do not let them bully you over dd's outstanding work. If she had a more serious illness would you let the work worry you? No. You would just want her to get better. Hope she is slowly recovering.

Meeting was fine. Awful but fine. I survived. Ds1 survived. I fear this is not the end of the saga though. This is going to haunt ds through the rest of his secondary career at this school as none of the teachers will trust him again. Ds has shaken it off and as usual is moving forward optimistically and telling me he is going to work hard.

Had a nice friendly supper with everyone though - potatoes sausages and red cabbage from the freezer.

Ds2 had a great day, lots of running around and talking to people and we did a fair amount of written work in the morning as well as reading a bit of Moby Dick and some Tennyson. (very small amounts I admit) My neck is cricked though from sheer hunching against the freezing wind in the park though..Home feels like a real haven after the park and then the meeting.

done
loaded dw
washing
cooked supper
piled up recycling
exercise
driving
home ed
and slept in a bit as dh got up this morning at 6.30am and did the children off to school marathon.

Ta da!

School run
DH's car to garage (it's next to where I work) for service and MOT
Embarrassing phone call when they told me it had passed but they had to put that it failed initially due to being too dirty to read the number plate.
Work
Pick up car all nice and gleaming
PTA meeting - ended up offering to be a class rep as well as secretary (it's only for 2 terms as it's Yr 6 and the bulk of the class rep is for Christmas). On the plus side managed to avoid becoming Chair.
Home with DCs
Sainsburys run
Tea
Brownies and trampolining
Home
Stern words with DCs about tidiness and lots of tidying done
DCs to bed
Just going to sort out the paperwork for my tax return and print out some OU stuff.

It's very stormy out there tonight, hope everyone stays safe and dry. DS is desperate for some snow, he keeps getting frustrated by the Weather app on my phone predicting snow and it not materialising, I was looking at it tonight and realised he's got it set to a town of v.similar name in a much colder part of the country, no wonder it's never right!

Thanks Shannara Slow & Linzer for your kind thoughts re DD. She and I are fine, DH has gone into a decline and undoubtedly will be very offish with me for a few days. We are going for marriage counselling next week.

Slow, unfortunately we are nowhere near any of those places - Gloucestershire is our patch.

Ta-das:
Applied for dissertation extension
Received ethical approval for my study, woohoo (only taken 10 months to get to this stage ...)
Wrote a paragraph of my Introduction!
School run for DD2 and took her to cafe for our weekly treat
Made dinner
Left the dishes for DH to clear up

Am determined to get to bed at a decent time, so just a quick post and wave to all fledglings.

Sorry, swan, that you had to go through that meeting, but I'm glad it's behind you now.

SC - poor DD. I hope she starts to feel better soon. Real flu is wretched. I second swan's advice not to let the school bully her into working before she is ready. I don't know why they load so much work onto children of her age, to be honest. It's ridiculous. Re cats: they have much improved! Or they have beaten us into submission.

Bless - congrats on the study acceptance!

ellie - sorry for your wearing evening, but well done on spotting the DS issue. I think many of us have been there .

ta da

Quick swish and swipe
B/fasts for children and cats
Put all yesterday's washing away
Visit to osteopath who kindly showed DS2 models of the human body for his studies
DS2 completed worksheets on skeletons whilst I was being pummelled (owch)
DS1's teacher arrived for his lesson
DS2's home ed: handwriting; Maths; volcanoes - made a model out of play dough and recreated the explosion with bicarb of soda and vinegar
Cleared up the mess
Lunch
Walked into town to do some chores
Cooked roast chicken for dinner
Drank first glass of white wine for two weeks (it was recommended to me by the osteopath! She said it was good for relaxing muscles )
Bedtime routines
Home ed prep and emails

Busy day tomorrow: lots of chores, plus another visit to DS1's prospective new school. It is also the last day I can honestly say I'm in my 40s .

Right long list of stuff today. Important phone calls and a major craft project deadline so if you see me here too much I am procrastinating. I am using the crafting time to update to windows 8.1 which means I will have to nudge the computer so it doesn't drift off into sleep mode crashing the installation. so may be quick to reply on occassions.

To do
10 squares
block squares into 5 strips
fasten ends
block strips out
fasten ends
edge in colour 1 (1 row)
Edge in colour 2 (1 row)
Edge in colour 3 (1 row)
Edge in colour 4 (3 rows)
fasten edges and check for missed fastening off
wrap up
Ring hospital 1
Ring hospital 2
Ring Family
Make sure ds has clothes for tomo

A bit of an eventful start to the day here - the car wouldn't start while I was out shopping, so had to call the equivalent of the AA. Got told off for ruining the battery by mainly driving for short distances and told to drive round for half an hour afterwards, so that's a good part of the morning gone now (only just over an hour until I have to pick up DS from school).

Toffee Ooh, so does that mean a break from Dry January party this weekend? Ah, have just seen you drank a glass of wine yesterday; am sure I saw something on Facebook yesterday about how a bottle of wine a night is good for you but I could well have misread it!

Bless Sorry to hear about the situation with DH; I hope the counselling helps. Congratulations on the approval!

WhoKnows DD1 was doing the same as your DS and checking the weather app on my phone every five minutes last week for snow that was forecast but didn't materialise (even though we did have the right town). Fortunately the snow we've had in the meantime (which has all melted now) seems to have cured her of her addiction to the app.

swan Sorry to hear about the problems with school; it must be a relief to have the meeting out of the way, at least. (Keep meaning to say if I'd known you were coming to Vienna, we could have met for and !)

Shannara Impressive ta da list! Hope you can get DS's asthma under control; DS has similar problems (not officially asthma but he has breathing problems caused by allergies, and has inhalers) and it can be quite scary.

ellie We've also had problems with electronics after lights out; I try to make sure that phones, Nintendo, etc. all stay downstairs when the DC go to bed, but do forget sometimes.

Thanks for the links, Bitchy.

Blue Ah, maybe it's an unofficial version then; that would explain the copyright issues you mentioned.

SC My secret is that I've had no time to do any decluttering etc.! As soon as I have the time, my motivation mysteriously disappears.
Poor DD; I hope she's on the mend soon. I can empathise with your school work problems as here too, it's expected that children who are off sick keep up with the school work they miss (on top of the normal homework) - either a parent goes in to pick it up (at primary, at least) or a classmate brings it home. It's manageable if your child is only off for a day with something like a headlice infestation (speaking from experience!) but if they're really sick and are off for longer, I know it can be a bit of a nightmare.

Must get on for what little is left of the morning... suspect I won't have time to do much more than deal with the washing and prepare lunch.

waves - ds2 has just gone for a run

Toffee that's me in 6 months - no more forties

Waves to all those approaching the big-five-oh. It's not so bad over the hill ! The anticipation is worse than the reality.

Toffee That sounds like it was a productive HE day! I HE'd DD1 till she was 8 and managed to avoid the volcano activity, thankfully. We did do Mentos in Coke (in the garden obvs) and DD2 mentioned it last night and wants to do it again!

Ta das
Morning routine
10 tricep dips
School run
Found box for remaining homeless Christmas decorations (they seem to have expanded)
Put boxes in loft
Wrapped present for DD2's friend
Deleted a load of emails

To do
Dissertation. (Sorry, that is going to get boring as it is going to be on my list everyday for either 2 months of 5.5 months depending on whether I get my extension granted. Actually if it is the former I will probably die so you won't have to be bored by it! )

Hi everyone. Can't quite believe it is Thursday and we are already half way though the month. [Not much to show for it emoticon )

Bit of an exciting morning. DD came within a hair's breadth of passing out (she fell down but didn't quite go unconscious thankfully ) and she is now too big for me to carry her; so had her half on and half off the bed. I've never seen anyone look so white. She is much better now thankfully and I reckon it's just a symptom of the flu and the fact that she hasn't eaten much but off to see doc this afternoon (needed med certificate anyway).

Thanks for all good wishes. Linzer yes - it is the same here - dc expected to keep up with school work when ill and someone is kindly fetching it for me this afternoon or tomorrow morning, so at least she can look at it and start some over the weekend when better. Toffee there is more work because of being educated in two languages (ie think entire literacy syllabus x 2).

Swan glad you and ds1 survived the school meeting and I'm sure the teachers have seen it all before, and if they are half way decent will hopefully acknowledge reasons behind his behaviour, and give him the benefit of the doubt so trust can build up again on both sides.

Toffee and Swan I hit the big 5 0 last year and, thanks to family and friends , had one of the best day's ever on the day, and it hasn't felt so bad (or that much different) since. Just usual haggard wobbly fatigued usual self Agree, not nice saying goodbye to forties though which is a lovely decade!! Enjoy your last few hours/months of it!!

Toffee we believe you about the osteopath, a thousand wouldn't As usual, very impressed with your home schooling sched. Good luck with school visit today!!

Linzer Sorry to hear about car probs this morning and how it ate in to your rare free time! I have the same battery issue with mine as am only brave enough to drive approx 7 (very local) routes!!
Re motivation: you have hit the nail on the head. Ask a busy person and all of that!! I'm sure that's it!! I was never more efficient or more on top of Flying routines than when I was working three days a week. Twas the perfect balance. I need some'at else to do/more structure!! Although in situations like this when dh is away and dd is ill, I'm glad I am not working.

Bless yes, congratulations on ethical approval for your study and hope counselling proves useful. Re: Gloucestershire dealers - thanks anyway!

[gratefully dabs eyes with corner of hanky reading Ellie's kind words ...] Btw Ellie I have taken to doing an FBI-esque "sweep" of dd's room prior to bed-time to eliminate all phones, tablets, any other electronic equip; esp from under bed or secreted in bookcase! It still doesn't stop her reading with a torch under her duvet though!!

Good luck with all of that edging Bitchy

Shannara hope your ds's asthma improves soon (and I'm keeping quiet about my diet atm too )

Whoknows very wild and windy here (and temp dropping too). No snow as yet though! What cheeky so and so's at the garage - hope you encouraged them to give the number plate a wee polish

Blue thanks but wish I could say it was because I needed the sleep but think it is just generally age/lack of fitness/general portliness etc etc unfortunately

Happily, having received 4 e-mails about how important it was, school meeting turned out to be bit of a damp squib last night because unfortunately key teacher had family crisis and couldn't be there and they are rescheduling - so didn't miss much in the end.

Slowly getting my Flying mo-jo back.

Prepped cool white wash yesterday, washed it, and hung up
Rounded up rest of laundry
Rabbits
Cleaned kitchen
Numerous games of battleships and hangman
Emptied/filled/emptied dishwasher
Looked after dd
Cooked very plain rice dish with bit of egg and bit of veg to tempt patient's palette
Rang bank in UK and was put through ridiculous runaround (on phone for 40 minutes!!!)
Admin phone calls
Rabbits again

Ta da so far today:
Rabbits
Looked after dd
Spoke to school
Spoke to doc
Hot white wash
Played 5 games of hang man
Cooked lunch (plain noodles in tiny bit chicken stock) for dd

Now off to get dd ready for doc appt.

Have a good day everyone!!

Bit miffed with dh who is back (briefly) but working frantically, so I still can't get out of the house! He is travelling again tomorrow and asked in circs, if he should go because he could change it. I said, well if it's ok and not too disruptive, then it would be quite useful for you to stay because I haven't been out of house since Mon with dd being ill and food supplies are getting a bit low etc but we are fine. To which he responded "oh well, I'll go then". Absolutely fine with me, I can cope fine etc, but why ask if you have no intention of changing your plans??? Grrrrrrr!!

Also miffed because I happen to know this particular client owes us a lot of money in unpaid fees and I keep telling dh not to do any more work for them until they pay up. But he says its the reverse and they won't pay unless we do more work. I don't get it!!

Thinking of you Engels hope you are enjoying lovely 'nesting' time with baby and are getting some sleep!!!!

Big waves to anyone I've missed!

Forgot to say Toffee glad kittens are settling down!!

I think i might have said this before but I fecking hate end fastening.