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?

Ta da

Made various breakfasts, including for the cats
Made coffee to wake DS1 for early lesson
Cleared litter trays
Dressed to shoes actually, slippers
Swish and swipe in bathroom
Hall 'room rescue' in preparation for teacher's arrival (boots, shoes and bags everywhere)
Put yesterday's washing away
Woke DS1 again and tried to persuade him to wash his greasy mop hair (failed)
Reminded DS2 no Nintendo DS or computer use allowed till after home ed
Ds2 refused to hand over his DS
Confiscated Nintendo DS and ignored Ds2's rudeness
Woke DS1 for third time
Failed again to get him to wash his hair
Washed up breakfast stuff
Woke DS1 for fourth time
Teacher arrived; Ds1 awake! Completed lesson
Spelling with sulky Ds2
Made Roman gods 'Top Trumps' game with slightly less sulky DS2
Booked osteopath appt for myself for next week (neck/back problems)
Walked to local hospital for DS1's regular appointment with nutritionist - he's put on weight and grown
Fed cats
Lunch with DS1 and DS2
More home ed (English comprehension and Maths) with DS2
Baked marshmallow cupcakes with DS2 (seemed to take hours)
Several rounds of washing up and drying up
Put a load of washing on
Took some cakes round to share with neighbours
Separate dinners for DC with cakes for pud
Fed cats

DH has agreed to cook our dinner, as I'm too exhausted to do anymore cooking or washing up tonight. Could lie down and go to sleep right now. Am tempted actually...

Oh, and I seem to have forgotten to eat today. Gave everyone meals except myself .

Another day of minimal housework - tomorrow dh is off for a few days (five) to Germany so I might feel more like it when he is not here and has stopped unloading the dw

However
done
Geography - Coasts
Moby Dick reading
and a very long time in the park at a meetup freezing and grim but ds2 had a fantastic time playing wrestling and football. Felt I did have to keep an eye on him though as he was wrestling rather too energetically. I think we are the diehard regulars in that group as it was such a horrible day weatherwise so I am quite pleased with made it - just 8 children today...

back home with some groceries and ds2 did quite a lot of independent bus journeys as well

Toffee I really would not have managed what you did today but it is brilliant that you got ds1 to the apt and to his lesson first thing. Someone was telling me today that she had made individual cards for the main elements in the Periodic table with memnomics for science - that sounded a rather good idea like your Roman Gods top trumps.

Dh has been reminding me that ds2 hasn't written anything for a long time apart from spelling and handwriting and asking me just when he is going to be able to write paragraphs..I'm not sure Still will cross that river when spring comes...or least daffs...

Saymwa to answer your specific question about today's baby-step, it is one that is ignorable, as it involves looking at the Flylady website and reading the question and answer session.

Are you referring to the following Flylady tip (on the same page as the baby-step) perhaps?

"To make it easier to put away your clean laundry; clean out one drawer for each member of the family. This will keep you from living out of laundry baskets and searching for what to wear!"

I think this means, designate one drawer for each member of the family, in to which you can bung clean laundry without having to sort it first. But this assumes that you have storage space to keep three drawers clear!! And drawers big enough to harbour huge piles of clothing!!

Or have I misunderstood all of this entirely and you are on a different baby-step entirely, not concurrent with today's date?? (Apologies if so!)

Big waves to everyone, bbl to catch up properly with thread!

Bitchy - cheat sheet sounds great! Remind me to ask you for it if I am ever trusted to put the links up again

Who - I do the passive aggressive loud talking thing too, but so does DH when I've hidden his stuff again

Saymwa - thank you for the support :) I can see the funny side now too, although at the time I was livid! He was genuinely shocked that this was of no use at all, it was only when he got snarled at that it sank in, I can still remember his embarrassed giggle when he realised
He has got a lot better at putting his stuff away, and is also keen to follow my lead when it comes to decluttering. I've also got DS on board with that too, start 'em young The only limitation with decluttering for a 5yo is that he has no sense of value, so will happily ask to give away the very expensive toy from grandparents, but the happy meal toy is a treasured possession Need to work on that one :) By the way, I don't literally hide things of DH's, I just put them away in a place that seems sensible. This lead to a lot of accusations of 'hiding' things, to which I replied that if he put them away himself, he would be able to choose where they went. It has definitely worked, as there are now only a few requests a week for where I might have put things, which is less stressful all round, as when I put away lots of his stuff, I could never remember where as I put so much of it away, now there is a chance that I will remember where I put whatever it is as I put less of it away to begin with

Toffee - wow, I hope you sleep well tonight after that mammoth list!

Swan - not sure if I want to admit to this, in light of your previous post, but I rarely shine my sink

Sc - yes, that is how I interpret that one too, but it seems madness, unless you live in a mansion with endless sets of empty drawers The only way I can keep properly in control of the washing is to stick rigidly to the one load a day rule and try and get that one load away as soon as it's dry. I do have to play catch up sometimes, but overall it is a lot better, especially now we have DC (seriously, how do small people produce so much washing?!?).

Anyway, finally coming to my woefully short ta da list:
Kept on top of washing
Kept on top of dishwasher
Did room rescue in living room
Got DC to bed without too much hassle (DH away overnight for work)

Hope you all have a pleasant evening :)

Bitchy - just seen you over on the weather thread - I hope you took the safest option and are not stuck on the M62 in the middle of nowhere!!

M62 was suprisingly ok and the drivers were impressively respectful and safe. My meeting was cut short and as ds was too ill to go training in the end I popped in to see a friend on the way back which i can't do with ds with me. Was a lovely evening though It is the side roads and estate roads that are really bad. Funnily enough all the local peeps were snowed in so it was really only those who had travelled distance that was there.

Back with a ta da list and the links in a mo need to rescue my bedding from the tumble dryer...

ta da
iron ds a school shirt and make his lunch
print out some info needed for tonight
pass on some information
wash duvet
pack my stuff for overnight bag (in case we get stuck in snow later)
Wash my bedding
catch up with a friend
1hr decluttering in my room
Put something on top of cupboard, falling of chair and nearly sending the laptop crashing to the ground
boil up some hand warmers
actually heat a pan that was not supposed to be heated rather than 2nd batch of handwarmers
melt second batch of hand warmers
Fear for the safety of the remaining hand warmers and decide to do them another time
obsessively check the internet wrt weather and road conditions
Make up ds' training kit
Put food and drink supplies and everything else needed into car
Long drive x2
catch up with friend
pick up bits for ds lunch box

And finally the links:

launch pad

missions

errand day aka thursday

babystep 22 a control journal one which you can skip

Right time for sweet dreams
Night

Hoping to ease myself back into the Flylady nest today. Have 3 sets of visitors calling to meet the baby and one has yet to have the tour of the new house....

To Do:

Kitchen floor - sweep and mop.
Change bedlinen.

WhoKnows - enjoy the ballet class! I would LOVE to do a class like that!

Whispers - I enjoyed reading about your progress on the tidying/DH front.

Engels - well done on the cards.

Bitchy - thanks for links and sorry about hand warmer fiasco!

Swan - I'm sorry DFiL is still struggling. I hope he passes peacefully and am thinking of you and DH. Having been through similar in Sept I know how wearing the situation is on everyone.

Blue - sorry about your friend.

Waves to everyone else, am on phone and can't scroll back.

Morning all

Hope everyone is OK, tried to catch up with last 2, days of threads but have run out of breakfast time. Had better come back after school run .

Castle it is SC whose FIL is very ill. and be careful of running around after your visitors too much. Stay in your nightie at all costs! Hope you have a lovely day and can squeeze in some sort of rest.

Shannara hi!

This morning I am sitting in a bombsite. Dh went off v early this morning to Stuttgart for five days and I have had about six hours sleep.

But two children have gone to school and I am freeeee!

Up to a point as ds2 has now appeared and wants to chat to me...

done
black pudding and egg and tomato for ds1
PE kit ds1
ds2 roaming around after breakfast

todo
hall
kitchen
utility (especially revolting)
get dressed
find a time to have a nap
home ed
and possibly take ds2 to Judo but I'm not sure if the lady who mentioned it is going to email me...

deal with returning exhausted schoolees
put everyone to bed
turkey escalopes and potatoes for supper - earlier

ta da
Sleep

Still not feeling great and the long drive yesterday took too much out of me. Still not feeling great atm but I am hoping by monday I will have rested enough to be functioning. In the meantime I am now in the process of sorting ds' birthday.

Good 'ta da', Bitchy. Hope you can get enough rest.

Good luck dealing with your list today, Swan. Hope you managed your nap.

ta da

Breakfasts
Took DS2 swimming (trying to teach him to swim myself as I can't find a teacher and group lessons didn't suit him)
Stocked up on lunch at Caffe Nero
Bought birthday card for birthday do tonight
Home for lunch
Fell asleep
Woke up freezing and couldn't get warm - DH (back from taking his mum to hospital for the second time this week) ended up getting me a hot-water bottle and then lighting the log burner

Am hoping I'm not sickening. Don't understand why I was so tired and then so cold . An older person would say I'd 'caught a chill'.

Distinct lack of home ed and Flying on today's list

Am going to cook an early dinner for everyone, then get ready to go out. Wish it wasn't so cold out, as I have a long walk to the pub and back. Maybe will warm me up...

Ta da:

Taught English lesson
Washing
Survived visit to dentist (but only just - needed three top-ups of local anaesthetic before it stopped hurting)
Took DS (on bike) to church club
Took DD2 (ditto - DH has the car today) to music theory class - which reminds me, I need to leave now to go and pick her up!

Sorry to hear neither of you are feeling too good, Toffee and Bitchy. What happened to Dry January, Toffee?

Distinct lack of flying here too yesterday and today. I am still keeping up with keeping sinks clean, usually getting make-up on in the morning, more often than before I'm clearing hotspots, but certainly not getting round to de cluttering or missions.

Ta-das
Written some more of Intro
Found out how to automatically insert citations and bibliography, which is fab.
Long chat with anxious DD1 who couldn't manage school this morning
Planned some more dressage comps for her.
Contacted heart charity and got permission to recruit study subjects through them.

To do
Order DD1's medication (have tried 3 times today but never any answer)
Reply to my brother's email
Go to DD1's options evening at the school tonight.

Well done at getting through dentist trip, Linzer. Dry January lasted till my birthday. It is now Cutdown January instead , so am having dry days, but not every day.

Bless - sounds like you have got loads done. No wonder you couldn't add Flying into the mix.

Hi all. Brass monkey weather here. Have to psyche oneself up to use downstairs lav as it is so icy and utterly freezing!!

Flying progress slow here but at least progress is being made now albeit at snail's pace.

DD was off school again this morning. She came back from her usual Wed half day feeling very tired yesteday and felt ill again this morning. She's very pale and I don't think is properly over the flu she had last week. Not helped by the fact that most of her class seem to have got the same thing and now her teacher is off with it too. Anyway, after a 3.5 hr sleep this morning, she felt a lot better and went back in to school and homework club. Hopefully she'll be able to get through tomorrow and then we have a three-day weekend (as journée pedagogique on Mon) when she can rest up a bit.

Ironing lady came though yesterday (hurraaahhhh!) and left beautiful ironed piles of laundered clothing and linen on the dining room table!! Could have cried with joy when I came back! She is five times quicker than me!

Secondly, spent part of yesterday sorting out very complicated mobile phone situation which has been bugging me for weeks (technophobe nightmare involving differently shaped sim cards) and although it took ages and stretched my French to the limit (don't have correct tech vocab!) finally all sorted in the end! Hurrah!

Spent today quietly sorting boudoir (trying not to wake dd this morning) and making batches of healthy soup, doing supermarket run, and yet more ironing (yes there is still more).

Still uncertain whether impending visitor is coming this weekend or next (sigh) but Eurostar situation isn't helping.

Bitchy glad you had a good night off but sorry you are jaded today. Congrats on long list too. Take it steady x

Bless sorry to hear your dd1 is having a tough time with anxiety atm

Linzer ouch at dentist!

YOu too Swan! Must be extra tough with your dh away. Think you were very noble to go to freezing park yesterday

Toffee wow and treble wow at your humungously long list yesterday!! Hope hot/cold doesn't develop in to anything and that you can rest up a bit! Hope your mil is OK.

Another one with a mega list Whoknows!!! Sadly, the concept of adult ballet classes doesn't seem to have made it over here. Think it is fab for posture.

Castle thanks for kind thoughts re fil. Agree with Swan that you are doing far too much having just given birth!!! You shouldn't be cleaning and hosting. Get thee to the sofa girl!!

Thanks also ¨Saymwa and Whispers fil seems to have rallied a bit today and is comfortable but he is eating less and less. Fortunately, the HAD care (hospitalisation à domicile) he gets is superb.

Waves to Shannara * and everyone else!

Dh has very kindly taken over the reins wrt supper tonight as I have been cooking all afternoon. A man feast of steak and fried tomatoes nearly ready! (I am making salad.) Anyone else as hungry as a horse in this weather? Have managed to maintain constant weight over Xmas period, I have put on 3/4 of a kilo during Jan [sigh]

HAve a good evening everyone and keep warm lovely fledglings!!

Swan that 'you too' meant hope you can rest up a bit too!! (Messages got out of order!!)

My home edding today has consisted on I page on Luther (he read it aloud to me) a slightly ineffectual attempt at some French nouns and two irregular verbs and I chapter of Moby Dick.
Then we went to the shops and bought a scratch card and some bin liners.
I did some piano practice

Housework
two loads of washing
3 sacks of recycling
loaded dw
unloaded dw
food compost
kitchen worktops
put some laundry away so not much really..

Son and Daughter are back from school. Dd has gone straight to nap mode in her room and Ds1 has played a scherzo on the violin very badly it must be said but still it was quite fast!!! He is currently dithering.

Turkey escalopes and potatoes for supper.

Toffee I always feel like that after a sleep - unbelievably cold and unbelievably cross that dh has not realised how cold the house is (except he says it is warm but that is because he lives in thick corduroys) Then I warm up and realise house is just about average but still. Hope you can warm up soon and that it is not a chill developing. My latest way of warding off ill health is to tie a woollen shawl round my waist to protect my kidneys

Bless and SC hope the daughters are restored tomorrow.

oh yes and I had a very short nap at 1230 on sofa - bliss under a blanket.

Going to post the links now. I think i am going to try to go to bed when ds does.
I am feeling ridiculously cold today but at it hasn't really got above 0C all day it is not surprising. Nothing a nice hot water bottle won't help. Sorry there are so many feeling cold and under the weather. :( Hope you all feel better soon.

Launch pad

babystep 23 what is your afternoon routine?

missions

oh look it is clean your car out day again and i still haven't done it yet

pamper mission something nice for you.

Hello Campers :)

Cold here too. And going to have a busy next few days :).

OMG Toffee ! When I read everything you're doing for your DSs I felt really worried for you.
I remember how exhausted I felt when I worked with my own DS and that was just the one.

I felt relieved when I read that you could get a little break with your neighbour and that your DH cooked in the evening. Hoping you managed to get a good rest last night. Take care of yourself eh.

Thanks for the explantations about yesterday's Babystep, SlowCo and Whisper . I got it after. But, nope - don't live in that type of house, so this step was definately not for me. :)

Thanks too for the details about the so-called 'hiding' of your DH's things Whisper. Get the picture now. I'm really not used to tidying DH's things up. Ever since I've known him I've sort of gathered them together in a dithering pile which gas git higher and higher and wider and wider. I have trained myself to await in a somewhat intermediate state between impatience and indifference whilst he finds a place for them. After several decades of this procedure, he has still not found places for his things and I am now very eager to try out something new :).

Gas glt !!! Pff
= just got

Thanks for early links Bitchy. Sleep well

My Today's Tadas
Morning routine , finished this evening.
Prepared self and things for swimming tomorrow ( hoping it'll do me some good after reading Blue's recent post :) )
Cleaned stain off H's coat
1 load of washing and drying
Decluttering 15 minutes
Worked
Prepared for work tomorrow.
Got clothes out for tomorrow.
Prepared papers for doctor's checkup appt tomorrow .

Todos
Eat
Finish evening routine.
One more hours work (Don't feel like doing it but I know I'll feel better about my week-end if I do - less procrastinating and all that ).
Nails
Bed at reasonable hour

Ok - got to go back to work :(
Tattybye for now