Fledglings are Flying into February

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Welcome to the February Fledglings thread. Before we get started we have some important notices?:

1. The Fledglings are a long running thread, some of us have known each other for several years but newcomers are always welcome.

1. We follow the Flylady way (somewhat flexibly) and we adapt it to suit our lives and needs. That also means we chat a lot too, it is a general thread about life, as well as Flylady.

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

1. NO perfectionism - life’s too short.?
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.
4. For newbies to the Flylady site and system everything you need will be posted here in the form of links. The homes is divided into zones where we spend one week each on a monthly basis. Within the zones we do babysteps and decluttering - the babysteps are little daily habits to get into, decluttering speaks for itself. As we progress we start doing missions (a more in depth task in that weeks zone). We may even get to detailed cleaning once we have decluttered. There are also daily tasks, on a weekly basis.

WARNING: Unless you want a very cluttered inbox full of gushing quotes and testimonials DO NOT subscribe to the Flylady emails from the site.

So, welcome on board and lets get Flying in February!

I made a thick paste. Left it about 2hrs absolute max with the window open as it stinks (and I can't tollerate bleach sets my asthma off). You don't believe the results until you see them! Did our shower back in Nov and it is only JUST showing signs of needing to be redone AND it looked like I had replaced grout and sealant when I did it. A tooth brush really helped to get the paste into the hard to reach areas of the door. No scrubbing just literaly rinsed off.

Oh no SC, I'm so sorry.

Yes, Bless, thick paste and spread it on with a brush or lollipop stick, leave for several hours with ventilation. It might take more than one go, but it really does an amazing job.

Sorry, posted by mistake there!

So we are making preparations to head off again but dh not sure yet if it's best if he goes alone or we all go together. It's half term (Carnaval) holiday next week as it happens.

We've been through this situation before many times, so it may be a false alarm. And this is going to sound incredibly cold if you don't know the context, but I am almost praying it is not a false alarm and he dies swiftly and peacefully as he has suffered horrendously for four years now

Added to that, had a crappy morning when I stupidly neglected (again) to take on board cultural differences when doing my volunteer slot. (Everyone thinks a lot more collectively here and is a lot more collaborative ie their focus being a compromise or a group solution which doesn't rock the boat (even if it is not always the best solution), and they sometimes take it the wrong way if you pursue an alternative solution, even when you consult about it. This is not the first time I have made this mistake! And to cap it all, just wanted to make a joke to lighten the atmosphere and I couldn't work out how to do it linguistically (which sounds incredibly trivial but it does get to you from time to time)

Sorry for the depressing 'me' 'me' post!!

[Leaves out copious quantities of and on naughty corner bar for everyone to help themseves.]

It does not sounds cold. From what little you have said about the situation is that FIL is suffering and has no quality of life, you just want him to find peace. I think it would be a common feeling in that situation.

Bugger about the volunteering and vocab issues. Sorry it has conspired to get you down. Will leave on the naughty corner bar when I leave it does sound like it is needed.

Wow! Well done wrt 8 carrier bags of clutter Bless! That's really good going!

Glad your dd feeling better Fizrim (missed that yesterday)!!

Bitchy shower cleaning recipe sounds excellent (not to be confused with Bitchy Special Brew!!!)

Thanks Whoknows - it is all a bit grim atm - but much more so for dh than me

Right it's Wed pm, which means no school, which means hwk supervision, bath supervision, final thank you letter supervision, yes we are very late with some of those

Had better get to it ...

On a positive note, I could swear there was the tiniest, weeniest, slightest hint of spring in the weather today when I was out earlier.

Thanks Bitchy!!! can I drink it now ?

With homework supervision on the to do list. Yes. oh so much yes!

[SC sneaks behind kitchen door and glugs gratefully]

then falls over because she can sadly no longer handle lunch time drinking

Sling Clutter - As far as I'm concerned there's no need to apologise about expressing your feelings - even if they're not happy ones .
It sounds very difficult for you all dealing with your FIL's fatal illness.
I know how hard my family found it to concentrate on daily things recently because we were so worried.

I suggest that you top up on all the RL love and friendship that you need right now . Please come out of the corner and do something nice for yourself.

Sending kisses and hugs to you.

So sorry about your FIL, SC - what a horrible situation to be in. I don't think you sound cold at all, either; sometimes it really is a release for the person suffering (and for their family, who are having to watch them suffer).

And FWIW I know exactly how you feel about the inability to make a joke. I've lost count of the number of times that I've thought "I'd know exactly what to say in English now, but have no idea in German" and it does get a little depressing after a while. (Also managed to say goodbye to our elderly neighbour in person earlier as if I was speaking to him on the phone - not sure that makes sense, but I get so frustrated when I hear myself making mistakes. But I don't think he noticed as he say goodbye back to me in the same way. )

Thank you Saymwa and Linzer for your very kind words; much appreciated.

Think I will do a bit of sewing tomorrow Saymwa actually. That's a good suggestion! Always makes me feel better and tomorrow is the last time I have a full blissful six hrs to myself before the holidays!! In fact I have 7 because it is hwk club tomorrow night!! Will try and put everything to one side and make the most of it!!

Linzer Ha!! I do exactly the same thing (the phone vocab/formula)!!!! I get terribly frustrated with myself about it too! (Glad it's not just me!!)

Evening all,

SC - for some reason your comments about the different approaches to problem solving where you are brought to mind an ancient sketch on Not the 9 O'clock News about etiquette when eating out in Belgium (Rowan Atkinson as the Belgian Cultural Attache and Mel Smith as the interviewer), do you remember it? Was very funny, but can't find it on Youtube. Hope you and DH are OK tonight.

Bless - I think you win Star of the Day for all that decluttering and anti-procrastination! Although I did get rid of three bin bags full of old clothes, bags etc today and took a pile of old DVDs to work to see if anyone wanted them. Not much cleaning or tidying though. An I didn't anti-procrastinate anything.

Back with links for tomorrow in a minute.

Thurs 12th Feb

Babystep - delete Flylady's emails. Which you won't need to do if you haven't signed up for them.

Mission - clear that kitchen table and put something nice on it.

Daily Focus for Thursday is Errand Day.

I've ended up having quite a productivd day out and about. Had a dentist appointment mid morning, so went for a half-term, infant free swim first. Then there was a gap before my car needed some maintainence so I diverted off to the running shop to do some research for my birthday present. While car less and biding time, I notched up a 5 mile walk. On getting home I used the tabata timer again to sort most of the downstairs. On Monday I did it upstairs. It looks like MiL is coming at the weekend, and it won't be nearly as much of the usual panic deep clean as usual as we've maintained the house better since Christmas.

Ooh, Star of the Day, how exciting! Do I get a little badge to wear like Dd2 has this week for being Pupil of the Week? Or maybe just some !?

I'd go with the !

Well done MrsM- remind me again, what is a tabata timer? (I know I should google!).

Well today was a pretty much write off. Had to crash out and head back to bed after the morning school run. Did the hide thing on the laundry in the lounge to tidy the lounge up. evening meeting, and ds to physio appointment.

So sorry about your FIL, SC . Your feelings about not wanting this to be another false alarm are entirely natural - it's so dreadful to see a loved one continuing to suffer like this.

I seem to have burned out. The a/biotics or tooth infection - not sure which - are making me feel so washed out. Today, after a long morning dealing with DS1, followed by a meeting with his (lovely) teacher and a trip to the fish & chip shop for our lunch, I told DS2 that half term had started early and went back to bed . He was delighted and spent his free time re-reading 'Harry Potter' and making a film about space (both of which I'm counting as educational ). And I slept for two hours.

DH has responded to my exhaustion by becoming some kind of human Flying dynamo : he has made real progress in tackling our bedroom, done loads of washing and tackled the loft.

Bitchy - sympathies. Sometimes you have to crash (see above).

WhoKnows - Re: 'The Good Wife' - yes, we are still watching, though still on S1. Watched 'Spiral' tonight instead, but will be back to GW tomorrow night.

Not my gold star, that was Bless. I certainly don't deserve a gold star! House is going to pot again. Sigh.

I have invited several friends for coffee tomorrow morning (three of whom have immaculate houses) which will give me a boot up the bum Flying wise. So today at some point I need to tidy up the kitchen, sweep and mop the floor, give the bathroom a quick once over and run the vac round. I'm also planning to drop a couple of bags of stuff at the charity shop after work today.

Sling, sorry to hear about your FIL. Glug away if it helps!

I get the Flylady lite emails - just one a day. They have the morning routine as an image, and links to the mission etc. It would be more helpful if most of it was in one email rather than the morning routine and a testimonial. Still, only one per day so I've deleted them and a few other emails as well. Still thousands to go in the inbox though!

Tidying today, bit more focus work in the kitchen and REALLY MUST DO SOME IRONING!

Have a good day everyone!

The tabata timer is a timing app split into sections. It should be for exercise so you set for intervals of work and rest. I've got it set for 40 seconds rest to switch rooms with cleaning materials, and 4 minutes work which is enough to wipe sinks/ gather washing etc and stop the stuff piling up

My big thing for the day is the kitchen
. Shudders.

Ta-da's:
Morning routine
Big pile of filing
Arranging subjects to do my survey

To do's:
Try and finish dissertation Introduction
Go to DD1's parents evening

Am quite excited about the last thing because it is the first time we have been to a parents' evening at DD1's secondary school - she hasn't spent enough time in the classroom with any teachers for the past 2+ years to be worth going to any before. So am interested to hear what they will say now they've actually had a chance to spend some time with her :-)

I hope those of you who need to rest can get it - no point pushing yourself beyond what is possible - it will only catch up later, so rest if you can!

To do list here is rest /knitting, go watch a show, parents evening. I have one or two errands to run too so I suppose I should get moving. Another coffee might be in order.

I really need to work on the baby steps part of this. I keep trying to do all the flying all the time and then feeling like I have failed when I don't get it done. So I am going to make sure I do one baby step each week (the ones them at work for me, still not going to wear shoes in the house. ), add in a new one each week and any extra is a bonus. So this week has been, and will be till Sunday, swish and swipe. So nice to have a clean loo and bathroom sink.

TaDa
S&S
Baby swimming and sensory room
Washing up
Threw away dead flowers (they have been there about a week!)
Put wash on
Cleaned sink

ToDo
Pump
Put away dry clothes
Put wash on rack
Wash up
Prep dinner