March of the Fledglings 2015

[Slingclutter]

Heartfelt thanks to Whoknows for running the February thread during such a stressful time for her (and to Toffee for helping out.)

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 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 on Flying lessons. Here's the launch pad for more experienced fledglings.

Don't be put off by the purple prose and 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 might 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 15 mins 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, regulars, oldies and newcomers very, very welcome!

Aye Bitchy and I always find the American 'cups' confusing as I am never quite sure what one is! Must look it up!

Bad start, was 142 calories over my limit yesterday - blast that samosa!!

oh dear I didn't actually post my weight yesterday - will try to do that some time this morning (before breakfast adds any weight)

Dd went to school herself today (she always goes by herself but I mean she got up herself and got out the door herself). The first we knew of it was a reproachful phonecall at 7am telling us she was at the bus stop so we had failed I think I should encourage this - an extra 30 mins lie-ine makes all the difference as ds1 does not have to be woken till 7.20am..[sigh]

For Home Ed today it is Moby Dick (final pages) Maths and handwriting. Perhaps we will sneak in some sofa tweaking.

SC I have a set of cups that I use for American recipes, but I think as long as you use the same cup each time and so the proportions are the same, it doesn't matter too much. The American woman I au paired for just used an old (obviously clean!) yogurt pot as her measuring cup. IIRC a cup is 8 fluid ounces, but obviously that's not much use if your measuring jug only has millilitres. It's when I come across sticks of butter that I get really confused; I remember butter was divided into four sticks when you bought it, but can never remember how much the packet weighed so have to google every time.

Done so far:
Food shop
First load of washing out of WM and into dryer
Second load into WM
One sentence of work

To do:
Mammogram appointment (just looked up phone number to discover, to my great excitement, that you can now book appointments online - far less stressful for someone like me who hates making phone calls and gets very flustered when trying to decide on best appointment time)
Rather more work than I've already done
Washing/ironing/put clothes away
Decide what to cook for lunch (was going to buy a pizza as DS has a friend coming, but forgot - and don't feel like I can make pasta for him yet again)
Get parcel ready to send
Reply to e-mail

Aargh, was looking at wrong X-ray practice! The website of the one I normally go to isn't working so I can't even look up the phone number (I decluttered the yellow pages a while back).

I remembered what I bought the white material for!!! it requires more material to be bought before the project can be made up. Oh i am happy.

Just posting a quick list

to do
Supervise DCs putting their clothes away
Put our clothes away
Hang out wet laundry
Try new pasta dish for lunch
Put away clean crockery
30mins tidying with DCs

SC - my bodyclutter technique is less carbs, especially bread and bakery products which leads to less butter. Also more fruit, salad and veg. And more walking. No counting of anything as it just makes me obsess with food. It's slow progress but the first time I have ever maintained a weightloss regime for more than 2 months. Oh and most important, a bit of Flylady, if you have a bad day, just start again the next, but don't use it as an excuse to slip back to old habits.

Sounds like another vote for the cinnamon buns there from Whoknows. I read through the recipe last night and to my shame had no idea what run out icing was so had to look it up on the internet, I truly know nothing about sweet baking.

I know what you mean about "natural padding" Sling, I was the heaviest I've ever been in my life by a mile when I got pregnant so I dread to think what I'll weigh post the emergence of mini meerkat. An image of Jabba the Hut popped into my mind whilst typing the last sentence, which probably isn't a good sign

Anyway, I'm obviously not worrying about it while pregnant but will need to join the body clutter group after she arrives I reckon. I'm a stumper though and I work in stones and lbs not kg so I might go for putting lbs lost and BMI up rather than total weight as my weight wont really tell you anything when I'm so much shorter than everyone else who has mentioned their height, I'm just under 5'3" and also aiming for a healthy BMI will be my main focus, initially at least.

What is MFP by the way?

I've eaten my frog this morning according to Pegleg's book recommendation, I think that is how to use the expression anyway. So I've sanded down the first coat of primer and put the second coat on. That takes 4 hours to dry so it was good to get it to get it out of the way.

Other than that I've only produced a pretty small ta dah list

• put away last night's dishes, done washing up
• stripped bed, washing on and hung out to dry
• breakfast (I'm clutching at straws there)
• I'm now off to shower, I know I've broken the rules but it made more sense to me to do dust creating sanding before showering and dressing (I'm sure flylady would disagree)

Will check in again later, happy flying!

Okay, have caught up with thread (again)! I just have totally lost the plot wrt routines! Anyway - a few things upthread I wanted to comment on -

SC My DD1 loves Star Stable too! Fortunately she doesn't do anything too obsessively (apart from loving horses generally...) so she doesn't spend too long on it, but it is one of her faves! And re the headlice, do you really need to wash all the clothes/hats etc as well? I have never done that when I've treated us for lice and still have got rid of them. Just would like to save you an unnecessary task if poss! I never did sheets/pillowcases or anything - simply nitcombing the hair repeatedly every couple of days for a couple of weeks. I saw some suspicious looking white specks in DD2's hair last night and my heart sank, but fortunately after nit-combing nothing appeared!

Swanhilda New sofa sounds lovely! Also you mentioned MuddlePuddle - Mrs MuddlePuddle is one of my good friends :-)

BlueEyeshadow - the best way we have family fun is to separate our 2 DDs too. DD1 is very hostile to DD2, who in contrast is the sweetest girl, and it does make family outings and holidays very wearing!

PegLeg I HE'd my girls till DD1 was almost 9. I have a copy of "Homeschooling: The Early Years" by Linda Dobson I could send you just for the cost of postage if you like?

Bitchy I should avoid wheat and dairy, but have lapsed into regular consumption again. I'm sure I would feel less tired if I avoided them, but it is such hard work! I don't like almond milk. However I started using soya milk about 25 years ago in an effort to see if my eczema would go away (it didn't) and got so used to it that I now hate ordinary milk in tea and coffee. It leaves a nasty taste in my mouth. I would say the nut milks are nutritionally preferable though.

Right, I am beginning to feel quite panicky about my dissertation so I must get on. I need to recruit more subjects for my survey but not finding it very easy! And then the thought of the statistics I am going to have to do once I have the data just makes me feel quite faint.

Also we have a meeting with DD1's school this afternoon. She has not managed to go back to school properly since half-term and I think it is pretty much time to give up and return to home education. It is much scarier once they are approaching GCSEs though!

Oh crap - just realised I need to phone the doctors, totally forgot to put that on my list! I only remembered as I just realised I forgot to take my meds this morning. FFS

BBL

And of course it's closed for lunch

(Low calorie) lunch break

Oh bummer Pegleg! It's easily done! Congrats on your productive morning.

Bless there is conflicting advice on the Internet about washing clothing/bedding etc when de-nitting. Some say it is necessary, and some say they can't survive far away from a warm head! I don't do it every time, but I was being extra careful on this occasion! Thanks though; v. interesting to have concrete evidence that you can get rid of the blighters without doing all that extra washing!!

[Wd be interested to know what other fledglings do too!]

Star Stable is a bit of a sore subject chez SC atm. DD has gone 'cold turkey' suspiciously easily and without complaint. She says she has 'parked her horses on an island' and I have no idea what this means. Must investigate! I am also a bit alarmed by the way it is designed to be addictive. (Don't get me wrong, if I was eleven and could design my own horses and look after them, with such fantastic graphics, I would have been on it every minute I could!) But before she 'parked' them, dd said her horses would "die" if she stopped playing, unless she paid over 5-7 stars a day to 'pay' someone else to look after them, and those stars had taken weeks to earn. All a bit insidious imo! But I must take the time to sit down and study it properly before I make any further judgements about it!!
Hope meeting goes well this afternoon and good luck with your dissertation; small steps and all of that! (Can't be easy when you have so much on your plate though!).

Waves to Pegleg and everyone else!

Swan seriously impressed by your dd getting herself ready and off to school for 7am!! Hats off to her!! Hope you are all enjoying the new sofa!

Whoknows Thank you. I am adopting exactly the same weight-loss methods as you and so hope to achieve the same results (if only I can resist dh's delicious cooking and unsuitable food purchases!). Trying to be organised plan ahead though so I don't have to rely on willpower alone.

Linzer Well done for tackling your mammogram appt again! (I must do the same!). I just found this conversion chart which includes cups and sticks of butter btw. Looks quite useful!

WilyMeerkatDogsbum (I am quite enjoying typing that !) MFP = My Fitness Pal, a very useful on-line calorie counting and weight-loss tool. Quite a few of us on this thread are on there under various pseudonyms! Agree though, you have the perfect excuse not to be thinking about dieting right now; eating for two and all of that! Enjoy those cinnamon buns while you can!!

Good luck with your next sewing project bitchy!

Big waves to all other Fledglings!

Have a beef shin on the go, so had better get back to it. Have a good afternoon everyone!

Bless thank you, that's such a kind offer! I would love to read the book if you're sure that's ok, could do postage cost by paypal I guess? :)

I hope the meeting goes well - I can see how it's scarier to be thinking of HE for exams.

Well done on your frog eating Dogs! :)

Also thank you Swan for the website suggestions! I'll have a browse :)

ta da
Supervise DCs putting their clothes away
Put our clothes away
Hang out wet laundry
Try new pasta dish for lunch (went down well and DCs helped too!)
Put away clean crockery
30mins tidying with DCs done although had to do the two separately as DD got in a strop because she wanted to tidy by herself?!

Woohoo done it! Well apart from phoning the doctors, sigh.

I think making sure my Monday list is always achievable before I leave for work is going to be key for me. I am always knackered and often in pain after Monday shifts and can never face anything once I've got home!

Well it is only lunch time and I have failed at not killing anyone figuratively black coffee with extra sugar is slightly more preferable to that with almond milk. but not by much. I also think I am just in one of those kinda moods. PMS without the pms iyswim?

Work has been done. Just training and bed to go.

I have been distracted from mumsnet by eBay: I've been decluttering and selling like a crazy woman. It's very very addictive.

I have a cold and DS has a troublesome cough that interrupts his sleep, so we're just muddling along at the moment

Evenin' all!

Ta da:
carried laundry downstairs
spun washing and hung up
new load in
emptied dw
rabbits
(what is serving as) dining room table hot-spot
e-mails to sisters
sent out remaining confirmation invitations by e-mail (dh having pointed out quite rightly that if I wait until I write accompanying letters, as intended, another fortnight will have whizzed by
10 min tidy up of playroom
quick lunch with dh at home – healthy soup
stroked rabbits
prepped beef-shin and put on to simmer
ironed ballet kit and one pair of trousers for me
2 hrs office work for dh
another load of washing
messed around trying to remove songs from my Ipod and got thoroughly defeated by Itunes again
sorted out form for Cheltenham Festival (allowing myself one very modest bet per day!!)
ballet bun and ballet run
whilst dd at ballet : 10 min walk around park and quick supermarket shop (found purslane for rabbits!! – delicious for humans too!)
hwk supervision
supper served and cleared up
bit more hwk supervision (learning poem)
clothes out for tomorrow
wm re-booted again for morning
MFP
rabbits again

Greymalkin no need to hide in naughty corner! Decluttering via Ebay is Flying (with profit to boot)!! Hope you and dd feel better soon!

Waves to Pegleg Bitchy and others!

Hope everyone has had as good a start to the week as poss.

I'm off out for most of the day tomorrow (seeing a friend) so won't be back on the thread until late afternoon.

Back in a sec with links ... .G'night all!

*
The baby-step for Tues 10th March is here grab those timers and learn about the power of 15 mins!!

We are in Zone 2 this week: the kitchen March 8-14.

If you want to, you can declutter 15 mins a day in this zone!

The detailed cleaning list (if you are at that stage) for Zone 2 is here.

Tuesday's mission is here scrubbing your stove top!

The daily focus for Tuesday is: planning planning menus, planning wardrobes, planning travel, planning medical appts.

The monthly habit for March is the controversial one about getting dressed immediately and wearing lace up shoes indoors etc.

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

Small steps everyone!

* ***

I'm so so very sorry Greymalkin I was rushing and typed 'dd' instead of 'ds'. Wishing you both a speedy recovery!

G'night all!

I waited in today for a courier, had to dash out to DDs school to administer Calpol at one point (I think we are just passing bugs back and forth) but did manage to catch up on most of the washing up. Not all but only a few bits to go .

I have just remembered that I should wash some dance and swimming kit, so better throw that in the machine now and dry it tomorrow. Swimsuits come out almost dry anyway and I don't need the dance kit tomorrow.

The festival is near the tip that I usually go to, will be avoiding that area this week!

Can't keep up with MN at the moment . Had a bit of a tricky weekend with DS1 (improved now) and have all sorts of appointments and meetings this week. Also fitting in home ed. Studied teeth today; DS2 loved using disclosure tablets to see the plaque on his teeth. We had bright pink tongues for the rest of the day.

DS1 had another good visit to his new school. Actually, it was the best visit so far. He didn't seem at all anxious and he even sat and chatted with the SENDCO. It was astonishing.

Odd bits of Flying are being fitted in round everything else. Managed to clean the bathroom sink, do a load of washing, two loads in the dishwasher and get some hoovering done. Also changed the cat litter and mopped the kitchen floor.

Am too tired to get up off the sofa and go to bed .

Night all.

Quick list - I'm sooo tired as DCs were up early and insisting on playing restaurants. Service was terrible, I didn't leave a tip

to do
Normal wash
Towel wash
Tumble dry
Put all dry clothes away
Phone doctors!
Collect meds (if above phonecall is successful)
More tidying with DCs
Get DD ready for Brownies (lots of stuff needed that she only mentioned yesterday!)

That's great news about the school visit Toffee, what a relief after all the problems you've had with them.

SC - I don't have any problem eating less when DH cooks, he makes a fairly decent roast dinner, but otherwise it's not good. He has far plainer tastes than me and would think nothing of serving up a plate of plain pasta next to a steamed fish fillet and if you are lucky some frozen peas, he doesn't really do veg. Whereas I like my food with lots of sauces and flavourings. I am making changes one at a time, I really can't cut out masses of things all at once and I have to find acceptable replacements. For example rye bread - I had tried it once or twice in the past and thought is completely inedible, all rich, dense and treacly. However spurred on by another thread I tried a few other brands and found one I don't mind and hide any last vestiges of treacleyness under a layer of marmite, so I have that for breakfast with a boiled egg now instead of cereal or normal toast, it keeps me much fuller for longer. I have finely chopped cauliflower instead of pasta with sauces now and bought a juicer, so I have lots of juiced veg too.

Right, to do.

Find DD a belt, it's her drama group production dress rehearsal this week and she is going to be an urchin with trousers round her ankles at this rate (it's Oliver).
Clean floors. Every floor in our house looks scuzzy at the moment, so I am going to ignore all other aspects and just get the floors tidied, swept, mopped, hoovered.
Pilates class
Quick bit of shopping
Go and see DH and colleagues at work as it looks as though I may take on some part time work for them as well as my other job (the person who does what I do in their company is leaving).
School run
Ballet

PegLeg If you can PM me an address I will send you the book. I don't want it back - I haven't got a 3-8 year old any more! Just pass it on if & when you've done with it.

Fizrim Did you mean you are near Cheltenham Festival? If so, you can't be that far from me. We are about 20 miles away.

Toffee That's amazing that DS1 seems so happy at the new school. Fabulous! Our situation is going backwards atm, not improving.

Anyway, at last I have done a little of my former routines.

Ta-Das
Fed cat and dog
School run
Rabbits
Clean kitchen sink
Hotspot clearing in living room
Planned tonight's dinner! (this one is a miracle!)

To Do
Put on a little make-up
Brush teeth
Clean bathroom sink
Package up DD2's shoes that I have sold on Ebay
Talk to DH about DD1's education
Book dressage camp
Book music camp
Follow up subjects for my dissertation survey
Keep on writing Methodology section

I think that should keep me busy for today!

I have a drinkable cup of coffee. It is all I ask of a morning.

Ta da
battle ds into school
discover drinkable coffee that is milky but milk free --still not entirely enjoyable though
deal with an overly stressed mother

to do
paperwork
create a how to document
wash kit
ds to dentist
ds to opticians (opposite directions in different towns natch)
Stuff - what ever gets done.