Fledglings flutter round the May Pole – FlyLady May 2015

[Greymalkin]

First of all, a big thank you to Dogsbum for leading us (for the very first time) through the April thread; fantastic job!

If you are struggling 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 chat along the way.

The FlyLady link is here Don't be put off by the barf-tastic language of the site - the underlying system is sound!

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):

• start or repeat baby steps
• repeat baby steps + do 15 minutes a day decluttering in the current zone
• 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.

There are three key points to keep in mind throughout:

• No perfectionism allowed - this is harder than you would imagine and many of us on this thread struggle with this one!
• You are never behind - just start where you are and anything you do is progress.
• 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 15mins decluttering daily and doing the babysteps is a good way to start. Some of us (mentioning no names!) can have scary looking ‘ta-da’ lists but don't let that worry you! Do what you can, anything is better than nothing, and don't judge yourself against others.

If all else fails, a + the power of three technique + a bit of support on here can work wonders!

Here's the launch pad for more experienced fledglings.

Don’t let it put you off if we appear a bit cliquey, we really aren’t! Some of us have been on here for years – but all lurkers, intermittent returnees, oldies and newcomers very, very welcome

WhoKnows - please elaborate on the Ofsted/council rant. What's going on? Are you ok? (Pm if you'd rather).

Am relieved to hear that I'm not the only one with a very fat cat. The thing is, I am very strict with his diet, so I don't understand where he's getting the extra calories from . He is quietly getting bigger and bigger and one day he's going to go pop .

oh dear Whoknows what have the council done? Is it on another thread?
Glad you could vent on here anyway and that you have a gorgeous daughter who can cheer you up with Key Lime Pie! Very impressed by the 20 bags of topsoil excavated - the mark of a man

Slight coda to today. I managed to test ds1 on 5 science questions and do some grammar workbook with ds2 (who was being thoroughly flibbergibbett) Ds1 is roaring and screaming non-stop whenever the subject of work or revision is suggested - really he IS NOT an Advertisement for school and the training of the individual therein. He still persists in his Alkene delusion btw [sigh]

You wouldn't believe it if I did Toffee. You couldn't make this stuff up. I won't put it all out here, but will pm you later. I am ok, just extremely grrrr!

My fat cat is opportunistic. I caught her licking key lime pie off a plate earlier. I wouldn't be surprised if she worked out how to open the fridge one of these days. Whereas her sister is much more restrained.

Not on another thread Swan - too identifying. It was DS not DD with the pie BTW. The DCs have alternated between making me want to weep with frustration and melting my heart with their kindness today, both were gorgeous just before bed.

I'll pm you too Swan and anyone else who is curious.

a moth just flew past omg this house is a shambles

Whoknows sorry I misread the pie episode
will check pms later - thank you

Whoknows hope you are ok.

I have spent half the day on the hunt for my new planner/academic diary. The conclusion I have come to is that the UK are short changed. There are some lovely pretty practical ones in the US but the Uk is not allowed pretty and out of the box. Seriously I do not get it

Morning all

Wrote a post and then lost it.

Happy Birthday to Dem and Blue.
5:30 start so a lot of morning routine done.
Just Ds breakfast and his reading and spellings to do.
Dd has SAT's starting today so no homework all week.

Will be back later when kids off computers with a to do list.

Have a good morning everyone.

Good morning!

Good luck to those of you who have year 6 dc taking SATs this week! Hope the experience doesn't prove too stressful for them or you!! xx

Whoknows I'm so very sorry to hear you are being put through such horrible stress. I hope you can find a clear way out through the maze without too much more distress.

If it's any consolation my house has descended in to shamble-hood as well Swan and it is going to need more time than I have before visitors arrive, to put it right!

In the meantime, a new potential window cleaner is coming to look around the house and office this lunch time to prepare a quote and as they are as rare as hen's teeth, I want to try and make sure this horrific old rambling house doesn't put him off ie I am about to start clearing paths through the clutter!! (That makes it sound really bad doesn't it. Some bits are acceptable, others definitely are not.)

And sympathies with the menopausal symptoms too Swan - my body temp is all over the place but usually far too hot!! Need cooling fire hydrants in the morning when I get up!!

Arf at fat/thin pairs of cats

And good luck with your stationery trawl DEM I totally "get" about having to have exactly the right thing!! My particular brand (and much beloved) of annual wall calendar is getting harder and harder to find in the shops every year; terrified they are going to stop being sold here altogether!!

There is so much happening this week that I am afraid to look at it all as a whole so adopting dh's strategy of just dealing with things day by day

Waves to Greymalkin [strokes ] and everyone else!!

Have a good week everyone! (At least the weather is lovely!!)

Waves to Dogsbum Shannara Toffee Madwoman Engels Castle Seaside HonuBlue and everyone else!!

Hope you and the bump are OK Dogsbum btw and that your dh got back ok and that you are just taking a much deserved break from the thread rather than anything untoward taking you away x

Happy birthday Blue and also happy belated birthday DEM!

WhoKnows Hope you're ok; always good to vent, even if it doesn't change the situation.

Toffee I had to laugh at your DS apologising for forgetting Mother's Day; it reminded me of when I was an au pair in Germany, when I phoned my mum up to wish her a happy Mother's Day only for her to tell me it had been two months earlier!

Yes, Mother's Day here yesterday too; I celebrated by spending most of the day working as I had one deadline to meet yesterday and two today.

Really must get back on track with the Flying; I had one or two quiet days to catch up on things after DD1 went back to school, but now work has picked up again and things are gradually reverting to their usual chaos. (Although tbf "usual chaos" is much less than it used to be since I discovered Flylady.) DS is going to a friend's straight after school and Monday is one of DD1's two long mornings (DD2 finishes the same time every day except Friday), so I have the luxury of being free to get on with things until around 1.45pm - which means no excuses.

SC Good luck with potential window cleaner - they're an equally rare breed here for some reason (am not sure I've ever come across one, in fact) so we get our cleaner to clean our windows.

Oops missed you out of my "hello" list Linzer!! YOu sound busy as ever but good you have some child free time to get on with things this week (Ascension holiday this week from Wed lunch time, then Pentecost, so May is a difficult month in which to get things done!!)

Same here SC - lots of short weeks in May and June (DH and DS will be at home Thursday and Friday for the Ascension weekend here too), which is great for them but tricky for me work-wise! Do you have ridiculously long summer holidays there as well? DD1 is already counting down the school days until she breaks up (29, apparently).

Yes Linzer - nine weeks here!! Already booked up the first two weeks with traditional ballet workshop followed by art workshop. DD does them every year and they serve as a good transition between manic nature of school and calming down for hols!!

Snap SC! Camps are definitely a good thing for parents' sanity if nothing else - DD2 and DS will be going away with scouts for a week in July and DS has also asked to go to the Hort (like an afterschool club, but it will be instead of school in the holidays) for a week. I think I'll always have at least one child at home at any one time, however, which means I'll basically have to take the whole nine weeks off work. It's great to have a break, but I'd also be happier with one that was a week or two shorter.

Fear not Steady I simply dropped off due to DP's return, just read the thread through to catch up, thankfully it has been quieter than normal, so not hundreds of pages to read through like it normally is when you haven't been on for almost a week.

I think I dropped off last Tuesday, that seems to be my last post. So DP got back Thursday am and I spent Wednesday changing the house back from being my DIY workshop to being a house again!

I haven't done anything since DP got back, apart from a walk into town the day he got back to get out of the house while he caught a few hours sleep. DP is back to work today so I guess this counts as back to normal, although it doesn't really feel like it yet.

I didn't do any flying at all last week, luckily the kitchen is the place I naturally spend most time cleaning and there was only me until Thursday so it's been fine. Oh, just remembered I did de-clutter the plastic tubs yesterday which needed doing and was on the flying list, so that is my flying for last week.

Today I've done two loads of washing, bedding and towels and washing is out on the line in the sun, fingers crossed it lasts.

Bins emptied
I hoovered the front room yesterday so I'll count that as part of my Monday blurgh

By the way, a very belated thanks to Grey for the 'so sew easy' blog, looks good. What is the app that you use in lieu of control journal? I'm aware that now that I have my new phone I can use things like apps, which were from another world before!

I could relate to so much about your wardrobe de-clutter as well, I have so many clothes packed away in the eaves that are lovely but will I ever fit into them again?! I might need to have a reality check in the next year when I see what happens to my body post Meerkitten.

To join in with looking back at the DMs of our youth, I have fond memories of some material green/blue tartan DMs that I bought when I was about 20, gorgeous!!

Currently feeling sleepy so may curl up on the sofa for a bit rather than doing anything, where is that snoozy emoticon that I seem to require so often?!

Great to hear all well Dogsbum and that your dh got back ok! Bet you are both relieved to be in the same place with the end of your pregnancy approaching Good to hear you are having snoozes on the sofa and well done for making such inroads in to Mt Washmore!

Yes Linzer it's certainly a very long time to cover if you are working. Most working women have extended family here to whom they delegate the childcare; more difficult for expats! [Have a feeling we have 'spoken' about this before so apologies in advance if I'm repeating myself!] But as there is no school here on Wed afternoons there is a already thriving network of state subsidised companies who run an incredible range of sport and creative activities for dc outside of school hrs and these same companies tend to run full programmes for dcs in the holidays too. They are generally really excellent but some are still quite ££££ despite subsidies and I pity the poor dc who get sent to serial workshops for six weeks on the trot! (Although needs must in some cases I am sure.) And frankly, they drive the dc so hard during term time I am very happy they have a good length of time in which to recover!

DD's ballet workshop is just a bit shorter than a school day x 4 days in one week, and the art one is just mornings, but it gives a good structure to the day. Other than that we are preparing for long stretches of travel: catching up with relatives in the UK, and friends who have moved away from here, and generally escaping the big city and the benzine fumes!!

Happy to report that window cleaner wasn't too put off by the state of our house and we have made an appt for him to come and clean! Yay! At least my visitors will be able to see out of the windows now!

I need more hours in the day, more sleep, the chance to sit and eat properly and definitely less coffee. It is insane here atm. BIG meeting at school which will affect a lot of things if it goes badly, other big meetings to prep for, huge amounts of clothes labelling, normal life,extra training for ds. I'd sit in the corner and have a little sob but I don't have the time. 30mins to eat, and be prepped for the school meeting. Is it June yet?

Dance comps are over for another year! Hooray! Not quite out of the woods as now we move on to end of year recital and ballet rehearsals for the show. But nicer it to be driving in and out of the city and to have a regular schedule again!
Dd1 has first PAT on weds. I think they have arranged extra time for her, rather than a scribe, so had better check today. That was the plan.

Still no flying from me, and the vacuum cleaner is still in the hall. My money is that it will be there until Wednesday, when I attack everything on my day off. The potential it was exuding seems to be waning...

Pathfinders tonight, and I have a cunning plan to use them to deliver yellow pages. The fundraising is for them anyway, and twelve teenage girls will get a lot more done in two hours than I will on my own... Fingers crossed my plan works. It may yet be foiled as it looks as though we are expecting a storm...

Hello Fledglings, here are your links for tomorrow, Tuesday 12 May:

Link to the flight plan for an overall summary of the day

Tomorrow’s baby step is Delete your old flylady emails (which you hopefully will not have signed up for in the first place!!)

The Daily focus for Tuesday is Planning Day

Our habit of the month is Moving More

This week we are in Zone 3: The Bathroom and one other room. Declutter in here for 15 minutes each day.

There are two missions in this week’s zone which are a thorough clean of your bathroom sink and counter tops, followed by a basic sweep or hoover in another room of your choice

The detailed cleaning list for this zone is here for the more experienced Fledglings

Launch pad is here and is full of all the info you need each day, well worth a look.

Wow!! The thread took off - great to see lots of people back again.

Today is a sad day - has gone missing. I sent him off on an errand delivering yellow pages for madwoman and he has not returned. Maybe he found his calling in life?

Arf at fat cats - my two have strict vetinarian prescribed diets. Costs a fortune (but vet bills would be far more), fortunately we can order the food online which is a bit cheaper.

WhoKnows - sorry you are having a horrid time, I have nothing helpful to add, but I'm sure some of the other Fledglings will know what to say. for you to wash down that Key Lime Pie

Swan - how is it going with your DS1's revision?

DEM - I am also a stationary fiend. I have a small stack of truly beautiful notebooks that I can't bear to write in in case I spoil them (yes, I'm a bit strange...)

Shanara - great start to the day for you, bet you are tired now though!

SC - hope your window cleaner is a good 'un. We had one that was a bit creepy and I just couldn't get on with the idea of him looking in my windows. And nine weeks is a long time for holidays - how can that be financially viable for families where parent have to take so much time off work?

Linzer - good to 'see' you back. How are your family adjusting to your DD's diabetes? Such a massive change to get used to I'm sure.

Glad you like the blog, I've earmarked a lot of projects to do fro it. I use the HomeRoutines app, but apparently there have been copy write issues as it is too similar to flylady. Glad you DH is home safely.

Madwoman - dance comps sound exhausting, but fun. Get your Pathfinders to keep an eye out for

"I have a small stack of truly beautiful notebooks that I can't bear to write in in case I spoil them" me too Grey me too.

I have test print on my to do list but I should be doing so much that i have no idea when i will get it done, will need it soon though as I need to get way more organised life is taking off on the crazy busy state. Electronic diaries just don't work for me, it has to be hand written otherwise i forget things.

Thanks for birthday wishes. It's been a very nice day, apart from a minor contretemps with the client from hell who is still driving me mad!

Happy Birthday, Blue . Glad you've had a nice day.

Linzer - how funny that you got your Mother's Day muddled up once too. I hope your Mum saw the funny side.

Have had a madly busy day, trying to get the house sorted before we go to my Mum's tomorrow. Am so conscious that my neighbours (who live in a beautiful, pristine house) will be coming in to feed our cats that I have spent most of the day cleaning and tidying up.

DS1 is off to school for one lesson first thing in the morning. He seems fine about going away afterwards, which is a sign of how much progress he's made.

Just have to iron DS1's school uniform, then I'm off to bed.