Remember remember through all of November the Fledglings will flutter and fly!

[fuzzpig]

Halloween’s over, Christmas (sorry) is drawing near, but perhaps you have too much S.T.U.F.F. (Something That Undermines Family Fun) getting in the way. Or maybe you want to rid your house of C.H.A.O.S. (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome)? Have no fear, the Fledglings are here! We are all learning to get into a routine for maintaining the household, so we have more time for that thing called life.

This is where, from the first of the month (seriously, HOW is it November already?!), we follow – loosely – the rules of FlyLady. We ignore the somewhat barftastic language, and also thoroughly recommend NOT signing up to the emails… unless you want your inbox full to bursting.

Here’s some basic info on getting started – but don’t worry, all will be revealed on a daily basis (assuming I get the links right…) so just jump in.

There are 3 basic stages:

• Baby Steps – if you’re new, start here. Or if you’re coming back to us after a break (trust me, we’ve been there!) then these are good way to get back into it.

• Repeat Baby Steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current room or 'zone' - yep, just 15 mins, it makes a difference!

or

• Reinforce Baby Steps + do Daily Missions - if you have finished decluttering (one day I’ll get to that stage… one day…).

There are also detailed cleaning guides if you’re really enthusiastic.

NB
This is a very long-running thread so we may appear cliquey but we really aren't! All newcomers, long-termers, lurkers and intermittent returnees not only welcome to join in but positively encouraged to do so!

Another NB
Start where you are. There is no need to worry about being perfect – perfectionism = paralysis! There is no such thing as ‘falling behind’ with FlyLady, if you miss anything, just move on and continue as normal the next day.

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Good luck!

Yes Fuzz you have been doing a great job! And it's really good of you to take on the responsibility of thread running when you have so much else on your plate. Hope you get a bit of rest at your ma's!

Bit of a miserable day here tbh. Raining and dark. DD very shouty (homework related) ... very wearing ... .

Dh can't put his work down and has been mostly monosyllabic therefore.

I've got another bad cold but kept mouths and washing machine fed and forced myself to walk around in the wind and rain with the dog x 3.

Feeble waves to one and all!

PS Whoknows I would go for the move but it's easy for me to say that! Dc are often against change on principle. They could come to love the new house just as much in time. And anything that makes life better/more fulfilling for you, will ultimately make them happier too (vicariously through you ifyswim).

And as you do most of the cleaning/maintenance, I would say that you have the main vote on this one!

Is your dh enthusiastic about the move too (as well as the decluttering I mean)?

At the very least, if I may be so bold, having shared mutual commiserations on here with you many times about dhs who do not lift a finger to help with the most basic of maintenance (ie I have asked my dh to help me put up coat racks every weekend for the past 18 mths to no avail yes Im pathetic and need to learn how to use a power tool) I would give your dh a choice of either renovating/updating/decorating old house or buying new one ie status quo is not acceptable!!

Good luck with making the decision!

G'night all!

DH is 100% up for the move, but credit to him when I had a massive wobble earlier he said we wouldn't do it if I really didn't want to. Potential new house is in need of far less maintenance than ours, I suspect that is one reason he likes it so much .

seeing as I will not have a lounge and thus numerous other rooms will also be totally un-functionable for at least 2 weeks if not 3 I can most certainly see the appeal of a house requiring less work.

Hear hear to that Can't ours is fall down around our ears... .

Whoknows great that your dh is on board! What made you wobble, if you don't mind me asking? Was it the dcs objections or other things such as location? I'm terrible at making decisions but sometimes find it helpful if I can narrow down/identify worries about a particular route and then write a pros and cons list for each scenario if that makes sense ie for moving and for not moving. Good luck with decision!

Salut/Dag to everyone else!

House is going in wrong direction (that of a pig-sty!) and routines and tasks ahead same old same old so I won't bore you (and myself) by writing them all down again. Lots of dry-land flotsam and jetsam floating about and just need to get on top of it.

Also rather depressed that I appear to be gaining weight when I need to lose it!

On a completely different subject ... I am (very tangentially) involved in a water conservation project at church (Pope has recently issued missive about global warming/environmental issues and parish are following through). And at the same time, dh and I have received most mahoosive water bill. And I just happened to listen to a piece on Radio 5 Live's about it (ironically whilst in the bath this morning )... .

This 'Water Footprint Calculator' is worth doing!

(It's totally anonymous and takes 3 mins - just for self-education purposes - you don't have to sign up to anything)

Turns out I am "A Damp Squib" which means I personally use 33,440 litres of water per week ie 152,000 tea cups or 418 full bath tubs

If you look at their website (the product gallery) it apparently takes 4325 litres of water to produce one kilo of chicken . This cannot be right surely?? Horrifying if it is!

Makes you think when considering house renovations though; ie why aren't we all using shower water to flush the lav etc? And I must get a water butt installed in the garden - it is raining cats and dogs here atm!

Anyway, back to chores!

Have a productive start to the week everyone!

falling down ...

Links for Monday 30th November!

Baby Step No.30: Look Ahead! A new month approaches, and it’s a good time to look through for any upcoming birthdays and events – even if they’re already in the diary, a reminder is often useful!

This is our second and last day in Zone 5: [[http://www.flylady.net/d/zones/zone-5/ Living Room (November 29-30).

Declutter for 15 mins in Zone 5 if you want to.

If you are at this stage, here is the detailed cleaning list for Zone 5.

Mission for Monday: Tackle those living room hotspots!

Monday's daily focus is: The Home Bleurgh (a.k.a. The Home Blessing Hour).

The habit for November is: Menu Planning!

A summary of the above (which should update itself daily) can be found here in the Flightplan.

Have a great start to the week, and a great end to the month, Fledglings!

Wobble is multi-faceted. Firstly when I say I love my current house I mean I really love it, as soon as we viewed it 15 years ago I just had to have it. Great neighbours both sides, great location, and some great features. But it's small and very impractical with no real scope to improve layout without completely gutting and rebuilding the whole interior and no scope to extend. Also it's just so sudden, a fortnight ago moving was something we might consider in a year or two.

Whoknows I have friends who decided not to move because they were very attached to their house, and couldn't find the right one to trade up to (although it was too small and had tiny garden) They decided to do expensive renovations to extend their existing house. The extensions took up about a year. By the time they had finished the differential between the house they could have moved to (size wise) and the existing meant moving impossible, cost wise. Personally the reasons they didn't move for, disruption etc, ended up being cancelled out by the disruption they had in renovating, what was not in fact their perfect house (as they both loved gardening and long term have ended up with tiny garden in good location)

I would just go for it, depending on price. Person who moves into your house may be delighted that price is lower due to work needing to be done, as they might do work themselves etc etc. Every renovation in this house takes months off us sanity wise. Atm we are still dealing with our wobbling shared fence problem and non-English speaking tenants...even getting the wretched fence fixed is such a headache. I thought it would be scattered around the garden this morning, such strong gusts yesterday. It is still held up by one piece of orange yachting rope attached to the tree.

Now have to get onto to the solicitor about the latest EHCP headache.

done
dropped off both dd and ds2 to school, and sorted dd's baking ingredients as she had neglected to do this till last moment
filled up on petrol
put a wash in

and that's it...

Fuzzyou have been a very calm, organised and sensible thread leader

grey hope today is getting better, bit by bit. Every tiny nice thing that happens today (ds smiling, or doing one of the charming things toddlers do occasionally just focus on it, imprint it in your mind and try and hold it as a talisman against all the other things that get one down throughout the day. I know they are many. Today I have to write invites, the thought is giving me already a knot of tension, just even finding the word programme for invites and printing let alone finding addresses and making decision on invitees. Anyway, I will be grateful if I send out 4 and the fence doesn't blow away...!

Sending fortifying to WhoKnows and everyone else in need. Total sympathies re house-moving wobbles. Took me ages to get round to the idea, and the boys were quite worried by it at first, but they love it here now. I didn't fall in love with this place as such, but it ticks so many of our boxes (about 99% in fact - only lacking one minor desirable thing) that it already feels totally like home despite the complete chaos and half-built flat pack furniture everywhere etc.

I need to wrangle with the dreaded annual Christmas card address-label-mail-merge shortly - need to do cards early this year so change of address thingies can go out with them.

Thanks for the kind words about moving everyone, it is the right thing to do. Knitting, what your friends did is what I envisage if we stay, we would need to spend about £75k to maximise this one, move out temporarily and still have a house that is full of poky tiny rooms, just a couple more of them. Blue, it's lovely to hear that you have settled in so well, a bigger move for you with new schools etc too. The house we are looking at is within 1/4 mile of our existing one so none of that will be involved. If it goes ahead.

Thank you Knitting - DS is very cuddly today which is lovely and we managed to have a go at a very basic lotto board game. I wasn't sure if he would get it, but he did (apart from the turn-taking bit!)

I'm picking through all the junk and detritus that is littering the book cases - it makes the room look so scruffy and is the first thing I notice when I walk in the room. So, some actual flying and doing a mission!

Grey, the first board game my DS played properly and enjoyed was one called Wild World Lotto by Orchard Toys, it has gorgeous bright animal pictures. It was played endlessly (till the box disintegrated!) but we've still got it and it comes out a couple of times a year for a bit of gentle easy fun (the DCs are 9 and 11 now).

Finally caught up with the thread - thanks for the kind words and reassurances everyone!

I do feel a bit happier after staying at mum's - had an insanely long lie in (and a nap in the day too!), and was fed 3 lovely meals. I'm really miffed that DH has to work til 6.30 today (usually finishes at 2 on Mondays) but I feel better able to tackle it having had a proper break. We had a very lazy start to the day today but managed a bit of home ed and they are now junk modelling therefore leaving me in peace :o

I got dry as dust on that water thingy. It was really interesting - I thought it'd be entirely about my actual water use in the home, I'd not really thought about the impact of eating meat etc on water!

Grey I'm glad you've had a good morning with DS. So sweet that you played a game with him - it's lovely when they start to 'get' that sort of thing.

Haven't done anything housework wise at all, really need to as I forgot to fill a carrier bag of clutter/rubbish when I got back last night (as I'm attempting to do one a day til Xmas) so I'll try and do two today, and DH did loads of laundry so I'll get the DCs to put theirs away.

Glad you had a bit of a rest Fuzzpig and ahh, now I know what that 'one carrier bag until Christmas' thread is all about! Good luck with the decluttering!

And well done on your low water consumption! (You have the same score as dd although we joked it's because she has as few baths and showers as basic hygiene standards allow! )

Whoknows Go for it!

Grey your lo sounds very bright!

Blue hats off to you for even attempting Christmas card address mail merge! I have wasted so many sheets of Avery address labels when the ruddy typing doesn't quite align itself properly, that I have given up and stick to old fashioned pen and ink. (Do have stamps for our address though.)

Knitting hope solicitor's meeting proved productive and not too stressful
and think you are v. brave to plan a party for this time of year! Although I think we all have a tendency to lose focus and Christmas becomes too much about chores and stress and not about the important things such as having fun and enjoying family and friends so good on you!

I am in a panic here. DD has just come home and announced that although she will be officially breaking up on 18th (much earlier than usual - she normally breaks up on 23rd or 24th) she will basically be at home after her end of term exams finish on the 11th! I know she is an 'only' and old enough to look after herself now cackles hysterically but I am panicking now so I have just this week and next to prepare for Christmas in peace. And dh is virtually away from now until Christmas (5 guests coming so far at different times and two or three more (when they have sorted themselves out) and have to prepare to leave house in decent state for pet sitters when we travel too). Yarggh!! Mahoosively busy at volunteering this time of the year too. [Sorry I know this will sound really pathetic to those of you with jobs and more than one child!! But I have zero energy levels atm.]

Sorry for yet another bleat! Will attempt to actually go and do something about this all this now!

You'd think I wouldn't still be bleating about this five years on wouldn't you? [Sorry And in some ways I am much more organised. Stuff like presents/decorating/food all pretty much organised/in process of being organised. Cards are the only time-consuming bit. But basic fabric/condition of house is worse. And family demands expanding!!!

Apologies for wittering on though.

solicitor thing sorted out...for now, emails back and forth due to LA being mysterious, confusing and misleading. I still believe they want the best for my child, and it is muddle rather than manoeuvre which is going on, but I cannot be sure.
made shepherd's pie
managed to get ds2 to go back to badminton, which was a bit dicey last week as he fell out with two fellow players (they basically told him he wasn't much good..which didn't go down well)
lots of driving
loaded dw
put a wash on
took some clothes upstairs

and NOOO invites written or formatted.. I can see this going to be a last minute texting frenzy

SC the mail merge hasn't been attempted yet. I'm wondering whether to give up and write the blasted things by hand because, as you say, it always ends up with wasted labels and much swearing at the computer. I think the shiny labels print differently to ordinary paper which is why the test sheet lines up perfectly and then the labels go squiffy... How boring. Sorry!

The boys have had their last swimming lessons at the old pool - booked up till the end of the month - and DS2 managed to finish on a positive note, so that's good.

well I'm a damp squib, although it doesn't really make sense because my dishwasher and washing machine usage is not just me but x 5 people. I do like to have very long showers though. I don't really think my cups of tea and coffee should be compared to having a shower though, hardly any water in there, or is that to do with the farming of coffee and tea leaves? Cotton, and how many clothes you buy regularily should be compared to woolly clothes as water used in growing cotton is surely very wasteful. And as for using plastic, doesn't that use an awful lot of water as an industrial process? Not mentioned at all. And Xmas cards, incredibly wasteful manufacturing them waterwise. Finally, wasn't there something about the water used in growing sunshine vegetables in places like Spain and how wasteful that was, although economically very important for those regions (was is Murcia I'm thinking of? Not to speak of California and the avocado farms???) It is a nightmare thinking of all the checks and balances, livelihoods that need to be weighed up.

I too have never mastered the Christmas card mail merge thing, fountain pen all the way here (about the only time I use it TBH).

SC - I know how you feel, DS breaks up on the 11th, DD on the 18th, things were looking fairly hectic as it was and adding the house move into the mix might tip me right over the edge. Still, one step at a time.

Knitting you are sounding very stoic about the EHCP, I hope it all gets sorted soon, how near are you to getting any sort of agreement?

Fuzz - your stay at your mum's sounds blissful

So, today, the main rooms were brought into as spotless a state as could be managed considering none of them have seen a lick of paint for at least 10 years. A steam cleaner was ordered for delivery tomorrow (old one packed up, typical). The estate has been round and taken the photos and we have signed on the dotted line. So, just got the unphotographed parts of the house to tackle now (and they look as though a bomb has gone off in them, it is quite a bizarre contrast). Luckily I did a lot of overtime last week and can take it off in lieu this week as I'm going to need every spare minute to get the rest of the house shipshape, viewings are scheduled to start on Saturday. I'm not going to even think about my OU course, DD's school Christmas fair, three nights out this week and Christmas shopping.

December thread

Thank you Cant!

Well done everyone for a busy, productive November :) (well... not that productive in my case )