Festive building work, house moving and fledglings flying. Gotta be the December thread.

[CantSee4Looking]

Morning

It's December. Are you ready for this?
festive cleaning, decluttering and then the required throwing about of sparkly stuff in the name of the holidays? No? Yeah neither are the rest of us. But let's do this.

So we sorta follow the Fat fairy and her fly lady system. We have adapted to suit lifestyles and sometimes roll our eyes at the fluffiness of the website but we do:
1. 15mins decluttering
2. Missions and Zones
3. have a naughty corner bar but someone else can decorate it this year

All the links can be found from the launch pad

But as it is the 1st of December It is babystep 1. This one looks easy. Shine your sink.

missions are here

The zone is zone 1 which is the porch, dining room and hallway. 15minutes folks, 15 minutes. get that decluttering done.

Tuesday is planning day

And just for the crazy people Christmas missions are here

the 1st Christmas mission

Oh yeah, the disclaimers:
long running thread, regulars been here years so can seem clicky, we're not. Newbies are always welcome we just as you to be respectful

DS and DH are out at the church's festive light switch on; and DH has just phoned to say he's bringing back the inlaws. Thank god I love both him and them!

Hello ladies - can I join in? May get me flying instead of stalling

I was on here a while back & then fell off the wagon

Can I get a round of In? Or rather

Big vat of is on StillWearing

Jump on board.

Checking the linen closet - what linen closet? I wish I had one. I pile everything up in my wardrobe, where it jostles with my clothes. Wish I had a cupboard that was all organised.

knitting - sympathies on your DS's struggles with his tutor. Sounds very like DS1's struggles at school. But it's early days for your DS at the tuition centre and both he and the tutor are still getting used to each other, so things may settle down in time. Think of it as a bad day, rather than a sign that the centre is not working out. It's too early to decide that, I think.

Still - welcome back .

Had lunch with a friend in my lunchbreak today. Am still relishing the novelty of being able to have time to myself to do such things - such a luxury.

oh dear Fuzz mattresses tend to tip me over the edge, it always seems such a good idea to start with then someone bumps their head. Like the waterslide in the garden we once had (bit of shiny blue plastic with hose directed on it) Hope they got out in some form or other and out of your hair for a bit. I remember beseeching dh to just take them away to the park many times, rather like asking him to take some rubbish to the tip

Can't ha ha ha about linens, I knew someone had the finest selection.

good news about the tutor. Centre was very helpful and said they would discuss a better approach with the tutor, who is after all meant to be encouraging ds. I did another science lesson with ds this afternoon and he seemed much happier, he now seems to understand the topic a bit better. I was worried they thought ds2 wasn't concentrating, but it turns out they are more than happy to turn things around on his behalf. Only one more lesson in that subject before the end of term though. Still, it does remind me that home ed can be sometimes much more flexible not to say, free...

well, no roast chicken, dh brought home pizzas. I have hung out many loads of washing. There is no end to it all. I've crawled back into bed now after reading a bit downstairs;telly has gone wonky due to signal problems, rather a relief to just give up on it..there never seems to be anything on. Except Capital. Which I would rather watch on catchup later.

I am watching Murder Maps It is very interesting. And if you are into the gruesome side of history it is worth searching out.

Morning all!

on the bar - industrial strength!

Well, after telling me all the inlaws were descending, it turned into just DBIL. So my pasta bake had more pasta added to it and a bit more meat and cheese and he stayed for dinner.

DMIL is round this afternoon to see DS so I need to ensure that downstairs is tidy at least! It's actually not too bad; but we do have odds and sods lying about that need moving permanently. Trouble is, I need to move y to put away z, but I need to move x to put away y... repeat ad infinitum. Mostly I think we need to chuck stuff out first, but I can't seem to find stuff to throw away (see previous post on most of it belonging to DH!).

DH keeps saying he's going to put up shelves in the study for his text books and reference books - can't see it happening so I may you tube and do it myself. It can't be that hard surely?! I'm thinking of the type that are on metal wall supports that you can move up and down. Hmm... might have to work out what they're called and just do it.

Anyway my to do/ ta da

• up, shower, dress, breakfast, DS to school
• organise dinner
• towel washing (in progress)
• tidy downstairs; once DS is at school I'm going for the Flylady crisis clean with three 15 minutes and then a break.

Okay, off I go to get DS dressed! Have fun ladies!

Thanks toffee - it's good to be back. I do have a Christmassy duvet cover I bought last year (too much time on the MN Christmas threads )

So if I can dig that out from the bottom of the wardrobe crap pile then I think that counts as checking the holiday linens.

We know I won't find it. Who am I kidding?

Good morning lovely Fledglings! I'll pass on the but does anyone have any Dr Pepper? It's my favourite source of caffeine - other than chocolate anyway.

Got a lesson tonight and am determined to really make a difference to the living room. I can't face a big long tidy so I'm just going to try and do little and (very) often. DCs have been told they must help. Going to do their core skills stuff as quickly as we can manage and then crack on.

I've also started to accept that I need to stop making the most of the no-school-run lazy mornings. The longer I leave the DCs to do what they want, the harder it is to get started on any work at all :( they do benefit from being able to wake up when they're ready (as do I - a key feature of my illness is dizziness, and I literally cannot get up straight away) and I love the fact that they often get themselves breakfast and settle down to a board game (they don't even want to put the TV on anymore and we don't generally watch anything until the afternoon), but really I just laze about all morning on the laptop and by the time I feel ready to do anything, they are so engrossed in their imaginary worlds/dressing up/hurtling about the house like a herd of wildebeest that it's really hard to get them to do a damn thing.

If it is any comfort Fuzz a lot of schools break up on the 11th...so you could set yourself the task of only doing superskills till then.

Anyway it sounds as if they are doing work in one form or another even if they don't realise it Before you know it they will be writing letters to each other and posting things in imaginary post boxes and writing playsscripts, and making imaginary museums with labels.. And begging you for Maths quizzes

Busy morning here, went to Sainsburys and bought some party supplies (soft drinks and bread sticks and crisps)
Also tidied up kitchen and playroom a bit, in decluttering sense, though no cleaning
Swept kitchen floor
put some clothes in the right rooms
put two more loads of washing on and hung out
invited some more people to party (v casually, still haven't sorted invites, Sainsbury's had none )

Xmas flying
bought wrapping paper
bought party stuff (some of it)
tidied in prep for decorations (some tidying)

Paperwork
put all ds2's paperwork in a box
put all home ed books back in right categories
rounded up all the plain/lined paper
bought some more pens

Ah thank you knitting - you're right, they do learn a lot just through play and come up with their own projects so I must remember that! :) It's more that their behaviour that seems to deteriorate if they are left to their own devices for a long time indoors.

Today has been a little better as we did the work a bit quicker and then got straight onto some tidying which went better than expected (with a lot of chivvying and "look it's RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU FFS pick it up" etc). Had a break for lunch and a DVD, now trying to get back on with it. I feel I've achieved a decent amount compared to normal, so I'm pleased.

Little ta da list for the day so far:

Superskills with DCs
Got DCs to put their clothes away
Massive bag of rubbish filled
Put a few toys away
Continued filling craft drawers
Sorted some laundry into piles
Put rest of DVDs away
Gathered library stock to return
Gave DCs lunch

Wobbles have prevailed. House move is postponed, a bit more investigation into the potential new house proved if to be a non-starter, therefore no urgency and we have put our marketing on hold. So, business as usual and we will think about it again in the New Year. Feeling overwhelmingly relieved if I'm honest, I just want to get back to life as normal for a bit now.

Schools break up on the 11th? Not round here they don't

Some fucker has remotely access my computer and used to do god knows what before selectively deleting my history. I know this because they deleted stuff that I actually did. I am very very pissed off and running multiple levels of scans before pass word sorting and installing an ad blocker. To say I am not a happy bunny is a bit of an understatement.

Sounds like a good decision WhoKnows - at least you can sort of forget about it and enjoy this Christmas! Shame about that particular house, but at least you've found out quickly I guess.

Crikey Cant that sounds rather scary! And very very annoying :( people are fuckers.

We've done more tidying in the living room and it's actually looking fairly decent in here. We actually chucked out 3 board games which is massively brave of us given our love of such things! But they'd lost too many pieces to be worth keeping (yes DH, that is why I don't let the DCs take such complicated games into their room to play...)

I have my piano lesson in half an hour and after that I'll head back to the boudoir to carry on the sorting on our bed. I've unpacked the hanging storage thingies so I want to at least start transferring things into that, so that we can reclaim the Ikea buckets for toys ASAP. I'd also like to put a non-tumble-dryable wash on and hung out before bed.

Not expecting to do much tomorrow, as it's the crazy Thursday (they alternate between 'busy' and 'crazy' depending on what sports clubs are on :o) and DH is working half a day instead of having his day off but I hope I can at least continue with the 'think of a tiny job that needs doing, and do it' method that seems to be working for me at the moment.

Well, I'm bouncing around feeling properly happy again for the first time in about a week, which tells me all I need to know about that house. It ticked a lot of boxes but there was an insurmountable problem as well as a few niggles. Our supertidy house is slowly relaxing back into itself. I'm off work tomorrow so going to tackle the DCs bedrooms which did not get done earlier in the week. Then helping at school Christmas Fair and going to DD's drama group show later.

phew!!! such relief when decision is made for you.

You are very good to do the school fair AND drama after, enjoy the show! Hope you see lots of nice neighbours/friends.

We have had a bit of a kerfuffle (on small scale) with guy installing greenhouse getting very uptight on phone about need for a completely flat patio. And of course it is not - I could have told dh that before, (rustic tiles set in mortar) so now have to schedule in someone laying a base, as well as the wretched fence (can I combine the two horrendous tasks) Dh is also cross because he made the original arrangement but for some reason heard the words "level base" differently from me (spirit level etched on my soul after lot of building work supervision, especially the day of the wonky radiators, when plumber declared the completely diagonal radiator only looked that way because the window frame was "old" and crooked. his spirit level was just plain wrong )

good day. Ds2 had a great day in tuition centre, was laughing and joking when I picked him up, then spent a long time doing Hornby with dh, ds1 in very good form (although still not revising much) and I'm pleased I've invited at least 5 more families to the party..slow and steady does it..

Glad to hear you have had a good day on the whole Knitting Hope you get the level base and fence sorted without too much hassle.

Whoknows

Brain is a bit fuzzy atm, had a huge list of stuff to do and only just got to a point where a break can be taken.

Linkie poos

launch pad

Thursday is errand day

baby step 3

Missions

keep up with the decluttering in zone 1.

Christmas mission - Christmas hair?!

Can't I'm going for the middle one!

Good morning all! Hope everyone is surviving that awful "oh lawdy Christmas is approaching too fast, what shall I do first on the list?" feeling!

Arf at Christmas linen with tassels !!

It's only 9.30 am but it's been a busy day so far (and a busy long day yesterday). Did full day of volunteering ("old" in morning sorting clothes, and "new" in the afternoon making handprint wreaths with 13 7-yr- olds) with a short break for Mumsnetting lunch and a dog walk.

Dh is away so dd had to come with me for first part of craft session before ballet because baby-sitter wasn't available for transportation purposes; nor were the family of office cleaners/rabbit & house sitters whom I trust and who sometimes do school runs. Somewhat nail bitingly - put her in a taxi on her own at volunteer centre to go on a 10 min ride to ballet. Didn't like doing it (I'm probably being very pfb about this!) but use a firm that allows you to specify lady drivers - no guarantee of safety - but felt a bit better than if it had been a bloke driving somehow and I made her promise to send me texts every 3 mins!!

Anyway, all went fine and I was able to collect her on time after class (another worry). I haven't told dh about this yet - he will probably be verydisapproving - I don't know if I did the right thing or not but I'd missed so many volunteering slots with dd being ill and then there was all the disruption with the the lock-down etc that I couldn't let them down again and they were depending on everyone being present and correct.

Very hip nun (with pointy mullet and Nike trainers) said "don't worry, she'll be fine, I'll pray!" which wasn't altogether reassuring at the time but ended well!

Dog unfortunately has a virus which has triggered pancreatitis (not sure but think it might be because he was fed on rubbish when he was a puppy) involving lots of broken nights (just the same as having a toddler!) but is now back to 85% fitness and we are now happily engaged in the "see how many ways I can pretend to swallow this tablet" game following Tuesday's "let's see how many times I can bite the vet" game.

Great to have you back Stillwearingoldsocks!

Crikey Can't that computer hacking incident does indeed sound sinister and horrible. Hope you can get to the bottom of it. Ta for links!

Knitting Sympathies! Can I join in, and wail about the impossibility of finding decent "handy men" or "basic builders" for fence mending or concrete laying who have some level of skill and common sense? Desperate to find one here but the market has been cornered by those 'concierge' type firms that charge a fortune. The last time I used one I had eight (I kid you not) Italian men in leather jackets arguing loudly in the kitchen about what to charge and how to do the various jobs and it took them three hours to complete three minor tasks. They did them well but handed me an extortionate bill (much more than agreed at the start), and I had to argue that it should have (reasonably) taken them two hours max with three men max (it was very basic stuff like changing a light fitting and putting up dog lead hooks). And I had caught one of them wandering around the basement (where he didn't need to be) looking suspicious. But I was on my own and it was all v intimidating and in the end I ended up paying more than I felt was fair to get them out of the house! Never, ever again! (Sorry, that wasn't a very reassuring story was it??!!! )

Whoknows it obviously wasn't "meant to be" with the house and glad you are relieved and not disappointed (shows it was definitely the right decision in the end!) There will probably be more choice in the market in the New Year too! Good luck with all the Christmas functions!

Good luck with "crazy Thursday" Fuzzpig!

Big waves to Blue Toffee Phoenixrises Honu and anyone I have missed!

Ta da:
School uniform ironed
Letters/forms signed
DD packed lunch made
Morning routine inc, animals fed, dw, wm, td on, s&s, dining room table hot spots, more washing hung up
Wrestled dog administered tablets
Carried laundry paniers downstairs

To do:
tidy entire house
parcels
walk dog x 3
continue tackling Mt Washmore

Have a good day everyone!

Morning everyone

We are still looking for the Christmas tree stand so the tree is still in the garden, where it was delivered ... What would fly lady say about that?

Couldn't find our Christmas duvet

But did unclutter hall for 15m & shine my sink before bed - for the first time ever!

Mad rush to find clean tights before work today and I'm late again so falling rather than flying

Aw shame SC I much prefer the reindeer! :o

Morning Fledglings! I'm gearing up for a busy day. DH is meeting us at 2ish so I'll shove the DCs at him and run get some time to myself - might browse the shops if I'm feeling really brave, but mostly I'll be trying not to lose the momentum from yesterday's tidying and hopefully get stuff done before and after my lesson at 4.30.

And I totally forgot to put the wash on so I'd better do that now before we leave.

Hope you all have a great day.

I love my tame computer tech. Issue resolved.

No energy to do anything. Hurt like hell. Pushing more limits than I knew I had. But another day another long to do list.

Annoying computer issues here too, so and on the bar.

Feel generally frustrated and fed up at the moment. Nothing major but not getting much done. Hey ho.