January Fledglings - Resolve to Fly!

[WhoKn0wsWhereTheMistletoes]

So, here we are at the start of 2016, poised with our control journals and ready to Fly for another year. New and old, all are welcome here, we loosely follow the principles of Flylady to manage our homes and lives, we also chat and lend an ear to whatever life throws at us.

We post links to the Flylady site each day throughout the month, with daily babysteps and missions inside that weeks zone. We also declutter. No links in this post, I'm on my phone and will do some separately, but it's time to get ready for 2016. A big thank you to everyone who has run the thread in 2015 and everyone who has contributed .

Grey - belated happy birthday! And yes, I am still doing Dry January. It's my birthday at the weekend, so I will have some wine then, but I think I might resume my dry status for the rest of the month after that as I'm quite enjoying it and it's saving money .

Evening all,

I've tried the 50 books thread but just can't keep up. It's my birthday soon too and I am thinking about asking for a new Kindle, mine is one of the early ones and hardly holds charge at all now.

Toffee - we used the Minecraft cards again! It wasn't a MC themed party this time, but we had found them a couple of weeks ago and DD wanted to do the food again, we enjoyed going round Sainsburys with them and choosing things to match.

Not much Flying done, just the basic routines today, did clean some mildew from a window with an E-cloth in lieu of decluttering the bathroom (didn't need it) and the laundry room (haven't got one).

So, links for tomorrow coming up.

Tuesday 12th.

Babystep DElete Flylady Emails - good idea!

Mission Toss your towels!

Daily Focus Planning

So glad the Minecraft cards are bringing so much happiness, Who. The Minecraft theme runs and runs in this household. DS2 had another Minecraft cake with square, green plates at his birthday tea last year; I think it's his third Minecraft birthday , although none as elaborate as that first one (thankfully).

DS1 is stressed about a forthcoming GCSE Science assessment this week, so I have been trying to help him with that. Am treading a fine line between encouraging him, so that he doesn't stop revising, and reassuring him that GCSEs are not the most important thing in the world, even though they feel like that to him now. Came upstairs to help him revise again this evening, but he's fallen asleep on his bed! (Will probably do him more good than revision right now).

DS2 was off school today, feeling ill. He was back to his usual bouncy self by evening. I was very grateful DH was available to look after him all day whilst I worked: he made up a bed for DS2 on the sofa and they watched old 'Dr Who' episodes together .

Hello, do you mind if I join you? Discovered Flylady in November - trying to Fly but, at the moment, Flapping-halfheartedly-a-few-feet-off-the-ground might be a more accurate description! Definitely need some motivation to get a bit more organised before I go back to work next month (Mat leave).

[Shuffles in to naughty corner and collapses on to bean bag.]

A very warm welcome to Singmelullabies! And congratulations on your new arrival! Hope the prospect of returning to work not too onerous.

Salut/dag/hello! Sorry to have been awol. Been travelling over the weekend.

Spent this morning so far collecting dog from sitter, walking him, and doing a bit of fridge-stocking.

Half packed up the Christmas decorations before I left so have to finish them today and harangue ask dh to put them away in roof. House a total tip - esp boudoir - but having this afternoon at home to try and recover the situation! Washing machine engineer coming on Thurs to fix my main machine which should help the Mt Washmore situation enormously! [Currently doing tiny loads in cheapo tiny machine which is driving me nuts!]

Have come to the conclusion that I have been neglecting my floors. Someone on another housekeeping thread said to focus on three things: floors, dishes and laundry which makes a lot of sense to me. Dishes aren't a problem because lucky to have dw; laundry won't be a prob when machine fixed so focusing on floors because, with no proper storage here but having quite a bit of space, everything tends to get dumped on the floor and if I focus floorwards, not only will they (and whole house) look cleaner, it should contribute mahoosively to decluttering house too! That's the theory anyway!

Firstly need to: empty dw, prep chicken dish for tonight, put on wm, pack up on-line shopping order to send back.

How is everyone else getting on?

Whoknows thanks for links! [Won't be tossing my old towels for mission as have my own animal shelter here! ] Glad you survived sleepover and at allotment weather.

Will definitely purchase the jam-making book you recommended btw. By coincidence, I treated myself to Marguerite Patten's jam book (The Basic Basics series: Jam Preserves and Chutneys) for Christmas (some of her bks have been re-issued following her recent death). It was only about 8 quid or so and is totally packed full of info and contains loads of recipes for rather unusual fruits too. Definitely worth looking at if you grown your own.

Toffee good luck to your ds1 and his science GCSE! Can really identify with the problem of getting the balance right between [frankly] giving dd a proverbial kick up the rear and encouraging her to work hard and telling her that it's not the end of the world if she fails! It's a really tricky one, especially where anxious dc are concerned. Trying to put emphasis on effort and not on results. Hope your ds2 back to school ok.

Einstein I don't know why, but since having dd, my consumption of fiction has plummeted. Time issues aside, I think it is something to do with the emotional investment that dc require. I don't seem to have anything left over for fictional characters any more (with very few exceptions).

Fuzzpig what is arty maths?

Grey many belated happy returns for the weekend past! Hope you had a good 'un! (Very impressed by your decluttering and selling of books and DVDs etc.]

Blue lovely to have a holiday to look forward to!

PA hope your enjoyed your friend's party!

Nicknacks congrats on starting your diet plan and good luck with it! I am back up to 85 kilos which is the absolute top weight that I must not go beyond. I look and feel decidedly porky. Need to lose minimum 15 kilos ... .So stupid when one has lost a bit and then put it all back on. Need to start again ... .

Yay Dizzy how lovely to "see" you again! How are things? Good luck with prepping for guests!

Hope you are feeling much better now Mercury!!

Big waves to Shannara Allgunsblazing Strumpers Ellie Feetheart Swan Honu Ellie Dogsbum Exmil Lisawantsacat George Stinch Scatty and anyone I've missed!

And don't forget to "Turn and face the strange" everyone! [sob] [can't believe he's gone]

Focussing on floors sounds sensible, SC. Need to do that here too - all far too inclined to dump stuff on the floor and then step over it continually!

Hope you had a good trip.

Hi to singme too.

Have various stuff that I probably ought to be doing at the moment, but currently procrastinating madly. Trying to find a hotel in the Reims/Champagne area with interconnecting rooms as we're sick of family rooms for one-night stopovers. Much harder than it should be!! Any tips welcome on this thread

Star gazing thing this afternoon-evening, so hoping it stays clearish. Forecast dubious though.

Is it wrong to admit that I have mostly been reading some children's books that are supposed to be good but ds hates JUST so I can declutter them without feeling guilty?

That entirely depends, Einstein, on what the books are! :o

SC arty maths is, in this case, looking at tessellation. We are seeing an M.C. Escher exhibition at the weekend, DH and I are both big fans, we can't wait! So we thought we'd do some related home ed. My friend had been there and bought us some Christmas presents in the shop, including a book of kaleidocycles to make! Anyway, yesterday we just did basic tessellation of simple shapes, got them to predict which would have gaps etc. Think tomorrow we will do more complicated ones and try to make our own. This is something I've been wanting to do with my DCs since before they were even born so I am beyond excited!

There's loads of other arty maths though. This book is great for examples. It's nerdvana for me

Afternoon all

< waves to SC and a big welcome to Singme >

Fingers crossed the sky stays clear Blue

Einstein - I love children's books and never feel guilty about reading them, so enjoy yours too.

I hated maths Fuzz so making it creative and fun sounds great to me.

Ta Da
DS taken to nursery
Cats and myself fed
Made doctors appointment
Stripped two beds and remade
Dishwasher on
Bed sheets into washing machine
Packed up books/CDs/DVDs for posting
Quick trip into town:
• Returned library books and paid fines
• Posted parcel
• Paid cheque in
• Dropped two massive bags of books off at charity shop
• Top up shop
Sold some stuff on Facebook, now collected
Had a skype interview with a course admissions tutor for a Masters Degree I’m applying for
Completed most of MA application form
Filled out some forms I’ve been procrastinating on
Sent several long overdue emails

They are Michael Morpurgo books and I although i enjoyed war house I do have to agree with ds on some of the others. Some a well written (I enjoy Kensuke's Kingdom) but others it feels like he got bored/ran out of word count and just had to find a quick ending.

Flying = nothing unless you count chasing around medical stuff as errand day. Currently confined to bed until pain killers kick in enough for me to make tea.

Tried to post earlier, but was on phone so it seems not to have worked.

Sadly, it rained most of the afternoon, so we didn't get to do any star gazing, but we still got to hear a very well pitched talk on astronomy and space science which kept both children and adults interested an entertained. Clouds parted long enough to see a thin sliver of moon through a telescope, and we got to hold a bit of moon rock too. So pretty cool despite the weather.

Hope you enjoy the Escher exhibition, Fuzz. Got DH a slidy puzzle with a tesselating Escher pattern as a stocking filler, and the boys are rather taken with it, so will have to show them some of his other stuff too.

DS1 has also declared that he doesn't like Michael Morpurgo, Yes. Haven't read them myself though.

Evening all,

The Escher exhibition sounds great Fuzz, although his work does make my eyes go funny after a while. I was given a jigsaw inspired by his work at Christmas (it's not black and white thank goodness) and it was pretty hard.

SC - welcome back - I have another 5kg on you at the moment .

Blue - that's a shame about the clouds but it sounds as though it was pretty good anyway.

Good list - Grey

Ta-da!

School, work, errands, lists, usual stuff really, I didn't toss any towels, but I have created quite a big charity shop pile of other random stuff. DH is away for a couple of days which is quite nice so the house is quieter than usual.

I think I am finally making some headway with my OU assignment, which is due in next week, I also have the annual review meeting for DS's statement to prepare for next week, my tax return still to do and both DCs birthdays in Jan, so the housework etc is taking a bit of a hit, busy in both my jobs too. I am definitely chucking in the OU this summer.

Links for Thursday.

Babystep find a mission and do it.

Mission - toss old make-up and odd socks.

Anti procrastination day - do those jobs you've been putting off. I have a very long list of those

I've never read any Michael Morpurgo! We've got a couple of easy ones (something about unicorns?) that DD was given, will have to give that a go at some point. Currently reading Stig of the Dump to DD which is nostalgia for me! And we are sharing the reading of a Famous Five book for the home ed book group.

Shame about the stargazing, although good to hear you still had a good time. Skies have been very clear here lately, I don't know enough to tell DCs anything except pointing out Orion's belt!

We had a lovely day today, after the free pizza workshop we went home via the park and Thorntons shhhh and had an amazingly quiet afternoon. DCs did the work I asked them to, and then got on with crafty/puzzly stuff while I had a rest. Momentum was lost when I stuck a DVD on for them though as I then realised I had crashed rather dramatically. So I am really tired but epic pain levels are making sleep very hard :( it's often referred to as 'painsomnia' which I think describes it brilliantly.

So, needless to say I did not do any Flying. I don't think I'll achieve much tomorrow either except some laundry in the morning I hope. Thankfully we aren't going anywhere and DH has a half day (because he has a meeting Thursday instead) so will be able to give me a break. BUT need to clear up front room as have a pupil. Actually have two as I've had to rearrange Thursday's due to aforementioned meeting causing issues.

Hopeful/insanely optimistic to do list for tomorrow:
maths (11 times tables) reading etc
more tessellation stuff with DCs and DH when he's home
laundry x2
tumble dry
clean clothes away
pupil x2
DD to friend's for Brownies run
phone GP to sort sick note and prescription

There is loads of other stuff I should be doing but can't see it happening!

Anyway onwards and upwards, going to stick another DVD on and see if it distracts me enough for sleep! :)

Antiprocrastination day, I needed that.
I need to call the banks, BT
(New contract?) and my car finance people (change accounts).
I also woke up at 2.30 and been mulling things over.

Sorry about the sleeplessness. Sucks doesn't it. I nearly turned off my alarm (we didn't have anything on this morning) but quite glad I didn't, still sore but we've had a more productive day. Home ed wise, anyway - housework not so much! DH took DCs to the park and I'm now pottering about doing tiny bits of tidying and rewarding myself with MN and chocolate :o

OMG somebody please give me a kick up the bum! Half an hour til pupil arrives!

Glad you had such a lovely home-ed day, fuzz. Hope your lesson went ok. I studied tessellation with DS2 when he was home educated. We used one of the projects from this book from our local library to create tessellated paper tiles - it was great fun.

YesEinstein and Blue - DS2 also refuses to read Michael Morpurgo . However, I read 'Shadow' to DS1 when I was home educating him and we both enjoyed it: we used it to study lots of the themes it touched on, including refugees, war and friendship. We also traced the boy's journey from Afghanistan to Britain, so brought in some geography too.

Am still trying to help DS1 revise for his GCSE Chemistry assessment on Friday, but it's a struggle. He can't organise himself at all, half the time he doesn't understand what he's been asked to do and the teacher didn't answer my emails about the work until I chased him up about it today and copied in the Deputy Head . And then he told me that DS1 needs to learn the paperwork he's brought home today and will have a different topic to learn tomorrow - the night before the exam. AIBU to think this is all a bit last minute, especially for someone like my son (ASD)? I tried to help DS1 revise this evening and he was in such a state of anxiety he couldn't focus and ended up falling asleep (again).

Very little Flying to report: emptied the kitchen and bathroom bins; did the washing up; emptied the cats' litter trays. DH is in charge of cooking during the week .

Links for Thursday.

Babystep 14 - using a calendar.

Mission stocktake your bathroom and laundry supplies, put them on your shopping list if needed. I've started a rolling shopping list on my phone, which is very handy for "jotting down" everything as it runs out and always being with me when I go shopping.

Thursday is Errand Day

What ho fledglings!

Hope everyone OK? And those people who were unwell, such as your good self Mercury, are feeling much better now.

Whoknows Thanks for links! Definitely need to do odd sock mission (we are over-run with odd socks here! They seem to breed.) And good tip about keeping a rolling shopping list on phone.

As for issue of weight : unlike mine, bet yours is all muscle given your work rate !! You seem to be juggling mahoosive amount of things as usual. Good luck with it all.

Did anyone see "Trust Me, I'm a Doctor" last night btw? Some very interesting things about fasting longest hrs possible overnight (ie having brkfast as late as possible and last meal of the day as early as poss) having positive weight loss effects and positive effects on blood sugar levels plus two rather horrifying pieces concerning research about artificial sweeteners and chemicals in cleaners and scented candles (not that I use the latter but makes you think).

Thank you hugely for arty maths links Fuzzpig and arf at "nerdvana" DD doesn't hate maths but she finds it v challenging. Art comes much more easily to her so anything that combines the two has to be good! Will definitely be acquiring that bk and doing that Youtube project once Christmas thank you letters are finally out of the way!

I absolutely love "Stig of the Dump" btw!! [First read in more innocent times which is harder to do now sadly.]

So sorry you have 'painsomnia' - sounds awful - hope it has eased somewhat this morning

And sorry to hear you are suffering too Einstein . (Big reader of children's books here, and one of these days, I would like to try and write one.)

Toffee yes that does sound very unfair/disorganised asking dc to revise a new topic the night before an important mock exam such as a GCSE. It doesn't sound right at all. Would have thought all topics would have been covered way back and they should be just revising at this stage (although I've no experience of curriculum at GCSE level). It's hardly giving the pupils the best chance is it? No wonder your ds1 is feeling overwhelmed. I think I'd be sending another e-mail to the deputy head in your shoes. Good luck with it all.

Blue Bummer about the star-gazing blue but moon rock sounds v cool! Rushed out on to terrace around 7.40 am this morning to see if we could see the ISS overhead but unfortunately it's overcast and raining here. Will post on your other thread if not too late - sorry- only just seen!

You are on a Flying roll Grey! Congrats on huge list achieved and on Masters application.

Waves to Allgunsblazing and everyone else!

Ta da Tues:
collected furry from dog sitter
supermarket shop
did some office admin
dw x 2
fed animals
dog walking x 2
sorted laundry room
did laundry x 2
school run x 1
finished packing up Christmas decorations, closed and numbered boxes, stacked in hall to take up
tidied up bathroom and did s&s
tidied up sitting room, play room and kitchen
helped dh 'host' a meeting at office
ordered dog coat with special underbelly flap for daschunds
tried on coats and packed up most of on-line clothes shopping parcel to send back
made ginger biscuits
made sticky chicken with rice and pak choi for supper but then was so tired for some reason I couldn't eat it and went to bed instead!

Ta da yesterday:
dw
put out green gardening recycling bags
animals
opened up office and did some urgent admin work/sent urgent
ordered flowers for sick staff member in hosp
e-mails/paid urgent bills (at 6am!!)
walk to dd's school and back to deliver uniform
new volunteering
dd lunchtime school collection
prepped quick lunch
old volunteering
evening ballet collection
hwk supervision
folded towels
hung up washing
supper

To do today:
animals
dog-walking
boudoir floors
sort bed that things that get dumped on
find dd school jumper
odd sock mission
bathroom cupboard
wm engineer
ring doc for appt/repeat prescriptions
make veggie supper for tonight and cook soup for w/e.

Knackered. Early morning office shenanigans every day this week so far owing to staff absences (including one key member of staff in hospital unfortunately) not helped by dd forgetting her school uniform yesterday (she goes in wearing sports gear on Wed mornings) and getting a stroppy phone call from the 'educator' (who deals with absences, registers, illness, lost property, hwk club etc etc) asking us to bring it in by 9.10 am (which, being a mean mummy, I normally would not do as I think dc should learn from consequences!!) Hwr, had no choice in this instance as school were insisting which was rather galling seeing as Wed is only a half day anyway!.

So furry one could not believe his luck when, having already gone on the relatively long walk (for his short legs) to dd's school on the morning run and back with dh, he then almost immediately went out on the same trip with me again! Was a bit hacked off though because it meant I was chasing my tail all day and slightly late for everything.

Then it transpired that, having been picked up at lunch time by me, dd had to be taken urgently to a stationery shop by dh to get some things for lessons which she had neglected to tell us about until last minute.

So yesterday dh did one there and back school run and one there and back ballet run and one there and back stationery shop run. And I did two there and back school runs and one there and back ballet run and this is for just one child fhs !! (This was aside from dh having to make three outward and rtn short trips to see clients/collect some office equipment and me making two there and back trips to volunteering slots.) I know this is nothing compared to what most parents who have more dc do but honestly ... !

I wasn't expecting effusive gratitude from dd, but far from acknowledging these efforts on her behalf, she was extremely stroppy last night, turning the tiniest of incidents in to high drama [sigh]. To which dh responded by becoming grimly silent, which didn't help. DD is still finding school v stressful and difficult so I am trying to tread v gently but if I say slightly the wrong thing she explodes! And we had usual protests over bathing tonight too. Had to really bite my lip and go and fold towels on my own for a bit so I didn't explode too! Walking on egg shells is exhausting ... !

Baked spuds, grated cheese, naice ham and salad tonight for supper last night with various chutneys left over from Christmas. Need to decide on and prep veggie dish for tonight (something involving chick peas I suspect) and make soup for weekend.

DD in no better mood this morning. She couldn't find her clean school jumper which had been washed and ironed and handed to her, but of course it was still my fault it was lost. Even dh (who avoids all conflict where possible) reprimanded her for speaking so rudely to me. [Background to this is that in primary school I used to put everything out for her the night before on the bathroom chair, but now she is in secondary she wanted to take charge of her own clothes but it's been a bit hit and miss and of course she never preps anything in advance, so if anything is missing/lost it all happens at last minute/in stressful circs because she hates being late for school].

Oh well. It doesn't put one in a good mood for the day but going to go and start cooking now which should take my mind off it but sorry for essay and thanks for letting me vent (as usual).

Big waves to everyone I've missed and hope all fledglings have a good day!

I'm OK thanks SC, bit of a funny day yesterday, but nothing serious. Back later.

Argh SC sorry you are having such struggles with DD. I am dreading the preteen years, DD is bad enough now.

Yesterday's lessons were good, didn't get nearly as tidy as I wanted but nothing new there. Didn't have a staggeringly productive day, but considering the pain is still pretty bad, I'm not too displeased. I made a couple of appts, did some emails etc. Again though it's the HE that is really flourishing at the moment - I'm not too worried about other stuff while we are focusing on that getting underway. As long as I don't delay for too long and still keep up with things! But I'm finding that getting lots of fun learning done is actually energising me to some extent - not physically (don't think anything could ATM! :o) but in terms of feeling more positive about daily life, which is no small thing for me given my fragile mental health!

Gym today - always a good social outlet for me as all the home ed mums sit outside the hall and chat - followed by St John in the evening, friend is taking us so is coming to play for a bit first. I've said the DCs can get their train set out (insanely generous friend got them a Lego one for Christmas! ) if they get their stuff done.

Toffee thank you for the book suggestion! Not seen that one before (which is odd because I have loads of art books on my wishlist and most are Usborne!) - DD saw me looking at the link and excitedly said OOOH Starry Night! It's her favourite, we've got a framed poster of it which Santa delivered a few years ago. :) Last night DH was putting the DCs to bed and they were looking at his Escher book, it was lovely to listen to.

Right. Need to stick the dryer on as I forgot. Happy with the baby step today - we don't use a calendar but we have a lovely diary which we find easier to use as long as we don't lose it under piles of clutter - discovered a few years ago that we were much more likely to keep organised with it if we got a nice sturdy one. Lapsed last year as we tried one of those family planner thingies. Back on it this year though with a beautiful British Library affair. Makes me happy :o (Nerdvana again!) but the 2017 one will be DH's choice (blatantly going to be a Chelsea FC one or something ugh! :o).

Thank you letters, argh you've reminded me we need to do that! Will still be earlier than we managed it last year.

Morning! Miserable and sleety here, but have picked up some parcels and done grocery shopping, which counts as errands day. Also did some anti-procrastinating yesterday. :)

Thanks, SC, no not too late. :)

anyone?

< Clinks tea cups with Blue >

Good morning everyone, we are a poorly household here - DH at home sick, DS has a cough/cold and wheezy chest and I have been up at 4am for the past three days thanks to DS's erratic sleep. Ugh.

SC - glad your DH stepped in when your DD over stepped the mark. You've said before how scatty she can be. I'm surprised school got cross with you; surely they should be talking the her about taking more responsibility?

Fuzz - glad you are enjoying home ed so much; you talk about it so positively. Hope you and Einstein are feeling physically better soon.

Thanks for links Who - are you not enjoying OU? Or is it just to time-demanding

Toffee I completely agree that it is ridiculous to expect ASD children (or any children for that matter) to be learning a new subject the day before they are tested on it.

Blue we have had some rather feeble snowflakes this morning too.

Waves to everyone else, especially newbies Allguns Strumpers ExMIL Lisa George and Singme

Haven't managed much today as DH is under my feet and DS is quite clingy. Have done a few bits:
Fed DS, Cats and myself
Loaded dishwasher
Started washing machine
Made beds x2
Online grocery shop

I've managed to declutter loads of left over baby stuff this week via selling on Facebook and made almost 60 quid. That will get an annual zoo pass for one of us and DS's birthday/Christmas money will get his. Feeling chuffed.