February Fledglings Fluttering and Flying! It's the awesomely alliterative Flylady Fred.

[fuzzpig]

2016 is truly underway and maybe the New Year Resolutions have been forgotten please say it's not just me - never mind, it's a new month and a new start beckons.

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 to enjoy life!

This is where, from the first of the month, 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!

and/or

• Reinforce Baby Steps + do Daily Missions which introduce specific things to work on.

There are also detailed cleaning guides if you’re really crazy 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!

Oh bugger, sorry (still rush posting without previewing - evidently)

I left out the main and most important point of that final para - ie I doff my hats to those of you who are trying to do housework while suffering from physically limiting illnesses - it is not only physically draining but mentally so demoralising too

hi, all, sorry not to have been "housekeeping" but I really haven't

Poor SC what an exhausting halfterm. I don't want you ever to say again that you feel guilty for not working harder. You seem to be working flat out all the time. Awful when your body cannot physically do things you want it to.

Not much to say, except that I am enjoying my greenhouse. Put some potatoes in there to chit, cue a lot of Jokes about the Martian, which was not what intended..

Have also seen a few friends recently and gone out a bit so that is all good. I now have a mantra - every day I tell myself everythign I have acieved even if it is just reading a book or driving over a difficult junction on the road network!

Ds2 fine, still a bit annoying conversationally though, which is always gets me and dh down. Dh solves the problem by taking him on long walks to interesting places, he seems to fine 1:1.

And my other achievement is that I managed to get the skulking teenager to see Magic Flute. Oh how I wish it was snakes and other exotica - a very dour production all dressed in grey suits and black scenery. Sarastro had a pony tail..oh dear, bring back the pantomime. Teen loved it, as he didn;t know any better and said to me it was funnier than he expected. So finally introduced him to Opera. didn;t dare take ds2 though. Him next, but need to pick my Opera carefully and no modern theatre productions.

Waves enthusiastically to Knitting!

Sorry - still haven't caught up with personals on here - got involved in too many EU threads for my own sanity!!

Knitting lovely to hear about your new philosophy - quite right you give yourself credit too - and wonderful about the greenhouse.

I am sure I have mentioned on here before the Ken Russell production of Magic Flute that dh and I saw at the ENO in the early nineties. It was mindblowingly pyschedelic. 30 ft high phalluses were the least of it ...

Forgot to post pic of dd (and four legged friend) enjoying beautiful English mud countryside! Joking apart, every time I go back, I forget just how beautiful it is!

Waves to SC and Knitting.

Lots of planned things didn't happen here today, due to weather, but we do at least have curtains in our bedroom now... (was only blinds before).

Nice to see you SC, Knitting and Blue*

Today i have been procrastinating. It felt wonderful.

Waves back to Blue and Einstein

Einstein it's half term and you should indeed be revelling in procrastination!! Why can't mothers have a holiday too? Your week of crafting sounds absolutely fab btw ! Dead jealous here

Blue Well done about the curtains! I start every school holiday with a long list of things to achieve and inevitably only do 10% and then feel rubbish about it. And then the same thing happens in term time.

I don't think we are very kind to ourselves are we?

[Was just imagining us all standing on an imaginary picket line; a warming brazier behind us, brandishing banners about mothers' rights ... then realised I need to go and wash dd's ballet kit and polish her school shoes... heigh ho]

Hey SC nice to see you :)

Just popping in with links (well, link singular)

Baby step 21 here

No mission as it's Sunday, and it's renew your spirit day. Do something nice for yourself :)

We are spending today trying to fix DCs' room - new (to us) bed was dropped off so we need to rearrange the room to fit it; DS' bed was a toddler size but now we have a single with drawers underneath. Much rearranging required, no idea how this is all going to work...

Nice to be back thanks Fuzz Waves back!

Have fun with the re-arranging but take it steady and don't over do it! [stern look]

Sorry, still haven't caught up with thread and personal messages. All my time went on EU threads again this morning and I'm only half way through today's chores! Plus I want to spend some time with dh before dd returns tonight.

Hope everyone is oK though and wishing you all as good a Sunday as poss! BBL

It's ok I haven't overdone it, I think! :o DH did most of it. Still a way to go but DH finishes early tomorrow so we can carry on.

I was sorting through our bedding - HOW MANY PILLOWCASES?! FFS. Still it's much more organised now.

How is the broken tooth doing? The worst bit is usually the sore spot on your tongue because you keep rubbing your tooth with it

Back from our couple of days away, unpacked surprised myself there and got stuff ready for school tomorrow. Had a bit of a pamper night in the bath to cheer myself up, now just after midnight so will be back in a few hours with plans for the day.

Unpacked! That deserves a I am rubbish at doing that.

Tooth isn't bothering me at all, TBH I'm tempted to just leave it due to the cost of getting it sorted but I don't want to risk it getting worse, or infected or something.

Woke up this morning to the sounds of the DCs tidying their room. Kind of looks messier now, but the intentions were good :o

Anyway I need to build on the momentum from yesterday, as there's still a lot to sort out.

Links

Babystep 22
We are now in Zone 4: the boudoir

Mission here

It's Monday (yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay ) so it's Home Bleugh day.

Re the unpacking, it was only a two-day trip so not much to unpack, no star required (or earned, really as I still have a bag of stuff in the kitchen from a weekend away in December )

1. Have collected prescription this morning and bought a skirt from the chazza, new with tags, killing time waiting for the chemist

1. Have come online to pay a bill distracted by mumsnetting.

1. Done two loads of laundry and hung to dry. Third load in now, and could do with at least one more (and preferably two) loads but I'm already running out of drying room. Using the tumble dryer more and more these days, when is it hanging-out weather again?

Boudoir this week? Ours certainly needs work, should give it my focus and not my ignorance!

Oh no - broken tooth sucks!!

I've had a crap flying week as work has been so busy but on top of washings and hoovering at least. Need to put out some hot spots today but have so much work to do that the house will just need to go on the back burner for this week too. So desperate to clear the spare room so we can get the living room decorated finally.

Unpacked bags in the kitchen - are you me? :o

Today is a wading through treacle sort of day. Helped DCs sort out their books, bit of laundry... meh

DH is on his way home via a recruitment agency - I'm hoping he'll be able to book an appointment rather than seeing them straight away as I could really do with him being home!

Hi all, nice to see so many of you back again.

Did everyone have a good half term? I can't say I notice it much as DSs nursery stays open nearly all year round.

Things are quiet at GreyTowers at the moment, but I have managed to Declutter quite a bit which is great

We still had half term really - most of the DCs' activities were off so we had a chilled week.

Productive day in the end! Due to the new bed we had to move the DCs' chest of drawers - the bed has drawers so their clothes have moved into them. DH cut the legs off the TV unit, so it's lower down, and the chest has gone on top of that. So the TV is only a little higher than it was, but much more storage. We're using it for all our home ed stuff - workbooks, Numicon etc. DD had been saying that she'd like the room to be a bit more like a classroom so she is very happy. The non-fiction bookcase will come back down too, and the toy storage going upstairs (into our room - there is literally only room for clothes and story books in their room). So all school stuff will be in one room now which is good. Living room is still a tip but DH will be moving the table back (we had it out for game night and haven't put it back yet ) so he can do the ironing.

And well done for decluttering! :) I have mostly been moving stuff around rather than getting rid of anything :o

I've been mostly moving stuff around too, I seem to have hit a patch of finding that there's not much I want to get rid of. However I sent DH out to get three new bookcases at the weekend which will replace some old toy storage units and hopefully some decluttering will happen when we start moving stuff over.

Although we had a nice half term I felt depressed about how easily the house fell into disarray in such a short space of time, so I have created a new routine with the house divided into seven zones, one for each day of the week for thorough tidying and a quick home blessing style dust and vac (cordless vac so very easy). Then I can do Flylady zone stuff for the week on top of that. So, Monday is the master bedroom, I cleared a mass of stuff out that doesn't belong here and vacuumed, such an improvement.

Do any of you use a bullet journal? I think I've seen a familiar face or two on that thread, I've just started onein conjunction with my phone and am finding it a great aid to organisation.

Whoknows- I zoned the house when I was off on Mat leave and it really helped. Can't do it when I'm at work though boo.

We don't get a half term here in Glasgow. Double boo!!!

I haven't used a bullet journal. I currently have 14 different journals/diaries. I kinda like keeping them separate.
After half term all craziness is breaking lose this week. I don't feel ready for it after the weekend. I enjoyed myself a little too much and I know I am old because it is tuesday and I am still suffering for it.

Flying = nil. Panic crafting for birthday deadline = lots.
Back in the office today which is increasing panic levels as the project is taking 16x longer than I had hoped. Sods law really.

Any hows have a good week everyone!

Babystep 23 - afternoon routine

Mission for Tuesday - clothes pile!

It's Tuesday and that means Planning Day.

I have several other journals (SNs, garden, menu planning/shopping lists, apps on phone) but this does seem to bring a lof of loose ends that don't fit anywhere else together - it's a glorified to do list really.

Hmm, good job I got all the school bags packed last night as I fell asleep again this morning. Still, got there with all the right stuff and with DD having eaten breakfast on time . She has promised to go to bed earlier tonight (she has a habit of faffing around at bedtime).

Have done some ironing this morning scrapes rest of thread posters off floor so does that count as tackling the clothes pile?

Need to have some lunch and do some shopping before collecting DD from school.

Will work on updating my diaries tonight. I am half reading the bujo thread but not sure if the method is for me. I like to write the lists but never return to them again

Oh, and the school have emailed to say that the children can dress up for book day