Combining April showers with Fledgling powers (2016)

[SpareCrust]

Humungous thanks to Greymalkin for leading us so professionally and capably through March!

And thank you in advance to Einstein for covering the first four days of this thread (while I sidle off)!

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 support and chat along the way.

Flylady link here.

Don't let the somewhat sickly and barftastic language of the site put you off: 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 swamped with masses of bumph. 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.

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 brew + the power of three technique + a bit of support on here can work wonders!

Here's the launch pad for more experienced fledglings

Oh and 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 and some of us natter rather a lot – but all lurkers, intermittent returnees, oldies and newcomers are very, very welcome!

x post

Caglio we so miss the creative writing element of hwk here

Balletgirl sound not send

Blue btw, meant to say earlier that I very much sympathise with your survival/edurance of various holiday visitors/visits down-thread

Right, back to the grind-stone Fledglings! [She says cheerily not].

Baby-step no 11 for tomorrow, Mon 11th April is: here. Continue previous steps plus some ignorable bumph about writing down inspirational phrases.

We are in Zone 3 (April 10-16) this week : The bathroom and one extra room.

Newcomers: the extra room can be a second, or third bathroom, a guest bedroom, a child’s bedroom, the office, or the laundry room. Just pick one extra room and focus on it this week.

Spend 15 mins decluttering in Zone 3.

When you have finished decluttering, the detailed cleaning list (if you are at that stage) for Zone 3 is here.

Monday's mission (and all the missions for the week) can be found here. Tomorrow we will be cleaning the bathroom counter top(s) and sink(s).

The daily focus for Monday is what we call the home bleugh but what is officially known as the weekly home blessing hour. Spend 10 mins on each of seven essential tasks (which, yes, adds up to more than an hour!)

The monthly habit for April is www.flylady.net/d/habits-of-the-month/april/ making your bed!

For a summary of the above, see the flight plan : www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-120 which should update itself daily.

*

G'night all!

G'night all!

Oh lawdy, endurance not edurance

may be implicated

SC Creative writing is done horribly by numbers these days, with all kinds of arcane grammar "rules" that have to be adhered to, and which are said to improve it, but which don't actually make a lick of sense. Cf Michael Rosen on the subject. So I wouldn't be too jealous!

Oh dear, re homework! Hope impending doom isn't too bad.

Well, today I have... Ta DA!

Laundry done and dried
Got dinner into slow cooker before church
Spent most of the day at a choir/singing workshop
Run round frantically getting things ready for school
Packed for mad week ahead
Written long lists for DH for mad week ahead
Checked bus times, train tickets, directions etc

It's London Book Fair time again, this time with added conference the day before and CPD event the day after!! The singing thing was amazingly good fun, but tiring and so badly timed! Will have to leave before school run tomorrow and get to play at being a professional person for a week.

Might flit in and out, but otherwise will see you on the other side! Massive waves to all...

Sorry I haven't posted over the last couple of days. We have been making the most of the last couple of days of the holidays. Yesterdat dd and I had some lovely one on one time. We went shopping and for coffee. She was the youngest and I think she has felt slightly unsure of her position since ds2 arrived.

Today we had my parents over for a roast. We have only done very limited flying but in the flylady spirit I made sure the kitchen was tidy before coming up to bed. I am sure I will be grateful I did it in the morning.

I'm off for an early night because like many of you I have had to set the alarm ready for the return to school.

Inset day here tomorrow so we will be out for the day - we go to the nearest large mall, DD will enjoy the massive softplay and then we'll have lunch and wander around the shops.

DD brought no homework home for the holiday, which sounded unlikely tbh. We'll see if she comes rushing out with her books on Tuesday!

Wish the holidays were longer, but I could do with some time on my own just to tidy up and clean on Tuesday! Although I'm already thinking I'll be starting the day via Greggs for a croissant and coffee to kickstart my day

Field or ice hockey Balletgirlmum? Talk about the deep end though. Poor kid. Hope ds did ok.

Yep re: writing, read this the other day michaelrosenblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/how-bad-writing-gets-to-be-called-good.html?spref=tw
And then there was this a few weeks ago which actually made me look at my calendar in case I'd missed April Fool's Day www.theguardian.com/education/shortcuts/2016/mar/07/new-exclamation-mark-rules-proof-the-government-wants-to-penalise-enthusiasm

I was speaking to DD's writing teacher - she said that when she started her creative writing degree, she was told, "Forget everything you learned about creative writing at school. It was all rubbish."

Field hockey. They lost all their matches & he made a couple of silly errors which cost them a couple of goals but he did make loads of good saves/clearances. They were a relatively young inexperienced team playing against more experienced sides.

He had a great time anyway.

Packed lunches done. Kitchen cleaned. Just need to do my clothes for tomorrow & take a last cuppa to bed.

Creative writing - urgh ds struggles so much with that. Children in the spectrum often do. He's been in trouble several times over it. Dd used to struggle too but understanding teachers & really working at it helped her.

As long as he has a good time that is the main thing :D

Ds is still up. I promised him ice cream tomo if he was no hassel getting ready and out for school tomo morning. His response? Of course I am going to be trouble, it's the first day back after the holidays at least he was honest I suppose.

Quite productive.

Loads of laundry
Took down knackered blinds and put up window film on the two bathroom windows.
Cleaned a few Windows as the katcher was out.
Put on new lampshades in our bedroom.
Roast chicken dinner which was a bit late.
Lounge, bedrooms and kitchen are fine. I meant to do the bathroom but I got too tired and it's bathroom week next week anyway.

And it is a mondayish monday.

ta da
watch an episode of postman pat
rewatch a pod cast i fell asleep in the middle of last night
have a futile conversation with ds about books for taking to school as a reading book
find ds' uniform components
play hunt the lunch box
write many notes in ds' planner
mutter about pe kit that never made it home over the holidays
check times of all the appointments this week
Drink coffee

Right just need to grab a bath and hair wash and then out for most of the day with a hospital appointment. All the joys...

Dh has taken dd off to a waffle shop in South Ken (this follows on from last week's "diet" which she followed to the letter) I'm glad she is behaving normally again.

ds2 is sticking in his Panini stickers. Oh dear.

Napoleon to follow.

today housework
hoover the stairs, they look terrible
hoover my bedroom, it looks terrible
clean the bath, clean the loo[s]

yesterday
changed two sets of sheets with help from kids
washed two loads
dh got ds1 ready for school and made him tidy his room a bit
roast dinner
dh made supper

Glorious, beautiful, sunny day here.

15 min before afternoon school run in which to catch up.

Ta da:
packed lunch for dd
morning routine (groan) including animals, wm, dw, td, dining room table hot spots, s&s
did a very mini-home bleugh as we are still "guest presentable" downstairs
some tiny bits of laundry
snatched lunch with dh

And the house is completely silent save for a snoring dog. Ahhhhh. Bliss.

Really struggling with CBA though, which is frustrating as I should be taking the opportunity to be sorting the boudoir and home office on a "free" day such as this.

But loathe being inside choring somehow when it is so lovely outside. Spoke to my (very organised, very objective focused, very energetic sister) who has given herself an "offical" day off today having had a rather testing time for the past three weeks (son at home struggling with dissertation). Wish I had done similar tbh instead of just spending it battling with myself half-heartedly choring and failing. Not sure I can justify it though and want to set good example for dd (who found it v hard getting up at 6am this morning).

Would have gone out to park save for the fact that the metro next to us is still shut for security reasons so school runs = an hour there-and-back walk at 7am and another at 3pm with furry one in tow. That's all I seem to have the energy for right now.

To do:
-pack parcel
-on-line banking
-toad in the hole for supper

Tomorrow is another day ... .

Knitting I can't tell you how glad I am to be past the Panini sticker stage. They used to rule our lives at one time.

Einstein hope hosp app went well

Lucked that was certainly a v productive Sunday you had there

Balletgirlmum think your ds was v brave to step in to the goalie position given so little practice/notice. Great he had fun too!

Gosh Caglio and Blue what a sorry state of affairs re: creative writing. How depressing. And there was me imagining dc in UK happily beavering away writing "little stories and poems". Thanks for enlightening me! (Although there is absolutely no creative writing teaching at all here. DD wouldn't even know how to write a letter if I hadn't taught her myself.) It is interesting to note that, when we visit the book shop, nearly all the stories on offer for children and teens are written by British or Australian authors in translation. I wonder how long that will continue given the articles you have linked to? Surely creative writing is one area of the curriculum where you are allowed "to go a little bit mad!". The clue being in the word "creative"?!!

Blue hope you enjoy the Book Fair and it is not too exhausting! Courage for your busy days ahead!

Caglio aghast at that exclamation point article!!

Hope inset day going well Cotswold!

Mercury your one on one mother-daughter time with your dd sounds lovely!

Right, school run + dog walk no. 2 here I come ... .

I quite agree SC - I said pretty much the same thing myself, as did the other people I've spoken to in person about it - CREATIVE writing means you can be, oh let me see, CREATIVE! Duh. Anyway. I can kind of not think about it seeing that my DCs are no longer in the school system, but despite it being nothing to do with me, I find it really depressing.

Agree also Ballet re: spectrum and creative writing. It can make it very difficult in all sorts of ways. DD is enjoying the creative side of it, but totally freaks out about imagining pictures in her head. She finds reading a real struggle - not the decoding bit, she's very fluent, but doesn't understand what she reads because she can't imagine it, unless there are lots of pictures (in colour. If they aren't in colour she says it hurts her brain because she has to imagine the colours as well as everything else). Today she's had a meltdown over her homework as they had a particular bit of music to inspire them, but "it doesn't give me any pictures" :( she was utterly distraught because she couldn't 'see' anything. We moved on to one of her other poems and her Brownies homework instead.

Not going to be a productive day for me otherwise though, feeling spectacularly deflated after popping into work and facing an unexpected rant from my line manager about how I should just quit because I'm just dragging it all out unnecessarily and I obviously don't have a chance of getting another position within the company anyway... :( thankfully lots of friends were around and were very supportive.

For those of you returning to school/work today - hope it went well!

Sorry to hear you had such an upsetting visit to work Caglio. Your line manager's behaviour sounds totally unprofessional to put it mildly. Good you had some support around though.

Hope no-one minds but I am going to post links early tonight in the gap between supper and last bits of homework. It's an hour ahead here and we are all tired. DD needs some encouragement to get stuck in to some (fortunately interesting!) Latin homework relating to scrolls, codex and palimpsests.

Big waves to all and catch up in the morning!

*

Baby-step no 12 for tomorrow, Tues 12th April is: here. It warns us against the dangers of crashing and burning when we try to do too much, too fast. It also involves deleting Flylady e-mails which most of us don't subscribe to, because there are far too many of them! I do not agree with Flylady's assertion that digital clutter is not clutter.

We are in Zone 3 (April 10-16) this week : The bathroom and one extra room.

Newcomers: the extra room can be a second, or third bathroom, a guest bedroom, a child’s bedroom, the office, or the laundry room. Just pick one extra room and focus on it this week.

Spend 15 mins decluttering in Zone 3.

When you have finished decluttering, the detailed cleaning list (if you are at that stage) for Zone 3 is here.

Tuesday's mission is here. Spend 15 mins sorting out your laundry area: wiping down machines, chucking old detergent bottles etc.

The daily focus for Tuesday is planning. Plan holidays, meals, wardrobes, budgets etc etc.

The monthly habit for April is www.flylady.net/d/habits-of-the-month/april/ making your bed!

For a summary of the above, see the flight plan : www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-120 which should update itself daily.

Caglio I agree with SC your line manager sounds very unprofessional. for you - hope you are ok.

Dc were back at school today and I was very productive as a result. I went with my mum, nephew and ds2 to a singing and dancing toddler group. Ds was obviously far too young to get anything from it but dn and I had a lovely time. I am shattered now - I had forgotten how tiring running around after a toddler can be.

Ta da
All beds stripped, washed and remade
Whole house hoovered
Washload done, dried, put away
Dusted
Mirrors cleaned
Bins emptied
Dinner cooked for my niece and dd
Washing up done
Kitchen cleaned

I'm exhausted now but the house looks so much better

Will read and catch up tomorrow morning - had a lovely day, need to get up early and panic tidy before delivery men arrive to collect some stuff and drop off more. Luckily DH can stay home until I've done the school run.

Cag, did see other people comment on your manager. Follow due process! It's not up to the line manager he/she just needs to follow the company's procedures.

Good morning fledglings!

Mercury you truly are a wonder woman! Your list yesterday was amazing! (How on earth you achieve so much with a babe in arms I do not know!) Do take it steady today though [stern looks over pince nez]

Cotswold Hope your early morning panic tidy is going ok!

A bit more focused on all things 'chore' today, after yesterday's faltering start. A motivating factor is that I've just remembered that the window cleaner is coming on Friday, and will need access to every room. (A bit of path clearing required in home office and small box room! Plus boudoir def needs to be made more respectable!)

I have had an unusually calm start to the day for two reasons.

1. Continuing my "hands off, stop helicopter parenting, give dd responsibility" approach, she rushed around the house and assembled her gym kit totally by herself this morning with no nagging from me! (I have suggested she does this the night before but this is up to her now.) Less arguing in the morning is good!

1. Dh v kindly volunteered to do outward school run + dog walk 1 allowing me to have a lovely 15 min bubble bath instead of 5 min shower! Bliss!

Only slightly stressful bit was the discovery that dd has grown out of all her spring weight coats (her wrists are sticking like twigs out of all the sleeves). So have ordered her something on line this morning.

Ta da:
rubbish and recycling
dd packed lunch
ordered dd coat on line
morning routine inc animals, dw, wm, td, dining room table hotspot, s&s

To do:
wrap and parcel up niece birthday present and post
clean kitchen surfaces
meal planning inc supper tonight?
supermarket shop
clear bed in boudoir
clear floor in boudoir
clear surfaces in boudoir
clear home office desk
clear home office floor
sort laundry room and continue washing
contact friend to arrange meet up

Have a good day everyone!

Morning folks! Thank you all for the kind words re: work. It's really rather ridiculous that she said all that, especially since she had already said that it's got nothing to do with her because the overall manager is dealing with it.

I may have turned my alarm off this morning after a couple of snooze buttons

Yesterday I had to take DS to Beavers, which I don't really like doing TBH as due to location/bus times it means we have to wait there for the hour! DH usually does it but he was on a late. I was dreading it as that kind of thing can really sap my energy, and I'm still a bit wheezy, but decided to go as I may have to do it a lot now DH is on variable shifts and I don't want him to end up missing loads. Anyway, it was fine, lovely in fact! Now the clocks have changed it wasn't dark until we picked him up, and DD and I just sat on a bench. We had a lovely chat including talking about the writing meltdown yesterday.

They are both in a foul mood this morning though. Sigh. It's going to be a long day.

Quiet on here today. Hope everyone ok.

Hope your day wasn't too onerous in the end Caglio!

Waves to everyone else!

Not a great day here. Second day back at school and dd had a mahoosive nose bleed and nearly passed out poor thing. School called me to fetch her at lunch time. She seems ok but I've never seen a child look so white. If she is no better tomorrow, then we are off to the doctor. Not a huge amount of Flying achieved after that but finished morning routine and laundry and a bit of clearing in boudoir.

*

Baby-step no 13 for tomorrow, Wed 13th April is: here. Choose a mission and do it! (Newcomers: this step is designed to introduce you to zone work.)

We are in Zone 3 (April 10-16) this week : The bathroom and one extra room.

Newcomers: the extra room can be a second, or third bathroom, a guest bedroom, a child’s bedroom, the office, or the laundry room. Just pick one extra room and focus on it this week.

Spend 15 mins decluttering in Zone 3.

When you have finished decluttering, the detailed cleaning list (if you are at that stage) for Zone 3 is here.

Wednesday's mission is here. Clean the flat surfaces in your bathroom ie the bath surround, the counter tops and the back of the lav and chuck stuff (old shampoo bottles, bits of soap, old hair scrunchies) as you go!

The daily focus for Wednesday is anti-procrastination. Do something you have been putting off!

The monthly habit for April is www.flylady.net/d/habits-of-the-month/april/ making your bed!

For a summary of the above, see the flight plan : www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-120 which should update itself daily.

G'night all!