October Fledgling thread 2016: where we fluff up our feathers and fall back in to autumnal Flying routines

[Strikingclock]

Welcome to the October 2016 Fledgling Flying thread!

Come and park your broomsticks mops and buckets here!

This is where, from the 1st of the month, we attempt to declutter and follow the 30-step wisdom of Flylady (minus cutesy language and a surfeit of e-mails) with lots of chat and support and mutual motivation (and of course) along the way.

More info available here , here, here and here.

As usual we will be following a three-pronged approach - and don't worry - we are all at different stages. (Some of us are still stuck at the decluttering stage after quite a few years ):

• repeat or start baby steps (again!)

• repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone

or

• reinforce babysteps and do daily missions if you have finished decluttering.

And those of you who have decluttered and are really enthusiastic can throw some detailed cleaning in to the mix as well!

The idea is that we focus on short, ring-fenced, daily bursts of activity (steps and routines) that will help our homes run (more or less!) on "automatic pilot" allowing us to do far more interesting things instead!

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!

Helpful pointers: No perfectionism allowed! If it took a while to create the current C.H.A.O.S. (can't have anyone over syndrome) in your home, then it will probably take a while to reverse the situation (you can't clean clutter!). Small steps are the key! And you are never behind: just jump in where you are at!

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Good luck!

Morning all,

Foxes, hope you are all feeling better today. They do seem to pick up lots of bugs when they start PreSchool, it does settle down though. I'd love a new carpet, a large portion of our house is awaiting carpeting but our building work went overtime & budget😔.

Still, sounds a very touching Funeral & the balloons very poignant. I'm sorry to hear your Husband is struggling at the moment. I'm an only, I had a tremendous burst of energy organising my Mums Funeral & Estate, then afterwards hit a wall. I had to take two months of work. I'm sure there is no advice I could give that you haven't thought of yourself. But, I do send my thoughts & prayers to you at this most difficult of times. My DD was confirmed by our Bishop earlier in the year. Although much older than yours I suspect, we are the ones SC mentioned that are meant to frown on Halloween, although not in my house🎃.

Pont, how did the camp go? Hope it didn't turn into the Blair Witch Project 😉.

SC, hope you had a love walk, I must admit I was rather jealous. I could have done with Saturday. My house was full of teenage girls getting ready for a party. It takes all day apparently & they take over everything bathroom! Husband conveniently had a Golf day. They came home worse for wear, whatever they drank was bright red. It was everywhere, room looked like something out of CSI. 3 unexpected loads of washing & now I'm off to find a launderette to wash a kingsize quilt. Teenagers😖

Waves to everyone I've missed, hope you all have a good Monday

sc its same her.more you do,worse behaviour(with dd2 anyway)I've been told as a mum you feel guilt bout things all the time and if not you doing it wrong.on those grounds, you're doing great!!and if you are going wrong somewhere its same way as mechin up,calm quiet voice and plid on regardless. muttering under breath optional, but prevents bloodshed here

Tadas (supplemental)
School run
Grab bread/milk etc at co op
Kitchen-
Surfaces wiped and bleached
Cupboard fronts wiped
TD/wm wiped over
Washing into dryer,2nd load on
Hob wiped
Sink scrub n shined
Cleaned round cat bowls
Cleared coffee table of crapulence
Quick clear of living room floor
Laundry sorted into piles -at least 2more loads,maybe 3 if I can be bothered

I've run out of steam. Snaffled a couple handfuls Dolly mixtures(what I had to hand)and a milky way,but still tired so guess time for a break (maybe a cheeky nap?!)

mrsk dd2 is 13 in April.we also celebrate Halloween. Last year was an invasion trick it treater's. I kept score.150 left with sweeties (sobbed at such a loss of my favourite food group)

Did I really type food group?my thoughts are escaping into written word

Zoo . MrsK hope you get your quilt sorted! I guess I have all that to come so no advice I'm afraid SC, mine are only little (ish).

Ta da:-
Exercise DVD
Laundry on
Breakfast stuff tidied

To do
Calendar check
Before bed routine - must start this early as am working in a different place for the day tomorrow and not sure where I'm going
Return shoes to friend - forgot on school run this morning
15 mins online learning for new job
5 mins decluttering
10 mins holiday planning

SC here we also suffer with the more you do, the worse they behave. It is particularly true of DS1 who is 10. I find it extremely frustrating so you have my sympathies.

Ta da
Beds made
General tidy up of the living room
Washload done and dried
Ds1 and Dd to school
Toddler group with Ds2

To do
Ds2 lunch
Hoover downstairs
Clean microwave
Hang up/ put away dry washing
Dry up and put dishes away
Dinner
Dd to brownies

I'm guessing dd is a teenager then SC? I don't look forward to those days i tell ya. I like to think when it happens here i'll try and remember what it was like for me being a teenager and draw experience from that. Thing is though i'm discplined one who keeps ds in line whereas his father is the one he jokes around with. No doubt i'll come across as the mean boring one Saying that though no need for the foul mouth absurdaties. Not too old to wash her mouth out with a bar of soap [as my Nan would have said].

Ta das

took ds to pre-school
washed dishes
bleached downstairs loo
made beds
hoovered downstairs
made lunch

Need to crack on and finish the hoovering.

Ta das
Dishwasher on
Made lunch

To dos
Everything!

I think I have mastitis now , I'm feeling fed up! Sorry for not doing much of a reply but I'm going to attempt to at least get on top of the laundry before I go to the doctors later.

Zoo glad everything went as well as it can but sorry to hear about your dh , I guess it's expected but must be so hard

My children are too little for the whole worse behaviour when you do more stuff for them and obviously too small for the partying! You have my sympathies I remember how horrible I was when I was a teen...

Oh dear foxes hope you get sorted.

Ta da:
Calendar check
10 mins online learning (there is hours of work on there )

£17 lighter in my pocket & collecting quilt tomorrow, I couldn't face spending all day in a Launderette. No wonder they were ill, whatever it was it's absolutely bright red. Same here Stilll,Mercury, I have to mutter inside my head sometimes otherwise we'd have WW3 on a frequent basis. It's certainly trying at times😖.

TooStressy' did you have a good night out Friday? Would you like to swap a little'ish one for a stroppy teen😉?

Still, my DD is 17, strange we do our confirmation so much later here. It was quite impressive though, full Mass with all the bells & smells. Not sure DH enjoyed it as much he isn't one & had to sit on his own. Candidates & Sponsors all sat separately , I was sponsor to my BFs DD. 150 trick or treaters 😱! I decorate outside, I enjoy carving Pumpkins, I even do my Neighbours for her. I had to laugh at your thoughts escaping into the written word.

To da's
Launderette
Supermarket (disappointing array of Halloween treats)
Dishwasher on & emptied
Final load of teenage red ick laundry done
Wiped down kitchen counters

To do
Hoover (my least favourite job😕)
Ironing
Gym (though gym buddy has gone off grid)
Make dinner, thinking Tofu stir fry as DD now Vegetarian. Last time though DH dropped the F bomb when I said what was for dinner, he doesn't normally swear. She has got the Cats on it too, they like Quorn 'Turkey'& Sage slices.

Just got back from our weekend away. I hate coming back! 😂

Confirmation in our church is from 10 dep on the child.my dd also veggie,cept she don't do the "pretend meat" (except Linda McCartney sausages)

Wrote a long post, and then lost it by forgetting to press send!

Gist was sympathies to SC re small whirlwinds scattering belongings around the house. I would insist on not picking up after DD, esp on grounds of bad back, or maybe use a broom to sweep it all into a corner if it's in your way otherwise!

Parenting course I did via the school said that you only have to get it right 30% of the time to be good enough as a parent, although perfectionist me struggles to believe that... Could the rudeness be triggered by tiredness after such a fun, busy w/e? Hunger also a trigger in this house.

Flying, well, it's a lovely sunny day here, so got the washing dry on the line. Not much else achieved.

Ew to red ick, MrsK!

ta da

took ds to pre-school
washed dishes
bleached downstairs loo
made beds
hoovered downstairs
made lunch
hoovered upstairs
picked up ds
made tea
washed dishes
zaflora'd kitchen tops
general tidy up

Get well soon Foxes

omg MrsK how did you get yourself in situation where your house was the pre and post teenage party venue? And yes in that situation i woukd just ditch the duvet and get a new one. I'd also make my teenage pay for it out of their pocket money. See told you all i was disciplinary in this house

Welcome back Cag Mondays are awful as it is without it also being the day you come back from a nice weekend break.

I've written a long reply so many times only to lose it. Very annoying when it happens

No idea when I last posted but I know it has been ages. I've haven't totally dropped off doing the tidying though but I will admit that I'm not totally on top of stuff.

Since I last checked in lots of illness, in fact I think me getting ill is what caused me to drop off.

More recently we've also been on our first holiday in six years and we've also bought a new (second hand but new to us) today so finally we have a four door car, it has been hell climbing into the back of a three door with the car seat for the last 16 months. May be my back might finally start recovering a bit now!

I'm not going to try and claim that I'll be back on regularly as something always goes wrong when I do so I'll just see what happens.

Forgive me using the C word but I'm already massively excited about Christmas, Meerkitten will be 19 months at Christmas, so much more aware this year, I'm really looking forward to it.

I haven't caught up with the thread but I hope that everyone is doing well, lots of new names so it looks like it is busy.

DP is out tonight with a friend so I'm having a quiet night in front of the television.

Big wing flaps to everyone!!

foxesget well soon honey
Celeste in most families I know mums are the discipline, dads take fun role .zoolets know pushing mum never a good idea as I don't bend,I snap
sc we have a rule when I say go clear up x if its on floor gets binned as unimportant. This gives zoolets warning where I going.first couple times felt truly evil binning any left behind items. It only happened twice,now if I say I go clean x they run with bells on to make sure treasured items aren't sacrificed!!

Ta das for rest of day
Made banana oat muffins
School run
Parents evening of lil zoo and D's
Walk over and collect dd2 as we wouldn't be home when she got back and fields quiet she needs cross n t later
Make zoolets dinner
Last wash and dry put away
Wash up
Feed dp and myself
Wash up

Hello dogsbum!
I'm just up doing the first feed so thought I'd update. I do have mastitis and I've got antibiotics now so fingers crossed I'll be feeling better soon. New carpets are down and look lovely so soon as we're all feeling better we'll be getting the rooms sorted out fully.

Hope everyone had a good start to the week.

Today's baby-step no 18, for Tues 18 Oct is: reading the Flylady eleven commandments. Here: let's just say I find no 4 and no 10 rather challenging!

Newcomers - here is the launch pad from which you can navigate the site:
www.flylady.net/c/lp.php .

We are in Zone 4 this week, the boudoir: The Master Bedroom, Bath, Closet (October 16-22) here.

Declutter for 15 mins a day in the current zone!
Once decluttered, go on to 15 mins a day of detailed cleaning.

Today's mission (Tuesday) can be found: here. Spend 15 mins attacking the clothes pile in your boudoir (clothes that accumulate on a chair or on a hook on the back of the door). Give away or put away!

The daily focus for Tuesday is: planning : menus, holidays, wardrobes, appointments etc.

The habit for October is getting rid of paper clutter,
here: www.flylady.net/d/habits-of-the-month/october/.
(Scroll down for detailed explanation.)

The daily flight plan here: www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-120 will update itself (hopefully) and if you click on it tomorrow will provide a quick summary of the above.

Keep going everyone!

***

Good morning! Top marks fledgings, everyone has been very busy I see! Apologies for not getting back to thread last night. Had dd's godfather pop over unexpectedly (very very relieved I had done home bleugh and some preparatory cooking earlier in the day!).

Went to bed shattered and was woken at 4am by yet more police causing a racket in the street. Six police cars and a couple of police vans and at least 30 policemen, most of whom seem to be armed. This is the third time this has happened. It's obviously some sort of training exercise and they are either (a) using this street as a rendez-vous point or (b) they suspect something nasty terrorism-wise is going to occur near our local underground tram stop which is about 25 paces from our house. Dh thinks its the former and I am praying he is right!

Thanks for all the kind words about adolescent angst! Reassuring to know I am not the only one! (DD is quite a handful atm, crying over the slightest thing one minute like a nine-year-old, then really bolshy and stroppy the next, like someone much older than her 13 yrs. It really is quite difficult to handle both "versions" with equanimity ifyswim.)

I was so determined to be calmer last night and yet about 5 mins after her god-father had left calm discussions escalated in to another barny about something which is long over due and she had promised she would do and hadn't. And another about an issue with school work shortly after that . I failed to handle it well yet again (not helped by chronic back pain atm!). Must do better!

Oh no Foxes that is really awful that you have mastitis! What a rotten time you are having atm. [Proffers chilled cabbage leaves instead of flowers.] Glad the new carpets are cheering though! Hope you recover quickly!

Yay Dogsbum great to see you! How you doin'? How is Meerkitten? So sorry to hear you have been ill. But glad to hear you have had a holiday!

Blue bless you for posting that about only needing to get it right 30% of the time. I feel so crap about my parenting atm that that statistic has cheered me greatly!

Zoo/Blue I might try that warning + sweep anything on floor in to bin approach! Need to follow Zoo's advice about keeping calm as well!

And yes Zoo yes to guilt - in my case the RC variety - always have that in abundance

Speaking of which Zoo and MrsK dd's Confirmation took place last year of primaire. We had full bells and smells and papal nuncio no less whose representative openly admitted that they confirmed 12 year olds in this country (they stay at primary school a year later here) for purely pragmatic reasons ie they like to catch 'em young! It was far too early for my liking but dd wanted to get confirmed with her classmates and friends and in the end it was a rather inspiring day.

Wow MrsK I really admire your cheery forbearance with regard to red-ick-gate!! You sound like a lovely ma! (Will be pestering you for teen parenting advice soon no doubt!) Arf at quorn-loving felines!

Zoo at 150 trick or treaters!! And haven't thought of dolly mixtures in over 30 years!!

Great list there Celeste Just to be clear - dd didn't swear yesterday - she was just very very bolshy which I felt was unwarranted after the weekend we had had. Parenting a teen (as I am discovering) is very different to parenting a little 'un and I appear to be, so far, rather crap at it frankly.

Celeste/Zoo I am definitely the "wicked witch" in this house while dh gets to be "fun Daddy"! [grrrrrr]. He travels so much that he inevitably manages to escape quite a bit of the more wearing/repetitive aspects of parenting!

Mercury thanks for those kind words . You sound very organised!

Toostressy pat yourself on the back for doing that 10 mins of study! Have you started your new job yet and if so, how is it going?

Hope you are ok Cag?

Hope I haven't missed anyone out - feeling a bit bleary-eyed this morning - big waves to eveyrone else anyway!

Hope everyone has as good a day as poss …

[Places large platter of pains au chocolat & slices of hot buttered cramique on the naughty corner bar with large pots of coffee and tea for everyone to help themselves. Don't mention Slimming World.]

Morning!!just thought I'd check in early as volunteering at community cafe today

Ta das
Fed cats
Pop co op bread and milk(locusts have struck again-aka dd2)
Wipe bath n sink
Bleach lav
Zoolets are feeding(cereal going in,toast imminent)
Pack ups done
TD beeping first loads ready to put away.2nd loads just going in there shortly!!

Dd2 is Christian, but not rc.gladly no incense this weekend,I makes me cough!!

Slimming world, what's that? knows full well it's zoos hell on earth,life without huge quantities sweeties

Morning! Thanks for the cabbage leaves SC . I didn't have fever or chills last night so think antibiotics are already kicking in. Dh also made breakfast for himself this morning so he must be starting to feel better too. Poor dd has had some terrible dinners lately since dh has had no appetite and felt queasy and I've been too exhausted. Hopefully today will be better.

I will gladly accept a cup of coffee but have to decline all sweet treats as the antibiotics may cause me and ds to get thrush and apparently sugar increases that risk. This exact same thing happened when dd was a baby so I'm really trying to prevent it! Maybe a virtual dolly mixture would keep me going though . I would just like to have a small rant at this point - why is breastfeeding so bloody hard??! I know it will get easier and I'm only six weeks in but just argh!

To dos
Washing washing and more washing
Buy probiotics!!
Start to get ds bedroom and spare room sorted
Book dd flu jab

foxesyou're doing great my dear. I think everyone gets annoyed/frustrating feeding sometimes, but come complain to us whenever the needs be

scjust realised I didn't comment on last nights caffuffal(so stunned by the swear word of SW is my excuse)I hope dp is right.disturbed sleeps awful,but for something so dramatic must be hard resettle.fingers crossed it last time they wake you and nothing untoward occurs
Just started raining here.great!I now have to walk zoolets in with Pokémon and my little pony questions aplenty sighs

Morning all,

Sorry SC, I completely missed your post yesterday morning. I saw comments to you & thought you guys must PM. I completely get what you are saying my DD(an only too) can make me lose my shit like no one else. They are so unpredictable it's like an emotional roller coaster every day. I do take heart from conversations with my girlfriends who all experience the same with their daughters. There is a book called "get out of my life" living with teenagers. It's an interesting read. Basically they kick off if they are hearing something they don't want to (doing a chore for example). They start an argument & go off in a strop therefore getting out of what they didn't want to do. Obviously theory is different to real life. Sometimes, I think I'll pick my battles other days I think fuck it I'm not having that. I start most days thinking today I shall be calm & rational😏. I can see the logic in having Confirmation at Primary (12 here also), it was heartening to see so many teenagers choose to be confirmed. I think there were about 200 teens. I'm impressed you had a Papal Nuncio. You are not a crap Mum, I think you sound a rather lovely Mum & you can knit😱

Parenting a teen is a bit like before you have a baby & people tell you things & you think I won't do that or it'll be different for me. Nothing can prepare you for the reality of having a baby & nothing can prepare you for the reality of having a teenager.

Celeste, oh she is paying for the quilt to be cleaned. It was cheaper to clean it than replace. It's a fairly regular occurrence to have the girls get ready here, I don't mind it's quite nice seeing them excited & dashing about the place. I've known them for years & some have been on holiday with us so they are all pretty comfortable at our house. They were just so funny on Sunday morning giving me the gossip etc I couldn't be bothered to get grumpy about the washing.

Dogsbum, I like your name

Foxes, you really are in the wars sorry to hear you've got Mastitis. You sound as though you are run down are you taking any Multivitamins, Floradix etc? Apologies for probably suggesting the obvious

Happy Tuesday everyone

MrsK not obvious at all - no I only take vitamin d as that's the only thing NHS say to take when breastfeeding but you're right a multi vitamin may be a good idea. I'm off to pick up probiotics later to maybe I'll have a look for a breastfeeding vitamin or something! Can't hurt!

SC I also forgot to mention your being woken by police raid that would freak me out too! I'm sure it is nothing sinister though after all they have to practice somewhere I suppose and maybe it just happens to be your area for a while! Hope it doesn't keep happening though.

Morning Fledglings!

Need to get up an hour ago in a sec, and do a major room rescue of the living room as I have pupils this morning 😱

We've been talking over the last few days - long story short we are thinking of moving into a static caravan type thing. Need to look further into it but our (housing) situation as it stands is just totally ridiculous and we need to do SOMETHING. I suggested that we move forward as if we've already bought a static and so majorly step up our decluttering etc.

I forgot you were breastfeeding Foxes, I thought afterwards I hope I didn't sound patronising as that part of my life is so long ago. DD was a shocking sleeper, I remember my GP telling me that sleep deprivation is the most effective form of torture. Your lack of sleep is probably at the route of you being run down. Hope you find some breastfeeding multivits & things settle down for you.

I forgot about the police too SC going on my rant about teens. The training does sound the most plausible explanation although I'd be freaked too.

Now I must get off MN & go to work