Cruising towards Christmas and the New Year - it's the December Flylady thread.

[CotswoldStrife]

Ho, ho, ho - welcome to the December Flylady thread. We'll be following the Flylady method and enforcing order on our houses. Feel free to join in. The monthly focus for December is pampering

I'll be posting links to the daily missions, daily focus and the zone cleaning - don't worry about the detailed zone cleaning if you haven't already decluttered, Flylady recommends decluttering first.

You can probably already tell my personal level of dedication to the internet, not the house as I've looked up the Christmas smileys specially. No washing up was done in the making of this post.

I'll post the first December links tonight!

I've shined my sink too tired to list the many other things I've done today - but flying wise sink is shined.

There are no failures on this thread , we don't do failure. Or oven cleaning, generally ... it's on my list, then I'll call the engineer round for the faulty door.

Got a bit of admin done today and actually ticked things off my list. It is always busy coming up to Christmas especially for the primary school aged child and I feel I am always trying to think a day or two ahead to cover what is needed. Have tomorrow sorted and not much needed for the weekend so yay!

Will do the links now, have arranged to go out with a friend tomorrow morning so that won't help my planning either

The daily summary for Friday (also available on the Flylady website at flight plan which should update automatically each day.

**

Baby-step no 2 - get dressed as soon as you get up (this is one of the top tips IMO)

We are in Zone 1 for the rest of this week: the entrance, front porch and dining room

Spend 15 mins decluttering in Zone 1.

When you have finished decluttering, the detailed cleaning list (if you are at that stage) for Zone 1 is here

Mission for Friday clean the dining table and chairs

The daily focus for Friday is: declutter your handbag and car/date night

The monthly habit for December is pampering!

extra Christmas mission

I'm glad to hear there are no failures! I have not got the month off to a good start. Stressy stressy stresshead.

Only basics done here today - washing up and laundry. Time!!

I'm so embarrassed, my dd just swore while we were waiting to go into nursery this morning in front of everyone! I'm so annoyed because we really hardly ever swear so she must have heard it just the one time that we did and stored it away for future use. Argh! Think I made it worse by telling her not to say it and muttering that I didn't know where she'd heard that

Pretty sure that's a parenting fail

Foxes I'm on a preschool committee. Lots of the kids swear, often in context! This is a good preschool in a naice area so you are not alone!

Ta da:-
Exercise DVD
Two Xmas presents bought
Stuff to charity shop

To do:-
Look after inlaws and two children at town Xmas fair tonight
Amuse inlaws and two children until Xmas fair starts
Panic tidy house before inlaws arrive.
DH is working late.
Aaagh.

Signing in....great start eh, already a day late!

I finally took the decluttering bags (excepts for ds3s badly decluttered clothes) to the school for the xmas fayre...yay!!
ds2 is on dishwasher duty, as he did it badly on sunday, ds3s is next week...such a mean mum, but it does mean my sink is rarely shiny as they do it when they get in.

ta das
laundry
folded laundry
more laundry
took toys and books to school
took order to customer
went to the bank
paid deposits for xmas meal
got some mince for dinner.

to do,
cook dinner
take kids to bingo
sleep for a week

Hi all. I need to return to the fledgling flock. I have now returned to work and am slightly overwhelmed by trying to juggle work, 3dc, the house and preparing for Christmas. It never feels like there are enough hours in the day! I will post properly tomorrow but just wanted to mark my place. Huge wing flaps to all.

Today's ta das -

Shined sink
Swept kitchen floor
5 mins hot spots
10 mins bathrooms
15 mins decluttering in kitchen
Emptied bins

Hi all,

Ta da:-
Survived Xmas fair, was ok actually
Few mins online work for my course
Ordered school photos
One more Xmas present bought
Nativity costume nearly sorted

To do:-
Figure out how to stop DD2 breaking things in the house.

Good work today fledglings. Never too late to join in either, all are welcome for one day or every day. Is it the upcoming inspection that is causing the stress, Cag?

Not much accomplished in the house today (not even the basics here easttowest ) but I had a nice day out with a friend! Always tomorrow even if my DD has a packed schedule of playing planned ...

I will now attempt to post the links under the influence of wine. This may not end well.

The daily summary for Saturday (also available on the Flylady website at flight plan which should update automatically each day.

**

Baby-step no 3 - explore the website

No zone work or missions at the weekends – woo hoo, enjoy!

The daily focus for Saturday is: family fun day

The monthly habit for December is pampering!

Super Cruise Christmas mission intermittently

Today I did tumble drying, wrapped a couple of presents (visiting people before Christmas) sent DD off to her friend's house for a sleepover and had lovely time alone with 7yo DS.

Here is what he said to me as we left DD:
DS - Are we going home now?
Me - Yep
DS - To play wii party?
Me - Yep
DS - And have macaroni cheese for dinner?
Me - Yep
DS - And snuggle? And to love each other obviously.
I think I melted 😍😍😍 we did have a very snugly afternoon. Until he beat me at battleship 😂

Well I had a good time last night, despite having pouty kids, ds3 had a face on him because he only had 1 strip of tickets and therefore wasn't getting many numbers marked of, despite losing out on a house because he didn't listen properly. Then ds2 started moaning because bf won the raffle and got a spin the bottle game and gave it to ds3, ds2 was sat with his friend so lucked out, and then moaned like mad because he didn't get anything, you know a rare night out, pop, crisps chocolate. Why do kids get so entitled? I don't remember being like that as a kid, sometimes i feel like stripping them back to books and a select few toys for a month just so they're a bit more grateful.

[Waves to all.]

Well today dd fell off a horse and was disappointed not to fall off again because someone told her once that she wouldn't be a proper rider until she has fallen off seven times and today's fall was only her sixth!

We also had to rush to the dog's aid when he brain the size of a walnut got stuck half way up a ladder in a barn and then couldn't get down again ... .

Oh and as for Flying, I managed to hoover the entire ground floor, deal with one dining room table hot spot, help dd with Latin conjugaisions (if that counts as Flying) and hoovered and dust balls out of the corners of our stairs again and followed it up with a quick swish and swipe of the paint work.

Didn't do anything towards Christmas at all [whimpers and rocks in corner]

Big waves to all!

hoovered the dust balls

Oh yes, dh and I also carried the remainder of the on-line grocery order downstairs to pantry that had been sitting in the hall since Wednesday

G'night all!

I can completely relate to having children who can sometimes be very entitled ScuttlbuttHarpy. I honestly think the more they get the more they want.

I have spent the day running errands. I bought some frames for the dcs school photos, some presents and some new lights and decorations for the tree. I also collected a couple of parcels. I also took the dc to make mil a present at a pottery painting cafe which was really good fun.

Dp organised the garage so we can now actually get in there and reorganised the living room so we could put the Christmas tree up. All in all it was a very productive day ☺

Done today -

Shined sink
Swept kitchen floor
Decluttering under kitchen sink (part one - this may take some time!)
Laundry seems to have become log jammed again, must progress tomorrow

Well my downstairs, including the kitchen is clean, the washing mountain has shrunk to the size of a mound, and I even managed to squeeze in a film.

Feeling mightily accomplished tonight and the dull ache of my back and stiff knees are proof of that.

Tomorrow I have a sign up,

Whoops posted too early,

...and then I need to take my contacts out in order for my corneas to replace and heal itself before my opticians appt on Wednesday, or I'll be seeing my eyeballs on the contact lens posters in the office advertising the dangers of never giving your eyes a break. Problem is I lost my glasses in the move last year and had to wear contacts ever since but I'm now on my last pair and wont be able to see past my own chin until I get my new specs. So I'll be house bound, but at least it'll be tidier, well that's the theory.

Evening all. Another day when everyone else seems to have made more progress than I have

DH was out for the afternoon and I had also promised DD some serious playtime. I am now shattered! We have one thing on tomorrow and hopefully I will be able to do some cleaning around it.

Feeling very Christmassy now we are in December. The last couple of weeks of school are always manic - random demands for items and outfits - so I am looking forward to getting to the end of them all!

Need to write another to-do list to make sure I don't miss anything next week!

Cursing being talked into a Smiggle advent calendar this year for DD, if you are on the thread for it I am one of the people who has got the non-working stuff. Never again. The calendar costs a fortune and the contents so far are utter tripe. I have a Yankee Candle tealight calendar for myself and DH has one of the Costco beer ones. I did say it felt Christmassy around here!

Links coming up shortly!

The daily summary for Sunday (also available on the Flylady website at flight plan which should update automatically each day.

**

Baby-step no 4 - write a morning routine on post-its we generally ignore this one

No zone work or missions at the weekends – woo hoo, enjoy!

The daily focus for Sunday is: renew your spirit

The monthly habit for December is pampering!

Super Cruise Christmas mission

I've finally had a productive day, mainly because the new blinds I've ordered for almost the whole house are being fitted next Friday which means painting and window sealing needs to be done by then. There's nothing like a deadline to get things moving.

Dh and I managed to fit in a visit to a new coffee shop to have lunch, do the crossword and eat cake so it's actually been quite a pleasant day, despite getting lots done.

Ta da's
One load of laundry
Dishwasher on
Chased up blinds order
Polyfillered holes and repaired damaged plaster in two rooms
Bought and fitted new loo roll holder
Bought lamps for the guest room (plus v boring bin and loo brush for en suite)
Emptied porch ready for painting (mist coat on new plaster tomorrow-that won't be fun)
Made a to do list for tomorrow

I'm still avoiding Christmas. How late can I get away with starting?! I'm envious of the Yankee candle advent calendar cotswold. Any smells you recommend yet? I'm rubbish with scented candles.