Lost the plot with clutter? Want sparkle(r)s in your sink? Come Fly with flare on the November Fledgling thread!

[Sludgecolours]

If you are strugging 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 chat, support and and along the way.

This is where, from the first of the month (seriously, HOW is it November already?!), we follow – loosely – the rules of FlyLady [see website here ]. (Pls ignore the barftastic language, and we suggest NOT signing up to the emails as there are rather a lot of them. All the info you need will be posted here on a daily basis.)

Helpful info on getting started here!.

We adopt a three-pronged approach:

-start or repeat baby steps

• repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone or area (yes, just 15 mins focused work a day makes a difference!)

and/or

• 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.]

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!

Ive just caught up with the thread after a busy day and whinging children after staying at the grandparents who let them stay up too late ds was fine although my mum said he did cry a lot at bed time but then did sleep through so not too bad for the first sleepover!

All this talk of babies...afresh if I remember rightly our youngests are the same age...mine has been toddling for 2 months now and he is constantly running off, walking into walls, running too fast...he seriously keeps me on my toes but oh my goodness he is the most snuggly cuddly squishy scrumptious kissable little thing (my dd is still very cute too I must say but she is less interested in cuddling me now!! despite me trying!).

I'm sticking with 2 though! Love other people's newborns though!

Not done much flying today. I worked this afternoon and dh made lovely home made chicken nuggets for dinner with cornflakes. I know everyone has heard of cornflake chicken but first time we've tried it. i highly recommend!

Haha afresh I realise that sounded like I was doing a stealth boast with ds been walking for two months...I think your ds is a a few months younger though and I totally didn't mean it to sound like that!!

Lol foxes it didnt seem like that at all. I do think your ds is slightly older yes, mine is not yet 13 months

Haha my Ds is 14 months - I thought I'd remembered that right!

Good evening all! Loving all the talk of babies and toddling little 'uns!

Hope you achieved everything you wanted to today JingsMahBucket, FlyingJellyfish and Mercury! (I started but didn't finish.)

Sorry to hear you are feeling rotten Hills and CallmeCordelia.

Hope you both feel better soon!

Pretty heroic to embark on Christmas cake baking when you are ill and in charge of dc Cordelia! Ouch re: tendon Hills.

That's great that your dc's first overnight visit to gps went well Foxes!

Congrats on v respectable ta da lists achieved Bowerbird and Afreshstart!

And well done re: decluttering Cag no matter how it came about!

Baby-badger-watch cam and lovely atmosphere at your dd's school sound fab Zoo! Hope she thoroughly enjoys it all!

I spent 2.5 hrs exclusively on boudoir today (hurrah!) but it actually looks worse than when I started! This is because, half way through, I decided that there is a reason that a sea of crapola floats about permanently in there, and I couldn't "make do" with insufficient storage any more and so I started clearing out chests of drawers and re-purposing other storage. The result is one big mahoosive mess atm but I hope I will get there eventually (eek) (wibble).

On a more positive note, I feel liberated tonight because we all went to Sat evening Mass (which counts as Sunday Mass ifyswim) because I thought we would be entertaining tomorrow morning (brunch) and then our guests rang to say they won't be able to make it. So more time to do boudoir tomorrow oh no yay!

Links coming up! G'night all!

Have failed already! But not deterred.
Up settling dd3 for 3rd time but in between I've rebooted laundry ( so stuff ready to hang up in morning) and tidied the living room and playroom.

Teen was supposed to be sorting dishwasher but hasnt bothered...again. Kitchen is a state and we've no clean dishes. :(
Thatll be my Saturday night entertainment then! :/

But at least I'll be able to get to my sink to shine it by end of the night!

feel free to ignore!
Btw Cotswold (and Zoo) also a bit pissed off with dd's school tonight wrt to pressure of studies etc. DD upset today because she doesn't understand her physics. I don't understand it because it is way about O-level standard of old (and I didn't understand that properly anyway) and I felt a failure being unable to help her. Added to which, end of year exams apparently start first wk December (when term ends on 22nd) which is ridiculous given that they haven't even started some "chem" modules yet (ie entire biology syllabus). In summary, entire system set up around exams and marking, and end of year report writing, resulting in ridiculously short teaching time. Don't get me wrong, I have utmost sympathy for the teachers too, having to cope with ridiculous levels of assessments and testing and report writing. It's just that with timetable changes at beginning of term, teacher absences, exams and tests, there isn't sufficient teaching time and the speed of delivery of subjects is ridiculously fast . All of which = very pressured dc who can't keep up!

BzyB x post!
There is NO failure with Flylady! Absolutely none allowed ! Seriously! Pat yourself on the back for rebooting laundry and tidying downstairs! Those are huge positives!

Hope those of you who are going to be celebrating Bonfire Night have a fabulous (and safe) time! I get very nostalgic for Blighty at this time of year - fireworks and hot dogs and toffee apples etc ... . but have made masses of gingerbread to make up for it

***

The summary for Sun 5th November is available on the Flylady website here under "Today" and via the flight plan which should update itself automatically on a daily basis.

Baby-step no. 5 for Sun 5th Nov is here! Banish negative thoughts - a bit cult-like - but hey!

We start in Zone 2 tomorrow: Kitchen, Back Porch,Laundry Room,Pantry (November 5-11) : here . (If you do zone work at weekends that is!)

Spend 15 mins decluttering the current zone.

When you have finished decluttering, the detailed cleaning list for Zone 2 (if you are at that stage) is here.

No mission on Sunday because it is the weekend!

The daily focus for Sunday is renewing your spirit. Do something for you which makes you feel refreshed.

The monthly habit for November is menu planning here!

Flykid's challenge: here (hopefully continually renewing itself).

Daily reminders (which should also update themselves automatically)
here.

Holiday missions here!

Wishing you all as relaxing a Sunday as humanly possible!

**

Up early tomorrow for final midwife appt. Will find out if baby has gained weight or not eeeeek.

Anyone watch strictly tonight? Dying to know what you all thought of Anton's paso...

Morning all

Ds had a bad night. In with us from about 2 tossing and turning. Then awake properly at 430. I got up with him at 5 and am now watching him eat weetabix by the fist full. He can use a spoon and he hates having his hands washed yet this is generally his prefered method of eating breakfast.

Ta da

Dryer empty
Dryer refilled and on

Zoo school and badgers etc sounds lovely. I am generally happy with our school thank god.

Foxes i think we also have a similar aged dd, mine started school in september but i think yours might have just missed out

Good luck on the baby weighing cag My youngest was kept under midwife for a bit longer as hadnt regained enough weight but i am adamant had he not had a massive poo right before she came it would have been different!

Ta da
Cleaned bathroom, forgot about that.

To do
Make bed, quick tidy of bedroom.
Sort dining room clutter.
Mass, children's liturgy.
Roast dinner for one, means I don't have to cook again until Wednesday!
De-clutter dining room stuff
Put clothes away
Choir
Sort work bag and organise for tomorrow
Bed early

Morning!

Ta da
animals
dw emptied
wms on
lined and greased cake tins
dining room table hot spots
s&s

To do:
clean and polish DD jodphur boots
BOUDOIR
make cake
banking
cook roast pork & trimmings
long dog walk
continue laundry
drop off and pick up DD at ice ring
order DD winter coat (hope it fits this time)

Good luck with midwide appt Cag!

Bowerbird5 I am a strong supporter of the Sunday roast that lasts us two/three meals!

Strong for Afreshstart

Aw at eating weetabix with full fist Afreshstart!!

Good luck at the midwife appointment cag

Lots of productivity on this thread already. I am still in bed with ds2 watching Bing.

Todays to do:
Left from yesterday: clean the bathroom, hoover and dust upstairs
Also: cook a roast
Declutter bedroom drawers
Iron school uniforms
Rescue toys from under the sofa and hoover underneath
Spend some quality time with dd and ds1 playing board games.

afresh yes my dd starts next year eek! And at least your ds is trying to eat it himself that's great - my Ds just sits with his mouth open and waits for someone to shovel it in! I've seen him eat 3 weetabix and a banana in one sitting . They are funny at this age!

Just having a coffee in bed thanks to dh and then I need to finish some work.

Just had half an hour on the sofa while ds was napping. Everyone else is up now though. My back feels all bent! Think i need a brew to wake me back up properly

Not off to the best start as my alarm didn't go off (I forgot it's Sunday so the "every weekday" alarm obviously wouldn't work ) but oh well I had a much longer baby-free sleep.

Ah sleep is good cag

Morning all, finally caught up with thread. Lovely to see so many new people and serial returners.

Cag - I arrived home from a firework display with DD just in time to be confronted with Anton's paso. Extraordinary. I think Darcey's right, he is going for entertainment over technique and doing it reasonably well, but it was a bit . Not sure whether the bit at the end where they fell in a heap and Ruth straddled him in an ungainly manner was a good move. He talks back at the judges too much too. We voted for Joe, Debbie and Susan, who I though was great last night.

Cotswold - I tend to agree re SATS pressure, my DCs school wasn't too bad, no extra classes offered but they did literally nothing but maths and grammar through year 6, and really for what. Once it's over it's instantly forgotten about by the DCs. We did do some extra at home (DD was having tutoring because of her dyslexia so we switched to some SATS stuff towards the end plus some extra practice in Easter holidays) but it is all quite ridiculous. On the plus side she said SATS week itself was the best week of the whole year, they had lots of fun and no proper lessons after the test were done.

Hills - hope your ears are improving.

Bower sounds as though you are like me, coming home with wool, I have a rather large stash of the stuff.

I need to reboot the laundry again today, ironing during Strictly results show later. Meal planning, decluttering the fridge and hoovering/cleaning all floors are also on today's list. Also ferrying DCs around, paperwork and homework supervision.

I quite like this blog, which talks about the core principles of Flylady vs. Kondoing.

Thought that might be useful to others. I found the blog because Flylady pages don't load on my elderly laptop. (This probably means they are dense with ads). Thought I'd give a link for anyone else who can't get FlyLady pages to load and wondered what advice you guys were following.

These might be good too.
quizlet.com/112988607/flylady-routines-and-intro-full-set-flash-cards/
www.peaceofmindorganizing.com/blog/things-flylady-has-taught-me

Ah sludge I think we will get on...jodhpurs boots( I loved polishing mine).
Roast pork...that's what I'm having. I have sweet potatoes and squash from veggie box too. Yum! I just have to get it done between mass and choir 1 as choir 2 has started and I only have an hour between and both are in the city and I live in the country so I just stay. Must remeber a sandwich and a magazine for the lull.
I like baking and I used to go ice-skating as a child!
And the wool...yes I have a stash, don't need any more as I just do a little knitting and crocheting but this was hand spun hand dyed from my friend. It is gorgeous shades of greens, deep blues yet was yellow and black dye. We were on a course together and did some dyeing she has taken it to another level. Going to make a gorgeous scarf which may or may not be given as a present!

Re SATs we do one after school lesson a week. Some children find it beneficial to ask about work they are not confident with and yes you are right it does bump up the scores ours improved the last two years. I secretly tell the kids no one asks what your SAT scores are when you are looking for a job. It helps to stop them stressing. We try to keep it low key and they get treats from the staff like hot chocolate, fruit and sweets. Oh and lots of hugs when they need it.thankfully we are allowed to give our children a hug if they want one and many do.

ta da
✅make it out of the house on time despite accidental lie in
✅get discharged from midwife - baby is back above birth weight now :)
✅look for smaller baby sleeping bag (no luck but bumped into an old friend who recommended another brand)
✅enjoy a festive sandwich - turkey cranberry stuffing YUM
✅weigh self in boots - I'm now 4st lighter than I was at new year!!!