New year, new organisation! Fledglings fly in 2018.

[TooStressyForMyOwnGood]

Hello all and Happy New Year!

A warm welcome to the January Flylady thread. This is a lovely friendly thread where we loosely follow the Flylady system (see the Flylady website) in the hope of having organised homes and lives.

Every day the thread leader (me this month) posts links and missions from the Flylady site and also some friendly (!) personal comments. This is quite a ‘talky’ thread but we try our hardest not to be cliquey and new members are very welcome! Typically there are a lot of new members in January so I will do my best to keep track of everybody .

Old members, as you know there have been a few issues with links at times so if there is some chopping and changing over the month with the links then that is why. Please note that Flylady is (understandably) keen for people to click on her site so please do have a look around the site and the links.

On the website there is information for beginners. You can also sign up to the Flylady emails but we would advise caution as there are hundreds of them.

We post our achievements (ta das) and our to do lists and any other general chatter about life / flying.

Information on getting started: www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/

The launch pad is also a good starting place:www.flylady.net/c/lp.php

Fly stands for Finally Loving Yourself. The general idea is that short bursts of tidying / organisation are more achievable than marathon efforts. Flylady advises 15 minute bursts is effort but you can tweak this to fit your own circumstances.

I’m sure lots of you have New Years Resolutions to be organised and to declutter, as I do every year . Be kind to yourselves and careful not to crash and burn!

I am risking making two:-
Go to bed at 11pm unless decent reason why not.
Spend less time on my phone.

Here are the links for Monday 1st Jan. although I am linking these then if you are treating today as a holiday (as much as is possible in real life anyway!) then feel free to take today off.

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Here is the daily summary for Monday (also available on the Flylady website at flight plan which should update automatically each day).

I’m afraid I start the year confused . I’ve just looked on the Flylady website and the link to the zone and missions is here which indicates we will be in zone 5 which is the living room. I would have thought the month starts in zone 1 but I know this has happened before, I think SC explained? TBH after Xmas I think most living rooms could use a bit of work so it won’t hurt . Apologies if this is confusing.

Re. zones, do what works for you. I don’t always stick to the zones myself and do what works best at the time, with varying degrees of success!

Spend 15 mins decluttering, or whatever you can manage, in Zone 5.

When you have finished decluttering, the detailed cleaning list (if you are at that stage) for Zone 5 is here.

daily focus

missions for the week

Flykids mission

January’s habit is shining your sink.

beginner babysteps.

Happy flying everyone.
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Glad you have a treatment plan, hopefully it’ll kick in soon. Definitely take it easy as you can for now.

Somehow we’ve pulled our day around. Well mostly DH really as after lunch he went straight upstairs and tackled our room. We all ended up in there, I couldn’t do much as baby needed feeding but overall we were pretty productive.

ta da
✅filled a huge bin bag with rubbish
✅two washes on (will be four loads worth to put away tonight!)
✅sorted out all the Bionicles from two boxes into one and stored instructions nicely (this should also mean DS can stop invading our room to fetch them as the one box fits in their room)
✅got Caglets to hang up clothes that had fallen on the wardrobe floor (definitely need to declutter their clothes again, but that isn’t a priority for today)
✅cleared out all our suitcases
✅took photos of coupon code and party invite that arrived in the mail so we could throw the hard copies away instantly
✅aired out bedroom
✅spelling and maths
✅got DD to do some work independently!
✅decluttered a top to charity bag

I have no motivation and a huge list of things that have to get done before friday. WHo has the pointy stick?

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List is done apart from tax return but I've got the info ready to go just need to fill it all in once kids are in bed so I can concentrate!
Decluttered my baking cupboard today and discovered a huge pack of sultanas that need using up...any good baking ideas? Fruit buns and oat and sultana cookies is all I've come up with so far!

Hope everyone is doing ok. Take it easy everyone!

Sconesfoxes?
One those tea bread things where you soak fruit in tea then lob rest ingredients in?

Tadas
3loads wash done.fold n put away
Bathroom
Relocated sink from toothpaste spit
Wipe bath n dehair plughole(boak)
Clear sill
Chuck out empty toothpaste tubes and empty shower gel bottles(into recycling)

Kitchen wiped surfaces
Went thru and tidy 3 cupboards,which included my baking cupboard..I have bag coconut(shreds) and some desicated coconut to use up.discovered some honey(thought was out of that)and realised no caster sugar(thought had plenty.adds to list along vanilla)
Clear n clean dining table
Littertray
Bins emptied

Dinners on
Lamb mince with garlic and rosemary
Carrots.buttered cabbage and mash
Raspberry jelly for pud

Zoolets tea at6 tonight.lil zoo in bed at 7.read til half past.ds keeps her up we are going to lynch him!!

Also(weird one) D's n lil zoo were playing upstairs.they come down n I start choking..for reasons unknown they've taken a bottle dd2 body spray and doused a soft toy(Dino) til all but dripping.you can imagine the intensity of smell.i went loopy because a)little cossima already has snotty nose and breathing difficulties.dd2 is for reasons unknown wheezy.neither needed a good dose of aerosols sprayed liberally around b) it's not even theirs to spray.....

Lil zoo admitted it was her after questioning.sent to room but keeps coming down bringing choking fumes with her.why?no idea.she says don't know.i am ready to lose my temper......

Sultanas are nice in pilau rice with nuts added too.

What about coronation chicken (or quorn) for the sultanas?

Not really managed anything else this afternoon as DH and DD are at gym and I am under a hungry wriggly thing. Just been sorting laundry while feeding

Oh and I’ve been eating like a horse too. Dread to think how much I’ve put back on over Christmas. I will have to face the music soon!

Welsh cakes with sultanas - mmmm.

There's also a traditional Italian dish with pasta, pine nuts, sardines and sultanas. I made it once. Haven't got a particular urge to make it again. Ever.

Nigella does pasta with tomato and sultana and I can't remember what else zoolets loved it

Zoolets fed n watered.washed up

Googled it
Sicilian pasta with garlic and almonds😉
Sounds weird.tastes good!!

I am grumpy tonight

Tea bread or sultana scones.

I had a treatment plan which I have done for a week or more - 9/10days. We have had to up it by double. Had a headache now probably steroids. So nothing much done.

One load of washing.
One load ready to go in when other comes out. That's it!
Had left overs for tea yum. Bacon buttie for breakfast at 10.

That fruit cake of Nigella's is delicious we had a piece at son 1's on Monday. Haven't cut mine because still eating the Golden one which came out beautifully this year. Nigella's was much quicker and easier. I keep opening and sniffing it every now and then smells like a distillery. Gave my best friend a sniff today warned her not to drive afterwards! She didn't want cake today she is feeling fed up.

Hello all, back from work now so no flying for me today. Working tomorrow too.

Cag, well done on living room improving slowly. Afresh, well done for getting through the day with such an early start.

zoo, well done for recovering after all oversleeping. Sorry to hear of over zealous body spraying. So frustrating when kids can’t explain why they have done things .

Bower, glad you were able to make a plan with your GP.

foxes, great work with tax return planning. I think I may need to do mine but am completely confused. First hit of freelance work done in November so when I rang up the tax people they said fill one in after April but someone said today they thought maybe I need to fill one in as the year has ended in January???!! Am totally confused and think I need to register for self assessment on my next day off (Friday) then possibly ask again. Any ideas anyone please???!!

Wing flaps to Callme, Whispers, Hills, Fooland and everyone else.

Hello all, back from work now so no flying for me today. Working tomorrow too.

Cag, well done on living room improving slowly. Afresh, well done for getting through the day with such an early start.

zoo, well done for recovering after all oversleeping.

Bower, glad you were able to make a plan with your GP.

foxes, great work with tax return planning. I think I may need to do mine but am completely confused. First hit of freelance work done in November so when I rang up the tax people they said fill one in after April but someone said today they thought maybe I need to fill one in as the year has ended in January???!! Am totally confused and think I need to register for self assessment on my next day off (Friday) then possibly ask again. Any ideas anyone please???!!

Wing flaps to Callme, Whispers, Hills, Fooland and everyone else.

We have really enjoyed our cake, and the one I gave as a gift went down well too! I'm pleased you and DS liked it.

To do list - done. Tired.

Double post, sorry.

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Here is the daily summary for Thursday (also available on the Flylady website at flight plan which should update automatically each day).

We are in zone 2 this week which is
the kitchen.

Please have a look through the information on the website at the relevant zones as I know Flylady is keen that we do look at the website.

Spend 15 mins decluttering, or whatever you can manage, in Zone 2.

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

daily focus

missions for the week

Flykids mission

January’s habit is shining your sink.

beginner babysteps.

old holiday clean up missions

Happy flying everyone.
**

Tax year runs from 5th April. The deadline to file your self assessment and pay what you owe is the following January 31st. As you have only done work since April 2017, you are fine. Register for self assessment, but you don't need to do anything until after April. HMRC were right.

Tax year runs to April not from.

The January 2018 deadline is for tax from April 2016 to April 2017. You will have the joy of this next year.

I think I need to eat something and go to bed.

Thank you so much Callme. I love This thread; it really does make life easier and a little bit better .

That is how HMRC explained it to me but I had forgotten in my confusion. Should have trusted them!

Yup the tax return I've just done is April 2016 - April 2017. It feels like such a long time ago (which is why it is best to do it straight away not leave it to the last minute haha like I'll ever learn!!)
Anyway, drum roll please- I HAVE SUBMITTED MY TAX RETURN!!!! and also dh is about to submit his uni assignment. So this means that we are about to drink an alcoholic beverage on a week night in celebration (shocking I know!). Just contemplating what to have. G&T or a glass of wine? Going to scoff some chocolate too.

Thanks for the sultanas suggestions, all excellent ideas (apart from anything involving pasta that sounds pretty gross tbh)

I must add baking to my to do list.

for foxes well done!!

I've eaten.washed up and am now flopped in front tv

Thanks foxes. Gosh yes, that is a long time ago.

s to you and your DH. Both wine and G&T sound good .

What you may need to consider, depending on your earnings level, is whether to pay voluntary class 2 NICs. I earn below the small earnings threshold, but pay it. It entitles you to some benefits. In particular, it gives you maternity allowance at the full rate for ten months, bereavement benefits and ESA. I look on it as very cheap insurance, and it protects my basic state pension entitlement if at some point a government revokes the entitlement you get with child benefit.