Fledglings Flying Festively - the December Flylady thread

[TooStressyForMyOwnGood]

[santa][santa][santa][santa][santa][santa][santa]
A warm welcome to the December (dare I say Christmas?!) 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.

We are a long running thread but always welcome new members; the more the merrier .

The new slimline structure seems to work well so I will stick with that. I will leave some links in this OP and then some quick links in the daily posts. Please do familiarise yourself with the Flylady website, especially if you are new. The Flylady is (understandably) keen that people do look at the website.

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.

Be kind to yourselves, jump in where you are and be careful not to crash and burn! Especially at this time of year.

*
A daily summary (which should update automatically every day) is available on the Flylady website at flight plan here.

The link to the current zone and missions is here.

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!

daily focus

missions for the week

Flykids mission

I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone that it is getting close to Christmas so there are holiday missions here.

December’s habit is usually pampering yourself but has not uploaded yet; I’ll link it tomorrow.

beginner babysteps.

The best place to look for an overall summary is the launch pad.

Happy flying everyone.
**

Also a huge thank you to SC for a lovely November thread.

Huge waves to Cagletini looking gorgeous as ever!

Oh phew about boiler Toostressy

I haven't stopped. My feet and ankles are literally throbbing. If I have to go up and downstairs one more time (which I will) I think I will puke. Still got so much to do but decorations (tree, nativity, mantelpiece etc) done, last minute food shopping done, furries walked done, all local cards done and delivered, mahoosive argument with dd when she just wouldn't take "no" for an answer about something (not my finest parenting moment but her timing couldn't have been worse) done , made up with dd and had a big hug done, bed linen for guests done, 4 loads of washing done and hung up/tumbled dried.

Now need to start on cooking (!) and wrapping for immed family.

Disappointed because I wanted to get ahead with cooking for tomorrow and for during the week but BIG FAIL on that score. It willl all have to be done ad hoc - lots more stressful - but never mind.

Hoping everyone is doing ok, back later!

Cagletini is getting big (and bold!)

Ds has a temp. It's not flu or a tummy bug at least, just a virus. So we're just cuddling up to watch rubbish.

GAH.lost post!

SC totally relate.cousin pop in unexpected and drop selection packs for zoolets.chatted 2hours which put me behind(rare sighting and ovely to see them tho)kibble acquired.forgot extrailk and blasted crackers.zoolets near causevuprisjnh at thought not having any to pull so dd2 n I troop shops hunting for under a tenner crackers...90 mins later....
Got in at 5
Scrub dining table to within inch of its life(wet Tesco bag had emblazoned itself on damn thing and devil to get off)
Wipe chairs
Wash bedroom floor

About start pasta pesto whilst zoolets shower

To do
Wrap dd1 gifts
Wash all lower floors
Ironing
More laundry
Hoover stairs
Finish tidying my corner
Wash up and wipe down after everyone's fed
May make pastry crumb and throw pies tog (will see how tired I get how far I get down the list,may end up doing pies and lunch simultaneously)

Forestierdd2 on tail end of 4week cold/throat/sinus bug from hell and start sneezing new bug and very exhausted...

Cag as ever she's adorable!!

I've how you getting on?

Stressy nice planning with sarnies,nothing worse over hungry grumpy kids!
Eustmine constant info my hard work!

I’m getting quite nervous about tomorrow as we’ve not hosted in years. Eeek.

Have done lots of random housework bits, gathered all painting stuff, cleaned various things. Stash and dash a plenty but I’m finding it much harder to do that now, because most of the stuff I’m finding has a place already so it’s being put away instead of shoved in a box! Any BRCs that are made though are being put in DD’s room (what will be the baby’s bit).

Not doing any more laundry today or tomorrow, all clothes are in baskets and I’ve done towels and bedding as they are quick to put away when dry later.

Just got the soup maker out - I could murder a takeaway but we are cobbling together bits for the Caglets from the freezer and mum is showing me how to make carrot soup for the grown ups.

Sorry to hear that zoo. Hope dd2 has a Christmas miracle and feels better.

Same here ds gone to bed having been forced to have Calpol he has a temp and very snotty hopefully he'll be ok in the morning.

We've just watched Mary Poppins and now the dc are tucked up in bed. Been a nice day actually. Hope those of you that have been rushing around all day have finally stopped but I know that might not be the case so whatever your tipple or snack to keep you going. Once the dc asleep we have a Princess castle tent to construct which is ridiculously big but father Christmas doesn't seem to have measured it properly

I say it's been a nice day and it has overall but we've had our moments here too! Reading about your dd reminded me sc! Whilst wrestling with ds to take the Calpol I gave dh the spoon to hold for a minute and he spilt it on the carpet then we all ended up shouting despite none of it really being anyone's fault these things happen, nerves are frayed at Christmas!! Here's to a relaxing day tomorrow! Ha!

Not sure how you knew this was going to be needed
Hills hugs for today Zoo but thank you. Family stuff has gone totally tits up. I walk out of christmas celebrations today, and will be having to walk out tomo too. I try to like CHristmas, every year I try. But it is a horrible horrible nasty bastard time of year!

Hoping will all my energy that you all fair far far better this festive season. See when the batshit crazy is over. May the food be good, the wine sufficient and some other person do the washing up!

hills accepting it's not your bag and taking care of yourself is sometimes necessaryesp where family are concerned more hugs and virtual fluffy blankies and hot water bottles

Foxes good luck with construction,hope D's perkier tom

Just put my lil ones up with stockings.sad not putting Santa treats out anymore.the end of an era
Plus I now have to wait bloody hours for little feckers to go to bed!!so I can lay stuff out in secret!

All gifts are wrapped

Lil ones fed n watered.time me to eat
Another load after this one to do then I'm abandoning rest for another day

I have contact dermatitis and it's start split so be case get dd2 help wipe floors then put loads cream and hope not bleeding to much to cook tom/make mince bloody pies(not literally)

Hello all,

Oh dear Hills, it can be such a stressful time of year.

Spilt calpol stress is another thing I think many of us can relate to foxes. As you say, things are rarely perfect all of the time. I’m sorry but I did chuckle over Father Christmas’ poor measuring skills. Thanks for the food and drink options, I’ll have a . The (white, I don’t like red) will definitely be poured tomorrow!

Forestier, foxes and zoo and anyone else with poorly DC, hope they are feeling better tomorrow.

Cag, that’s really great that you are doing more putting away and less stashing and dashing .

SC, hope you manage to sit down at some point.

Both DC awake here, lots of excitement but at least they are in bed. We have been tracking Santa all day. I think this will be the last year DD1 believes so it feels like a special one.

Amazingly we have had a really lovely day. The DDs have been really good (amazing what the prospect of Santa will do!). We DS some crafts and tea is eaten and DH has prepped the turkey. He may we’ll need to go into work tonight so we are firmly on the mince pies and tea and nothing stronger. I honk he’ll try to get to bed early in case he gets called and I’ll stay up and sort Santa stuff. May go to sleep and set an alarm as our Santa tracker said he would be here about 1:30am so can’t fill stockings too early.

Want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and for those where that isn’t possible, a bit of peace or rest tomorrow.

Thanks to every one of you, even if you don’t post that often for being part of such a lovely, motivating thread which often makes me smile.

Thought some of you might like this:-

Links for December 25th:-
Beginner baby steps here
Launch pad here
Holiday mission here

More info available in original post at top of thread.

Evening all, busy day here but just about done now. Cleaning, tidying (still need to do a bit more of the latter), wrapping, eating. We all went into town for an hour this afternoon and has a coffee together which made a nice change. The DCs stopped believing a few years ago now, it was tricky for the first couple of years but they are happily going along with the old traditions again now, so carrots and mince pies are out on the hearth, we have been tracking Santa and stockings will be put on the ends of beds at bedtime. I can hear DD singing Oh Come All Ye Faithful in the bath.

Hope you get through tomorrow OK Hills, take time out without feeling guilty, Christmas puts a lot of added pressure on family relationships.

Hope everyone else has a good day too, Merry Christmas fellow Fledglings

Toostressy that video is fantastic So glad you had a lovely day!

Oh no to smalls being poorly 🤞 for speedy recovery and hope they are able to enjoy tomorrow!

So very sorry to hear about family stresses Hills.

Zoo we are still putting out a sherry for Father Christmas here!

Final festive ta da list:
12 parcels (godchildren, nephew, nieces etc) packed and sent + one to 80 yr old friend - + two godsons' presents wrapped and hand-delivered
next door's grandchildren's present packed and delivered
friend's twins presents packed
88 cards written and posted and hand-delivered (some office contacts)
12 office presents packed and delivered plus two to office colleague's children
small present and card delivered to doctor, cleaner and hairdresser respectively
2 charity shoe boxes packed and delivered to school
2 cakes made for end-of-term charity sale
5 presents wrapped and ready for country neighbours
sil's birthday card and present wrapped for 27th

Two entertaining thingies done and dusted

One boyfriend (not mine!) fed pizza

Furries walked three times (not all by me!)

One "puppy" prevented from eating a bauble, a kiwi fruit, a crib figure, you name it, she will try and eat it ... .

All decorations: tree, sideboard, lights on stairs, flower arrangement tv room, one holly arrangement, holly on pics nativity DONE

English on-line supermarket order DONE and received and distributed

All shopping: turkey + giblets, cranberry sauce, bloomer loaves for bread sauce, spices, herbs, gammon ham, sprouts, etc DONE

All towels and bedding washed, ready for sil and entourage (and beds made) and for fermette DONE

All things ready to take to fermette stacked neatly by front door DONE

Jane Asher's Last Minute Christmas cake is in oven as I type (yes, it really is last minute!). Smells good though!

Took a million boxes in hall done to basement.

Simple supper of veg soup and bread (it's an Irish Catholic fasting thing) served and cleared up.

A few carols sung around the piano

Now just need to finish dd's stocking and do family wrapping. Should be done in an hour and a bit.

Disappointed I haven't done more advance cooking for tomorrow or next week but happy we've managed as much as we have.

Signing out until tomorrow!

Wishing everyone a peaceful and healthy Christmas!

xxxxxxxxx

Oh, sorry, haven't been on the sherry, just realised I posted half of that before

🎄🎅🌲🎁🎄🎅🌲🎁🎄🌲🌲🎁🎄🌲🎁🎁🎅🌲🌲🎅🎅🌲🎁

Happy Christmas fledglings!

Have a lovely day!

Hills hope you are ok and that you can take some time out tomorrow for yourself

Toostressy hope your dh isn't called in to work, but if he is, that his night is not too tiring

Waves to Meet Honu I've* Festive Sass Zoo Eustachia Bower Cag Foxes and everyone else I've forgotten

All ddd's presents wrapped and sil's and entourage but going to bed without having wrapped dh's. Still, he always wraps his in a mad rush on Christmas morning so what's good enough for the goose etc... .

Have a good one everybody! X

Santa presents out. It’s a bit early but I don’t trust myself to wake up for an alarm and can’t bear staying up any later. Thanks SC, DH already been called in once and definitely expecting further work tonight. Will make sure he has a rest tomorrow, after he has cooked as I am such a terrible cook.

Night all.

I put gifts downstairs(dd2) help with the heavier stiff once D's skip(12)
I planned get up at 5 and do stockings as dd2 was still awake
Lil zoo thwart that with a 445 wake up!so she collected up stocking for me to fill from comfort of my bed!
Now waiting for others to move for stockings to open.....
DP back from work at 9,so long wait for gifts under tree...

Merry Christmas everyone

for those who need them today

Lebkuchen for breakfast

Hope all kids feeling better this morning.

Lunch at 2pm here. First year of pigs in blankets as it's not a thing where I come from. Looking forward to hitting the vino!

Lots of lovely cards from friends I haven't seen in a while. Our friends are more agreeable than some key family members so it's always nice to hear from them. Framily rocks. 🎄

All up at a civilised hour here (7, DCs having woken around 5, opened stockings and gone back to sleep). Turkey in, croissants and cinnamon buns and chocolate and Pringles eaten. Been for a walk, it's a lovely morning. Was worth all the effort of tidying yesterday.

Well lil zoo woke D's turn light on and repeat ask if awake.they then whip dd2 duvet just before 6 and ran off with it.few expletives peppered the air but she got up and came into my room to open gifts in stockings.they had breakfast and sat playing little games from stockings(festive bingo/scavenger hunt/tiddlywinks)whilst waiting for dad
Gifts open,dd2texr be here 1030 so we got dressed/presentable for her fiance to visit(meaning dd2 added on pj bottoms to her top!lil zoo and I got dressed)
Spotted gingrbread dough in fridge so made the biscuits.enough for lil zoo and dd1 to take some(lil zoo gets cross rest eat family circle at Xmas but not dairy free so I've made her gingerbread and chocolate cookies with candy cane chunks in!)

Hope everyone's having a lovely day!

Sounds like Stressy, Zoo and sledge households are having a good one!

Stuffing and spuds prepped. Champagne open (small bottle otherwise we'll collapse).

Family tradition is now for PUGS in blankets as ds announced. We can't have a dog due to allergies/asthma and pugs are his favourite dog. Pugs in blankets are now in fridge ready to go in.