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.

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

Oh bugger! Just remembered there is a space hopper and a brand new rucksack in roof (given to dd as present, never used) that I must fetch down!

Well done on the mega declutter SC. We seem to be acquiring it, the DCs have between them done three stints running tombolas at different Christmas fairs this weekend. DD has come back with all sorts of tat, I've felt obliged to have a go too, but in my defence I did sneak a bag of old cuddlies out as a donation to the tombola DS was helping with.

As well as tombolas DD has sung with her choir, and we've had swimming and football training. Despite all this the house is looking much better, I have made a big effort with hotspots (some of which were engulfing large areas such as our entire bedroom floor). Failing on early nights though.

ta da
✅read for a while, hardly ever do that I started the book before we moved!
✅sorted out parcel issue
✅put wash and dryer on
✅dinner
✅bathed baby
✅read more to DD, DH read one chapter in the morning then I read another tonight
✅Caglets started ripping off wallpaper, will soak more off tomorrow

Thanks Meet! And well done wrt your decluttering and hotspots too . And to your DC for fund-raising activities!

Yes, that's the problem with all these Christmas events; the house can quickly fill up again however ruthless one tries to be (and it's hard to be ruthless at Christmas!). Having said that, on a more positive note, there is light at the end of the tunnel as the presentseem to crave are physically smaller if more €€€€€€!

[Speaking of teens, DD is rather pleased with all the space in her newly decluttered room! Reckon I might do a Zoo and give it a secret makeover in April when she goes away on a school trip!].

It's 2 am and I've just finished! Gone through tiredness and out the other side! Just had huge torrential downpour too which would have been hard to sleep through! And bum, have just remembered a brand new DK children's encyclopedia I should donate. Amazon sent me two by mistake and said I could keep the spare! It's been sitting in a box ever since! . Not looking forward to the alarm going off in four hrs!

X posts Cag! (Glad I am not the only night owl!) Great list!

GAH - the presents teens seem to crave!

Morning!

Ta da:
dd packed lunch
emptied dw
overnight washing hung up and td
fed wms again
s & s

(too wet for dog walk yet; he doesn't fancy the rain)

To do (this week):
major gynae appt
get glasses adjusted
tidy/declutter dining bit of main sitting room for St Nicolas
calandering
finally finally finish art cupboard decluttering project!
start Christmas cooking
tidy and decluttering tv room and finish clearing shelving and rearrange
declutter three mahoosive of dd's school files and stationery
sort all DVDs and videos (wimper)
sort DD treasure chest and take to roof
pack and send Christmas parcels
start writing cards
sort present boxes
hair cut
attend godson event
godson's presents
boudoir
start advance Christmas cooking for freezer
sort calandar and front of fridge notices
get piano frame moved
move down green chair
Ikea trip?

Hope everyone has a productive start to the week!

You're on fire with the decluttering SC, top marks there! That's a big list for today.

I have similar (but probably less effective) decluttering plans for this week, and just heard on the radio this morning that one of the local tips is closed for a refurb What a time of year to pick! The tips are few and far between anyway, so I'll just have to travel a bit further and be prepared for the fact that it will be busy. Be a few days yet before I need to go anyway.

Morning everyone .

I’m not sure any of us can beat your productive start to the week SC. Amazing decluttering and for such a good cause! Hope gynae appt goes ok this week.

Ripping wallpaper also sounds productive Cag. Meet, I feel your pain with the acquiring of tat. Lots of Christmas fairs looming here.

Ta da:-
Food shop
One load of laundry just finished
Breakfast dishes washed up

Got soaked in the rain so need to get changed now though.

To do:-
Put away food shop
Today’s plan is to clean out under our bed
Gym
Plan after school stuff - no gymnastics today as DD1 has a school event so need to think of the logistics of that.

Big very wet wing flaps to all.

Xpost Sass, that’s annoying about the tip. Best of luck with the decluttering.

sass that's very annoying..
SC I can't believe how well you've done.top marks

Tada
Cats fed
Wash on
Recycling to kerb
Empty bins/littertray
Breakfasts n pack ups
Wash on airer/more in
Feed dd2 meds and she staggered off to school with more meds and bottles
water/soothers for her throat
Walk lil zoo to school-shes still hot bad throat but fevers ok(for now)
Come back and collect D's,stagger him to school(put wash in before left/ in dryer)
DS room-sweep and wipe floor
Clean windows
Dust
Make bed
Water his cactus collection
Girls room-
Sweep floor
Wipe
Clean windows
Dust
Make beds

Bathroom
Clean windows
Sill,skirts,radiator and bath panel wiped
Wipe bath n sink

Clean
Photo frames on stairwell

Now to tackle the hall....

Hallway
Sort coats,shies and bags
Sweep and wipe floor
Wipe pvc internal front door,clean glass
Wipe door living room to hall

Kitchen
Clean windows
Wipe sills
Clean tiling
Clean microwave
Wipe hob
Wipe surfaces

Another load wash on,dry stuff folded and pet away,more in dryer

Now standing outside D's school wait walk him home(pleased and amazed he's done full 3hours today!)

To do
Lunch
Poss front room

If not put feet up n rest til girls come home as start flag/feel rougher now!

That is some serious decluttering sc well done!

I’ve been curled up with the snotty grumpy baby while the others soak and scrape wallpaper off DS’ wall listening to Christmas music!

Aw cags at least in festive spirit.im not sure you mentioned it already,but how come decorating D's room just before Xmas?
How are you doing with the cold?hope bit better

I've sat on my bum since lunch,bracing for walk to go get lil zoo with a pounding headache and strategy tight chest
I shouldn't be moaning,it's last year of primary so my last year of walking her to school and I will miss it dreadfully.they grow up so fast

They do zoo. Ds walks one way to school on his own. Next year he'll walk by himself all the time. I miss meeting the other Mums.

I have to think of Christmas food and drink and cards.

Christmas decorations up and living room cleaned.

It's the hall this week.

Lil zoo walk home minus coat declaring too hot...
Dd2 walk Thu door ditch bags and scowl.triple chin and temper screamed out to me she feeling very poorly with her throat.put heating on and towels on radiator for her to have nice shower.made her a galaxy hot chocolate whilst she was in there and I swear I saw a ghost of a smile cross her face as I past bathroom and she saw me carrying her steaming mug
She's now curled up in her duvet watching CSI dvd with it
Towels used added to rest load and are now washing

Dinner tonight-lamb pesto with peas and green beans for little ones with berries and jelly

Roasting asparagus(reduced)squash ,mushrooms,sweet potato and red peppers and onions for dd2 and i.mine with cheese and bread.hers pureed to a soup with stock,chickpeas and lots of parsley and garlic(bit c and ant viral properties respectively)and sprinkle of grated cheese
There's a little ice cream left in freezer I want using up before Xmas so she can have some of that with berries afterwards

I only really notice she still needs me when she's feeling really really poorly.sad maybe but nice to know I'm still needed sometimes!!

I've no idea how pasta pesto became lamb pesto

Because we are insane, is the answer to that zoo

Nah, basically we said to ourselves we had to really really try and at least get the colour on the walls for the Caglets by the end of the year. As knowing us, if we don’t get it done soon we will never do it. And they’ve never had their own rooms before let alone painted walls so it’s really exciting.

Starting with DS’ as it’s smaller and only one wall is papered, but they made decent progress on DD’s as well.

Really not sure how much we will get done this week though as we have a lot of other stuff to do. Including using up our clubcard tokens for cinema etc as they run out soon.

cag insane is working near 20 hour days to transform a room in 4 days- not only decorate but cull,rejig and add shelving etc

It's lovely that they will have own spaces in colour of their choice

Well I got a tiny puff of second wind and pulled out sofa nearest window.was greeted enough fluff to make a jumper for at least one cat,the entire collection cat balls/toys and couple stray empty crisp bags and a piece dry ham that obvs got kicked under when zoolets had ham on Sunday,which I'm glad was still at identifiable stage and a LOT of dust
As I pull damn thing out at least once a month,more often I suspect I assume the entire dust of the room ends up under this one as it's nearest outside door and cats sleep in back of it as near radiator (include heat as a factor) plus we have laminate so nowhere else for it to go!
Wipe behind sofa
Rescue kit toys(kits went wild with excitement)
Return sofa to usual spot
Wipe sofa

That's as far as the energy spurt went!!!!

Pastas cooking for little ones tea
Ovens on ready start roasting my veg shortly

Evening! Where did the weekend even go?! How is it Monday evening??

Ta da
Mopped
Dusted
Stripped bed
Dishwasher emptied and on again
Washing on
Washing folded and put away
Changed all the towels and stuff
Worked
Went to shop (to buy porridge which I then realised we already had )
Toddler group
Helped dd with some Xmas cards
Cooked dinner - prawn, chickpea and spinach curry
Ordered dd a Xmas present

I made mince pies yesterday and we've put all the decorations up, getting into the Christmas spirit here , dd has also been practicing for her first nativity she says she is "the boss of the angels" think she means Gabriel. I'm going to sob!!

Aw foxes that is BEYOND cute!😍
You know weekends blur in december.you will blink and it will be "the big day"
not prepared so can't say it yet

Ta da:-
Went to gym
Laundry in progress
Tea eaten
Girls in PJs watching telly
Tidied under our bed and hoovered it
Inspired by you SC I have put a kids’ musical instrument kit in the charity pile. They are really too old for it, if is never played with and could make a younger child very happy.
Picked up a delivery

To do:-
Bedtime
More laundry
Dishwasher

Possibly:-
Wrap a present
Calendar check

Awww foxes . Totally agree zoo, fine goes so quickly in December! Cag, that sounds lovely about them having nice bedrooms. Forestier, yes that is the thing about DC walking to school and doing stuff on their own isn’t it, that you see the other parents less.

I also need to think of Christmas cards. I was hoping the DDs would make some at school but neither of them have this year.

Links for December 4th
Beginner baby steps here
Launch pad here
Holiday mission here

By the way, I am not sure if the holiday missions will be correct or if they are a day behind since I am linking them the night before. If you want the exact one for the day you are probably best going through the launchpad links if you look at any links at all!

More info available in original post at top of thread.

So true about December, goes so fast!! When I was a kid I remember thinking it dragged and constantly asking my mum how many days until Christmas! Just like dd is doing now and driving me mad!