Welcome to the November Flylady thread Fledglings! All are welcome here. A few of us have been around a while but everyone, newbie and lurking, is welcome to join in.
This is my first time running the thread so I hope other fledglings will alert me when I’ve got things confused or if I’ve left something out!! A busy month for us all with the holiday season looming next month…
Very simply Flylady is a zone-based cleaning system which we loosely follow. Everyone is different and has different rooms and life demands. There are five zones and at the beginning and the end of the month we usually straddle Zone 1 and zone 5.
(amend rooms to suit your house – I do the living and dining room together as it’s all one room in my house)
November
Zone 1 Hall, entrance/dining room (Fri 1 – Sat 2)
Zone 2 Kitchen (Sun 3- Sat 9)
Zone 3 Bathroom and another room (Sun 10- Sat 16)
Zone 4 Master bedroom/closet (Sun 17 – sat 23)
Zone 5 Living room (Sun 24 – Sat 30)
Pop onto the Flylady website to have a closer look but signing up for emails will probably lead to very many landing in your inbox. Also there has been some concern about securely downloading pdfs from the site. here
Flylady has an introductory scheme for newbies called Babysteps which is a light 31 day introduction to the system – dressing to shoes, shining your sink etc. What I like about Flylady is her emphasis on self care, her abhorrence of perfectionism and her adage that you’re never being behind in the system - just jump in. No need to completely clean your house before you start – phew! here
There is a morning routine and an evening routine to keep things ticking over and a weekly home cleaning hour to change bed sheets, mop, hoover, take out rubbish etc. The system isn’t brilliant for major decluttering so you might want to supplement with Kondo or another decluttering system. Flylady doesn’t want us cleaning all day so she is very keen on using a timer. Clean then stop!
In addition each day has a purpose: see the daily focus here
Monday: Weekly home cleaning hour (can be split into ten minute sections and spread over week) here
Tuesday: Plan and play (Menu planning, family event planning)
Wednesday: Anti-procrastination day
Thursday: Errand day
Friday: Clear out bags, fill car with petrol, date night
Saturday: Family fun
Sunday: Lift your spirit
Launch pad for guidance every day! launch pad
Habit of the month of November is meal planning. This is my Achilles heel! here
We have a lovely virtual naughty corner where we can all retreat – there are all manner of lovely things left there by thread members including fluffy pillows, warm blankets, tea, coffee, wine, delicious foods. This month there are plenty of candles to brighten the darker days.
There may be mention of Ned who started life as an autocorrection on the thread but who has now morphed into a virtual helper with a specialism in putting away laundry. Ned is borrowed by thread members from time to time when the going gets tough on Mount Washmore.
Most days we pop on to post our ta da list of what we’ve managed to do and have a bit of a natter.
Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.
Housekeeping
Cherry waves hello to November 2019. Fledgling Flylady thread for all.[smile]
Ghoulette1740 · 30/10/2019 14:42
I've so organised with the Xmas shopping, everyone I know seems to be starting already and I'm just not ready yet! Because I haven't got a clue what to get anyone!
Welcome to the new people! Sorry I can't scroll back to see your names again as on my phone.
We were at a party last night so thought today would be a bit of a write off especially because of the very tired dc ! But actually it's been pretty good. I mean the house is chaos but that's really because dh has started the renovation work (not sure how to even describe what we are doing, basically just rearranging the rooms of our house / extending!) so we now have one upstairs room put of action. That made us have a good toy declutter and the dc actually agreed to give a lot of stuff to the village preschool (which ds goes to so he was happy he'd still see his toys!)
Obviously now there are many, many multiple piles of random stuff in every room and a room with no carpet, floorboards pulled up and quite a lot of dust. But progress is progress! 😂
Downside is I haven't done the bedsheets and they really needed to be done today. But all I can think of now is my imminent roast dinner!
Cheers all 
zoo not completely but maybe that one room will be done 😂 it's going to be an ongoing project. But we aren't hosting Xmas this year so it's not a big deal really 
ghoulette please take care of yourself.you must try to eat and try to rest,even if it's just some toast and laying quietly reading.your body will still be resting.glad DH got app at gp
Ooh newbies! Welcome!
I am so sleepy. Kept dozing off while in charge of the toddler just now. Knees killing. Hello flare up. 
i'm trying mindfulness and breathing exercises Laputa. The job has essentially remained the same but I'm now working with a team and there may be some limited travel for conferences. i have no confidence travelling and am a bit scared of flying.
The only flying I like involves housework 
Wowzer that's a great list kt!!
Ghoul 
sorry your anxiety is high at the moment, glad that your dp recognises he's down and is seeking help .
Tada
Had a lovely steak dinner cooked for me, absolutely scrummy! (It always tastes better when someone else makes it !! )
Washing put in dryer
Another wash in and dried
Last wash in
Got into my Christmas pjs , came into the living room singing 'we wish you a merry Christmas ' whilst flossing - cheered the kids up after they were whinging about going back to school
Can any of you share your meal planning tips? I get really stuck in a rut when it comes to food , we tend to have the same week in week out .
Not only is D's freaking tonight,but dd2 has just started full blown panic attack,stressing over school tomorrow,aching legs are bothering her and her colds messing with her throat so it's tight from that mixed reflux.shes sat here twitch muscles and try slow breathing.shes the brave strong one.faces her fears.its very distressing watch her crumble.im getting super anxious being around her knowing D's upstairs on one too,like I'm feeding on their anxiety
she's given up try eat dinner for a bit n sat on her phone playing candy crush to distract herself having been pushed to tell me what's bothering her.shes not good at saying this worries me and she's bottling up towards a meltdown.i can see it approaching but feel powerless to help her
Oh no zoo, I really hope everyone has calmed down now , yourself included
Welcome KT, good to have you with us.
Just to add to Ghoulette's point about relaxing the body - when I was at the hospital this week and they finally managed to get the cannula in on the fourth attempt I was physically shaking and they asked me to get off the scanning table and walk around the room a bit. They did give a different false reason but it was to calm me down really and it did work.
I think it's the night for anxiety, DD and her friends whipped themselves up into a frenzy about possibly forgotten homework until one of the more clear-headed ones stepped in to stop the madness. DD thinks getting a detention would be the end of the world, it's absolutely nothing compared to what the rest of the fledglings are facing tonight, sending strength, hugs, and 
ladies and junior fledglings. (the wine isn't for the junior fledglings, obviously)
Ghoulette if the thread gets too much in the circumstances I can help so let me know if you need anything thread-wise. The thread is a team effort every time 
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A warm welcome to Justgivemewineand KTCluck [waves]
Ghoulette (and dh) that sounds really stressful with the combination of anxiety over your new job and your dh (even more worrying I know when they are normally the strong plough-on-through type). I hope your DH can get the support he needs and the calming strategies you are putting in place for yourself prove to be effective .
Zoo I am very sorry you and dd2 are struggling tonight too. It is a stressful time of year I think with the change of seasons, illnesses and and academic work piling up. I hope you are both having a peaceful night's rest and that your dd2 feels much better in the morning.
Laputa sorry you are experiencing a flare up atm; look after yourself .
Tidy I agree about things tasting better when they've been cooked by someone else! The long-timers on here have read this before many times but I've found the following meal plan works for us:
SUN - beef, lamb or pork roast or gammon with all trimmings in various styles
MON (easy) - cold cuts with veg in winter and salad in summer
TUES - usually a pasta or rice dish (heavy on the veg with only a tiny bit of meat if not totally veggie) eg risotto, egg fried rice, nasi goreng, pesto pasta with broccoli, smoked bacon lardons and peas , spag bol, linguine and roasted tomato sauce, etc
WED (easy) - tray bake day (sausages or chicken with lots of roasted veg) because it's school half day here and DD comes home for lunch
THURS - always vegetarian eg bean burgers, some sort of lentil or bean casserole, golden root veg and cous cous, gigantes plaki, Chana masala etc.
FRI - always fish eg fish pie, home made fish fingers with potato wedges, salmon en papillote, cod with piperade, sardines on toast ,etc
SAT - takeaway or more usually nowadays (dieting) a takeaway ie chilli, burger, curry, stir fry, noodle soup
usually bake on Mon or Wed ( easy days) for dd packed lunches
**usually make veg soup on Thurs for weekend lunches whilst chopping veg for dinner
when DH isn't travelling, he comes home for lunch about 3 days out of five and we always have soup or salad
So it's a bit like Flylady's focus for the day in that even though I may not know precisely on Tues what I will be cooking on Fri, I do know it will definitely be fish ifyswim and I find that that structure of allocating a particular "genre" of meal for each day means I have a starting point and I avoid that rabbit in headlights "what shall I cook tonight feeling" if that makes sense.
Speaking of cooking, that is all I have (virtually) done today. Bacon and egg for everyone for breakfast, long dog walk in rain, sort of Jamaican style veg and butter bean dish with cod for lunch - another outing to an antiques centre - then roast shoulder of lamb with potatoes boulangere and parsnips, carrots, turnips, peas and mint sauce for dinner followed by apple pie.
It's back to school/work tomorrow and visitor leaving after lunch so just need to serve up toast for breakfast tomorrow morning and have planned a Waldorf salad for lunch and then I can crack on with other (now very urgent tasks) other than cooking and tidying up after visitors!
I am up at this hour (1.30 am here) because I have just spoken to dd who I could hear furtling about ...she is still jet lagged and is wide awake ... this does not bode well for a 6.00 am start tomorrow ... trouble is ...now I am wide awake too!
Waves to everyone.
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