February Flying for Fledglings, No More CHAOS here

[ExpletiveDelighted]

Welcome to February! This is a friendly ongoing thread where we follow (n some cases, very loosely) the Flylady method for sorting out our homes and lives!

Newbies are always welcome here! It’s a long running thread so please don’t worry if we appear cliquey. There’s a lot of chatter and support for all sorts of things, alongside the housework stuff.

Every day I will post a link to the Flylady launch pad, which is where you can access the information for that day - babysteps, missions, daily focus etc. But if you’re confused about anything, please ask!

Check out the website too - but we suggest not signing up for the millions of emails.

The great thing about Flylady is that you jump in where you are. Everything you do is progress. Don’t worry about not “keeping up”. Any achievement, however small, means progress.

More info to follow.

Not especially hazel - most of my friends have a lot of their own stuff going on TBH. That said I do have a lovely friend who often picks me up for things ❤️ which will reduce travel time some days, and some might come round for a takeaway and company at some point. Mum is visiting at some point next week but she’s definitely not the practical help or support type and DSD is quite run down and unwell ATM so we’ve not asked her to babysit for a while.

I’m gutted as I really did want to get stuff done over the next week while school is off (we also don’t do HE stuff, we’ve always stuck to term times) but it looks like it’s going to be pretty tricky - both in terms of actual time, and the mental energy involved in a lot of it when we are already very low, and that’s without even thinking of the flare up I’m in currently. There are very few bricks left at the bottom of the Jenga tower that is my life :o and all these meetings etc are just piling more on top!

Ugh. Sorry for being negative - going to try and relax a bit now and then make a plan with DH tomorrow.

Don’t think I will be going anywhere tomorrow!

DH wanted to go over to see DS2 we got half way and had to turn back. Our village is only accessible by one route and that is starting to flood.

Awake with the weather pounding on the window.

Stay safebower
Lane I'd hoped for a quiet, restorative half term as been Mad Here lately,but appointments are building up here and i really want to scream FFS sake I need a break/rest kind of way
Hazel I hope you didn't get a late night.great list

Do text me IBS play up won't be over yesterday,not surprised as had tough week at work incl a man smash hands thru top a glass Cooker...
I walk zoolets down to Aldiwe picked up stuff for lunch.wind was blustery,building
My limbs /joints ached so bad and felt exhausted I lay in bed all pm.rain lashed window,wind howled.i couldn't sleep and groggier when got up again!
DS unsettled by wind,dd2 freaking about tomorrow birthday)leaving trip to a restaurant with friends

YWNBU to skip it in this weather zoo!

Hi everyone, sorry I’ve been AWOL for a few days. Busy work days Thursday and Friday, and a busy, but enjoyable, day yesterday at a party with DD in the morning then spent the rest of the day at my dads. I’d blitzed downstairs in the morning before the party and as we’d been out all day it was lovely coming back to a clean house, transferring sleeping DD into bed and sitting with a glass of wine. Upstairs is a bit of a mess with clean laundry that I’d sorted into piles but hadnt actually put away so I’ll sort that today. Bedding was washed yesterday and I already have enough uniform ironed for through the week so today shouldn’t be too hectic hopefully.

Lane and Zoo I really hope you manage to get a break soon. Well done on starting the laundry mountain Lane. The extra chores for extra money idea seems sensible to me, and I’ve also heard good things about coconut oil.

Hazel glad DH is on the mend and I hope if you have got it it’s a milder dose!

Bower hope you aren’t cut off for too long. We had some bad rain last night and there were some big puddles to manoeuvre through on our journey home but no real flooding touch wood.

Wing flaps to everyone including newbies (I’m sure there was someone new I haven’t welcomed from a few days ago, hi!)

Enjoy your sundays everyone. Hope you all
manage to get your spirits renewed.

That's wise Bower. Zoo sorry to hear about dd's migraines.

Lane sometimes in life the speed sign is flashing '20'.

I love the concept of a capsule wardrobe but not the ten item kind which is just too small.

Make sure you've enough t shirts and tights to make the outfits work. If you don't want to get rid of clothes then a clothing app might give you an overview of what you have to work with and you might see new outfits popping out at you.

On Pinterest you might come across the Vivienne files. She does a 33 item wardrobe and shows visually what outfits can be formed. Project 333 is much the same.

Sorry forgot to addHungryhazeleyes hope your household is better.

www.theviviennefiles.com/starting-from-scratch/

www.theviviennefiles.com/2014/06/starting-from-scratch-clarifying-our.html/

Links to building a capsule wardrobe.

It's due to be wet and wild here. Ds off to match. I'm going to saunter to Asda as long as the weather holds and buy fruit. I haven't been to Asda in a month and it now feels like a massive treat.

Sounds interesting Tinselette, I will take a look .

Also wet and windy here like the rest of the U.K. thankfully we live on a hill but we have roads and houses flooded round here. Both main routes out of here are flooded so cannot take DD2 to her activity. Had promised the girls swimming (aaaggghh I HATE family swimming but have to pretend to like it ) so we will go to local leisure centre as can walk there. The session is later this afternoon. So have just said to both girls they can have another half hour on tablets since we are now not going to DD2’s thing. Then we are going to look into homework. As today really is our only day with a very long block of time to make a good start and a plan. Can’t wait . DD2 in particular has a ridiculous amount of holiday homework . As you can imagine both children are similarly enthusiastic about it .

stressy can you offer a nice incentive once is out of the way?
I've still not moved.body hurts and CBA.clearly get old and running on obscene amounts tictacs and not much else isn't working for me anymore!
Emailed lead gardener we not coming as no one to watch lil zoo and I don't have energy stand middle field in pouring rain planting fruit trees
I must get up and feed furry overlords
Dd2 wanted waking 830 so has two hours decide what to wear/get ready for birthday/leaving meal with friend....

That sounds very interesting, Tinselette, I'll have a look too. Such a shame about football being cancelled 😉 Hazel, don't overdo it and wear yourself out! Lane is there anything you can cancel to make the next couple of weeks bearable? I'm sure you'd rather not, but sometimes needs must. Bower stay safe! Zoo can you try to force a restful week? DH is out all week except Tuesday here, so I've set up playdates for DS3 in 3 days. This should give me space to talk to DS2, do some actual paid work and try to keep on top of the pit house. Stressy, we're verging on bored-and-cross too. I also hate family swimming, because who likes standing up to their thighs in tepid soup watching the DC do handstands and jump in? You can't swim the Leisure Pool (it's kidney shaped FGS). Owl hope the house move was ok! Have you found the kettle yet? Cineraria totally agree about needing the habit of crafting. I have a huge list of projects I'd like to do some of, but just can't quite get to. Cherry waves to That, rachael (you've gone quiet, hope all is well), SC (if you're reading for light relief), chic, KT and anyone else who's fallen out of my head. I must start keeping a tick list!

I dropped off the thread for a couple of days because everything got busy, but Ta Das since Friday are:
✓ SARs put in to Infant school, Junior school and doctors for DS3's records for the EHCP application
✓ usual DW / LOL x lots / S&S etc to keep house going
✓ finally ordered DD's trainers, arriving Monday in time for Kung Fu. Phew!
✓ went to DM's to clean on Friday afternoon - her allergies are getting worse and worse and I'm pretty certain it's cat hair and dust. The whole house is mushroom coloured (bought it that way) and so nothing shows up. I took the big hoover over and we spent 2 hours dusting and hoovering in the living room! I had to empty our hoover twice and she did the stairs with hers and emptied that twice too.
✓ managed not to kill my brother, who chose to announce (while I was cleaning the house he lives in) that he doesn't believe in ADHD etc, my kids just can't sit still and don't do enough sport. Why aren't I making them do sport every day? They need to do football, basketball, athletics, rugby, swimming etc for an hour every day. He won't have that hEDS / dyspraxia / ASD / SPD make all these things super hard and there is no money for endless sports. It's a minimum of £17.50 a time to swim, and that is just ploughing up and down 25m lanes, which is not actually any fun when you're 9.
✓ cried all over DMum because DBro is an insensitive twerp and I am so bloody tired. At least she can see I'm turning myself inside out to support the DC.
✓ sent DS2 off to see the NG. I'm not saying they Did A Valentine, but they went to the closest big town for Coffee and Desserts on Friday evening. Aww. ♥️
✓ went through the cupboards and wrote a shopping list
✓ went to Tesco for half term food on Saturday - cripplingly expensive, but Lidl is 30 mins away and we didn't think we could get there and back before the storm closed in. At least we have a menu now.
✓ spent my pocket money on some pretty fake peonies in a silvered vase for the top of the stairs bookshelf. It makes me smile every time I see it.
✓ tried to put March into my bullet journal. Can't find a theme I like. Want something daffodilly / art nouveau.
✓ organised half term playdates for DS3
✓ talked to DS2 about halfterm maths support for DS3.
✓ arranged to meet a "new" cousin we have just become aware of through the wonders of Ancestry DNA. Her great-grandfather was my grandmother's brother. We are getting together early next month to pool photo albums and family stories and I'm really quite excited about it.

To dos for today:
🔳 Hoover everything, specifically behind our bed (which takes at least two of us)
🔳 Let Wendy finish in the kitchen (she had a tantrum last night and ran out of battery)
🔳 More LOL
🔳 More EHCP paperwork gathering
🔳 Plan next week
🔳 Roast lamb for dinner
🔳 Remind DS2 to do his washing
🔳 Hang pictures of the DC that are in the way on a table
🔳 Do March planning even if I can't find a pretty BuJo theme. Apparently, it's not all about the art.
🔳 Choose a craft project (maybe write a list first) and do at least half an hour on it for me.

Hope spirits are renewed and no-one's feet are wet. Apols for the essay!

Only skim read today/yesterday’s posts so far but bloody hell willow how did you not actually kill him?! 🤬🤬🤬

Tired this morning, was up a bit later after finally being able to spend some rarer-than-hens-teeth time with DH (after finishing season 1 of stranger things with DD1) and then a friend was messaging having a rough time with her DP.

Sadly nothing can be dropped or postponed TBH. Meetings, medical appts blah blah blah. Just bad timing.

to do
🎯decipher DD’s busy social schedule for the next week (involves various texts etc)
🎯decide with DD and DH the plan for what she needs to do at home when she’s not off gallivanting with friends/boyfriend 🙄 (I suspect some of this may be “watch the toddler so me and dad can do housework/form filling etc”)
🎯check homework app for the same reason
🎯finish remaining clothes that are on our bed (odd socks, yesterday’s drying etc) - that’s one thing DD will need to help with anyway
🎯set up new laundry door bag thingies for DD1/DS
🎯make sure all dirty clothes are in laundry bags/baskets
🎯towel LOL
🎯submit barcodes for shopandscan as we didn’t for ages (lost laptop charger 🙄😳)
🎯look up dates for DH’s course as it’s not on the email and I want to put it in the diary
🎯find out DSD’s plan for the week
🎯try and make some plans for friends/mum to visit for a bit of company
🎯meal plan a bit, much of this is going to be convenience food when DH is out TBH as I’m so dizzy still 😣 so need to plan to avoid loads of takeaways etc, we’ve been so good this year so far!
🎯pay tap invoice
🎯make sure I get some time to myself - want to finish a drawing I started on Thursday
🎯Solihull homework (then I can completely forget about it for over a week)
🎯start ACEs reading if possible

I would rather replace the entire list with “sleep”

Sorry about the holiday HW, the migraine and the flooding.

Will read back properly later.

Caught up. Cineraria :o :o :o at ASBO hair.

I agree cutting toddler nails is an achievement. I’m gutted that Cagletini has finally decided she hates it, having actually really enjoyed it before - she would throw a strop if she saw me doing mine or the others’ and demand I did hers! She does still demand having her hair brushed at least.

ta da
✅helped DD1 with quick geography homework
✅sorted her no-longer-needed clothes into donatable and rags, added them to what I gathered from ours yesterday
✅got her to do the last bit of putting clothes away
✅set up her door laundry bag and got her to gather dirty stuff for it
✅texted a couple of her friends’ mums to arrange things
✅paid tap invoice
✅looked up DH’s course and am now even more confused - it seems to be a rolling one but the letter suggests it’s limited, he will clarify on Thursday - really want to know for sure as it clashes with playgroup and we need to sort something for DS
✅sorted most of DS’ clothes into categories to make it easier to declutter. Thanks to some hand me downs he’s got too much now! Luckily I don’t think any of the Caglets will need anything bought for them for a while.

Sitting in a daze on the sofa currently but need to go and carry on now.

I'm still not feeling well.guessing stupid hormones as joints still hurt,exhausted but can't sleep and can't think straight
Picked up some salad veg and fruit whilst dd2 was out with friends
Supervised D's with paint to decorate a cactus growing kit tubas he's a mucky monkey and didn't fancy acrylic everywhere>
Lunch
Nap
Snack
Still feel absolutely awful

Need try suck it up and tomorrow is busy.ds has asthma check(45 mins walk to doctors) and OT picking him up and she seems be checking out the place for levels of tidy everytime bloody home visits
At present it's not at hovel,but not particularly tidy either
I cannot find strength tonight,always burn down by teatime,I will have get up early and sort it

Sorry for the whining,I promise to do better tomorrow

I'm sorry to hear about the aches zoo. Probably compounded by tiredness. Willow that's a full on list. How exciting about the relative link via ancestry.

Toostressy yes wet and windy here. We ventured out in the morning - two football matches for Ds as they were short of players. I got to Asda.

I baked cookies yesterday so ds is pleased. We did some Lego today so that's an achievement.

I think zone four starts today which is master bedroom. I'll start on that throughout next week so I can pace myself. 😁

Today dh and I are concentrating on ironing and ds's room. Pork chops for dinner.

DH left for the meeting. Just after Cagletini fell asleep! Annoyingly late nap but I’m really glad of the peace and quiet as I hadn’t taken the time to chill earlier, I was sorting clothes, so at least I’ve had some art time now.

ta da
✅sorted through all DS’ clothes with him - he’s folded everything back up and we added some to rags, a few to the massive charity pile and a big bunch for a friend with a smaller DS to look through
✅finished my drawing from the other day, pushing myself a bit as I normally avoid drawing people! Leaving comfort zone or whatever

So sleepy.

Zoo please get as much rest as you can. If OT is judgy that’s not the end of the world promise x

Trying to catch up on thread, life keeps getting in the way!

Lane i have recently been looking into frizzy hair stuff as trying sort mine out after years of mum-bunning. Apparently you shouldnt use a hair brush, use a wide comb or your fingers. Also you shouldnt dry with a towel but with a tshirt or microfiber thing

Thank you for those links tinselette they will definitely come in handy, I love how it is broken down, I plan on taking some time over the next couple of days to sort out what I have.

TooStressy I have taken it easy this morning, and putting off grocery shopping until tomorrow, much to DHs disgust! I work this afternoon and if he wants to go get shopping done, I'll let him (he won't).

Oooh thanks hazel you’ve reminded me I need to do a Tesco order.

Thanks for more hair advice that :)

Solihull stuff done but can’t find ACEs folder oops. DH hasn’t messaged me yet - he had the meeting start time but finish time wasn’t written on the email 🙄

Right must start Tesco order

Zoo I’m sure a bit of untidiness isn’t a problem - surely most houses with 3 children are a bit untidy. You always have impressive ta da lists so I imagine you’re not living in a dirty hovel. Let her judge away! You’re doing a fab job.

Lane well done on the clothes sorting and for taking some time to yourself. I rarely find I regret a late nap - I take the quiet time in the day over a harder / later bedtime any day.

Hope you’ve warmed up after braving two football matches Lisette. A 45 minute round trip (on foot, slowly, with DD) to my DGM’s this morning was enough of the cold and wind for me!

Willow impressive ta da list, although I feel ‘buried DB under patio’ should feature on there somewhere.

I’ve had little bursts of productivity today in amongst periods of lazing on the sofa.

DH prepped a Sunday lunch while we were visiting DGM. I popped to the shop on my way home, did the Yorkshire puddings and washed up as soon as we’d finished before becoming comatose on the sofa. Light lazy tea of cheese on toast.

Also,
✅ 2 LOLs
✅ S & s
✅ clean clothes away
✅ DD’s bedroom tidied
✅ sorted through her wardrobe - Found another few items for local food bank, some for textile recycling. Also had a look at what she has / needs for the warmer months approaching (yay!)
✅ ‘future friended’ by prepping overnight oats, tomorrow’s lunch and our work / nursery clothes and bags
✅ sorted finances
✅ ordered a gift
✅ tidied coats / shoes / crap in hallway (it really is one giant hotspot)

About to let DD join me in the bath then will need to tidy the living room, then that’s me clocking off!

Hope holiday homework went well Too. It should be outlawed!

Today's Ta-da's
✔️ cleaned the top of the drawers in my room and polished it and the rest of the room
✔️ got DH to sort through his clothes and bag some up for charity (this is a major achievement he's sick a hoarder when it comes to clothes)
✔️ sorted through my makeup and got rid of a highlighter I don't like
✔️ binned some hair rollers and used the storage box to store nappies, wipes etc in my room
✔️ cleaned the windows in our room and the bathroom
✔️ bathmats in the wash
✔️ dust the toiletries
✔️ gave the shower a good scrub with bleach and an old toothbrush
✔️ cleaned the shower glass
✔️ spellings with DS1&2, SALT homework with DS3, reading with DS3, filled reading diaries out. Set DS2&1 away on some more of their homework. They have so much to hey through
✔️ dusted my room
✔️ made lunch
✔️ stripped my bed inc mattress protector and flipped the mattress (still haven't remade it another Sunday on the sofa 🙈)
✔️ emptied the nappy bin
✔️ sorted the DC books and bagged some for charity
✔️ tidied out DH pj drawer
✔️ sorted the baskets under my bed
✔️ straightened another shelf in DH wardrobe
✔️ sorted out the shoes, binned a couple of pairs and polished the cupboard out
✔️ got a suitcase out the loft in preparation for DS1 school trip
✔️S&S
✔️ 2 x LOL
✔️ ironing
✔️ bathed and dressed

We then took the children to a funfair. It was absolutely freezing but we all had a blast. Since we've been back in DH has been watching the football and I've cooked random bits from the freezer.

Not as much as I would usually get through on a Sunday but I'm off tomorrow and I've told the DC that we've done something fun today and tomorrow they'll need to clean/tidy their bedrooms.

I must do a shop at some point as well.