Mad March Fledglings Fly in to action 2020

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A warm welcome to the monthly thread where we (loosely) follow the Flylady housekeeping system here to combat CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) with lots of virtual wine, chat and mutual support along the way. The thread leader of the month will post a link to Flying activities daily. Quite a few of us have been on here for a while, so we may seem cliquey, but we really aren't, and all newcomers, lurkers, returnees, regulars, and intermittent regulars are very welcome!

Very simply, Flylady is a zone-based cleaning system which we follow to varying degrees, depending on our individual homes, circumstances and energy levels. There are five zones and at the beginning and the end of the month we usually straddle Zone 1 and Zone 5. When you first start decluttering, cleaning, and organizing your zones, Flylady encourages you to spend 15 minutes per day decluttering in the current zone.

Each week, we work in a different zone. Each month, we repeat all the zones. After a few months of following this system consistently, you should start to see an improvement in the main areas of your house.

Pop on to the Flylady website to have a closer look about how to get started here 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 so proceed with caution.

The Babysteps system is a light 31-day introduction to the system which familiarises you with Flylady routines (such as dressing to shoes, shining your sink etc) and with her philosophy, which emphasises self-care, her abhorrence of perfectionism and the adage that you’re never behind - just jump in where you are at - even if you only do 5 mins work, that is so much better than doing nothing at all!

There is a morning routine and an evening routine to keep things ticking over and a weekly home cleaning hour (which most of us find tight!) to change bed sheets, mop, hoover, take out rubbish etc. We've found over the years that 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 and declutter with focus, then stop and do something more interesting instead!

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)
Tuesday: plan and play (menu planning, family event planning, doc appts etc)
Wednesday: anti-procrastination day
Thursday: errand day
Friday: clear out purses, bags, cars, date night
Saturday: family fun
Sunday: lift your spirits.

Don't hesitate to ask if you have any qs. And remember, there is NO wrong or right way of doing this, it is about adapting the system to suit your life circumstances, which will be different from someone else's, so feel free to ignore any step or routine that doesn't suit you or your home! And don't be put off by the barftastically twee language of the Flylady site, as the underlying system is sound.

And if/when it all gets too much: come and take a seat by the fire in our candelit, specially adapted, virtual "naughty" corner where you can retreat and enjoy all manner of lovely things such as fluffy pillows warm blankets, fine teas, strong coffee, and platters of sumptuous foodstuffs offered with lashings of support from fellow fledglings.

There may be mention of Ned (and his cousins Ted and Fred) who started their lives as autocorrections, but who have morphed in to virtual helpers, and are borrowed by thread members from time-to-time when the going gets tough on Mount Washmore.

Most days we pop on to post our "to do" and "ta da" lists of what we’ve managed to do and have a bit of a natter. Please don't compare your list with someone else's as this is all about individual progress.

More info follows (but again, please note we advise only looking at the pdfs and not downloading them):

** launch pad (general guidance and info) here

** daily babysteps pdf (ignore the ones that don't suit you or your home) here

** week day missions (some fledglings find it easier to do them at weekends) here

** info about zones (explanation of how zones work) [[http://www.flylady.net/d/br/2017/09/02/please-explain-the-zones/

here]]

** weekly zones (a rough weekly guide to which area of the house we are tackling currently, again adapt to suit yourself) [[http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/flying-lessons/zones/

here]] and here

** daily focus (helpful guide to allocate a certain day for a certain task) here

** deep cleaning lists pdf (only attempt when you have decluttered as you can't clean clutter!) here

Habit of the month: here

An explanation about the March habit of the month: Getting Dressed to Shoes here

Good luck and happy Flying one and all!

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Many thanks to Tinselette from whom I have stolen and adapted quite a bit of this introduction!

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And last, but definitely not least, a huge thank you to Expletive for running a really fast-moving February thread so splendidly

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🤬😡🤯wrote long post and lost it bah humbug!

Basically I am feeling a lot better weather is great here and that has helped. I am on Day 11 of being home. DH has stopped being a dick and has been in since Saturday. I think the kids told him off. DD is safe but was told to go back to Britain but there are hardly any flights. We told her to stay put. They have air bnb now for month then DHs cousin has offered thenm a field for camper van indefinitely though not sure when visa runs out.DSx3 all safe at home now after stock takes and securing premises at work.
I have been out gardening for hours and hours. Garden looking good but need compost now. Seeded and planted. Halfway down garden done. Greenhouse done. Next veg patch.

I think you are all doing fantastically. Relax kids is good. I trained in it about fifteen or more years ago.
Zoo- you did right thing with DP he has proved unreliable in past better for you and kids to keep calm atmosphere. You have enough on. Thought of you when baked barm brack yesterday.
Reorganised and wrote check list for food. Hope to last another week without shopping.
Still coughing but no temperature, some headache. Don’t think I have it but wonder why I am coughing. Drinking herb tea and honey order of DD.

Ah for the lovely teacher it's so nice to get some help. DD's teacher are doing well online, and the pupils have been told not to worry if they can't get online at the right time to do/submit work.

I have braved the supermarket this morning and it was fine, I was there quite early and they had sanitiser for the trolleys and gloves if you wanted them. They were well-stocked (no pasta or flour though, I did see that aisle) and I got what I wanted.

My understanding of the isolation rules is the same as Lisette's, 7 days after symptoms but 14 days (because this seems the likely incubation period) for everyone else in the household. We've had no symptoms so far. Keep up with the honey Bower, I hope you are back to full strength very soon.

I'm going to have a late breakfast and I'll catch you later. Doing more laundry as it's another gorgeous day weather-wise but I hear it's changing for the weekend

🍓🍓🍓🍓Expletive - food prep ideas!!

I'll bbl to catch up with thread properly but just remembered I wanted to say to Expletive if cooking is becoming horrible chore, have you tried incorporating with morning routine (if wfh allows)?

Sorry if are already doing this/ sounds too bloody obvious etc but this is what I have been doing for a while now and it has transformed my attitude to daily "chore cooking" (although feel hypocritical saying this now as dh is doing all week-day dinners atm during lock-down!). But it really helps when it is my sole task ifyswim.

Basically you have a meal plan for week and do all advance prepping first thing in the morning after cleaning routine,. (I even roll up cutlery in paper napkins on tray etc with glasses , s&p etc, to lay table later.) Then it's not so tedious having to set to at 6pm.

So for example in ordinary times, I would have made beany/pulses type lentil dish this morning (Tues & Thurs = veggie days here) plus a veg soup for weekend and got all veg chopping over with all at once. Then it's just a case of heating up with a flat bread or cooking rice in the evening.

After a while, you tend to choose recipes that fit with this style of cooking. Things that need marinading or cooking in oven slowly etc.

Or could you make it a morning activity with your dc? Each person does separate element? Or eeveryone takes turns to do whole thing?

Or cook once serve twice type of thing so you only have to go through the horror once every two days?

Or eat main meal at lunch time instead and have cheese & biscuits & fruit , or soup, quick sandwich for supper?

I understand it's very difficult and not straightforward at all when family members have different preferences, or allergies or intolerancesthough, and perhaps there are shortages, and situation is stressful anyway, so feel free to totally ignore all of the above above!

So great about lovely teacher Zoo

Some good ideas there SC. We don't lay the table as such, the first person to wander into the kitchen when the food is ready grabs some cutlery and puts it out but we don't put out S&P, napkins, glasses or anything else maybe ketchup - they are all in close reach of the table if anyone needs them (you sound so much more civilised!). I have to say we don't linger at the table, it's very much eat and go, our table is tiny and we all feel a bit too much in each other's personal space sitting at it. We are much more relaxed eating out with bigger tables and more distractions.

There are so few things that all four of us will eat, it is absolutely infuriating. Both DCs do actually like quite a broad range of foods but there is very little overlap. Literally just pizza, pasta, meatballs, burgers and Tex-Mex type food. So we eat a lot of those on endless repeat, or mix and match, make something that three will eat and the other has leftovers from the day before or similar. I think I need to step up the meal planning though.

I am about to make a batch of tomato pasta sauce in the Instant pot to freeze now.

Yay for lovely teacher zoo

Just posted in extra curricular activities but can any of you recommend a dance or gymnastics stretching video on YouTube? Ideally something that would appeal to 7 and 9 year old girls? They like the irritating ‘hey guys’ YouTube type videos that drive me mad .

Believe me Expletive if it wasn't for dh (who loves his meals done "properly") and wishing to talk face-to-face with dd occasionally, I would be sitting in front of the telly with a plate of beans on toast on my lap most nights

Bravo for volunteering btw ! I have volunteered to sew face masks and I'm waiting for the official parcel. Ordered it before I was ill though so don't think I should be touching it atm. Must ring them to sort out proper procedure.

Hope you enjoyed tap lesson last night; I now have a picture in my head of you doing "single buffalos" in your kitchen! And well done to your two for self-motivated studying!

Well done for braving (and surviving!) the supermarket Chic! It is indeed lovely drying weather (as I pointed out to dh and dd this morning but the message doesn't seem to have quite sunk in yet DD also finding the on-line hwk situation a bit overwhelming.

That I hope you are ok?

Cineraria did your little lad get to do his web chat today?

We3kings you've done amazingly well to hand in course work AND entertain the dc so well!

No worries givemeacall your ds's sound as though they are keeping you very busy!

Bower glad you are feeling better generally but hope the cough dissipates soon Glad your dd safe in NZ!

Zoo hurrah for fab English teacher (isn't that the sort of thing you have been asking for, for ages? Maybe this crisis will lead to regular on-line learning being delivered after all! V hopeful that will be the case for your ds anyway!) And how lovely of your dd1 to do a "drop and run"!

Agree with Bower that you have done the right thing re: your dp. It's a difficult situation but you have enough on your plate and he should be putting the dc first too, like you do Good luck with phones and deleting e-mails etc! I am trying to do the same with computer but this particular package I have doesn't make it easy at all!

Btw I am with you re: boudoir wibbles! Mine is horrific! The more I do, the more there seems to do! And we seem to have a moth infestation atm, something I have never had before.

Lane Glad you had a good sleep! Hope your legs are less wobbly today! I remember years back with dd, who wasn't a bolter either, dashing off in to the road totally randomly. She only did it once or twice in her entire childhood but it was heart-stopping at the time. So it's good you have a lovely park nearby. Glad Cagletini is enjoying it

Good luck tackling Mt Washmore Willow ! Not sure a couple of mins faddling about on the Internet every morning qualifies me for title as "cultural leader" but thank you anyway Very glad you are enjoying the paintings. ( I have been dithering about a really good on-line art appreciation course for a while now... just wondering if this is the moment!? Even at half price it's quite expensive though and now is not the moment to splash out.) re: experimental jazz and "early" dinners!

I must make a plan re: recycling too as our collections have just been reduced by quite a bit.

Lisette that is so lovely of your neighbour and the bread and eggs! Little gestures like that make such a difference. Agree that house gets much messier with everyone here! Heaven knows what mine will be like when I emerge from si!

I am relieved to have heard from my elderly next door neighbour. He has rejected all offers of help (intensely proud and rather difficult person it has to be said) but his cleaner is going in with shopping three times a week so all ok apparently.

Toostressy I am not good with mindfulness either ... my attention keeps wandering ....( I know.... I know ....). Hope you have managed to incorporate stretches/conditioning in to daily routine!

Going to post this now as I forgot to press "see all messages" thingy and bb in a mo!

Mahoosive waves to Shannara Honu Foxes Hazel and to everyone else I've missed!

Cont/...

KTCluck Good to hear you now have child-care but so sorry you are worried about your dh's job You forget that keeping the power station in these circs with everyone at home is so vitally important; so I think we should be cheering for your dh and his colleagues in the evenings too! And for bin men/women!

Thank you so much for kind words about parenting dd. I absolutely loved the baby/infant/messy craft stage. Turns out I am a bit crap at handling adolescence! But she and I do have still have a few laughs/good moments a day (although they are stretched thin currently) so I am hanging on to those moments in my head atm ifyswim.

Interestingly, heard dh and dd having a bit of a barny (sp?) at lunch time when he was trying to get her to hoover. So awful though it sounds in circs, si does have some benefits .

In summary everyone: I know I sound like a broken record, but treasure those lovely moments with your littlies, because you need them in your "mind bank" to get you through the teen bit!

Willow I'm intrigued to know if your unicycle has made it out of the shed yet? And sorry, see you appointed me as "thread culturalist" not "cultural leader" was working from my poor menopausal memory there. Either way, owing to crappo education, I don't qualify, but glad you love Matisse! I find him very calming!

Also, wrt your non-sleeping son, forgive me if you already do this, but nine isn't too old at all for old-fashioned "reading before bed" session imho. Could you delegate that to one of the older dc maybe? Hope you are able to carve out some time for yourself too with everyone at home!

Lisette please never apologise for being anxious. This is a very anxiety provoking situation.

I am anxious today because we have had news of colleagues of colleagues who have it. And a friend of a friend whom I spoke to earlier. It feels as though it is getting closer somehow. And I admit to having had a bit of a panic earlier.

I hope everyone who is feeling panicky or anxious feels free to come on here and vent though

Expletive meant to say before that I am sorry your dh's is worried about his business too. It's very difficult when a business doesn't fall in to the category that qualifies for government support. Also, v disappointing for you that you have to put your new role on hold when you were enjoying it so much.

How is the computer-sharing going Foxes?

Cineraria please don't feel guilty for preferring lock-down conditions to usual ops. Life with littlies is no picnic sometimes - it can be very relentless in fact - so enjoy the chance to take it a bit slower! Having said that, you are packing loads in!!

In fact all of you are packing loads in... so be proud of yourselves fledglings ... for Flying under very difficult circumstances

The Flying news here is that ... er....everything is a bloomin' mess!

Yesterday's ta da consisted of:

dhadmin
clean bathroom sink
dh admin
clean bathroom lav
mess around on sm over lunch
dh admin
clean shower
dh admin
clean bath
dh admin
clean all horizontal bathroom surfaces (mantelpiece, window-sill and floor)
bit of ineffective faddling around in boudoir

So that was all extremely tedious. Except the sm bit

Today's ta da is:

dh admin for 3.5 hrs

Really don't know what I have done with rest of time except have a bit of a natter with lovely friend (by phone).

And now I am looking at boudoir again and despairing. You know I was trying to sort underlying issues (clothes storage) well everything is out all over the place and looks awful.

And garden project is half-finished and looks horrid and messy too. And downstairs is going to pot.

[wibble]

Going to do an hour and a half and then stop for an hour and see how I feel after supper.

Tally-ho everyone! Big waves and apologies to anyone I've missed!

Toostressy The English National ballet's Tamara Rojo is doing exercises in her kitchen on Facebook!

But this dance teacher seems, er, more perky

Givemeacall

That’s brilliant about the teacher zoo.

Thanks for those tips SC, I will have a look. Also that dance class looks great givemeacall.

Almost total homeschooling fail here today. Only achievement is Joe Wicks PE. Think I am going to write today off. Going to try to use what is left of today to plan things going forward as clearly current timetable is not working .

Bah. Have properly spuffed today. Unicycle still in shed, SC. Online coffee with 2 friends this morning, that was lovely. Managed DS3's skype drum lesson without too much trouble. Spent this afternoon writing about 18th century Scotland, which reminds me - do I recall correctly that @Lisette1940 and @Bowerbird are up that way? I have some questions about the physical geography around Kincardine O'Neil. Then I accidentally bum-dialled an fb messenger group, as some of you will know, and am now dying of shame.

Just have a quiet cup of tea before I get washing off the line and start cottage pie for tea. Might look at those Strictly dance videos, Give, thanks for the tip.

I'm up that way Willow but geography not my strong point. Fire away though 😁

Evening all.

ta da
✅responded to school email re FSM vouchers
✅read therapists info re Zoom appts, not replied though
✅made it into the garden and sat on the nice warm sunny bench for ages, while also having email/text chat with support worker and her colleague about a quiz, lots of laughs!

Result of above:
I am now horizontal on the sofa pretty much unable to move. TBH if I hadn’t done this process before (when I first got ME in 2012) I would be absolutely terrified right now. Unfortunately a lot of people are likely to experience this after the virus. As it is, I’m quite scared, but I can at least be hopeful it won’t last as long as it did that time. Hopefully?!

Read all of this page ✔️
Willow I used to live in the north of Scotland now live in northern England. I have travelled up and down because sisters x2 still living there. Was he around Pitlochry? Vague memories. Will have a look after tea. Don’t know what to make. Should have thought it through this morning. DH suggested omelettes but doubt if that will fill him. Have some stuff to make a Spanish type one.
Need to check out what is in freezer. I feel tired today. I did some gardening but not as much as yesterday when I think I might have over done it. Oh yes you don’t know about that as I lost post. Yesterday I finished herb bed, we manoeuvred the old wood burner ( very attractive, arched glass in doors, swans at the bottom, detail around) into position on herb bed. It was very heavy so DH used a post to move it. I’m going to put herbs and nasturtiums in it. Have several troughs and pots. Then cleaned all the green house. DH moved and organised all empty pots. Today he laid a path to Henry’s new pen and we have room for the compost bin which we needed to move last year. I loved walking down the garden this morning it looks super tidy. Just one area in the middle to do and black knight buddleia to prune. I weeded the front path classing it as exercise as it involved bending and stretching.
Zoo that is great news about teacher.
Sc thanks.
Giveme Welcome, can’t remember if I did one. I’m getting on a bit. I believe we qualify for a timed slot for shopping.

Made a Barm Brack yesterday and today I have used up a jar of mincemeat from Xmas to make Delia Smith’s Mincemeat Cake a couple adjustments...no wholemeal flour added some chopped ginger and dried pineapple. Made a loaf and a small cake. Thought it a pity I couldn’t give it to someone.
Will try and pop back in. DH and the cat have fallen asleep together again so I am off to check out freezer.

By the way I found a bag of Macaroni today don’t all rush!

Lane Sorry to hear you have it I hadn’t read that bit must scroll back and catch up. Hope you ok.

Thanks bower can’t be certain obviously but a lot of the symptoms match and TBH it is like nothing I’ve ever had before. So maybe. It could of course be flu or some bizarrely awful version of tonsillitis which is what I first thought DD had. Either way I feel insanely weak now, so TBH I am really hoping that WAS it, as I can’t imagine how I’ll cope if I catch anything else on top!

Poor you Lane it sounds as though you've had/are having a really grim time with it 🍇🍇🍇. Glad you made it in to the garden though.

Snap Bower we made a Barm Brack the other day. Mary Berry does a mincemeat cake that I really recommend too! Good to use up all the old jars! No wonder you are tired after all that work in the garden . Take it steady!

Are you writing a book Willow or is the research for study purposes?

Tomorrow is another day Toostressy

I've made a bit more progress in the boudoir. Did a power hour and a half. Then got more done in the ad breaks during Escape to the Chateau. It's at the stage where it looks worse before it looks better.

Have a good evening everyone! 👋

Oooh lovely Givemeacall!

Ooh giveme if only I could jump in there. We have had no shower for about a fortnight. It will be a while longer as our builder’s child has it. We haven’t heard from him for ten days quite worried about the family. They have three kids. Grandparents nearby and lost one last year.

We are managing with a bowl of hot, soapy water. It does make you think. At least it is warm and I don’t have to walk miles to get it. Normally we would be fine and shower or bathe at DS1,2 or 3 or BF up the road.

Lane .

Hope you enjoyed your bath givemeacall.

SC, I am indeed going to enjoy a tonight . All of us have resolved to do better tomorrow which I guess is all we can aim for every day .

stressy just to say our home schooling has been very very hit and miss! Yesterday we did nothing and the dc watched a lot of TV, today dd did a small bit of maths and she wanted to do some reading about cats. That was it! And I considered that a success.

I'm also having a so cheers