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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lane I hope things work out for the best for you and DSD. I'm not quite at that point with DD, but I can imagine it'll be hard when she leaves to go to college.

SC I have heard everywhere here locally (in the U.S.) is running out of hand sanitizer. I think it's a little overkill, especially where I live where most people have hardly left the state, let alone the country!!

My co-worker said her DS couldn't understand why people were still drinking it, knowing they could get infected and die - talking about Corona, the beer. He's 9 I think.

Thanks hazel :) she’s been living with us only since July, I’m really glad we’ve been able to have her here (while she was at uni her mum and sister downsized) but I know she also wants her independence back! We’ve definitely become even closer though.

New routine efforts will be upped once she’s moved - she shares a room with DD1 so bedtimes/monitoring screen use etc have been a bit tricky. We’ve been trying to think how to work around it (we do have some rules in place just not quite what we’d like) but now we can just chill about it for another few weeks and then try and figure it out once she’s moved (assuming she does get this place of course, it’s not quite 100% confirmed).

We should probably focus on trying to clear some plastic boxes of random crap so that DSD can have them for packing up stuff! I do need to sort the front room though, it’s such a state and FSW is visiting next Friday. She did say the first time we arranged a visit “I’m here to see you guys, not your housework” but it’s definitely worse than last time!

Yup sc coronavirus reporting ramping up here - only a couple in our county which is good considering we are very near an airport. But yes, hand sanitiser shortages (I have issues with the overreliance on that TBH) and the panic buying photos of local supermarkets are everywhere! Madness. That said we do need to get a big online order done when we can afford it (we recently got a back payment of healthy start vouchers, so have been using them for fruit and veg and thus DH just goes to Asda instead as you can’t use them online) and I don’t think it’ll do any harm to stock up on cheap tins, pasta etc.

Very true about not knowing how you go from overwhelm to sorted, and I particularly relate to the reverse too! I seem to generally have a good day or two and then burn out. Consistency would be far better. I’ve not really done anything from the control wall yet. I’ve got a to do list for the week ahead to write, just hope DH is able to help too. This week has been slightly better for him mentally (we’ve made a lot of time to just hug and chat) but he’s in a lot of pain still and getting side effects from the latest added meds.

Stuck under a toddler soon and I have a sore throat/itchy ears

Morning! Hazel, you're doing amazingly well holding everything together with 10 hour shifts as well. Really hope the vitamin treatment helps your DD. We are trialling high-dose vit D, magnesium and zinc as well as a multivitamin with omega 3 for DS2, as there is some research suggesting it can help with ADHD. Not so serious as your DD's diagnosis, of course. Hope she sees improvement soon. DS3 has been using the lone bottle of Corona beer in the fridge to chase people round the kitchen, "threatening" them with it! 😂

Lane, I can see why you'd have mixed feelings about DSD moving out, but I think you probably need the physical and mental space. You're doing really well to keep afloat with all your physical symptoms right now. I presume Cagletini's spots came to naught? Thinking of which, hope you have not disappeared under a rising tide of calamine lotion, We3.

KT, most unfortunate about sogginess and forgetting the sheet. I hate that feeling of getting upstairs, exhausted, and finding the bed in bits because I've forgotten! That, hope baby DS has sorted out day and night, no-one else is sicky and you are not in pain anymore. Flying with all that going on is amazing!

Waves to SC, Bower, Stressy, Expletive, Cineraria, foxes (under 5s know just when to go back to being adorable, don't they?) Lisette.

We had a lovely time at the National Trust yesterday, it was so nice to be outside in the sunshine and daffodils. I did it in the wrong order and DS3 ran out of oomph before we'd finished the history bits, but it was good to get outside and do something. I don't think I'd realised how hard he finds it just holding himself upright for 3 hours. No wonder school was tough.

In other news, his EHCP application was rejected yesterday because the school provided no information. We were expecting this, but it still feels like a kick in the teeth. Working out whether to continue or just homeschool til Y7 and hope for a place at the school we like for him.

Right, must get on. I've mended DH's hoodie already this morning (hurrah) and am off to Mum's to meet this new cousin who appeared out of the woodwork just before Christmas. DH did all the basic flying yesterday without me and was exhausted by 10pm!

Oh, and has anyone seen zoo anywhere else on the site? Getting quite concerned that she's just vanished.

Catching up after actual SLEEP!

SC I read it as it was intended!

Sorry I disappeared again. DS4 seems to be coping ok with the pox and doesn't have many spots at all. 90% already have a crust so 🤞 we don't get anymore. DS1 got about 3 waves of them and every time I thought he was over it he got more.

Things are still crazy at work. Had family round yesterday for a last get together before my DS and her BF went back home to Greece. DH was off work to look after DS4 so he tackled a lot of the washing and I got some of it ironed but it's still stacked all over my bed. That was all the flying I got done other than I quick tidy before people came.

I've just got back from a scouts trip and really should be doing something but we had an Indian takeaway last night and I'm so bloated and have stomach pain from it still. It's been a long time since I've had one and my stomach is not liking it at all. So I'm sat doing nothing.

Our tomorrow with my DM and DGM for an early Mother's Day meal as my DM goes home on Sunday. It's been lovely having them all but it's not helped me be productive as I had too much socialising to do. No plans for Sunday and that's usually a good day for me to get stuck in to the house so that's my plan to get back on top of things.

Hope your therapy session wasn't too tough willow.

Hope your Little one is feeling better after being sick that.

Shame about the roofers SC hopefully the weather changes soon and they can get back on with it. We've had quite nice weather the last couple of days and even reached double figures today.

Lisette my sister was panicking over the collapse of Flybe and was practically in tears as she didn't know how she was going to make her connecting flight.....until I checked her tickets to discover she was actually flying with easyJet 🤦‍♀️

Enjoy your picnic tomorrow foxes and you can never have too much chocolate anyway.

Hazel sorry to hear about your daughter. 25% of people who have a schizophrenic episode never have another one. I hope that is that case for your daughter. Also try not to feel bad that you didn't know it's a very tricky thing to diagnose and there's only 54% of cases where two doctors will both diagnose schizophrenia, so if people trained to pick up on these symptoms struggle it's no wonder you didn't pick up on it.

I wouldn't have debated pizza and wine either stressy.

Kt waking up in a puddle is not the best way to start the day. Hope you woke up drier this morning.

£75 a roll bower 😨

Nuddy Ned would have been an interesting costume cineraria. I was lucky as the theme was bedtime stories so mine just had to go in PJ's as did we later on.

👋 to zoo, lane and anyone else I've missed. Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

I havent seen zoo anywhere has anyone pm'ed?

Baby ds slept better last night and sick child has not thrown up in about 18 hours so 🤞

Hello, not sure PM is working but will have a go.

Zoo sometimes absent from thread first few days/week of new month but hope all OK

Glad no more puking That and that you had some sleep

Beautiful day here, everything has started growing, so back out to make most of it!

Catch up later!
🍒 waves!
🐎🐾🐾

If zoo's phone has issues, she can't get on. That's been the reason previously, and I hope it's the same now - thinking of you zoo.

I've been absent all week as well, will have to catch up. Had a minor under-sink leak leading to a clearout and the dumping of lots of damp cardboard cartons. Hopefully fixed now, and the cupboard has dried out - but the stuff seemed to explode when I took it out and is still everywhere! May need another cull before it all goes back in

we3 🤣 it's easily done I suppose - your poor sister. Dh didn't get to the meeting due to the collapse of Flybe and his big US conference was cancelled later this month.

Sorry for my absence but I was cleaning the kitchen. Have cleaned all appliances inside and out and outside of cupboards. Walls and doors tomorrow. Engineer coming on Monday to fix washing machine.

Currently have a DVD of a roaring fire playing.

I hope zoo is well. 🍒 Waves to all.

Fingers crossed it is just phone issues with zoo I did pm earlier also

Yesterday was quite productive really all things considered although i feel it was powered by anadin plus (inc caffiene)

Today has been largely absorbed taking dc to activities, doing homework etc

No. No. You dont get the point stick.

It goes through the man childs head 😡🤬

How can he be so crap when you are all so broken

zoo . Thanks for coming back to let us all know how you are getting on. I have to say you are so right with questioning whether nobody ever bothered to wash their hands before all this. The stealing of alcohol gel and masks etc from hospitals really doesn’t surprise me I’m afraid. People have lost their minds. I get that people are worried but stealing such things from hospitals is really low and I wish the police could be more on top of such things. People’s ability to incite panic does concern me.

On that happy note I have been mum’s taxi all day so am now slumped in bed and am going to watch Netflix.

Big wing flaps to all.

Meant to also write and for you too Hazel

Zoo ❤️❤️❤️

Bower thinking of you and your big decision too 💐 x

ta da
✅got DD1 to do her laundry
✅LOL of ours
✅nit check DD1
✅wrote a ridiculously huge to do list for the next week. 100 items 🤣🤣🤣 yeah good luck Lane. Some things are very small but still.
✅ordered Tesco - quietly admitting to a bit of stockpiling, since the local Asda is emptying fast 🙄🙄🙄 just things like extra tins. Even without the cold we all seem to be getting we don’t need the stress of having to travel further than necessary, neither of us can carry much and no car etc.

Totally squandered this morning when the others were out - I really shouldn’t do this especially at the moment, with all these extra commitments we’ve got currently I’m not getting a lot of time to relax alone, I should really make the most of it instead of sitting zombie like on the sofa messing about online 😣 feeling super crap now (sneezing etc) and massively regret the waste of time

Looks like DSD does have the flat confirmed so she will be packing up and moving in the next few weeks! Going to focus on just getting through this busy time with appts etc (Caglets also have two different dance shows) and hopefully at least improving the living room and hallway, then once she is fully moved out we can start adding to the routine and tackling the upper floor.

Don’t worry I’m not stockpiling hand gel and soap by the way! We have hand wash in the bathrooms already. Similarly shocked at the theft and yet not shocked either :( sadly I think Facebook exacerbates a lot of this shit.

Sorry to hear you are having such a rotten time Zoo, so many difficult things one on top of another. I hope that the visit to the old fashioned wool shop will be a lovely one with lots of soft, fluffy yarn in lovely colours already unwrapped from its plastic packets so you can enjoy petting it inspecting it thoroughly and that the next week is easier overall.

Congratulations to your DSD on getting her flat Lane. Will she still be local to you? By the way, there is a Christmas Nuddy Ned book too, which DS also loves. I think I like that one even more. I must look into the book without pictures for DS1. He is reading a bit but needs encouragement to do it aloud. That looks like it might be a nice book for him to share reading, from what I can see of the extract because the text looks interesting visually.

MiL visited today with her partner. The last two times she tried to visit, we were ill and had to cancel, so it was nice to see her. I was convinced that the boys would pick up something from DS1's preschool last week (siblings all play with the playground toys while we wait for the ones at school to come out) and we'd have to cancel again. It was also nice that the place was quite presentable for once after all the decluttering recently. Fingers crossed it won't be long until we clear the last big hot spot, which is the spare room dumping ground, enough to move both boys in there, and the spare bed to DS1'S current room so they can stay when they visit. Didn't get much done though today other than usual cooking and cleaning up afterward.

I can understand why shops are low on gel sanitisers, although stealing it from a hospital is shocking, but the handwash thing is confusing to me, surely people realise that if they run out, they could just substitute by putting a bit of shower gel/bubble bath/shampoo in the bottle.

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Good morning fledglings!

Baby-step no.8 for Sun 8 March is: here

Launch pad link for reminders, flight plan, missions etc is: here

NB we are starting in Zone 2 today (see below) and fyi this is how all the zones pan out for March:

Zone 1: Entrance, Front Porch & Dining Room (1-7)
Zone 2: Kitchen, Pantry (8-14) here
Zone 3: The Main Bathroom and One Extra Room (15-21)
Zone 4: The Master Bedroom, Bath, Closet (22-28)
Zone 5: The Living Room, Den, Family Room (29-31)

Have a good Sunday everyone. And in these stressful times, let's take a few hours for ourselves to lift our spirits today in whichever way suits!

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Thank you we3 she hasn't had a full blown episode, she's been very good at keeping it all to herself and trying to control her anger etc. Hopefully talking to a therapist will help, as well as the vitamin.

zoo glad to see you back, although I'm mad at your "D"H for brushing you off like that. I honestly don't know how you put up with it. He's pissing me off and I haven't even met him!

Morning all

🥞🧇🥐🥓🍳☕🧃

willow I really do hope the vitamin works as the alternative meds scare me with all their side effects.

we3 oh no, I hope you start feeling better soon. Is it the spices in the Indian that your stomach doesn't like?

that I'm glad your sick baby is doing much better now and that you actually got sleep!

lane I'm sure it'll be a good thing for DSD to move out into her own flat, I think you'll miss her, but you'll enjoy having your space back and moving things around as you wish.

chic sorry to hear about your sink leak, I hope it didn't cause too much damage.

tinselette great flying today with the deep clean of your kitchen.

cinereria glad to see you were finally able to have more family time and DC get to see their GM.

toostressy thank you for the support, it's very much needed and accepted right now.

We had a house full tonight, DD had a couple friends over and ILS came over, including SIL. We had a good time. During the day I had no energy or motivation to do anything, but we did manage to get groceries and I got dinner made (and didn't actually rush or stress over it tonight which makes a change). Kitchen got cleaned up, 1 LOL done, DW loaded and started, sink cleaned, hand wash all done too.

Thank you SC for the links too, it's always a great reminder to make time for ourselves as we can't give more than we have.

Good morning that I hope you have a great day, that goes for everyone else too.

I'm now off to bed as it's midnight here and I keep dozing off (I'm already in bed, thank goodness!)