Flapping calmly through lockdown: Fledglings April 2020. Welcome to the Keep Calm Corner!

[LaneBoy]

Hello all!

Thank you for joining us, please note if we seem cliquey it’s only because it’s a long running thread - everyone really is welcome!

Welcome to (probably) the most bizarre Flylady thread yet... in which we are attempting to impose/maintain some kind of order in our homes, while also many of us are adjusting to working from home and homeschooling the kids for the first time too! Not to mention the anxiety around health and accessing food!

Of course, normally the opening post would talk about banishing CHAOS - Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome - but now we aren’t allowed anyone over anyway :o so, let’s just try and make our homes nicer FOR US. We are spending more time than ever in them, so let’s make them really wonderful places to be, our own safe little nests for our families.

Flylady routines might just help us get through this crazy time, by giving us a little structure to work from when all else is unpredictable - but as usual there is no right or wrong here. All of us follow it only to the extent it helps us - we can take ideas and make them work for us. And the key principle is, YOU ARE NEVER BEHIND. I feel like that is even more evident now, with so many of these outside pressures and commitments suddenly gone, and frankly the days rolling into one!

This is potentially a great time to declutter. Of course, Flylady suggests 15 minutes a day - but perhaps in these unprecedented times we will all do more! But we are all busy getting into our own routines now that school is out, and work too for many, and we’ve lost a lot of the outside structure to our lives. There’s no right or wrong here, we just have to try and adapt.

Links wise, I’ll just post the launch pad, and will add reminders about zones too. If anyone has Flying questions, please ask!

The Keep Calm Corner
The lovely SC came up with the brilliant idea of the Keep Calm Corner last month - this is a daily post with things to make us happy! I figured each monthly host can make this their own, and I’m a little worried my taste in art and music would not be calming to most :o so for this month, the KCC will consist of:
Some memes - either funny (we all need a laugh! Warning though - some will likely be unsavoury :o) or thought provoking/relaxation based. Do PM me (here or FB) if you have any you want to add!
A daily “ice breaker” type question - obviously answering these is entirely optional, and don’t say anything that will out you, but if you want to join in and create some extra conversations on the thread then treatment, we can all get to know each other better! Again, if you think of any questions please PM!

Thank you for settling in, and of course thank you to SC for making March such a lovely thread. And lastly, a huge thank you also to our key worker Fledglings, who are doing an incredible job of keeping things running!

Pachelbel's Canon and the Four Seasons are my favourite pieces, to answer the icebreaker of the day.

Fab socks, strawberry, did you knit them in the round or on four needles? I've never tried either of those tbh!

Hazel is that the kind of thing that your mum would do normally? That must have been hard for you to cope with.

Not much flying here today, laundry and dinner about my best efforts today

Hazel - my mum has been planning her own funeral for years, also whenever we visit she's also asking would we like this item or that item after she's gone. I know I will probably thank her one day but I find it quite upsetting.

Willow - glad the flatbreads worked out, I haven't tried them with SR flour.

I can't remember who else said what today. I too am feeling upset about the PM. Just awful.

Anyway, tada!

EHCP stuff - drafted what I want to write, will do the final version tomorrow.
Gardening - waste collection today and wanted to fill the bin so an hour digging out brambles.
Swept kitchen floor
1x LOL
Cleaned handles, knobs etc
Went to change a lightbulb and found no spares but don't want to go to shop just for that.
Dinner.
Bit of work. Full day planned tomorrow.
Allotment for exercise.

Watched Masterchef.

Here are todays flowers. Who said they liked forget-me-nots, was it you Zoo. This narcissus wasn't really growing sideways.

It really is crazy isn’t it. In some ways I’ve been shocked just how quickly I’ve adapted to it.

I’m feeling a bit more relaxed now but I should really go to bed instead of sitting randomly faffing on my phone FFS.

Hopefully we can achieve more in the house tomorrow but DH has counselling and then needs to collect his meds too, he will go to the supermarket on the way home for a few bits we need since we can’t do a big shop until our slot on 25th (I am taking that’s advice though and regularly checking in case slots reappear).

Right must go to bed! Night folks

Did they collect it ED ours didn't get collect over two weeks ago?

Hazel try not to get too upset with mum as it is part of getting older. I quite often think "Oh that is a lovely hymn I must make a mental note and write it down later as a possibility." Especially when I am at church. DS 1 was a little bit jealous when DS2 moved to a country village. I said to him" Well you could buy the others out when we snuff it."Then when we were getting the new kitchen he encouraged us to buy the more expensive one as "It will last for me then." Cheeky monkey. He said he approved when it was finished and he likes the summer house. I would love one of them to live in the house when we are gone. Years ago I would have loved to have bought my Grans house but we couldn't afford it. It was £25,000 and now it is worth more than half a million.

Strawberry Love the socks. I think we might be a similar age. I'm glad you have decided to join us. I love Black Sabbath as a teen. DH saw the Beatles and a lot of other good bands and shared his chips with Ozzy Osbourne once!
Zoo So awful about the shopping that was all you needed poor DD2
Lane I always wanted to learn as Grandma started to teach me when I was five but then we moved to Windsor. She was a concert pianist and had studied at the Conservatoire in London which must have been quite unusual in those days as she was from a tiny village on Loch Ness.
I always used to listen to classical music on the way home from school- I wonder why?
One that comes to mind that I have loved since a child is the 1812 Overture. I loved ballet so loved a lot of his work like Swan Lake. I was really excited to see we are going to do some Simon Jenkins Benedictus. I absolutely love it. there are some great choirs singing it on You Tube. I am not very knowledgeable and that is one thing I would like to change when I retire.

Sorry there was so much to read and I fear I have forgotten who said what now.

DCat isn't great. DH made me feel really anxious tonight as he keeps on about her bumping into things. She was due her meds as I pointed out For Goodness Sake she has only been on them since yesterday. Oh and he remarked that there was a bit of blood on her poo and then that the next one was a bit runny. The blood I wasn't happy about but it was only a little and the poo looked hard. SorryTMI.I can't cope if he carries on like this. She is happy enough in herself apart from when she gets disorientated but she sensibly just cries and I rescue her. He has made me feel sick with anxiety tonight that I didn't really want my dinner.

SO TA DA
S&S
2x LOL
Made MY bed.
Did a bit more tidying then took rubbish down to burn tablet boxes etc.
Vacuum downstairs.
Washed up a greasy plate DH had left last night after I did all the dishes and it made the bowl and the sink all orange and greasy because it was spag bol sauce.Damn he has done it again left a dish soaking plus a tray and a bowl so I have just cleaned the kitchen and S&S the sink.

I did some gardening deciding whether it was dead or not about half the pots. Trimmed back the straggly bits. DH helped by putting pots around garden now he doesn't want them on the new path. Im allowed two each side of the door. There are three now as I put the tulips there too.
Did two crosswords.
Went for our hours exercise up the hill spoke to my friend's daughter. Told her her mum would be proud to see her weeding! Her mum died when she was my age makes you think. She was a great friend and knew my best friend before I did. They were both my best friend's you couldn't get two more lovely people. I am blessed.

Feel a bit better since reading your posts and waffling on here. DCAt has woken up and found her way to the kitchen had half a packet of flakes and a warm by the Everhot and now sleeping in front of the fire so I think I can leave her. I'm getting as bad as your DD Zoo send her up hear. We can keep each other company. Need to be up to give DCat her meds at 8am.

That was a long ramble. Sorry.

Yikes give hope you can get some sleep. We will all be here when you want to/feel able to return 💕💐

Give - come back when you're ready .

Bower - yes they did collect it, I imagine it will be the last time for a while though. I normally bring home sackloads of perennial weeds from the allotment and fill it up but am just piling them on the ground to die this year.

Launch pad

Tuesday is planning day. I guess we can only plan stuff in the home - meals, organisation, homeschool stuff. I haven’t even picked up our diary for a few weeks. I’ll have to read back - I got a lovely “fact of the day” one so lots of useless trivia to catch up on!

Remember we are in zone 2, the kitchen.

🐠🐠🐠🐠🐠 tkcc 🐠🐠🐠🐠🐠

Today’s offerings (by the way, apologies in advance if I ever repeat uploads, I should really delete the ones I’ve done! I have separate albums on iPad and phone so there may be overlap):

• a reminder about bad days that may be useful in these anxious times
• a little cartoon about lists that I feel may speak to many of us, myself included :o
• a suggestion of something to (very briefly) google if you’re bored

And since we’ve been discussing music already, I’ll add a last bit with today’s question: What music do you listen to often? Tell us about your favourite albums/playlists!

I never listen by album anymore - actually got rid of pretty much all our CDs recently 😱 and we have Spotify. My go-to playlist is called “Imagine Twenty One Dragon Pilots” and is basically all the songs by, surprise surprise, imagine dragons and twenty one pilots. As they’re my two faves. Other than that I just like a lot of random stuff - on my other playlists there are loads of artists I have only one or two songs from, mainstream pop or indie or whatever, I tend to get hooked on random songs due to particular features like key changes or certain harmonies no matter what genre. I am forever asking DSD “what song is this?” and she sends me YouTube stuff as she knows what I like. I have my own Asian pop (mostly Korean but some Thai) playlist too as DD1 was adding so much to the main one it was diluting my favourites! I don’t actually listen to classical as much as I want, and when I’m trying to relax I put Studio Ghibli soundtracks on, they are lovely and so emotive.

Thanks Lane. Love the google. I'm avoiding music at the moment because the house feels too full and noisy as it is and I can't bear any more input.

Hazel, I'm sorry about the conversation with your DM. On the one hand, it's good to know these things - my DM had an important conversation with me after DDad's funeral, so we knew the key bits of what she wanted when it was her turn - but it can be very sad and all consuming. My FIL has been predicting his own demise since about 1986 and it's getting a bit wearing!

giveme I hope a SM break gets you some headspace and you get some sleep. See you when you get back!

Bower great to hear that DCat is comfortable by the fire. And your DH sharing chips with Ozzy! That is a claim to fame!

Hope the living room campout was fun We3 and no-one got cold 😁.

I'm still in my pyjamas and not getting going very well today. I need to
📌 DW, S&S, LOL, beds
📌 do more writing
📌 mop kitchen floor
📌 hoover (missed DH taking the dog out again)
📌 call a family meeting. We are now apparently a 24 hour party household - DS2 cooked at 10pm, DS1 cooked at 1am, DS2 was yelling into his phone with his mates at that point, and I wake naturally about 6am. This is not sustainable, for me at the very least.
📌 make fish pie for me & DH. Ask DS1, DS2 and DD what they propose to eat instead. DS3 will have fishfingers
📌 get to a shop for milk and cereal, tomatoes and cucumber, which we can't manage without.
📌 do some writing for me
📌 get on with sewing my new top

Quick hello and just to let you know about another online ballet class - YouTube, with ones for small children, adult beginners and a class aimed at 8-13 year olds

www.youtube.com/channel/UCjoXKtJLuyb6gAG3sQlyq0Q

Ooh ChicCroissant that might be fun for DD.

Yikes Willow hope your family meeting goes well, and your family resettle to a more normal rhythm.

I hit Morrisons at 8am this morning. It was moderately busy but eerily quiet, like someone said up thread. Not much chatter going on. I picked up Frozen 2 on DVD and some extra easter eggs, and quite a bit of treat food, along with what we need: crisps, chocolate and scones. A bit naughty because I need to reign in the spending. We'll be on 20% less from May onwards.

I've come home and set up Frozen 2 for DD, who is delighted and cooked myself a Full English as a reward. Now I have to go wash the breakfast dishes and hang the washing out.

Then I might crack on with cleaning the kitchen. Might as well make the most of DD being absorbed in a DVD!

Morning all! Still haven't caught up with thread properly, sorry! Just skipping through during coffee break but am LOVING your memes Lane thank you!

Expletive Good luck with completing ECHP form! I 'm enjoying the continuing talk of flowers and baby slow worms too!

Oh no Bowerbird hope dcat is ok. It's so stressful when they are ill.

Giveme sorry you have had so little sleep, which must be really tough going with the little 'uns. Hope we will "see" you back very soon!

Strawberrysundae your sock-making skills are epic! You are lucky to have a chello-player in the family!

Hazel so sorry you found the discussion with your mum upsetting. Sometimes though (ime) it can be comforting for an older person to get this sort of thing off their chest. It's never easy though.

KTCluck you deserve a medal for "birthday party" games at 6.30 am!

Continuing with the extended morning routine here +'work' work. House isn't looking beautiful but it is basically clean and tidy (and boudoir and home office are improving oh so slowly ...).

"Puppy" training and giant jigsaw progressing ... bread machine doing overtime.

DD on tenterhooks because there's a government meeting about education this morning and they are thinking of opening the schools some time end May (not yet decided) and running them for two weeks in to July (ie during summer holidays as hols are always July and Aug here) in order to catch up. But poss just for uni students. No exams but course work assessments instead. Nothing certain because too early to know yet. We'll see... .

So sorry if I have missed any posts addressed to me! Will have to catch up properly another time and answer answer sport/music questions later too!

Have a good planning/play day everyone!
And wish me luck - it's my first proper diet day today (again) so cannot live up to my NN!

Missed your post yesterday Hazel, hope you’re feeling a bit happier today after that upsetting conversation.

Medal gratefully accepted thanks SC

See you when your return giveme

I had lots of replies but I’ve been catching up since 7am and have lost my post twice.

Music wise, when I can get DD to allow anything other than the frozen or Moana sounds tracks on Alexa i tend to play a mixture of indie type stuff (mostly from our wedding breakfast playlist) and the iTunes ‘throwback’ type plays lists from my misspent youth. DH is much more up to date than me so I sometimes stick his frequently played things on too.

Braved the supermarket this morning during their quieter NHS hour and it was a pleasure. No queues and well stocked shelves. Got loo roll and flour and anti bac wipes!! plus went totally
Overboard on Easter eggs, treats and hot cross buns . Trying to plan a nice Easter despite it just being the three of us

Ta da:
✅ beds made
✅ s & s
✅ shopping done and unpacked
✅ collage type craft with DD

To do:
Pick glue off fingers
LOL
Breakfast dishes done
Try and get some clothes on DD
Look at launchpad and poss do some missions

Right! Have shifted bum and done some stuff. Now paused for cup of tea.
💖 DW (DH did this, but I'm claiming it anyway)
🧡 S&S
💛 LOL
💚 scrubbed the kitchen sink, taps and drains with bicarb and boiling water. It is a thing of beauty and no-one is allowed to use it ever again
💙 got so excited I scrubbed the utility sink too and wiped down the machines
💜 swept and mopped the kitchen, utility and cloakroom floors
🖤 emptied and zoflora'd the kichen bin because it stinks now we put non-compostable food waste in it.

Just having a cup of Earl Grey before I hang the washing out ☀🌞😎

Hi everyone 👋 I'm still here just been working last few days so a bit out of the loop!

Will rejoin you soon

Hi all, hope everyone ok!

Right, have (sort of) caught up over lunch, but my concentration is all over the place today, so apologies as I have probably missed lots out!

Willow hope family meeting proved useful and your dc tone down their nocturnal activities a bit so you can get some sleep! Hope the research about scottish wedding/dowry's going well! It made me think of the Scottish folk song "Marie's wedding" which we used to sing as dc on long fell walks!

Oooh I love the sound of the donkeys and lambs Fluffiest I am so missing the countryside ... .

Zoo hope you are all feeling less anxious today. I am keeping away from the news apart from 30 mins local/30 mins UK. The "rolling updates" make me feel ill with anxiety.

We still make rice crispie cakes even now Foxes you can't beat 'em!

Well done for braving the supermarket KTCluck and Fluffiest

Lane I was saying the same the other day about how we have all adapted quite quickly to this madness!

Expletive I love forget-me-knots and have made it known I want them on my coffin (as and when the need should arise - hopefully in season!). It was the first plant name I learned in Dutch in fact: 'vergeet-mij-nietje'.

I love Pachabel's cannon too Chic - hope your dd enjoyed the ballet!

Indoor camping sounds fun We3kings! You've done loads btw! Perfect Flying in fact!

Cineraria I am very jealous of your mushroom kits - it would be the perfect b'day present for dh in a few months - do you mind me asking where you bought them from pls? Thank you; I have put Jerusalem in my Amazon basket!

Mahoosive waves to anyone I have missed!

Classical music: obsessed with Chopin piano sonatas, Bach chello suites, the Gluck opera Orpheus and Eurydice among others, pretty much anything by Bach (forget who said they are the same on here!!), Mendelssohn violin concerto, very fond of all the oratorios as used to sing in a choir, and generally listen to a lot of classical musical but I am one of those annoying people who have to sit and listen to it, can't really do anything else at the same time.

For general listening it's Norah Jones, or the Chieftains, Christy Moore etc etc.

As for sport: Utterly crap at every sort of sport at school except distant running. Always picked last for team work. We were a tennis family so had "proper" coaching for years but it didn't grab me particularly. Much preferred horses and rode with my late pa who was a natural horseman. Very gentle and quiet. Had lots of lessons. Did pony club. Then lots of working hunter trials and long-distance riding. And our equestrian centre had lots of involvement with RDA so helped out with that too. And worked as a groom for (a good!) trekking centre (with beautiful fell ponies) in Lakes, a riding school (in Yorkshire) and a racing stable (in Yorks Lincs and Ireland) before, during and after Uni. Then moved to London and only rode occasionally at weekends. Then moved abroad ditto. And it's only in the last couple of years or so, after a twenty year break with the odd holiday experience, that I have been able to return to it with dhorse (mainly long-reining) and on borrowed armchair beast -with help of winch (very slow hacks) and vicariously through dd who is braver than I ever was and favours cross-country or "cross" as they call it here. We are members of the Ligue Equestre local to our area and go to lots of events; feel very sorry for them atm because some of them have trained really hard all winter through horizontal rain for show/competition season and now have had to turn all their steeds out and let them get unfit again. (No one is riding for fear of diverting medical attention away from where it is needed.)

Had better get back to it.

Lisette haven't seen a post from you in a while (but my scrolling is dreadful atm) so maybe I've missed it. Hope all well anyway.

Toostressy hope you are OK?

Waves to eveyrone else!

Btw, looking back to pp I see I said my house was reasonably clean and tidy. Musn't have had my glasses on [glasses] or was high on caffeine or something, because looking at it now in full sun it looks just about tidy and a bit grubby in places Didn't do home bleugh yesterday but saving that for Thurs/Fri so everything will be in good order for Easter weekend.

Keep safe and well everyone!

Hazel totally forgot to say the photos of your local area are absolutely stunning!

And Bower your friends sound really lovely and I am so sorry you lost one of them RIP

Afternoon all.

ta da
✅cut DS’ hair
✅family walk including a wider solo lap for me. We saw a tortoise DS has named it Phyllis?!
✅decent lunch for me (stir fried rice and veggies, tuna)
✅sat in the sun and read for a bit

Resting now with Cagletini entertained by baconface. DH has gone to collect meds with DD1 to help him carry food on the way home. Hoping I have the energy for some decluttering later, and/or making some games for Cagletini - I’ve had lots of ideas but would involve too much effort currently :o

Quick lunchtime check-in.

Like you Lane I have stopped listening to whole albums, as soon as I had my first Ipod I would make playlists of individual songs much to DH's irritation as he thinks you should listen to all the sings in the order they are on the album. I was always one for skipping tracks on CDs too. We have still got all our CDs, DH won't get rid . So Spotify is right up my street. I have my own 60s, 70s and 80s playlists, plus an all time favourites list which is mostly 80s and a duets list, I love duets.

Pondering shopping. I have been doing the main shop on a Sunday but obviously won't be this weekend. Worried that Sat might be very busy. Hmmm.

Tada!
Work
Opened mail
1xLOL on line
Hotspotted kitchen
Started making dough for pizza later.

I am the opposite with the news when something big like this is going on. I like ALL the details. I like to be informed.

Music wise i like pop / dance / rnb. I dont like sad songs. I like upbeat stuff that makes me want to do things.

Its taken me all morning to catch up!

I’ve achieved nothing else except catch more sun and chat by email to my support worker! About animals not anything to do with our case 😆

Also I was wrong about Phyllis, apparently it’s a terrapin not a turtle

Also embarrassingly excited by the amount of food DH and DD managed to get on the way home from the pharmacy run (which was itself less successful so he will have to go AGAIN) - plenty of fruit and bread products (need to divide those and freeze), finally got olive oil, baby wipes, cereal and a few treats :)