Social distancing around the Maypole: Fledglings fly into Flylady thread May 2020.

[Lisette1940]

Welcome to the May Flylady thread Fledglings! We are finally coming to the end of Spring and, erm, what a Spring it has been. Keep safe everyone and a special shoutout to Fledglings who are in the frontline of the response to Covid 19.
Lane has been superlative with the keep calm corner and has had a truly magnificent engagement with fledglings all through April – well done Lane!!! I have totally abandoned my routines (and my clean eating) and have been flying perilously close to the ground but am ready for take off again. But we operate a no fledgling left behind policy and indeed Flylady herself stresses that you are never behind in the system – no need to deep clean the house first, just jump right in.
All are welcome here from longtimers to newbie and those lurking – we all follow this zone-based Flylady cleaning system:
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)
MAY
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 – Sun 31)

Pop onto the Flylady website to have a closer look here but be aware that lots of emails arrive if you sign up.

Flylady has an introductory scheme called Babysteps which is a light 31 day introduction to the system – dressing to shoes, shining your sink etc 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. 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 May is moving – whether that’s your daily get out of the house during lockdown or in house movement. – moving is not my strongest point apart from pottering around the house…
We also have a naughty corner as a restful break out space and a Keep Calm Corner (KCC). I suspect I’ll be better at the naughty corner rather than the latter but I’ll do my best! Not sure I can muster the memes but I’ll do my best to keep spirits up.
So welcome to the new thread (I hope I haven’t left anyone out): Lane, SC, zoo, Bower, KTCluck, Willow/Megiddo, foxes, That, averytiredMom, fluffliest, ED, Strawberry, Chic, Hazel, Happiness, Cineraria, We3, stressy, and give.

And breathe!

Bloody hell zoo 😱

Lisette I’m afraid I don’t understand the cartoon 😳 re scent, I have zero knowledge of flowers really so I can’t say anything other than rose! My friend sells wax melt thingies but I tend to go for anything fruit based and avoid woody scents like cedar etc, they just don’t do it for me. My mum was mega into aromatherapy when I was a kid but I tended to stick to things like lemongrass, grapefruit, peppermint. Still use lavender and tea tree at home sometimes but mainly because they’re easily available and I’ve not had the money to try different ones yet

Time for instant noodles for my lunch. With added token sweetcorn. #healthy

It took me a while to get it Lane. I read it three times. The dolphins are speaking Spanish (picked up by the scientists' machine) which the scientists are transcribing phonetically. The dolphins are asking the scientists in spanish if the scientists speak spanish - they are trying to communicate. Clearly none of the biologists took Spanish as a school option!

Hablas Espanol? 🐬🐬🐬🐬

Aw blas es span yol? As they say in dolphinese

Ohhhh yeah! 🤦‍♀️ Thanks. That is funny now I understand it 😂

The email arrived - sort of - and I had a lovely phone call so I feel a bit better

At work today (on my lunch break) so no flying today but wanted to stop and answer the questions of the day.

Favourite pizza is chicken bacon ranch with spinach or Hawaiian (ham and pineapple).

Favourite flower smell is lilac, mine is now blooming and after butchering last summer I have more blooms! I also love roses.

I love lavender and planted some last year. My French lavender came back but my English lavender didn't make it. I plan to plant more this year and try a different location. I also got lemon balm and that was divine as well!

It’s quiet here this evening! Hi hazel :)

I’m excited as when I was on my Homestart phone call we got talking about distance learning and she mentioned that our local adult education is doing a few distance learning courses free for the next month! So I’ve signed up for a counselling skills intro type thing, which funnily enough I’d been discussing earlier on my other phone call. Yay!!! Will give me something else to do. I’m not sure how involved it is but hopefully as I’ve already sent the forms off I’ll find out soon.

Hope you had a nice lunch Hazel and no creaking doors 🚪yay Lane what a great idea!

Today has turned out to be an ok day after all! I did, effectively, go on strike and only do the basics, and let everyone else just get on with it.
♥️ Finished my book!
🧡 Did the front page for May, monthly plan and this week's plan in my bullet journal
💛 Got DS2 to clear the kitchen and cleaned the hob after him. Walked the dog after to avoid actually shouting at him!
💚 One LOL this morning and put it on the line
💙 Quick S&S
💜 Finished off the basics of the client research I'm doing
🖤 Got DD to eat some lunch (only tomato soup and fingers of toast, but she's foul when her nutrition goes bendy. She'd mainline sugar for preference)
♥️ Wrote a menu plan and shopping list with DH that gets everyone fed, no messing.
🧡 Took the afternoon absolutely off, had a nap, read the thread about Funniest MN Answers Ever, followed a couple of links to classics
💛 Took a healthful 15 minute walk on my own
💚 Let DH sort tea. It turned out to be fish and chips, and that was ok💙 Put DS3 in an emergency shower and did an emergency LOL (in all senses!) after he got splatted comprehensively by a pigeon while playing in the garden.
💜 Realised no one but me can control what I'm putting in my mouth minute by minute and I need to make healthy choices for me
🖤 Put some frozen cherries in the fridge to defrost for breakfast as a result.

I'm now in the bath and coming off all screens for the night, in the hope of a decent sleep. Sorry I've missed the personals, 🍒🙋 all round. Hope I will be more on it tomorrow!

Aw meg your post made me smile I'm so glad you had a good day today, it sounds both productive and restful - fantastic!

Dd got upset earlier because she misses her teacher and wants to go back to school (not sure what that says about me and my teaching 🤦‍♀️), she wrote her a note on the online blog thing, it said "I miss you you're the best teacher in the world I want to come back to school I love you" I'm now slightly worried we over stepped but she is only 6 and she really wanted to send it she hasn't replied but did reply to her work saying she'd done a great job. Dd at least cheered up with that. It's so hard to know what to say or do to cheer them up in those situations.

meggido that sounds like an excellent and most productive day. Can't say mine was 😆. I am sitting here with a whisky for just made it to the end of the day.

Foxes that's so sweet of your DD. I'm sure the teacher was really pleased. Ds was working on a project well into the afternoon and forlornly posted 'is there even anyone still there?' on his Google classroom thread. 'I am!' posted his teacher but all the other kids had fled for the day.

Evening all,

Busy day again here. After breakfast and an initial hour of work I had to pop into town to go to the bank. It's only half a mile away but I haven't been since lockdown apart from strolling through one evening, so it felt quite weird.

Then home for another couple of hours work and substantial amounts of help for both DCs school work which meant having to do more work this evening but I managed to multitask by having a zoom chat with friends and drink a G&T at the same time .

Bower - I will look out for the gardening magazines. I mainly grow fruit and veg but have planted more flowers this year, cosmos, zinnia, cornflowers, calendula. I accumulated quite a few magazine packs of flower seeds last year so I gave a lot to my neighbour, she sells plants from her drive for a local charity. I haven't posted any pics for a while so here is one of all my seedlings which will go to the allotment in the next few weeks. Despite being in the south we get late frosts here.

Pizza toppings. Well not pineapple that's for sure. Even if I picked it off I wouldn't be able to eat that pizza. Although I do like pineapple it has no place in savoury dishes for me. My favourites are peperoni, anchovies, capers, blue cheese. Not all on the same pizza.

Flower fragrances. I like lilac too, I have been stopping to sniff lilac trees this last week or so when out walking, I have some lilac perfume. I also like bluebells, lavender, pelargoniums, roses although I can't wear many floral perfumes as they give me headaches, on the whole I prefer citrussy scents for wearing. I have an electric oil diffuser in which I use a blend that includes lavender and thyme.

ED I found it but now in bed and forgotten what it is called. They were all veg or herbs and next one is out now. Will post name tomorrow. It was cheap about £5 but it had 10 packets of seeds so I bought it for that reason.
They look like they are coming on well.

I feel a bit better tonight. I just had two boiled eggs for tea.
I got a LOL out

Sorted the freezer and named everything on a list.
Tidied some of summer house.
Took tomato plants to a key worker (bf)
Had walk up the hill.
Can’t remember what else I did.
Watched A1 and two episodes of the Derry girls.
Didn’t get meal plans and list done. We were offered a whole lot of fish from the pub so bought enough to fill what space was left. They were cleaning out there freezers.

ta da
👽20min EB
👽bit of HE with DS
👽two lovely phone chats
👽started proper version of picture quiz
👽tried new workout exercises
👽showered and brought sweaty clothes down to the WM
👽helped DD1 with a bit of work
👽found free course online, emailed, filled in form and sent back!
👽looked at free courses on futurelearn and wrote a list
👽wrote a small list of possible career paths to consider

Now waiting for midnight so I can try and get another Tesco slot. Didn’t do second session on the bike today, too achy after workout.

Told mum I am starting to think about work etc... not putting that on ta da list because her reply was “it’s going to be more difficult for everyone to get jobs, glad I am no longer in the rat race”

Sigh. Please give me a friendly fledgling wing-slap next time I am planning on bothering telling her stuff 🙄🙄🙄

👽printed off FSM voucher for tesco
👽got tesco slot. 2nd June!

foxes my dd (7) really misses her teacher, she has made her cards with messages like your dds and she cried when she saw her in a video school made

lane well done on tesco, we have been getting asda as no 80 item limit and can use fsm vouchers online

lanewell done on Tesco slot
Foxes it's not overstepping.most younger primary tell teachers they love them
Meg your day sounds good.hope you feel recharged for that
Hazel I read lavender will be harder to come by here as Italy has an issue with olive tree

Hello lane well done on working on bettering yourself and pursuing something new. Even if your mum is right, it doesn't mean it's impossible. When the right opportunity comes along, you'll get the job.

Hello everyone else- SC ED zoo bower lisette KT dancing meg we3 and everyone else as I know I've missed some!

foxes and that sorry I missed you. My DS is missing his teacher and friends as well. His teacher sends out messages that she misses the kids, I replied to it Monday saying that DS misses her too, it made her day. He's 10 so she probably doesn't hear that as much as from the younger ones.

zoo I hope there's no shortage for us here in the states, but I haven't been out to look yet.

Our state is"slowly" getting back to normal with 4 steps, we're in the first one now. With how people are getting together and going out and about you'd think they lifted the lockdown completely 🤔

Hopefully soon enough things will be back to normal, whatever that may look like in the future.

Tonight I made tacos (taco salad for me) as it was Cinco de Mayo and taco Tuesday all rolled into one 😆 I managed to get DH & DC to clean up the kitchen for me. I asked DH to help me prep dinner, he didn't want to, so said he could clean up instead! DC haven't really done much for chores since middle of March, when lockdown started for us, I plan on changing that tomorrow, wish me luck 🍀

Morning all, today is meant to be my turn for a lie in. But DD woke up at 6:15, DH took her downstairs and she promptly started a tantrum which is still going on now. From her shouting I gather that she wants the fire on, DH wants her to put warmer clothes on. The central heating is on so he isn't being unreasonable. Anyway, cant sleep through the din so thought I'd pop on mumsnet.

Favourite pizza- confession. I don't like cheese so don't like pizza. Please don't hate me, or offer me a cheese-less pizza as an alternative. I'm guessing it's the cheese that makes pizza special because the cheese free version is awful!

Flower scent- I love lavender too, and have two big pots of it by the back door. We went to a lavender farm last year in Yorkshire and it was one of the most peaceful beautiful places I've ever visited.

Ooh, things have gone quiet now, so I'm going to try and get some sleep

Thanks everyone I'm feeling a bit better today it's horrible seeing your kids sad isn't it, that it was a video with her teacher in that set my dd off too! You've all reassured me that we didn't totally freak the teacher out either 😂

Thanks hazel 💐 I am not expecting anything for quite a while anyway, I just thought she may have been a little excited for me given I’ve been unable to work for about four years now (I had to stop when the fibro/ME got really bad) - the fact I’m starting to feel ready for it is a big deal (I think so anyway). My reply even to a stranger would have been to be interested and ask what kind of job etc 🙄

Need to snap out of my sadness this morning though. Sorry not really a Flying related rant!

Everyone else is asleep, I’m going to read for a while I think.

lane hope reading takes your mind off things for a bit

I hadn't thought about lavender shortages, though I did see a thing on the news about imports stopping due to the olive virus. We have one quite old lavender bush in the garden and I have two younger ones at the allotment, I do live the fragrance. We have a lavender farm locally and its beautiful, not very peaceful as its by a main road but at least it means you can see it easily if you drive past.

Lane oh, how untactful. I think its great that you are thinking about getting back to work, there will be opportunities out there when the dust settles, even if they are different ones.

Fluff - hope you managed some sleep.

I'm in the garden with a cuppa. Traffic noise has definitely increased this last week or so, not back to normal but not the eerie silence of early lockdown.

Aww thank you 💐 I’m actually glad that I have the chance to really take my time over any decisions, it’s not an “I need a job right now” thing. It’s more that I’m getting ready to get ready for work if that makes sense. And all the things I’m interested in will likely need study/training anyway so it may be a year or more.

I’ve started a thread here if anyone has ideas, otherwise I’ll end up waffling even more on here!