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!

Oh yes We3, the cous cous clean up. I’ve just stopped making it. I threatened to wash the belt but he seems to have stopped for now. I did carry out my threat to wash his socks bunched up, as for some reason he would pointlessly ball them up to go in the laundry basket meaning I’d have to pull them apart again. A few not very fresh, still-damp-at-the-toes pairs put a stop to that

Hmm. No idea where the random heart eyes emoji appeared from. And obviously I meant birthday presents

Totally agree we3 it does no favours to over schedule kids of any age IMO. Besides it’s fascinating watching what they come up with themselves! They need space to develop their own ideas.

In that spirit I’m currently watching Cagletini drop handfuls of plastic beads on a tray 😬😬😬 oh the mess!!! 😭 But I’ve given her a tube for her to drop them down and walked away again.

Meg I saw that thread too, sorry you’re feeling crap hope DS2 responds well to the tough love. I’ve had several conversations with DD1 recently along the lines of “we HAVE TO do little things to help ourselves no matter how rubbish we feel” - it’s not about doing the “pull yourself together and stop complaining” thing, which is definitely an aspect I’m seeing more on MN lately :( but it’s about (to me anyway) doing what we can to take responsibility for the things we CAN control.

BTW, meg - do you mind if I tag along on your decluttering thread?

Not fully caught up yet, but I did a session on the exercise bike and now I really should go upstairs with some BRCs before the period pain sets in too far and I end up not moving all day!

Morning all. Today's Babystep is to read the flylady emails so we'll skip over that as most of us don't sign up. I've included the detailed list for zone 2 here but please don't think you have to follow it to the letter. Just attack a drawer and clean the microwave for example here

I found a lovely poem as today's image for the KCC - if only I could get ds to eat fruit...

I can't remember all of Lane's questions so this may have been done before - favourite Sunday lunch and dessert? Mine's roast lamb with anchovies and mint and Eve's pudding and custard.

The naughty corner is definitely open - pancakes and maple syrup and lashings of tea

I'm listening to Maher's 5th Symphony (don't know all that much about him but the adagietto in part three is gorgeous)

Sorry meg left you off my 👋

Ta-da's so far
✔️ cleaned hob. Usually this just means taking the top bit off and wiping it but I've took it all apart and done it properly. Well overdue 🤢
✔️ cleaned cutlery tray. How does it get dirty?
✔️ chucked half a past it cauliflower, a shrivelled tomato, some withered mint and parsley, a been opened too long salad dressing and a random bottle of sidekick (assuming we had people over and someone left this) from the fridge
✔️ tidied (not cleaned) one kitchen cupboard. I had sprinkles with the spices, flour with dried fruit and soy sauce with the sugar. Couldn't cope looking at it anymore so it's all back in it's rightful place.
✔️ chucked 3 bottles of oven cleaner. I always use the box one with the bag so don't know why I had these
✔️ dusted H/S/L. DH helped with this. The ceiling in one part is really high so you just have to Chuck the cloth at it repeatedly until you get them. I'm sure there is a more sensible way but that's how we do it.

Coffee break now ☕️

X post. That poem is lovely lisette.

Mine would be Roast beef, Yorkshire's (must be homemade), mash, roast potatoes, peas (must be frozen), honey roasted parsnips and carrots, swede mashed with butter and a bit of sugar), broccoli and cabbage. With gravy made with the juices and loads of horseradish on the side. I'm going to be so disappointed with our pizza stuffed chicken now 😂 Banoffee pie for pud 😋

Omg i love Sunday dinner. I like it when you go out and can get three different meats on your plate haha. So mine is chicken, beef and lamb with ALL the trimmings (minus stuffing) yorky puds and mint sauce, nice thick gravy. Then chocolate cake with custard 😍

therealmrshardy - you are completely welcome on the thread! You and any other lurkers out there. It's a zone based cleaning system which does have a garden element but only in zone 1 with the porch. I think I might set up a garden zone cleaning system for my home because my garden is shockingly neglected since I had ds

I'm glad you liked the poem we3 and you have another fan of horseradish here. i eat it with every roast and love the way it makes my eyes water!

Lane I read that it's ideal to take vitamin D as a supplement at night after a walk or sun exposure earlier in the day to maximise the amount of the vitamin made in the body. Don't know if that is true.

Bower I hope you are getting lots of summerhouse time.

That I hope baby went back to sleep? Ds was a late walker at 17 months. Didn't even crawl much.

Hazel that sounds like a lovely birthday ( as were all the others on here). It's nice when you have a rolling birthday like that. I love it when old friends remember your birthday as well. I'm always so touched.

megiddo a neighbour had new block paving done to replace his old sunken job just the other day. There was not much social distancing going on and they made a mess of it so he had to get them back. He did report (from a 2 metre distance) that it was a cheap job. They actually shoved a flyer through our door but the website didn't exist and they were offering unreal discounts so I just binned it. We are going to have to get something done with our front garden because a tree stump is pushing up the driveway. oh and a new garage door.

very you are not a crap mum. I think we are all leaving ours to play and find their own amusement. I think it's good for kids not to have endless structure (unless they absolutely flounder and feel panicky without it which is different) We can't been hyper always on creative parents all the time - I'd settle for 1% of the time

zoo so sorry to hear about dd2 and the commotion. She must be feeling very sore, bless her.

Lane was it you who introduced us to Strange planet cartoons? I'm besotted with those aliens now - I'm announcing dinner by hollering 'WE ARE READY TO INGEST!'

On the theme of failure to ingest fruit and vegetables (gives ds the Paddington hard stare...) see above for is Strange Planet on that issue

that I keep thinking of those four bird roasts like Russian dolls but with chicken, lamb and beef instead when reading your post. we3 I do like frozen peas - especially the petit pois type.

Shockingly I've never had yorkshire puds with my roast dinners - it's just not part of my country's culinary repertoire. I believe that they are great 'vehicles' for gravy which makes them alright in my eyes!

I love Sunday lunch too, I'd take any except pork I do like it but it would be my last choice. My current favourite is slow cooked beef with home made gravy and Yorkshire puddings, it's my favourite dinner to cook and to eat at the moment, it's taken my a long time to get it just right! Favourite pudding is steamed syrup sponge which my mum makes the best one of so I never make it because I can't do it as well. I must ask her to make one as soon as we can visit!

Unfortunately our Asda collection isn't due until tomorrow so we have no Sunday lunch ingredients today we'll be having some sort of veggie pasta instead but never mind!

Sorry you're feeling down meg and I also saw that thread but gave up reading it as I could see it wasn't pleasant. I hope you enjoyed your toast and I hope you get through to your ds today!

I've done the daily routine and dh seems to be deep cleaning the kitchen not sure what has got into him this morning

Oh and I see the zone is kitchen so that's good I don't have to do anything then! 😂

Has my dh secretly joined fly lady?!

I have asda coming today and have just realised i forgot sunday dinner meat

meggido - I'm with you on some other areas on MN. I rarely post elsewhere and only do so if I can give someone a boost so if someone is worried or has lost a friend or family member. I cannot for the life of me understand why someone would put the boot into someone.

As for those threads about weight, I'm feeling it too a bit. I haven't seen that particular thread but I'm hovering at a BMI of 29. I did get down to 24.9 a few years ago but went back up again. I'm just going to concentrate on eating for nutrition and upping cardio exercise . The lockdown has been really hard - I ate a large chocolate bar yesterday (cause I wanted too not for nutrition - it was mint milk chocolate with oreos not the dark good for you stuff! . I'm also becoming menopausal so that's not helping either!!

foxes - i just thought he had found a male version!!! Flygentleman or whatever!

typo - cause I wanted to - oops!

Anyone have a link to flygentleman for my OH?

I think Flygentleman so underground it's not apparent who is a member - they probably have secret hand signals and everything. It's latent until they are nagged hard.

I was impressed Foxes when your dh seemed to know it was zone 2

Arghh - I've just had a cup of real coffee and am having a hot flash. I've been off caffeine for a while but just fancied the real stuff this morning.

Hello everyone, can I join too please? I am a lurker and have been following you guys for two threads, but never get a chance to post as I have two little ones (fraggles.)
My fave detective programs are Midsommer murders and Miss Marple.
My fave sunday dinner is anything cooked by someone else...so I might get a chance to eat a hot meal before one of my fraggles need something.
I really wanted to say thank you for being a lovely, kind, supportive group. As you listed all your ta-das and to do list I finally managed to tackle my cluttered kitchen. It can actually function as a kitchen now! Rather than a dumping ground so the fraggles can't reach things.
I feel like I am part of group tackling housework- that I am not alone. Thank you.

I love collecting things, anything pink, green and yellow- seaside colours. Its nice to know others collect things too. My bed too has got clean washing that needs to be put away.
I seem to meet people in real life who have houses that are spotless and bare. So its really nice to know people have lovely, cosy, comfortable, beautiful homes that are loved and lived in.

Now I have to tackle the dining room sofa of doom....the children dont even know its a sofa under there.
Better go as the fraggles have gone very very quiet...I wonder what box they are emptying now.

You are part of a group tackling housework and welcome Dancing!! I think fraggles is a great term for your kids.

No-one can keep their home spotless and bare and certainly not with fraggles..

Thank you for the boost, everyone. I feel much better for a 90 minute dog walk. DS3 did half of it with me (ran out of legs when we got into the valley) so DH picked him up and the dog and I walked back up the hill. 7500 steps done, and ready for a quiet Sunday now!

Lane, of course you can join the decluttering thread, Hazel's on there too. It's the one run by Stealth Ninja Mum, can't remember the current title, but it's Thread 10.

Have totally failed on entryway flying, and haven't set my bullet journal for May either. Must get in with that today. Hey ho. I'm never behind, right?

Favourite roast dinner is probably roast chicken, stuffing, veg (not carrots) and gravy, followed by New York Cheesecake. Dribble. We have a chicken to roast today, but I don't think I have enough cream cheese for cheesecake. It will have to be rhubarb crumble from the garden.

Welcome Dancing! Glad the group is helping, struggling our way through housework really is something we are all in together.

Welcome to all the newbies!

Fly gentlemen