August already?! Time keeps flying like the Fledglings!

[SingToTheSky]

Hello and welcome to the (slightly early) August Fledgling Thread! Join us for housework chat and a ridiculous amount of non housework chat too.

We follow (supposedly) the FlyLady system, which helps you gradually build up a set of routines. This month I won’t be putting regular links on, but there will be regular references to whatever the current zone and daily focus is. Please ask if you need any further info!

Here are some links to get you started (but don’t sign up for the emails as you’ll get inundated!)

www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/ - a set of little tasks to gradually add to your day - some are a bit twee so pick and choose what you want!

www.flylady.net/c/sp.php#missions - this updates weekly with a set of five specific tasks for the weekly zone - worth checking for ideas! I will try and remember to remind us what zone we are in. It changes on a Sunday and we will be starting with Zone 1, the entrance/porch/hallway, and dining room if you have one.

www.flylady.net/c/lp.php - this contains links for most other things so is a good place to check if you don’t know where to start

It looks like the focus of the month for August is LAUNDRY - getting into the habit of a full load washed, dried and away each day.

Also I was bored a while back so I put together a little glossary of the many weird and might-seem-a-bit-cliquey terms. We have been going a long time but we always love newbies - hopefully this list will help you settle in.
KCC - the Keep Calm Corner, invented by our lovely Fledgling SC back in March, where the OP posts nice diverting links, memes, questions etc to distract us from the pandemic.

Ta Da - instead of a to do list (which is of course welcome too) we often post our achievements, with accompanying jazz hands, in order to celebrate the positives, however small they seem! Sometimes if we want to share an embarrassed giggle/commiserations we also post a ta didn’t - the stuff we didn’t get done. Oops.

BRC - Bag/Box of Random Crap. These are usually formed when we are panic tidying and shove anything in “to sort later” which is also known as a stash and dash.

Power of Three or PO3 - the idea that if you’re feeling really unmotivated/overwhelmed by your to do list, you just choose three things to do, and then post when you’ve done them.

Cherry Waves - borne of a typo of “cheery waves” this is now - to the extent my autocorrect just changed it again - often how we sign off. You may also see it in emoji form! 🍒👋🙋🏻 (😷 for socially distanced waves!).

Haughty Corner - this is from a typo of the naughty corner - the virtual hangout spot where we hide from housework and eat virtual snacks.

Future Friend or FF - the idea (apparently coming from The Organised Mum Method) of doing something to make life easier for yourself in future. Includes things like choosing clothes for the next day, getting bags ready etc.

DLMS - didn’t lose my shit - in other words, somehow stayed relatively calm despite a stressful day!

SS/S&S - Swish and Swipe - this is one of the key parts of the morning routine, a quick once over of the bathroom.

And a few basics:
LOL - load of laundry
WM - washing machine
TD - tumble dryer
DW - dishwasher
HSL - hallway, stairs, landing

And finally, for any Fledglings old or new who are trying to lose weight in lockdown, here’s our new body clutter banishing thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/weight_loss_chat/3975886-Body-Clutter-Be-Gone-The-Fledglings-Weightloss-Thread?pg=1

I’ll stop waffling there. Welcome one and all, a huge thank you to KTCluck for steering us through July while also working, and away we go for August! 🍒👋

Evening all! I have a huge rant coming so sorry everyone! We told DH’s family that we’re having another boy today and some of them were really cruel. DMIL told DSIL that she better get cracking on having children so she can get a granddaughter. Then DFIL just said he knew it would be and it’s hardly exciting anymore because we’ve done it all before. It was said jokingly but it didn’t feel like one. DSMIL and DSFIL were lovely as well as DSIL and DGPIL. But it’s just upset DH a bit that his parents aren’t happy for him. We’re both so happy having only boys, it makes absolutely no difference to us but it just seems like since we’ve had DS1 any child that’s followed that isn’t a girl is boring to them.

sing my 3 live crayola bath colour drops, Baylis and Harding bath goo and water flutes.

zoo you’re a super woman, that’s brilliant you got all that sorted today. What a lovely thing to have to remember your mum.

It was meg thank you!, brill list!

upholder it’s crazy! I only had 2 days off and that’s what happens.

ta da
✅Made beds
✅S&S
✅Got kids and myself ready
✅Fed animals
✅Made breakfast
✅Went through DS1’s school booklet with him
✅Did lots of LOLS
✅Dried and ironed
✅Made lunch
✅Washed up from breakfast and lunch
✅Wiped down table
✅Mopped kitchen
✅Sent DH and DC off to park
✅Cleaned bathroom and kids room
✅Hoovered
✅Napped
✅Made tea
✅Bathed DC
✅Put DC to bed
✅Washed up from dinner
✅Showered myself
✅Collapsed

Mc and Upholder, I get ideas from watching planner videos on YouTube .

For years I have used a Boxclever press calendar of some description. I absolutely love them and they come with very reasonably priced stickers or you can just buy the stickers on their own. There are other brands such as Busy Bees too. I currently have a Busy Bees diary for work after using Cath Kidston for years and love it (still love the Cath Kidston diaries too, just fancied a change).

I was so miserable writing all the zoom calls in though and at the same time watching yet another planner video and thought if I made things a bit more cheery it might cheer me up. So I had a look on Etsy and you can fall down a rabbit hole of planner stickers. I found if I typed in ‘calendar stickers’ I didn’t get much but ‘planner stickers’ got me loads. Just need to be careful to choose UK shops unless you want to pay ££ in postage. I have ordered some bits from Happy Cutie and from Rebel Ink but they haven’t come yet. Also discovered a lovely online shop called Notes & Clips. They are not cheap so only bought a few but they made me smile and I will be buying more from there every so often.

Bower, yes, tbh I am struggling in general keeping up with the thread atm and get some of the name changes but others have left me very confused .

Beautiful rose bowl zoo .

howl that absolutely deserves a rant .

Another day of not much.

Home bargains, pets at home and smyths this morning.
Picked DC up.
DMIL called in so cuppa and chat with her.
Made DC sandwich, scotch eggs and yogurt for lunch.
LOL
Met up with friends in park for a doggy play date.
Made takeaway KFC for dinner
Put DC to bed.

I'm in desperate need of the pointy stick tomorrow. Have so much to do before we go away on Friday

Sing yes! One person reads aloud all the answers and everyone else guesses. "Jello" is the random answer that pops up a lot when we play. One of the topics we had Saturday was "Things that can be misunderstood" or something like that. Jello was one of the answers!

Lots of impressive lists as well as well deserved lazy days.

I worked today, was put in charge of cleaning/ disinfecting. I ache now! 5hrs of bending, wiping and walking from one end of the store to the other every hour. I cleaned the mirrors as needed, disinfected the registers as well as the bathrooms. My manager was very happy with my work today, said no one else cleans that way. I told her that it shows - the store was bad.
Came home and cleaned our bathroom and got a LOL in the washer. After dinner of leftovers we sat down to watch a movie and I got my ironing done.
One more day of work and I'll be off for 6!! I'm excited 😁

After my dad passed away my sister dump 8 boxes stuff saying take what you want,and the bowl was in there.thats how it ended up with me.its tarnished and silvo can't make it perfect,but it's very special to me

Howl ALL babies are very special.im livid for you
Meg great list(any moussaka left😋?)
Stressy I'm afraid check any those sights.i might never be seen again
Up beyond satisfying.i need more things to whack with hammer in my life
Double------>

morning all

Howl sorry your family are so rude about bump being a boy! I have found people get ruder the more dc you have in general though tbh. Far less congratulations etc.

I am really wiped out at the moment.

I have accidentally put double sugar in my tea 😬

THAT
zoo I did lose a few hours on them!

Off to work now, will attempt some flying later today.

High praise from your boss Hazel. Do you have any plans for your time off?

Impressive list Howl. Sorry your relatives reactions were unkind. If it helps I’m very excited about thread babies, regardless of the sex of them or siblings.

A doggy play date it the perfect excuse to avoid flying Double.

Hope the double sugar helps That

It’s an absolute stinker of a day here - dark, foggy, windy and torrential rain (hasn’t stopped DD asking for the paddling pool out since she woke up ). I did have plans to take her for a nice long walk round the lake a few miles away but even with waterproofs that’s going to be pretty miserable. So currently it’s peppa and breakfast with blankets but I’m hopeful it’ll brighten up doubtful If not I’ll have to come up with some sort of craft thing to occupy her

Ta da:
✅ beds made
✅ LOL on
✅ s & s x 2
✅ DW set off
✅ living room and hallway straightened up and few bits of crap carted back upstairs

Oh and Too I’ve had busy bees diaries before, they are fab. My current lovely planner has a good 10 months left (it’s undated) but I tried to order one for my sister and they have to be shipped from the US now and have gone up in price. I think I’ll go back to busy bees or look at Boxclever for next time.

Howl that is so horrible of them! 😡

Thanks hazel that does sound like a great game.

Zoo love the rose bowl 🌷💕

Thanks for all the bath recommendations! Now that she likes baths (she actually got in a strop yesterday when I wouldn’t let her have one in the morning) I might also try some of the lavender scented stuff too. 😴

Not caught up yet but I am up and need to crack on really, must actually get some more work done. I’m also annoyed at myself as access to one of the futurelearn courses expired as clearly I took on too many and then procrastinated. When will I learn not to sabotage my own progress? 😳🙄 Doing the same thing this morning as I scrolled random crap from Facebook when I could have already started work.

I also had an anxiety dream this morning that was quite ridiculous 😳 it was that we were staying somewhere on holiday and it was time to check out, and I kept finding other stuff that was ours, and needing more bags to carry it home! Do you think that’s trying to tell me something 😂

Anyway ta da from yesterday
🇸🇪Wrote algebra questions for DD1
🇸🇪Showed DH how to use the maths things I made (he can do the maths itself) so he could help her with it
🇸🇪Bit of shopping
🇸🇪Reading
🇸🇪Made various decisions about Ikea order
🇸🇪DLMS - shared achievement with DH - see below ✊
🇸🇪Booked the next week of dance classes and paid for it online

✊ Said Ikea order took forever and the website kept changing its mind about what was in stock. So we ended up getting most of the stuff ordered but still have to sort out a wardrobe which was the main bloody point of the order!!! 🥺🤬 However lovely friend said she would like to go too (meatballs!!!) and I looked at the package sizes and it can definitely fit in her car (it’s more of a frame than a proper wardrobe). So possibly next week and I’ll make use of the shopping list function on the website which has the location of the items etc. And will doubtless buy loads of other random stuff 😂 but anyway Cagletini is excited about her crocodile bath mat. The others used to have the same one!

💡💡💡💡💡
It’s MONDAY yaaaaay. Home bleugh time.

Missions for zone 3 here

KCC - what’s your favourite bit of furniture?
I would have to say my piano seat! Not that I’ve played much lately ☹️ But it was a really thoughtful and unexpected gift last year - before this I was making do with horribly uncomfortable and wrong-height chairs, this is lovely and comfy and has storage for my most frequently played books too. 🎹

💡💡💡💡💡

Right I really must go and do some work! 🍒👋

Went out for a drive with DH yesterday. I said to him, “ We’re turning into old people going for a drive on a Sunday afternoon.” He replied” We are old.” Thanks the drive was to cheer me up.
Anyway we went much further than I intended and visited some villages we had connections to and drove through others we didn’t. It was lovely and green and fresh from the intermittent rain showers. I really enjoyed it. We stopped and looked at a cross that is connected to the one in our village and DH suggested we looked at the church( he never goes to church) so we did. I had gloves in my handbag so used those and opened the door and gates. It was very old and rather beautiful in its simplicity. The gravestones were so old you couldn’t read them and many on a tilt so we didn’t look at many. DH found one on the way out with his family name on. We know there was family about ten miles from there. There has been a village there since the Romans as it isn’t far from Hadrian’s Wall. Friends of ours built a house there but the church is away from the village on a hill. We took the wrong road out for the village so didn’t see their old house.

On the way back we stopped to get brown sugar. Is anyone else finding it difficult to buy? I actually went into a shop. Struggled as people without masks. No brown sugar but bought crumpets 🤣🤗 thanks Zoo. Bought a magazine and bread. Went to another shop small Spar but I sometimes go after church but no brown sugar and new staff in so no catch up chat. So still no brown sugar. I used Demerara instead and it tastes fine...Carrot Cake.

I made an Aubergine recipe for tea. It was delicious so cut out magazine recipe will go into the 📖 of recipes tried in Covid. I can’t find the book though. One of the teachers bought it for me as an end of term gift at Christmas. I started it but it isn’t with the cookery books. 🤔

So a lovely restful day and last day of my holiday week.

It is raining today. A lot!

Today

Home bleugh
Bathroom basket
Wash floor
Replace towels x2

Ironing pile
Make Humming bird cake
Bit of tidying needed in boudoir. Well a lot really but a bit will do.

Howl that is awful. We are thrilled to be expecting a baby boy on the thread. We love thread babies. My in-laws were thrilled with baby boy number 3 and sadly FIL had died before DD was born and MIL was over the moon with a granddaughter but sadly died when she was 6 months old. She was disabled but still managed to buy her some little dresses one of her carers used to bring several home and let her chose then take them back not many rejects.

Zoo sterling work re the bedroom.
Toostressy sadly I won’t need stationary for work. Might need to browse though. Could buy sisters some though😁
Hazel sounds like you are ready for a rest. Bet the customers appreciated it.
That I am not surprised you are tired you have a lot on.
🍒waves to everyone else.

Kcc- I think it would be my grandmother’s table which we brought down from Scotland a few years ago. I have loved it since I was a child.

Ooh what does it look like bower? I love older furniture but actually we don’t have anything. Our move in 2018 was sponsored by Ikea 😂 the only old thing I have is my piano which is about 90 years old I think. I really want my house to have more personality - I was looking in TKMaxx yesterday at various trays, boxes, baskets etc but for furniture functional and cheap wins ATM :(

I also ordered from Ikea some pen storage - one of those wooden sets of drawers you can paint. Got a smaller one for DD1 to keep stuff like earrings in, and I’m hoping we can choose paint together and do the base coats together. Then she can decorate when she wants (she likes doing art with her friend or on her own) but at least doing the base coat might give us a little time together. We don’t really do anything together these days other than watch Netflix! She just wants to be on her phone all the time until it’s past bedtime and then wants to talk - hopefully we can build some time into the day instead. I do think it will get better again when she’s in school though. Hoping the HOY will ring soon about the plan.

I’ve done one question and then played the shopping list game with the younger two. Might do some time on the bike now and then I will go through the whole assignment to check it and submit it. I still haven’t rewritten the question from the first assignment as it’s weird! But may as well submit the second one.

Right.

PO3.1
❗️Exercise bike while reading threads or something to make time go faster
❗️Read all questions on assignment 2, edit and submit (I could break this up further but I really just need to do it even if it’s not perfect)
❗️Make sure all possible socks are paired and put away from the pile in the living room, and go through the odd ones to either throw away or put in bag

But for now I have my hand on ice as tantrumming toddler’s flailing limbs hit my little finger 🤬

Afternoon all! DH is back at work this week but has next week off. Does anyone feel like they spend their lives just looking forward to the weekend or the next holiday?. I do, and I’ve tried to do more in the week to make up for it. We have a gas man coming today to check the boiler, I’m crapping myself. Do I offer him a drink or is that off limits because of COVID?. I’ve been having dreams where I’ve overslept and he’s gone!. It’s any time between 12-6 so I’m hoping he gets here just as DH gets home and I don’t have to deal with it!

stressy I’ll have to have a look into calendar stickers!! Thank you for the flowers ❤️

Well done hazel for getting praise from your boss!!

zoo exactly! We are just so happy to have another DC we really don’t care about the sex, it’s just annoying that some people still do.

THAT I have noticed that too, it’s almost like well it’s been done before so it isn’t as exciting. My family aren’t like that really, especially on my dads side, they love babies and my ones are the first great grandchildren for grandchildren and grandchildren for my parents so they’re very special, it’s just DH’s family can be weird. Almost showy, so I think they wanted a girl as that looked better to them than 4 boys.

Thank you upholder! I hope it brightens up for you today!

Thank you meg I agree about stereotypes. All my DS’s are so different! I just don’t understand how a girl would be better. DS1 is very theatrical and confident, DS2 is really shy and needs a lot of reassurance and would be the one to sit and play with his dolls with me and DS3 is just a whirlwind but he still needs lots of cuddles and love. The only difference would be a girl would wear a dress, but even then if one of our DS’s wanted to we wouldn’t stop him!. And if we had a DD she may never want to wear dresses and could be a complete Tom boy like I was.

I know sing it’s just awful. I’m glad DD likes baths now, my 3 have always been water babies and it’s so fun with all the toys you can get. Don’t be annoyed at yourself, you’re doing so much anyway, the fact that you’ve took on more is incredible (and I’m not just saying that to be patronising)

bower I love going for drives. I used to go with DSF all the time, but we do it with the kids now most weekends. We’ll stop off every now and then for toilet breaks and food breaks and to explore the area. But we could spend most of the day just driving around finding new places. The DC love it. I’m glad your drive was nice, it sounds lovely. We love going to old churches, we go to the one we got married in a lot as that’s very old. We actually got DS1’s and DS2’s names from a grave! I’m struggling to get sweet corn, of all things. And thank you, that’s really kind of you. I’m glad your family were so happy about your DC, it’s lovely isn’t it.

I hope the painting with DD goes well sing!

KCC my favourite bit of furniture is this old desk I found at a charity shop. Attached a pic (excuse DS1’s massive feet) and excuse grubby floor we’re just putting the last tiles in and then need to give it a wash. Can I include the tiles as a piece of furniture? They’re all recycled tiles from an old bridge near me. Was being knocked down and re done as it was falling apart so we got the tiles!

Awesome desk! My junior school had them, I felt so grown up. The inkwell (not that we used them, as we used cartridge fountain pens) was on the right rather than the centre though.

Well I have put the socks away (DD1 needs to look for any strays in her room) and I have properly finished two of six questions

Lunchtime and then I’ll continue!

So much to catch up on!

bower I love going for drives, even by myself. There is something very therapeutic about it.
Howl I am sorry to hear about PIL's reaction, how rude of them. Try not to pay much attention if you can (I know it's easier said than done).
Meg Sometimes big supermarkets have recycling points for clothes and shoes (the ones where you just deposit things into a container), but that's a bit different from giving away straight to charity.

Ta Da from yesterday:

• 3 aquariums cleaned
• kitchen deep cleaned
• bathroom deep cleaned
• x3 LOLs

Didn't get to do the floors yesterday, so that goes onto today's list..

Tada
Fed cats
Wash on
Harpic lav

Kitchen
Wipe windows
Remove busted microwave
Scrub surface and get right into corners properly
Feed zoolets
Wash in drier
More on

Went Asda George hunting things suitable dd2 in case goes 6th form and lil zoo needs winter tights end up buying a new mattress protector for me and tights,socks, stationary...
Into Aldias quiet and got shedload non slip coathangers,plus girls fell in love cat night lights and cheap pair baby converse for lil zoo
Home,wipe/spray bits bought

Clean living room windows
Wipe over cat tree with damp cloth
Wipe sofa
Pull out and sweep
Liberate cats toys
Wipe TV unit
Put away dvds
Wipe mantlepiece/fireplace
Sweep floor
Wash in drier
More on

Poo pick littertrays
Empty all bins

Tidy hall

Lunch lil zoo and D's,put veg sausage and oven chips in for dd2

Start clear mess D's room from yesterday's pull everything out to sort floor
Hour wiping and put back/away

To do
Fix wardrobe doors properly now right size screwdriver
Wipe D's wardrobe out.add coat hangers
Clean bathroom
Sort dining table

I'm really emotional today.keep crying over nothing.not hungry.hoping this isn't start a free fall into depression....

Keep going everyone. It’s not hot here exactly but it’s still humid despite epic rainfall earlier 🥵

I’ve been fitting in the assignments around other stuff and I’ve completely finished four out of five. So I should easily manage to submit it before I go out this evening. Then I can redo the previous tricky question later in the week. Tomorrow is going to be tricky - I have yoga, then it’s DD1’s support meeting (still need to write out a final version of the routine plan!) and then DH has a long journey to get his MRI scan followed by a committee meeting not the best timing but oh well. Might actually make it a takeaway day 🤫

singdo it.busy days don't need fraught time in the kitchen.cut yourself some slack❤️

Wardrobe doors sorted
Coathangers wiped and added
Wash up
Two more loads washing done

Have up and had a warm shower and wash my hair

Just sat here quietly now,try decide want cry some more.or sleep

Sing re KCC, my favourite piece of furniture is my upright piano (can that even be classed as furniture?!). I am impressed you are tidying your sheet music into stool compartment. Mine is usually piled on top of the piano and on the nearby coffee table. I've got a new piano over a year ago (used to have a 1930s small upright before, but it just didn't sound even when tuned properly, and I am not even talking concert pitch), and it's such a pleasure.

Zoo hope you are doing ok. Virtual hugs, hun.

Sing, definitely sounds like a takeaway day tomorrow.

zoo .

KCC. Is it wrong that my favourite piece of furniture is our Kallax downstairs?! I had wanted some for such a long time and now we have it. I would have the whole house covered in Kallax but DH has pointed out that might be excessive .

Ta da:-
Went to work
Got DDs to try on school tights
DD2’s school shoes arrived in the mail

To do:-
Sort through kit from work (this is the freelance work so a bit of faffing to do before and after the job itself. Fair enough and usually not a problem but I usually do it before and after when the girls are in school. So it has been after bedtime.

Evening everyone!

I am a newly converted Kallax appreciater - I am loving it in the kids rooms, ds has all his clothes in his I can't believe how much you can fit in!! And the baskets are just so convenient, the kids have actually been tidying their own toys up because it's so simple

I'm starting a new thing of not eating after 7pm so don't mention any snacks 😂😂

Thank you howl, Meg, bower and Up I'm sure the store didn't stay clean for long, we have a lot of grubby and careless customers!
howl how awful of your ILs I'm always excited for other people to have babies!
bower your drive yesterday sounded relaxing
Sing that exciting that cagletini is now enjoying a bath
Now I don't remember who else said what!

When I get back to work from lunch today I'll have 5 hours left of the day. We are going to go to hot springs the next 2 days, floating a river and going to the pools, staying in a cabin overnight. After that we'll go camping. Thursday morning I have someone coming out to fill in a chip in my windscreen that happened this morning. I'm hoping it doesn't spread too much by then. I do plan to relax over the next few days as well Meg

KCC sorry I've been slacking on KCC this month. My favourite piece of furniture is my dining room set, the table, chairs and sideboard. They were my great Grandads. My mum remembers them from her visiting him back in the 50s. I do need to refinish them though as they are getting worn.