Festive Fledglings Flap Frantically Towards A Calm, Clutter-free Christmas!

[SingToTheSky]

OK so clutter-free is a bit ambitious. But anyway, all welcome to join us for a jolly holiday thread, in which we very loosely follow (or at least half-heartedly mention now and then) the FlyLady system of housekeeping.

I’ll be posting links and reminding us all of various tasks up until Christmas Eve, for those who want to follow the system - and if it’s like previous years there will also be some specific extra missions to help us prepare our homes for Christmas. However, we really are just a bunch of frazzled Mumsnetters who will be very happy to welcome you along for chat whether you follow the system or not! We discuss housework, sure, but a whole lot of other stuff too.

We will also continue with the Keep Calm Corner, in which you’ll find various diverting questions, memes etc.

And finally a huge thank you to Foxes who did a fab job of running the thread for the first time in November! 💐

Ah yes that it’s the napping that worries me - Cagletini is still prone to a very late nap and then will be up till the small hours. We are fairly good at keeping her awake now and part of me doesn’t want to go back to that 😳 and she’s not even out of the buggy yet, so that will add a lot of tiredness too. We definitely need to get her used to walking there and back but toddler pace walking is a killer for me (dizziness builds up), neither of us can carry her without a lot of pain now either :( sorry I have ranted about that before too

But it might be good for her as we can’t really provide much in the way of entertainment at the moment and TBH it might mean we have more chance to sort stuff at home. She’s quite the whirlwind :o so it’s tricky to get anything done when she’s around!

How does she split her 15 hours currently sing

Just 3 hours each morning, so if we used the full hours she’d then do 9-3 instead of 9-12. It’s not a school nursery so we could do just some full days but TBH knowing her love of routine I think she would struggle with some days being short and others long IYSWIM?

Going to do links now, DS has done 4 tasks already so he’s having a TV break.

Cagletini will have been late for nursery as she was faffing over breakfast and having a wee. Must set recurring alarm for 7.30 😳😳😳

🎄❄️🎁 Friday 11th December 🎁❄️🎄

Zone - last day in 2 - kitchen

Daily Focus - clear out your purse/car!

Today’s Mission - clean the top of the fridge and de-cobweb the ceiling!

Today’s Holiday Mission - not updated yet so look back on the list if you want to here

✈️ FLIGHT PLAN ✈️

Today is also perhaps an apt time to remind us all that the monthly habit is PAMPERING - are we all looking after ourselves enough?

🎄❄️🎁 The Keep Calm Corner Advent Calendar 🎁❄️🎄

You may hate me for asking this but...
It is now two weeks till Christmas. How ready are we all? 😬

I don’t feel ready. As usual the “ALL presents sorted by November 30th” didn’t happen, although the DCs, DH and I are sorted so that is still an improvement. Not wrapped or decorated, not sorted food, not made the few cards I hoped to... this time we don’t even know when we are seeing people so it all feels very up in the air indeed!

🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻

Oh I forgot a meme. Well this has nothing to do with Christmas (apart from perhaps the abundance of snacks) but this made me laugh on Facebook today.

You could ask to gradually increase maybe? So move to 9-1 and see how it goes then 9-2?

Ooh that’s a good idea thanks. I wonder if they’d let us do that 🤔 definitely worth asking.

This so much stuff I should be doing right now. But I’m sitting on the sofa in my jammies instead. 😳

They might want you to sign for a 30 hour 9-3 place but allow you to do it gradually, worth asking anyway!

Pointy stick needed...
Got 3 hours to...dejunk sitting room.

To dos...
-Fix fraggle ones bed.
-Decorate sitting room....no...i mean....junk up sitting with all Christmas decorations.🎄🎄

• make a fakeaway donor kebab...put in slow cooker.

I cant think straight...whats happening to me?

Love that memesing that is definitely me with crisps!! I don't buy them very often because I just can't stop eating them once they are open

I'm fairly ready for Xmas I think although I'm at that stage where I keep thinking shall I just buy one more thing for ds to even up the piles and then I'll do that and think oh now he has too much I'll get dd one more thing and so on and so on... trying to resist. But ds did mention a giant road puzzle he wanted this morning so I'm very tempted! I do think he'd play with it. Not sure. Oh and I've got dh everything but it seems to be mostly clothes which I'm worrying is a bit boring. I can't get him books because he only reads on his kindle.

Oh and half of one of my online orders didn't turn up so I need to get my nephew some more clothes. I will look in Sainsbury's today as I need to go there anyway. And will pick up some last chocolate bits for dh. And ds nursery teachers presents which I totally forgot 🤦‍♀️

Ok so maybe I'm not as ready as I thought 😂 . Luckily dh does all the wrapping in this house as he's far better at it, he has already done a bit. I will leave my wrapping to the last minute as usual!

Ta das this morning
School run and remembered dd homework book
Played eye spy with ds on the walk home (he loves to do this but usually we are rushing about, Friday we can stroll back slowly)
Dishwasher on
Took food waste out to bin, the bloody bin fell apart (again!!!) and i was covered in slop (again!!)
Cleaned it up
Made flapjacks with ds
Played board games with ds ❤️
Tried to ignore all the emails popping up on my work account , it's going crazy, it's my day off leave me alone!
Looked up veggie lasagne recipe for later, although I'm still thinking I might change my mind about it
Made myself a coffee and made ds a special warm milk with salted caramel from my coffee machine, he loves it because it's like going to a cafe!

As you can see I haven't really done much in the way of flying...where has my motivation gone? I have done zero missions this week and zero decluttering. Although there is a bag of clothes by the door which hopefully I'll get to the clothes bank this afternoon.

Pointy stick please!!?

dancing cross post and I think we are feeling similar 😂

Ooh foxes is that the orchard toys road puzzle? I hate to be an enabler but they are very good, the Caglets had two of the sets when they were small :)

I do the “take this away from me” with chocolate more than crisps :o I’m definitely better at stopping after a small amount now, but sometimes it’s just too addictive and I can eat so mindlessly! 😳

DS has done loads of work today. Here he is conjugating some Italian verbs I need to make a whole load more of those cards soon as he’s done many more words on Duolingo since I made these!

I still don’t think we have done quite everything I hoped to get done this week but the weekly planning has certainly helped me relax a lot more about it and I know he’s doing plenty really. I need to think very carefully about what to put in next week (four days because DD1 has Friday off) - I HATE loose ends with home ed stuff 😳 so I need to make sure what I put in is doable and leaves him at a suitable point for the break.

Positive case in the school, but it seems not in her year group as it said those who need to isolate have been notified. Eek.

Oh and I don’t know if this makes the decision easier or harder but I would bet DD enjoys the road puzzle too. Both mine used to spend ages building maps with it, and given the way your two set up big imaginative games I reckon she will like using it just as much as DS :o

I should get dressed

Thanks sing, it's good to know that it's a good toy, I do think they would play with it. It is the orchard toys one yes. I am very tempted!

Ok i now have this road puzzle in my amazon basket

that

Tbh I’ve been tempted to get it for Cagletini for old times sake but also I know there are new versions of it and I’d totally end up tempted to buy the whole range 😳😳😳

Showered dressed (including Xmas tee although I had to nick DH’s!) and ready to be picked up for the last home ed meet yay!

Lots chat going on today!

Kcc not at all
DS birthday next Friday,need order his main gift.need order bits both girls.still need something for dd1.fuckity fuck

I managed to book food deliveries on the 19th and 23rd so i am chilled on the food situation (until half my order is subs or unavailable)

We only managed 19th! I do keep checking in case more are added. We have the nearby asda so that’ll be the source of last minute fresh stuff. But knowing my usual habit of panic buying random crap and getting really frazzled before collapsing into a cab home I’m sending DH this year with a very specific list 😂

I just went into the tesco near the home ed meet though and it was rammed. Did get a Pokémon calendar for a fiver though which will be good for DS. We’ve been trying to get used to using calendars this term but what with there being bugger all happening it’s somewhat fallen by the wayside 😂

I've given up on Christmas food slots because in normal years the delivery arrives with all the Christmas stuff missing. So I make sure I don't depend on it for mince pies etc

I'm doing Christmas as Easter this year - I'm not pulling out all the stops, I'm just stopping. Easter is stress free in this house so I'm going with that. Whoever did this tree had the right idea...

That’s a lovey idea tinselette we definitely shouldn’t pressure ourselves!

Oddly I was just sitting with a group of home ed mums and they were discussing how to cook rice 😂