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! 💐

Oh and I also wrote the DC’s Christmas cards with them

Well I may have had a phone call from my tutor seeing if I was ok as I haven’t done the amendments yet 😳😳😳 but she was nice (and hopefully didn’t think I was too pathetic listing the various things I’ve been frazzled by lately!) and we’ve set a deadline specifically for those as we agreed I work better with specific targets.

I really couldn’t be arsed to bake but we found a brownie mix in the cupboard, I think it is haunted 👻

That love the 🔥

The temperature at my house, fraggle rock is arctic.
He is not talking, avoiding me and wont even look at any whatsapp messages i send like I will pick up the kids. Honestly I am exhusted from lack of sleep was up at 5.30am with big fraggle.

Thank you guys for listening to me.

Bower i am sorry you were treated like that.

The nicest thing at the moment is watching the fraggles play so much with the Christmas decorations.

saw those pictures are DARLING

TaDa
made S1's lunch
cleared draining board
hoovered all carpets (except Spair Oom which is covered in stuff... will have to clear that out before S1 gets here)
s&s upstairs
exercise class
shower etc
made lunch
put meat in tomato juice with chilis and spices
massive shop
put away massive shop
set bread machine with naan dough
made curry

ToDo
finish making dinner
work out what I'm doing tomorrow (S2 has a test twenty miles away)
sort out some more of this Big Pile

ToMorrow
treadmill at gym
make tuna pasta bake
take S2 to test
write some cards?

zoo enjoy the lights hope it works as a distraction

Isawthat you're children look like butter wouldn't melt! (Also I hear you about ds and the cute face and tears, my ds is the same!)

Today has been a work day today so no flying (apart from to put a few things away on my way to one room from another 🙄) . DH had the day off work though so we shared school run duties which meant ds didn't have to walk so far (and neither did I!). Dh also did all the kids present wrapping today which took hours! He did do a LOL and the dishwasher too and has now taken the dc for haircuts. So that's all been very helpful (I think he can escape the 🔥!)

Dd came out of school so excited today because they'd watched a virtual pantomime and done loads of Xmas activities. She has asked if we can make Xmas biscuits this week so I've added some decorations to the food shop. I picked ds up from nursery and looked through the window to see what he was up to, surprise surprise he was wrestling with two other boys 🙄 in a fun way at least. I don't know why he isn't tired after the bad nights sleep last night because i am absolutely shattered. I also ache from the HIIT workout 😂 oh to be a kid again!

Sing glad you've got a plan for your studies 👍 it's all a bit crazy at the moment I think we all feel rather frazzled!

Right I suppose I'd better finish my work now and then hopefully dh will be home soon with the dc ready to cook burgers 😋

Argh that should say YOUR children! 🤦‍♀️

KCC: my favourite decoration is probably my honeycomb bell. I made it to imitate one which my grandmother had.

Festive spirit has kicked in here and it is all shouting and arguments and threatening to set fire to the tree in the garden. Nice to have normal back

ta da
work
laundry
spray pain skate board
deal with online school issues
wonder wtaf i am meant to do about emails about online learning when a. don't get personal emails at work and b. not home to deal with teen and contents of said emails.
sort out putting the decorations ups
deal with what's for tea
consider what on my to do list i am going to do tonight

Am about to flop into bath and de outside. Will try to remember to come back and read posts again. at the moment all i remember is that there were cute pictures of little people, men are causing issues and nice things were said about my pictures (thank you about that!) I make no promises as right now i am about ready to face plant into bed.

Ha Dancing if DH wasn’t an only child I would think they were related. Also not talking and avoiding me. He even went out in the car.🤣I stayed in bed until 10 because I was up very, very late.

Isawthat what gorgeous kids. Photographer did a good job too. Sometimes there photos are so rubbish. I didn’t take some of DDs because they were awful and she was sooo photogenic. I had loads of better ones. Your little one is so snug what a lovely photo.

Look at your list 😳🥇for you.

sing that is almost creepy. It’s Christmas not Halloween! 🎃

Phone call from DS3 so have forgotten what was on previous page.
Will come back in later.

merry I removed my nan having a bell like that!
Hills bath and bed please

So today I e continued to plod on with final bits of kitchen and made headway on front room

Tada
Fed cats
Wash on
Harpic lav
Kitchen
Wiped window frames with elbow grease spray
Cleaned windows
Wiped all tiling and sills till gleaming
Organise sills so only necessary on them and tidy
Wipe surfaces
Wipe cupboard fronts
Wipe tumble drier and wash machine
Wash on
Wake dd2 for meds
Argue with lil zoo over brekkie(no bread,wouldn't eat anything else)
Make D's breakfast after cajoling repeatedly to Get Up

Bathroom
Wipe windows
Wipe sills
Wipe radiator
Wipe bath skirt
Wipe all tiling
Wipe over shower
Clean bath
Scrub out sink
Sweep floor
Empty bin

Walk lil zoo to school
Acquire bread
Pic up a flat battery for scales

Lunch
Start clearing dining table- we tend stack crap all over the back and it builds up...

Remove dd2 snack box/crate and place in kitchen cupboard after wipe it out and checking supplies
Clean two very small baskets and place few sweet and few savoury options in each
Remove various items and return to/find proper homes
Wash up
(3/4 table now clear)

Bookcase
Empty crap off top
Return cereal boxes(no where else to store)
Add DD snack baskets
Found my dad's funeral order of service down the back.be four years on 21stput upstairs in memory box
Clear all med boxes from top bookcase to top fridge put the way
Clear various detritus,cups,etc off bookcase shelf edges
Wipe over edges book case

Take in Amazon delivery
Take dd2 out for walk
Was going well til a cretin on a push bike bomb past up on path,and as a bus pulled up spun bike noisily so he was facing us as bus stopped.he was at leastid 20s and in dark it scared bejingles out off us both(dd2 said heart just fell out my arse) .we heard a ladies voice,so mustve been meet someone off bus.it was very dark and had it not been for bus beside us shining light/witnesses for briefly moment I did wonder we were about her attacked

*remember.not sure how that became removed?!

Dancing and Bower frustrating, just frustrating. Stuff them, leave them sulk if they so insist. I say a large glass of wine and a bubble bath is in order.
Hills sounds like a barrel of fun in your household! I hope the tree survived.
Saw your kids are super adorable! And that's a mega list right there.

Today I am somehow ahead of my to do list, so I spent the majority of the day on the sofa cuddling the baby. Need to do some exercise as I caved in and had KFC chicken for lunch.

zoo I am scraping my jaw off the floor looking at your list. Please tell me now you are sitting down comfortably with your feet up and a glass of something in hand?

I have a fever now (not much above threshold, but again rules are rules and TBH I run cold anyway so it’s a big increase for me) no tests available so will try again at 8am. Yay

Tree survived, it always does. funny what a common enemy does to break up an argument actually the tree looks really lovely and i am pleased with the end result they achieved

2nd round of work stuffs done.

Just argued with ds about stupid shit. I am about to hit up the hot water bottles and some youtube. Over did the coffee earlier and it is about to bite me in the ass. Alarm is set for stupid o'clock simply because i need to get a metric crap ton done before the other inhabitants of the house are up and causing problems.

Fingers crossed it is nothing serious Sing hope you manage to get the testing kit ordered ok

Evening all,
Sorry to not have been around much ,the broadband has been very intermittent and it's hard keeping up on a phone. Fingers crossed, it's OK this evening, typical as BT engineer is coming in the morning.

Sing - sorry to hear about DS and now you showing symptoms, hope you can both get tested quickly. I read on another thread that the postal tests are coming back very quickly now.

Zoo - you are really on a roll with those lists!

Hills - hope you get a decent sleep.

Bower - mine puts everything back in the wrong places too. It's a slight improvement on not putting them back at all, but does cause a lot of irritation.

Merry - love the bell, that is very clever.

Tada!

Work
Dinner
Wrote last three cards that need posting. I can still only manage about three at a time with the hurty finger but it's OK for most purposes now. Going to pop to post box in a minute.
Christmas PVC cloth onto kitchen table
3xLOL
Not much else done really

I did clean the oven a couple of days ago though, so I'm pleased about that.

Back with some photos from my phone in a minute

Favourite decorations

The tinsel bauble is one of the first two I bought when I had my own house and tree. The pebble one was bought on holiday last year and is SO cute. The blue and silver random thing is something I made about 20 years ago and has been hung in the kitchen on that window (back door) every year since, blue being my favourite colour. It is showing sideways on the preview screen but it hangs down IRL. I also love all the bits the DCs have made over the years.

Photos disappeared 🙄

Oh didn’t realise your finger was still sore ED. Hope it’s on the mend. That pebble decoration is lovely.

Hope you manage to get a test ASAP Sing, and fingers tossed for negative.

Isaw what gorgeous DC you have. Impressive list. Yours too Zoo!

I love watching through the nursery window Foxes, they are so funny.

Productive day today:
👐 DW emptied, LOL on and jazz
👐 did 5 minute tidying blitzes (is that the correct plural form?) in the living room, kitchen, hall and bedrooms.
👐 did most of home bleurgh except kitchen and dining room floors. I’ll do them through the week
👐 persuaded DD to make the last of her cards so ‘the elf’ can take the festive confetti and shit away until next year and I don’t need to find it in every room anymore
👐 walk to the park with DD
👐 clean laundry away
👐 scrubbed more of bathroom floor. Still several hours worth to go I think. If anyone is considering pebble effect flooring banish the idea from your mind.
👐 sorted kitchen after DH made butternut squash curry
👐 have meal planned up to Christmas Eve Eve, written a food shopping list and rest of xmas gifts list, as well as a schedule for the next 4 days including all to dos, plus designated crap-xmas-film-on-5-and-baileys time. Shopping is first on the schedule for tomorrow morning.
👐 managed an early night. Got comfy. Realised I hadn’t put chocolate in advent calendar. Got back up to do it. Added calendar size chocolates to shopping list and came back to bed with the rest of the current pack

The above was all achieved amongst numerous games of eye-spy (her new obsession) and orders to draw Christmas trees.

Oh and Bower I believe isolation is 10 days from start of symptoms or from positive test if asymptomatic. Close contacts have to isolate for 14 days from the last contact, although that changed to 10 from ?today.

DS2 is definitely going through a slee regression, I’m exhausted!. School closed on Wednesday and then home learning until Friday, I’m not sure how I’ll manage to do it properly, but we can only try our best!

I love the haunted brownie sing! I hope you’re not feeling too poorly

I’m sorry your DH’s are being shit dancing and bower!

I hope the house has warmed up dancing, it’s freezing here as well!.

Thank you zoo😊, brilliant list!. I don’t know how you manage to get it all done. That run in with the bike sounds horrible, I hope you aren’t too shaken up.

Great list merry, I love the decoration.

foxes oh they’re little devils really!. The cute face and tears is awful isn’t it, he knows what he’s doing though the little monkey he has me wrapped around his little finger!. The last week of term is brilliant at Christmas isn’t it! DD’s been doing some lovely activities this week and last week.

hills I hope you managed a nice bath and early night!.

Aww thank you bower, the school have got good a photographer I think, DD’s nursery pictures last year were brilliant too. But I suppose there’s a lot of years to come for the bad school photos!. Little one loves being snuggly!. Thanks for my medal!.

Thank you mc! I hope you enjoyed the snuggly baby cuddles today!.

Hope you can get the broadband fixed ED I love the baubles.

Thank you up, I’m not sure how they got so beautiful, me and DH were funny looking children😂. Brilliant list!.

Not much more to add to the ta da list, DS2 is falling asleep now so I’m going to try and get some sleep. I have nativity on in the background, it always makes me cry!.

ta da
🥵booked test for DS
🥵phoned nursery while DH phoned school
🥵shower
🥵read therapy journals
🥵had therapy session
🥵spoke to work coach
🥵made brownies from a box
🥵spoke to tutor
🥵tried Eedi (MN product test) with DS - oh dear, he likes maths but hates this!
🥵sorted language programme download/membership accounts and tried both French and Italian myself
🥵downloaded Italian game app and upgraded to full version for DS
🥵separated duolingo accounts so DS has his own on iPad, and started Italian myself
🥵read a lot to Cagletini
🥵set fast timer after yummy dinner (DH made sausage and tomato rolls and a gorgeous salad) as I’ve lapsed on this lately
🥵wrote list of various series I want to watch (and track in my bujo!) from various platforms
🥵watched the bujo video hills shared above and subscribed to her channel... I feel this may become my new productive relaxation thing!
🥵tried and failed to order my own test
🥵spent a loooooong time doing the tesco order (turns out we would have ended up with nothing but kopparberg...) - hopefully was sensible and ordered things to make the next few days easier, things to help sore throat etc, and some Christmas ingredients, and some random stuff for DSDs’ hamper - nice toiletries, a posh gluten free brownie mix etc - as it’s unlikely we will be able to get to the shops now.

Not quite caught up with the thread tonight but scrolling through I love all the pics - oh my word isaw your little baby boy 😍

Must try and sleep, I’m not convinced Cagletini will sleep through tonight.