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! 💐

Hi Bower, glad your Dh took you over to your sons house so you could decorate the 🎄tree. I would love to see what you are making.

Today was the first day 'D'h spoke to me.
My 'D'h has been hiding in his office, and not lifting a finger to help with the kids. Not that he does anything anyway. Plus his new thing is to set up the kids to hate mummy for nagging them.
I have been leaving the house everyday to sort out returns parcels and do Christmas shop. Mainly to get out of the house and away from him. I would leave him if I could.
(Throws his bleeping video games into the fire.)

After school I pick up the kids and then at home, straight into dinner, playing with Christmas decorations with the kids and into bed by 6pm.
Kids have been waking up around 6.15am excited to open thier advent calenders.

+Sing i hope and ds are feeling alot better.

Hazel what a beautiful meaning for your beautiful angel wings. Lovely that you have snow.

Isaw such cuties

Foxes hope you are ok.

Tinsel hope your son is feeling better. Mini roll and cuppa sounds lovely.

Mc you really do so much! But I understand what you mean about routines. Its been so much better since my two go school as there is a routine now.

Zoo epic lists hope your Dd is ok.

Hills epics lists too, is it easy to make bread? I am really considering it.

Woolly love your tree. The tinsel looks like magic spell around your tree.

🍒🎄🎁🖐 to everyone i have missed. Feeling sleepy now an have to wake at 6am to try get kids to school in time. Nite/morning everyone.

That and Sherin i hope you are ok.

Any long time luckers out there, I hope you all are ok too and hope Christmas is not getting on top of you, and if it does, take some time out for you. Walk in the park or something. Take care.

saw and dancing
Hazel wings are lovely!

Been awake since 2.giving up and getting up

Oh and wooly I think you kettle sounds a bit like me-- lights are on but unresponsive

yes it is fairly easy to make bread if you don't make sour dough bread. I found that a performance that I didnt enjoy and as I didn't like the taste of sour dough bread it is not something i do. The amounts that i use are from the last bread machine i had. It is pretty tollerant but you have to make sure that you watch how wet the dough is and go by size changes of the dough. I am lazy and barely knead the recipe i use and it still works. But if i am feeling angry i sometime knead the crap out of the bread and it still works. It gets harder when you start messing about with fancy recipes/cooking methods. I will see if i can find the recipe i use later.

Just taking 5 before i get moving. Urgh. Not enough sleep, every thing hurts and the to do list is long. But tea for tonight is prepped already and I AM having an early night!

hills I don't like sourdough bread either, I bought it a few times because of the health benefits but none of us really enjoyed it. I want to start making bread but have been saying that so so long, never seen to get round to it

Morning 😴
I’m awake because I got an email saying more Christmas delivery slots would be available this morning. It didn’t say what time so I guessed 7am as I think that’s what they did last time (and I forgot until 1pm). But nothing so far. It would be very nice to save DH the bother of going to Asda on 23rd or thereabouts.

Cagletini is only just waking up in her bed woohoo! She was a bit late to sleep but actually not too awful considering she had a nap as well. Nice to have the less broken night (although it’s not much bother really when she does climb in and snuggle up ❤️)

Loads to do today, must get DD1 doing something useful and off her phone too - have been very lax during this isolation period so far and it’s probably not good for ten days in a row if we do test positive! Although she did a grand job yesterday of making dinner at the last minute.

Foxes - sour dough bagels and pancakes were a much bigger hit around here.

Yay for cagletini transferring to her own bed etc.

Moving is hard. I am quite broken this morning. Breathing hurts again FLARE is going to be big from this week, thank god i only have a half day at work to survive next week and I can sleep through Sunday if needed.

Our broadband is fixed . There was a faulty wire connecting the house to the outside world. Back later. x

foxes I don't like sourdough either!
Sing well done cagletini,and DD for making dinner

Tada
Cats fed
Wash on
Harpic lav
Made list what gifts have got,what still need to get
Make plan for the day
battling to clear dining table continues ..
Wake everyone (except lil zoo)
Wash in drier
Pop nets in to wash with sachet Glo white
Breakfast for lil zoo

I need get dressed and leave in 10 to drop her at school...

Sing - yay! Your Dd stayed in bed all night again!

Zoo thats blooming awful you cant get back to sleep. I hope you nap in the day.

Hills thank you, we go through so much bread here. (Maybe I mighy knead the dough to death pretending it 'D'h unhelpful face.)

foxes I was the same I really wanted to make it, but never got around to it.

I am off to dress the kids is Christmas jumper day...although i have got a tshirt and a dress for my 2 fraggles aa they wouldnt wear a jumper again.

YAY for working Broadband ED!!!!!

Dancing - that is a very good technique to use. I used to imagine the spring board was a sibling when i was a kid. Really helped me to get the lift i needed

I am so glad ds cant be arsed with the dress up days. he just cant and will chose to go in school uniform and ignore it every single time. I am equally glad they didnt have this nonsense when i was at school.

Welcome back Hazel. Hope the truffle making goes to plan.

I can imagine kneading the dough can be very therapeutic when required Hills . Hope the pain eases soon.

Dancing . I’m so sorry ‘D’H is treating you like this. You sound like a lovely DM and don’t deserve it. There’s always a way to leave if you need to. Do you have family nearby?

You must be so worried about DD Woolly, how is she doing today? Lovely tree! Please tell me you have managed to get a kettle to get you through the morning?

Hurrah for fixed broadband ED 🎊

That hamper must have been a lovely surprise Sing good luck with persuading Dd1 to be more productive.

Isaw your FIL’s suggestion is bat shit. 2 weeks there but only Christmas Day with his kids?! At least your DH has sensibly said no.

This morning I have packed DD off to nursery in her Christmas party finery, and have had waffles with Nutella for a super healthy breakfast

All wrapping was finished yesterday (earliest ever!) but now I need to sort the house. So today’s aims are paint the downstairs loo (I don’t want to! ), zones 1-3 deep cleaned, and get the marzipan on my Christmas cake. Just let me finish this cuppa...

Allergy requirement, I try to make a batch a week and keep a loaf in the or two in the freezer. Also hot bread out of the oven is one of my comfort foods which when there is so much you can't eat means it is something you sort. If i do 5 batches it takes about 20mins to get to proofing stage. Shaping for a loaf is a 5min max job, and making rolls is 10-20 depending on whether stuffs is put in middle of the bread (eg pizza rolls - which have meat in a tomato sauce) I actually find getting the bits together the biggest faff of the process where as switching bowls out to make extra batches less so, but that depends on how sore my hands are. Used to have a bread machine and only ever used the dough function on it so didn't justify replacing it when it died back in January. And could only do one batch at a time so was already multi batching by hand.

we have a tradition of cinamon rolls for breakfast on christmas morning. I make them in advance and freeze them. Take out, ping microwave for breakfast. So that was 2 of the bread batches yesterday.

Going to be honest food prep is a massive block on my schedule. But i know that if i spend the time batch cooking and prepping then i can have 10 min to prep meals that won't kill people. And actually i save time and money and washing up in the long run. And i just get less stressed. Not done the batch cooking since august and it has made life harder which has proved it is what works for us.

Forgot to say the angel wings are lovely Hazel

Mc I never had any success at implementing routine with DD until she fell into her own nap routine of 3 per day, possibly around 5 months? Then weaning added a bit more structure, around mealtimes. Before that the only glance to a routine I managed was the order we did things in but without any real time schedule. So it would be feed/breakfast/empty DW, then shower, both of us dressed, feed, walk, and I’d try and get some flying done in the afternoon. The end of the routine was always pacing the floor at 6pm waiting for DH to pull up from work

Also remember i have no small children, which does help. A. LOT!

Morning, again. Fell back to sleep until gone nine and I’m still the only one properly awake

No tesco slots as promised though

Hills thank you for sharing that other video, I’ve subscribed to her channel too. Funnily enough her column/list method is how I started giving DS more structure (ie he had a list of tasks on each day but the order/timing was up to him) - we’ve recently relaxed further to a weekly equivalent but with a tick chart of the daily tasks like Duolingo.

I wish I could organise myself as well as I can organise home ed

But anyway I really like her ideas and it really spoke to me when she said about the blocks of time because I am absolutely terrible at routine and for putting everything off until the afternoon... then the evening... and then tomorrow. I’m planning to trial my bujo just for tracking this year more than planning (I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself this is where my ADHD and autism fight to the death :o I have deep sympathy for your DD’s struggles woolly :() BUT it is a very good tip and I’m going to think about how to get myself doing more in the morning before I’m too frazzled and tired.

I’ve been waffling so long that the small person has just run in shouting HI MUMMY and is now on the sofa with me :)

Also woolly we had similar for a while with the Kpop. Found out some of the kids at school had called her fat as well 🤬🤬🤬 (she 100% is not by the way, I do keep a quiet eye on it and all the dancing keeps her in good shape)

Speaking of DD1, thank you for asking woolly and yes I do think the isolation is helping a bit in some ways. She was really upset about it but TBH I suspect she would have been less so if it wasn’t the last week of school with all the Christmas stuff and the secret Santa/friend’s birthday present she’s arranged. She seemed a bit happier yesterday spending all day on FaceTime with her two home ed besties :o. So hard to know how to move forward though and due to the rules for college she needs to make a decision quite soon.

DS is awake now so after a bit of my little pony :o we must get a bit of home ed done, he was coughing a lot last night but is fairly cheerful now.

woolly huge hugs,I must've missed your DD troubles upthread
Lil zoo has disordered eating.she is a nightmare certain textures/flavours.we now have won't eat hot dinners,and breakfast HAS to be toast.no bread,no breakfastwon't drink if a school day in case needs loo/IBS plays up so isn't drinking enough.onky in school 2hours a day now.shes eating more than your DD,but it's still a huge worry(yesterday had tuna wrap with peppers and tomato and bag crisps at 1pm,and a dairy free cheese sandwich and some grapes at 7pm.drinks for the day-500mls flavoured water)
She's ment be monitered by school nurse,but nothing happening there yet
Anyways,if you need some ranting/support feel free pm me.x

Tada
Nets washed,dry and returned to living room windows
Curtains now having a quick swim in machine,pre dylon..
About tackle the dining table

glittery I missed your Christmas tree picture - it looks beautiful!!

Our tree seems to be missing more decorations daily. The children are taking them off one by one and squirreling them away in their bedrooms. I don't know why I think they are like magpies attracted to shiny things.

I haven't done much so far but I would also like to do some deep cleaning today up ! But it's just finding the strength to get up off the sofa 🤦‍♀️😂

Dishwasher is on , washing is on and I've done some pilates. Also need to go to the supermarket for a few things I forgot on the food shop and a last present for ds which is a specific t shirt he saw in there the other day, fingers crossed it isn't sold out.

Ok I must go and get stuck in to some housework!

🎄❄️🎁 Monday 14th December 🎁❄️🎄

Zone - 3 - bathroom and one other room

Daily Focus - antiprocrastinating!

Today’s Mission - clean door handles, light switches and phones etc

✈️ FLIGHT PLAN ✈️

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

Have some festive jokes I nicked from the internet.

🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻🎅🏻

Well DD1 just really surprised me. I asked her to look up her Google classroom thing and shortly after she buggered off upstairs. I thought I’d have to stand over her to make sure she actually did, but I just found her at her desk doing history homework! 😱

Now if she can do that I have zero excuse not to get my work done so I am now shut in my room and if I post again before I’ve submitted it you must banish me as thread host! Happy anti procrastination day :o

Hello sorry for dropping off!. I’ve had a crap week, no baby here yet!. I hope you don’t mind me sharing and having a bit of a moan, but I had a horrible message on Facebook from DS’s dads GF. I don’t know if you know, but I’m a young mum, I had DD at 16 and her dad wanted nothing to do with her and has never been in her life or contributed at all. I met DS’s dad and he became abusive but got worse when I got pregnant meaning in lockdown I left him, got a new house etc. But because of it all I have really bad PTSD, anxiety etc which means I struggle to get a job. Anyway, I haven’t been in contact with DS’s dad, he doesn’t want to be in contact with us either, got a new girlfriend (who’s already pregnant by him) and has moved on, fine by me. However she messaged me on Facebook just insulting me, saying I’m a benefits scrounger, terrible mum etc and it just made me feel crap. So I’ve deleted all my social media and in a flounce deleted my mumsnet account (which is why I’ve name changed). I’ve had a few days with my family and they’ve made me see sense and realise that what she said isn’t true and I decided to come back as you were all so lovely to me. I hope you don’t judge me with what I’ve told you, I know it doesn’t sound great that I’m 19 with 2 kids from 2 dads and don’t work but I’m really trying to get back on my feet and do right by my kids. Sorry for my big rant and sorry for flouncing!. I hope you’ll have me back!