It's February - Fledglings are Flying (let's face it there's not much else to do).

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Here we are on the February 2021 Flylady thread - this time last year we were just starting to realise that the world was going to change in a big, big way. The Fledgling threads have pulled us all together and been a great source of comfort and distraction from it all.

This is a friendly housekeeping thread based (loosely... Extremely loosely sometimes 😂) on Flylady's housekeeping system . Welcome one and all, lurkers and long-time posters alike. Join in, hang out, but above all remember you are not behind, just jump in where you are.

The beauty of Flylady is that you don't have to flatten yourself trying to get your house clean to begin the routine upkeep; the first - and only - thing she asks you to do is to shine your kitchen sink. Routines - morning, afternoon and evening - are built gradually through her Baby Steps. To those, you add a Daily Focus and a weekly area to concentrate cleaning on. By the end of a month, your whole house will have had some attention. If you miss a bit, never mind, it'll come round next month!

For this month, I'll be posting daily links to the Launch Pad on the Flylady site so you can follow the daily focus and cleaning missions. You can sign up to receive emails from Flylady, but we suggest you don't - she sends masses, which will clog up your inbox and drive you insane into the bargain.

Because this thread has been running a while, there are some acronyms we use to make life easier
S&S - swish and swipe, round the bathroom to keep it acceptable daily
LOL - load of laundry. No, we don't find washing that funny!
Ned - born of a typo, a mythical being who assists with laundry mountains
The pointy stick ----> to motivate people
PO3 - Power of 3, if you can only face a few tasks. People often find groups of 3 tasks stack up over a day!
The Naughty Corner - where we head when it's all Too Much. Usually stocked with fresh coffee, fluffy throws, delicious snacks and the opportunity to sit quietly with friends or build a blanket fort and sulk in it if you need to.

During the Pandemic, we have also been using the KCC or Keep Calm Corner, invented by long-time poster / thread leader SC. This is a regular dose of memes, questions for discussion, random trivia etc to distract us from the rest of the world. All contributions welcome!

Remember - No Fledgling Left Behind!

Hiya everyone, we’ve had snow today. Not loads but it’s covered the ground, I don’t think we’ll get any more now though. DM drove me to my appointment today, everything seems fine with baby which is brilliant. Not long to go now!. We went out in the snow today, and then did a snow pizza activity. I’m shattered now, haven’t been sleeping super well lately but hopefully it’ll get better. On a more positive note, the gaviscon has done wonders and I feel so much better so thank you to everyone who suggested it!.

Sorry about the bad start to the day zoo, I hope you get your revenge!.

I hope your throat is better now sing, honey and lemon always soothes mine. And yay for the dishwasher, so exciting!!. I was the first year of students to have the number grades, I found it very confusing, I did feel disappointed with a 6, although I wouldn’t have been disappointed with a B. The numbers just made them seem not as good!. I hope you manage to sort out DS’s science lessons!

I have a similar sleep pattern hills, but I get woken up at 7 by Elijah and then spend most of the day being unproductive. I’ve decided tomorrow no matter how tired I am I have to get up and actually be productive!

Sorry to hear about your day starting off bad as well waders, glad your heating is back now though. I hope DS3 has managed to sort out his science homework!

I hope you managed to get a bit of time to yourself hills!

I’m mainly here for the chat and am awful with my lists lately, however I did do a home bleugh and made a list of everything I still haven’t got for the baby. I’m going to try and get it all tomorrow when I’m being productive!

Butta so pleased all is well with your little one. I remember sleeping dreadfully when pregnant, a combination of PGP and pregnancy insomnia. Dare I say it, I am sleeping much better since I had my baby 🤞The quality of sleep is better.
Do you have much to buy before baby gets here?

Hope blimey, that sounds traumatising.

Sing ours has a wee basket in a cage thingy at the bottom that you pull out. Glad to hear DW fitted right into your family.

I just realised that I do so much LOL I am starting to omit it from my ta da lists, unless laundry is up to my eyebrows. Still amazed at how something so small (a baby) can produce such a mess 😂

On a more pensive note, has your relationship with your mother changed since you became a mum yourself?

I have quite a strained relationship with mine, my mother is a difficult person. I was partially hoping that 'joining the club' will make me see her point of view more, but in fact it has done the opposite. A bit sad things are the way they are, but I guess I will just have to accept the reality.

Ah MC 💐 it can go either way I think. Becoming a mum can make you see and feel the gaps in your own childhood too as a big part of being a parent is the drive to do things differently and better. It can hit quite hard in the early days but that doesn’t mean it won’t feel better - relationships change all the time, whether that’s growing closer again or accepting that you’re better off with more distance 💖💐

I really should sleep, I haven’t yet. Whyyyy do I do this to myself.

I really need to get my daily stuff done earlier in the day. I did them at a better time (normally around midnight) but I still missed the boat on getting an early night, and thus the clear solution was to faff about on the iPad while feeling ever more anxious see, I can’t blame the Caglets for being hooked on their phones can I.

On a more positive note though, absolutely zero complaints re their phone/app limits today, more time spent all in the living room, and they chatted for ages at bedtime. I still feel bad about how late they’re going to sleep, but one thing at a time, the phone use is the most important thing right now.

So some things have gone right today anyway. Also, y’know, dishwasher. How can I be sad when I have an obedient little machine that washes up for us?

How long till the novelty wears off? 😂 perhaps it’s proportionate to the time I spent without one? About 14 years I think. 😂

Anyway I really must try and sleep.

🍒👋

Red I don't quite feel comfortable sharing the links (you never know who's lurking) but here's some screenshots of the one house we looked at twice. Lots of work would have been needed to make it liveable for us, the lot was a very good size though.
zoo sounds like scoutcat might be on the mend, although not good to hear the trek you had to make with him.
Sing yay for the dw! I couldn't live without one, I've had one for many years now.
waders I'm glad to hear you resolved the heating issue, even if DH didn't want to hear it from you. Men! 🤦‍♀️

I worked today so did nothing around the house, but here are the ta das from the weekend:
🐧 Baked German chocolate cupcakes
🐧 Cleaned up the kitchen
🐧 Rearranged the kitchen table and took pictures to see how it will look
🐧 Had a 2nd look at the house pictures attached
🐧 Cooked shrimp, baked potatoes, salad with my homemade ranch dressing while DH grilled steak for ILs and SIL who came over for dinner
🐻‍❄️ Packed up some of DSs room, created more space in his closet
🐻‍❄️ Took boxes of spare bedding out to camp trailer
🐻‍❄️ Took other boxes out to the garage to store them
🐻‍❄️ Several LOLs
🐻‍❄️ Did my nails with gel, I added tips as my nails are breaking, they've held up so far!

I've put off grocery shopping and my ironing, which is piled up high now. Where's Ned or Ted when you need them?!

Nope. still as crappy as ever. But then the issues are personality/mental health wise of mum so it was never going to be affected really. If anything I resent my childhood more as I realised how unnecessary so much of it was.

I am about done for the day. Starting to see double so i suspect a nap would be a good idea.

Ta da for the day
Crap ton study
some laundry folding
Some laundry washing
some swearing about the fuckers
some swearing about companies that discontinue things i need
some searching for alternative storage options
Some cleaning of benches
Some sorting of seeds
some procrastination

Not entirely productive. Not entirely not productive. Just checking the door is locked, house safe in case of fire (ie important doors not blocked) and then clearing of bed of random stuff before crashing.
night

hills sorry to hear you're having a tough time of it right now.
zoo thank you for the hot cocoa. It's definitely bedtime here now (just gone midnight)
🍒👋 to everyone else

Morning all / goodnight hazel!

Pathetic amounts of snow here i will take ANY donations!

We have our 20 week scan next week and then the baby shopping can commence although we do not actually need much. peanut are you having a double pram?

I need to work out if we have the right connections etc under our sink for a DW and then i WILL buy one.

mc my relationship with my mum was shit before i had dc and we are now no contact, i take less shit these days and don't need her in my life. My dc have no relationship with her.

Hazel i love all the green on those pictures 🌳🌿🌱

Oh non flying question .... has anyone bought from Pat Pat before? What is it like for quality / sizing?

Can't help there that I'm afraid
Red scoutcats much better thanks.

I was going to clear and clean a worksurface today

I empty surface
Scrub it and wipe tiling
Was about start wipe and return belongings as spotted a thick stripe on pestle and mortar,and splatters on herbs.i suspect this is the oozing matter that was on scoutcats faceI went get tissue and a zoolet to see properly cleaned it and it was gone when I returned.is assumed he'd wipe on paw and lick off,but seems to have shook head and deposited elsewhere

My OCD is Not Happy

M not mad at him,poor lamb.but my germ fear means I may well have to bin everything but toasteras I can't see well and will fret things aren't clean/biggest fear of poisoning someone will happen

in other news,lil zoo was woken at 6,and with assistance from D's to lift lip we have managed put a tiny but of kitty toothpaste in her mouth,followed by dreamies.i may be overly hopeful we will eventually be able to brush her teeth!
Dd2 completed all schoolwork yesterday,and is now fed and watered and heading up for today's slog
I have Major Surgery on D's mumkey today-hes looking very deflated due to a few holes so I need to stuff and fix him up!

*I mean Nelly's mouth,not lil zoo(how did a name get removed on posting?!)

That I've bought from Pat Pat. Right, where do I start. Bottom line is I do NOT recommend.
Baby clothes: quality is really hit and miss. Some bits are pretty good cotton and soft, whilst others are questionable. It's a gamble at what you are going to get. True to size more or less.
Adult clothes: avoid like a plague. I bought 2 maternity summer dresses - one was the itchiest plastic thing I have tried, I thought I was getting cholestasis of pregnancy before I copped onto the fact it was that dress. And the other one? Well, cheap plastic material with very unflattering shape.
But the clincher? It takes an absolute age to arrive. Really long time, like, months. I was expecting a bit of a delay when I was ordering as it was already pandemic by then, and supply chains struggling etc, but it took forever to arrive. Apparently that's their norm (I only read the reviews afterwards), not just an oddity due to unforseen glitch.

Ty mc think i will stick to h&m

Morning all,

A dusting of snow here, very dry and powdery. Still coming down quite fast, I am at work but keeping an eye out and will go home if it starts settling too much.

Here is the launchpad link launchpad

flightplan and today's flight plan. The mission is to clean your silverware holder (cutlery drawer / utensil pot, whatever).

Sorry I'm not engaging much with the chat, I am reading through, the swimming club stuff has taken over my evenings a bit (hopefully all done after this week) and work is busy during the day - yesterday I had laptop problems and hardly got anything done, so I'm behind now.

MC I think sing is exactly right re relationship with parents after baby arrives. Also have a difficult mother here. And father. But they live now in Australia with my sister so zero attempts to interfere with upbringing of baby! Doesn't mean the relationships fail, just that you have a different perspective.

hazelnutty great house and live the blue skies! Are you and dp handy at all? We can do very minor DIY but are in awe of people who transform an old house and don't botch it

*love not live. More snow here today.

Sing, Hills, That, and Hope thank you. It has been a pretty rubbish relationship for as long as I can remember, and it has been gradually getting worse since I moved out aged 17. We barely speak now, and if we do it's about very superficial topics. Any of my attempts to have a normal adult conversation invariably ends up badly. We have never been close, so I don't know why I thought we could be now. Physical distance helps, we live in different countries, and have been for a number of years. Don't know why I am digging it up suddenly, felt a bit sad about it. I am sure I will get over it. Apologies for putting a damper on your mornings!

No need to appologise mc! For me its a subject i don't really have emotions about, it is what it is! No contact was a long time coming and i feel so much better for it!

Ta da

🌈 all up, fed and dressed
🌻 dd maths and topic work done
🐦 wash on
🌈 dryer on
🌻 half pots washed
🐦 read uni email
🌈 tidied bathroom floor
🌻 swept and mopped bathroom
🐦 bath mat etc for wash
🌈 cleaned mouldy window sill
🌻 emptied dehumidifiers and replaced tablets
🐦 made bed

MC families are complicated,it's ok to want to talk that they.to be indifferent or be upset or anywhere inbetween

I've ground to a halt.another crappy night,I had a nap and am dragging my feet about getting on with stuff as still tired

Thank you mnhq.

Here is my post again but hopefully less outing....

Morning everyone, i have skim read quickly and I will come back and read all properly.

My relationship with my mum with mental health issues was in tatters all through my childhood and she passed away before I had my second baby. I still love her and miss her. Although if she was here, she would make my life hell.

Hills...you posted something that seriously resonated with me....thank you for putting into something into word that I couldnt.

'I only taught long enough to establish my hatred of the English education systemSingThat teacher training still haunts me thoughstill fucking finding my notes from that time in the randomest placesThat one encounter with the people above Ofsted was enough. To be a teacher you need to be able to survive bureaucracy, crowd control and ever moving targets without going insane or opening your mouth to fight the system. It was not for me.'

My story is...
I loved teaching my students, the wonder when they learnt something new! After 15 years fighting an ever changing system broke me. I was the kind of teacher that cared for the kids. Made sure it was a safe an kind enviroment for them to learn in. I miss my students badly, and pray they are doing well and safe. I devoted my life to teaching and not living my life. The robots that work in education enjoyed breaking a person who just wanted to teach. What they did to me was fox hunting. I was the rabbit. My husband told me that I am never to go back. Its taken me a long time to rebuild myself. I am a better person for not being there.
I always think of the positive and I would never of had children if I was still there. So I look at my wonderful little ones, playing with thier paw patrol soft toys and just feel so grateful I have them. They are so funny and yesterday my kids, held a wedding for Chase and Everest. They dressed them up in bows and had a wedding lunch for them too. 😂
(This is life here, and I am not super on top of everything but I have two children happy and content for the past 2 hours. 😊)

mc I forgot how badly I slept when I was pregnant with Elijah, so this has been a shock!. It’s the big bump as well for me, I struggle to get comfortable at the best of times but it’s doubly hard now. I don’t have too much to buy, just a mattress for the crib, baby bath etc. I am also amazed at the amount of mess babies make!. I agree with sing, it’s different for everyone but over time it may become better. Don’t apologise though, it’s completely understandable you feel sad about it💐

sing I’m the same, I do everything once Elijah gets to sleep and then don’t end up going to bed for ages. I hope you got some sleep! And great that the screen time limit seems to have gone down well😊

hazel I love the pics, and it sounds ideal if you and DH are able to do a little work to it!

I hope you managed that nap hills!

THAT ooh good luck for your scan!. I’ve got the Hamilton Tunberry Dual Travel System. The company don’t produce them anymore but I got mine off Facebook market place and there’s some on eBay. I really like it, it works with a maxi cosi car seat, can be parent facing (both kids), can also do it so the seats face each other or both face outwards. And also can go into just a single pushchair. I like that you can position the seats so no child is blocked by the other, which has been a worry, and also that you can parent face for as long as possible (it sounds like I’m being paid to sell this pram, I just really like it😂).

Glad to hear scoutcat is better zoo! Sorry about having to bin most of the kitchen stuff!. Well done to DD2 for completing all her schoolwork!

No worries about not keeping up ED! I hope you manage to catch up with work!

dancing you sound like a lovely teacher, it’s awful that the education system did that to you. But as you say, you’re very lucky to have your little ones and they sound adorable!

I’m feeling a lot more productive today! Ready to get some shopping now, think I might splash out on a few personalised bits because I have a name for him!

I'm back to not keeping up with anything again and I feel guilty because the kids want to go sledging down a tiny little slope near our house but we don't have any sledges so I've said we can just use something else as it really is a tiny slope, but they have to wait for dh to get home because I'm working until 5.30. They are now watching TV. Again.

I thought dh would be home quite early today but I called him and he sounds busy and stressed so I ended the conversation quite quickly to let him get on but I'm not sure sledging will be on the cards!!

Sorry to hear of difficult family relationships by the way, I am very lucky to have a very good relationship with my immediate family (I'm sure we have the usual little issues every now and then - I don't think anybody can see eye to eye on everything all of the time!) and I think, for me, motherhood just made me appreciate my parents more as I now realise how stressful it can be but I understand that that is most definitely not everyone's story and I'm very fortunate.