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!

Hills- i dont know if this will help or not but....

Some students found Gcses very hard to engage in as there is lots of written work.

Btecs were offered to students as the were more hands on, more engaging and small bursts of written work rather than big amounts of written work.

It was easier to get a pass in the 5 pieces of Btec assignments rather than Gcse.

What is your son interested in?

Bikers 😆

Merryhouse- 🐱 i am not a cat 🤣

Hills - this time last year we were in the position of not knowing whether DS would get maths and English. We looked at all the local colleges (no state 6th forms round here). They all do a mixture of BTECs etc and A levels. If DS had failed maths and or English his best bet would have been a level 2 BTEC alongside his resits. Then onto either A levels or Level 3 vocational courses. There are lots of level 2 options that can be taken alongside maths and English resits.

Ds is bored with the way course is taught hence the engagement issue. They drag out the course too long and he is one of those kids who would benefit from the compressed 1 year option of GCSEs. It is not that he can't it is that he is bored and wont. Doing a level 2 is not going to happen. Even in the subject that he is interested in. He needs to get over himself and stop being an arse.

Half tempted to enter him for SAT and GED for the american system and force his butt to be stretched. He is still sulking, and not impressed with the lack of options for being an arse. He is the one calling himself out for being an arse on this matter so at least he is not delusional. Stubborn and pigheaded yes. but not delusional.

Dancing - ds doesn't do homework or course work. He would fail his butt on a course work dependant course. Although I do think a focused industry course would benefit him as he would at least have applied knowledge and a big picture.

hillsim no help whatsoever,but I do send shedloads sympathy for pigheaded arse teens
Red do bikers zoom round clearing up??weird how autocorrect works!
Tried for a nap,just drift off ds school rang.tbeydoing reduced screen Friday for last day termthe girls are Not Going To Be Impressed..

I supposed i should give teen credit for at least being aware of the situation

:o just saw the pumpkin seed tip hills I read that you can’t catch worms from animals so I’m assuming that means it’s a different species, but hey it’s not going to do any harm and pumpkin seeds are yum 🤣

Best do more laundry

It is the fact that there is a chemical in the pumpkin seeds that interacts with the worms. so more of a case of whether all species of intestinal worms are effected to the same degree.
But you can catch worms from animals. You can get worms from eating pork raw. which is one of the reasons why pigs and pork are considered unclean and not fit for consumption in some cultures.

Oooh I see thanks for info!

Feeling pretty tired from aaaaall the cleaning today. Although it does prove I can get a lot more cleaning done in a short time if I actually shift my arse so I really have no excuse not to step it up. That said it really is easier because of the dishwasher as that’s taken a massive element of the daily workload away. Also meds. I think they are making a little difference already so that’s good.

Aaaand just remembered tap class with 4 mins to spare 😂

Well that was fun. Cagletini watched his class for a bit but then got stroppy wanting to be in front of camera so I had to shut us in the living room again (he does it in the hallway due to the floor). Testing the waters as to whether she could go back, I said “do you want to do tap dancing with isaac (DS)?” And she screamed “NOOOOOO. I WANT TO DO TAP DANCING WITH ISAAC.”

🙄😂 aaaah three year olds. Needless to say she did not go back in the hallway. So glad the lesson is only half an hour 😂

That sounds stressful sing!! Also I have missed most of the worms conversation...that is also stressful!

I've been working today so only just come online, just finished for the day, dh is exhausted so he's just giving the kids fishfingers for dinner and we'll have something later. I'm feeling pretty tired too tbh.

Hoping there is still some snow left for tomorrow as it's my day off and ds not at nursery so would be nice to go and find a slope to sledge down, my mum and dad had dd today and sent her back with a couple of those little spade type sledges from when I was a kid so they are desperate to find some snow again tomorrow but it is melting here fast!

I have not achieved much flying today, did a LOL, ran the dishwasher and took the recycling out. Think that was it. Haven't even put the veg box stuff away yet because I need to clean the fridge out and it's so cold in the kitchen I just can't stand the thought of it!

People on my FB page are shouting about kids sledging in our area, apparently they shouldn't be out. I thought we were allowed to exercise within family groups! I'm seriously considering a trip to a McDonalds drive thru as well tomorrow, the kids really do deserve to do something a tiny bit different!

I probably won't be brave enough (I feel guilty about going anywhere unnecessary, I know we shouldn't really, and I also don't know if I want to drive if it's still icy tomorrow)

I can't believe it has come to this amount of stress just wanting to do a simple little activity with my own kids

Sorry, I'm feeling end of termitis I think, totally worn out!

I have sent a thank you email to my dd teacher so that has made me feel better, hoping that I've made her smile, sent her a photo of dd in the snow today alongside her work as well

What a ramble of a post that was!

Just to clarify - the FB posts were complaining at a lady who was literally just asking where was a nice place to sledge in our own village, with her own kids, I don't think people should be meeting in big groups to sledge!! (I think someone on here encountered that recently and I totally agree they shouldn't be congregating and making it hard for people just walking to do so in a socially distanced way)

Also, I won't be staying to sledge anywhere busy!

I hope I haven't come across as totally irresponsible

That's ok hills I can see it from the other side too, I understand why it's frustrating for people. Round our way it has been very quiet really. I've seen quite a few kids go past with sledges but not many hills here so it's just little ones and no big groups that's for sure. That's why the FB comment was surprising because I've not heard of any issues round our way and it was on a very local page!

I can see both sides too, snow deep enough for sledging is fairly rare here so naturally everyone wanted to do it when it came but not everyone stuck to their family groups and right now that's a problem.

I asked HQ to delete the rant. Stepping away to deal with something here and find a better posting frame of mind.

I just want to be able to leave the house without having to spend the next 2 weeks confined to my bedroom.

Lots of people congregating on hill near our houses 😳 sing German toilets sometimes have a 'shelf' where waste may be visually examined prior to flushing to see if worms present. Lots of pork eaten in Germany.

Sorry the people are sledging. I made them sound like zombies 🤣 🧟‍♀️.

Irish TV was full of cattle worming ads when I was growing up.

Systemex worm drench for cattle and sheep...

Are clouds of doubt hanging over your livestock...?

Yes exactly, I admit I felt quite grumpy walking through the park yesterday as there were clearly big groups that were meeting up. But individually sledging is absolutely fine - you can exercise in your family/household group. There is nothing wrong with taking your kids out in the snow if you aren’t meeting others. But it doesn’t take much for a crowd to form 😩 god all this stuff is so complicated.

Definitely get the drive thru! :o

I would hate people on MY grass at the best of times hills I don’t blame you for having a go at them! 🤬

It’s been a loooong day. Still more laundry to do, beds to remake, and I need to finish collecting and hiding the teddies. Haven’t cleared up from dinner yet either.

I've just been listening to the new version audio book of All Creatures Great and Small, full of references to cattle drenches etc. Proper feelgood stuff.

Hills - we will keep a spot warm for you in the naughty corner. But understand if that is no better than being stuck at home.