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!

Well done waders

I have been sitting around waiting for a pointy stick to magically appear. But I shall take inspiration from you and go Do Stuff, as once I sat down after my shower I didn’t move until I got too hungry 😂

Next step, yet more laundry. Probably just a normal wash, DH is out on errands and is getting some napisan or similar so we can start on the toys later. TBH some are long overdue for a clean so it’s good to have a reason to get round to it.

He’s also buying pumpkin seeds - he’d happened upon the same info 😂

I will check the dishwasher too. A question (sorry there will be a lot of these) - are you meant to leave the door shut a long time to let it dry from the residual heat? With the WM and TD I always open the door straight away even if I’m not getting the stuff out immediately. But it seems the dishes are still quite wet if we open the DW door.

dancing I have a vague memory of being told about German pools.please remind me
Singno use whatsoever with DW.at least pumpkin seeds are easy to find.a lot supermarkets and chemists/boots sell napisan now
Hills
Waders come sit in naughty corner and pace yourself lovely

Yep, hooray for half term waders.

We have done phonics and nothing else today! Got no motivation to do anymore.

Sing- the ledge german toilet design is not really for checking for worms. 🍎🍏🍐🍌🍍🥝🥑🍆🍑🍊🍉🍇
Just general healthy digestive systems. Apparently they are not so sqeemish about bodily functions as we are!
Think like the programme you are what you eat - by Gillian Mcketh. (I loved that programme as I learnt how to control my blood sugars from crashing.)

Snow!

Foxes- yay! snow! 🛷🏂⛷❄☃️ That looks like a really good amout for sliding around on a black bin bag and a hot mcds with hot chocolate to warm up afterwards! 🍟🍔☕
Hope you all have lots of fun in the snow!

Enjoy it as ours has melted and my kids kids keep asking to play in the snow...but they dont understand its just cold ice now in patches. It is freezing here.

Enjoy Foxes and lil foxcubs! 😍 lovely photo! Xx

Aw thanks dancing! The kids had such a good time, we ended up staying out much longer than I thought and kind of missed lunch so had a late afternoon snack and we are going to order pizza for dinner instead so dh can join us. End of term treat, kids can stay up and watch some TV with us.

Flying isn't happening and I really do have a mega list to get through...kind of feel like putting it all off until tomorrow tbh.

Ta das
Sledging with the dc!!
Took a parcel back to Next (big one still open for c&c)
Had a late snacky lunch with the dc
2 X LOL
Dishwasher on (twice now!)
Washing up
Recycling out
Wiped kitchen sides
Got the dc to tidy living room of toys
Paid a couple of bills
Phonics with dd
Dh picked up few bits from shop and came home with chocolate for everyone...

I haven't moved from the sofa for some time now and I don't have to cook dinner either now so motivation has completely disappeared.

Aah I see what you mean dancing I remember that show too.

ta da so far
🍏shower
🍏reiterated shower/clean towel etc rules to Caglets when I woke them up
🍏put last nights wash in dryer
🍏new LOL
🍏emailed a thank you English teacher - inspired by foxes - as she started doing live lessons and it’s made a massive difference to DD1
🍏antibac sprayed Cagletini’s space hopper
🍏moved drying on, new LOL
🍏cleaned banisters and dusted between the spindle thingies

I’ve spent most of the day doomscrolling though. Also just found out DS has an appointment with CAMHS. I should be really excited by this, as it’s taken three attempts and a ridiculous amount of hoop jumping to get this far. But I’m actually just really anxious that somehow we will mess it up or they won’t believe us and we will get nowhere. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Sometimes I really do hate my brain. We’ve had so long just getting by trying to figure out his needs ourselves, and I’m totally out of the loop for actually getting professionals to listen! 😫

Sorry, unrelated to flying there.

sing great list. Hopefully the CAMHS appointment goes well and they listen and it is a positive thing.

I managed to get up and clean the bathroom, cleaned ds windowsill and got the mould off and tidied his room up a bit. Put washing away. Still got to hang second load up.

Kids are in the bath chattering about how late they'll stay up (I predict ds will be asleep by 7.30 after all that running up the hill!)

Glad they had fun Foxes
Zoo I didn’t find anywhere so it went back but I did move a couple of other things so it looks tidier. Could only put it on top of dresser and I won’t do that as I am now keeping it clutter free except for the swag at Christmas. It means you see more of the wallpaper too as most of it is behind the dresser and it is so pretty it isa shame. If I got rid of my old pans I could probably squeeze it in the drawer. I can use them on hot plate and useful when extras.

Hills is it family people?💐 plumps up cushions in home corner and a pile of magazines to distract the mind.
Is there anyone he likes, respects or takes notice of that would be willing to have a chat. Sometimes parents are too close to the situation.

Well quite chuffed with myself as I have done two hours in Rof D
Just need to clear the stuff on my bed. I have been sorting it there. I have a proper path through in the room now. One box of stuff for lighting the fire. One box with books to go to charity shop. One box of other stuff for charity shop. That is helping as I put them in the hall.

Freezing out side. It was -11 last night stayed below freezing all day according to local forecast. I ventured out to see the chickens and give them some warm mash. I found three eggs so that was a surprise. Due to this I gave them a treat of dried worms. Not for everyone( especially at the moment) but they squabble over them.

Stir fry prawns and veg with noodles. Happy New Year.

Sing sorry hope the CAMHS meeting went well.

It’s ok red it’s not till 25th, they only phoned DH today and sent a weird spider diagram about how the appointment works with questions etc. Will need to make copious notes as I know I’ll make a hash of it otherwise.

Just had an amazing Oreo and raspberry freakshake made by DH (calories? What calories?) and some time alone watching comedy has made me a bit more relaxed again. Then realised with a start DS has scouts 😳 can’t even wear his scarf as it’s in the wash, I didn’t want to risk it at 90 so left it till today but time has got away from me. Oh well. Need to make sure he hasn’t lost his lego model he wanted to show them.

Yes the German toilet design originates from 1800 - parasites were more of a problem then until the early 20th century. Now it's more gut health that's the issue. Isn't it fascinating that different countries have their own designs for things? There was an amazing thread on different house types internationally recently. Here my house has small windows, low ceilings and small circulation hall space as we are in a colder region of the UK. It's meant to conserve heat. Makes the place cosy.

Aaargh! So the flooring we specifically ordered to be delivered next Monday (as in 22nd) because we weren’t ready for it yet is being delivered tomorrow 🙄🤦🏽‍♀️

We obv won’t be decorated by next Monday either, we just needed to make a sensible space to store it while we painted (there was a sale so didn’t want to miss the deal).

And yet it is still likely to be a brick building and thus incredibly cold compared to a wooden building.

If you have ever seen the program barnyard builders (some such) they take 200ish yr old buildings down and rennovated them into a new location. They have had a couple of interesting ones where they have talked about the different styles of eaves and the notching and how it relates to different aspects of the local weather. Utterly fascinating. Building, design and people watching.

We are not even needing to stash and dash... more “move the stashes around” 😂😳

Sing- 🤣 stash and dash away before the piles fall on you....thats my little dining table.

Hills- that program sounds really my type of program. Barnyard builders I will keep an eye out!

I will keep an eye out the 2nd hand Stonehenge program too....when is that on?

Found the stonehenge program on bbc2 right now...yay

Let us know what it’s like, I might put it on the plan for after half term.

Well we have cleared a lot out of the cupboard upstairs, I’d forgotten just how much of it was clothes - partly stuff we’d sorted in lockdown 1 or possibly before, and partly stuff DSD had left when she moved out in lockdown 1 and had already told us she definitely didn’t want (but of course none of us had a way of getting rid). Some bits I could possibly sell but the thought of all that effort for not much makes my heart sink (especially as I get a lot of anxiety about that sort of thing, whether people will complain or want refunds and all that shit). So I can’t be bothered. DH has messaged someone to see if they can use a donation of toddler sleeping bags and a snowsuit, and DD1 has chosen a few bits of DSD’s to keep, but otherwise it’s all bagged up. Although I am tempted to try a pair of baby dungarees on local FB as they should sell easily.

I’m still sitting in the hallway, not sure what to do next 😂 basically some stuff from the downstairs cupboard needs to go into the upstairs cupboard. But I think we are all too tired to do that right now!

dancing i loved you are what you eat.i have couple her cookbooks
Also interested if Stonehenge any good as D's might like to watch that
Hills i shall keep an eye out for that.for a little gaggle of people there are such varied interests and always learning new things!
Foxes glad the day turned out well.you had deeper snow than we did!
Sing hurrah finally getting app
Waders hurrah indeed for half term!

I have watched 2 episodes of new mcgyver with dd2 since zoolets left for dd1.ds has informed me via text they had tacos with mince stuff and yummy orange cheese and salad...they now watching a film with sweeties❤️

Sing- i found it interesting! Weldone for sorting so much stuff out. If you cant do any more, just move it to the side until tomo. Brill for sorting things. Is your dishwasher on? I usually leave the door open all day so air can get in there and dry the stuff. I hate cleaning the filter as Dh thinks the dishwasher faries clean that part - he doesnt scrape or rinse the plates before putting them in the dishwasher.

Zoo- me too! I have both 'You are what you eat books' as they helped me eat healthier for let say, fatigue...eat more leafy green stuff. I loved her message about eating healthier for a healthy gut. Do you remember Adzuki beans! Lol.
I feel sad she got alot of stick from the press when she was just trying to help people. I could actually do with one of her amazing smoothies. (Desparate for a smoothie now! As I am eating so unhealthy. Must stop eating chocolate digestives.)

Tadas
❄breakfast
❄kids dresssd
❄shower and dressed till shoes
❄lunch for kids
❄tidy some stuff off the counters
❄unload and load dw
❄walk kids to chemist
❄stuff not ready
❄take kids to park they love throwing sticks in the water but then dd said her legs hurt.
❄manage to get kids home only by promising packets of crisps.
❄watch Frankie drake mysteries with Ds- we love a string female character lead!
❄kids played cbeebies games on the school ipad for the 1st time. I was impressed at the quality of the graphics.
❄made the kids start school work.
❄ds got upset at maths...but when I got the wooden numbers out...he engaged and I learnt he does know what he is doing. He told me to 'shhhhh mummy! I know what I am doing! Cant you understand I am trying to concentrate and i cant do that if you are talking all the time!' 🤷‍♂️ ........me🤨
❄kids did school work. You all were right, is so much easier with printer. Even if its old.
❄made chips again for.dinner.
❄watch tv.
❄load dw and switch on
❄bed exhusted.

I have turned my central heating to come on at night at 19.degrees now, is that too high? Before it was set at 14 degrees at night but the house felt so cold. What should it be?
Cant keep my eyes open...

Aw thank you dancing tbh most of the clothing stuff was fairly easy as the decisions had been made before really. We’ve now got another load of toddler clothes (handmedowns I didn’t use as I was given loads by a friend with 4dc!) which I did go through a couple of months back but now I need to sort through to decide what could be given to nursery as spares (they definitely need donations but it’s far too much I think especially as it’s all mostly the same age boy stuff). So I’ll take out the most useful stuff ready for 22nd and bag up the rest. But that’s a job for tomorrow.

I pushed myself a little bit more to do one more job - I moved some TTRCs (trofast trays of random crap 😂) from the unit in the downstairs cupboard, and put them upstairs. Then I put all the toy trays I’ve sorted this month and have hidden them in the cupboard downstairs. Toy rotation is go :o as once the flooring is stashed in there we won’t be able to get to them. That hopefully gives me more chance to sort other stuff without wooden bricks, animals etc also being left everywhere.

I will write a list of what’s in that cupboard though, and stick it on another tub in our room, so that any bits I find from now on I can put in there safely.

Sitting snug in my dressing gown. DH has just gone to bed. I need to go but can’t be bothered to move. Lovely fire on.
I had to clear my bed when I should have been slicing veg. Came downstairs and DH had prepped it all and got the prawns out. Took about 10 minutes to make it. I made a mental note to put it on Friday night meals list! 😃
🥞🥞☕️for Hazel.