Fledglings are Flying into April, there's no fooling us.......

[EventuallyDistracted]

Welcome fledglings old and new, to April's Flylady thread!

For any newbies who have stumbled across us, we are following Flylady’s housework system which is based around routines and short bursts of activity to try to keep our houses and lives in order. (Sometimes we follow it more loosely than others). Feel free to join us, the more the merrier! We post our ‘ta da’ lists for motivation (no matter how long or short), and enjoy some random chatter along the way.

The link to Flylady’s ‘flying lessons’ is here Flying Lessons. Have a read, and if you have any questions, just ask. You can sign up for emails but be warned there are lots so most of us rapidly unsubscribed.

I’ll be posting links daily to keep us all on track. Jump in wherever you are, remember you are never behind.

This is a long running thread and we’ve developed some lingo along the way:
LOL = load of laundry
S&S = swish and swipe, a quick daily clean of the toilet and sink
PO3 = power of 3. When motivation is on the low side or you’re overwhelmed just pick 3 things at a time and do them
DNLMS = did not lose my shit
Ned = our mythical mate who helps with the laundry (hasn’t paid a visit to me for a while)
Pointy stick —-> = for when a fledgling needs a motivational prod (we can be gentle if required)
The naughty corner = a relaxing haven where we hang out when motivation is low, we are on strike, or we need a rest and some TLC

KCC - we don't do so many of these now, but these are little stories, photos, memes, off-topic questions, just to keep us all distracted from the general tedium of lockdown life. Feel free to chip in.

Thanks to Up for guiding us gently through March .

And off we go into April.

Safe care can be as little as a cup of coffee, a audio book and a locked door so you can get 5 mins in peace.
It could be filling in that form that you were anxious about doing to lift the weight of it

Dancing - I am thinking of chopping at least 4 inches off the bottom. Maybe as much as 8. but it is butt lenght so i have much to play with. I go for the long layer look and bend forwards And hold it out in front. I suspect i won't take a huge amount but am considering a fringe.

Ta da
question life choices aka study.

Right back to the books... Yay deadlines.

It could be filling in that form that you were anxious about doing to lift the weight of it

That’s a really good point hills - I’ve only started to understand that recently. I’m finally starting to get better at looking after myself by doing the things that scare me (even if in a very slow, baby step way) instead of by avoiding them. It’s definitely self care. Like being my future friend.

That’s how I cut my hair too hills it’s shoulder length now. Really thick and wavy so I can get away with a bit of messiness although I just tie it up most of the time anyway.

Right I’ve sat around after the shower long enough. Hair is dried.

PO3.2
1️⃣check in with the males of the house to see how DS is doing, what work he’s done etc and what the plan is for the rest of the day
2️⃣print my script, read alongside some handouts and decide any changes to order etc. It’s too hard to edit on a tiny phone screen!
3️⃣do my actual homework for training

I've just had my hair cut this morning. Hairdresser asked if I was thinking of having another baby, - the context was she was thinking of having another at 37 (first and only child at 24). I had to say 'em no I'm 50 next month'. She was a bit stunned. Apparently I don't look it at all. 😁🤸‍♂️🎉

Good luck with presentation sing. Just wait for the long beep before the recording starts (LoD reference)

hope I'd take that as massive compliment!
Hills true,sometimes fixing a worry eases the load
Sing good luck with upcoming presentation

Morning- just!

I seem to be on a go very, very slow. Made mistake of looking at DH’s Facebook page. We have Rhino greenhouses on there and Everhot plus occasional post by sis and cousins in Oz . He knows I look at it sometimes. He is our walking. Wasted time.

Ta da

So have washed the sheets.
Made bed.
Washed up.
Wiped worktops.
S&S

Like the tidy side of room but now need to find homes for the untidy bit. Some baskets (small) and BRC and some stuff doesn’t belong in here like sewing basket.

Self care. Sing I am also not good at making time for this. Never have.

My niece works for Liz Earl now and gave me three items then another when she has visited. I have had them over a year and still have some! I will say when I do use it I love it. No stinging, makes skin feel great just afterwards and easy to use. I have the face wash/ cleanser and you only use a little bit. You have a fine muslin cloth to rinse in warm water and wipe over your face to cleanse and then toner and moisturiser. It is really good and I should use it every day. I need to build that into routine. When working I sometimes wore some makeup so I did use it at night to clean it off.
Occasionally use a face mask.
Do take time out to sit more now since retiring and my back is a lot better since stopping work. Those small chairs are crippling.Most staff working in infants had bad backs.
Trying to go back to one hour a day reading because it is helping my MH I think. I am switching off completely as I have to concentrate or re read the damn pages if my mind wanders.
Gardening also helping MH the fresh air and pleasure of watching things grow. Greenhouse will be great as dry. It gets put together on Thursday even DH is excited.
Having time on here with lovely people again good for MH.
I do feel I have at last turned a corner. I need to build in other things now to progress. I know a lot of you understand this and are therefore supportive and give helpful advice which has helped enormously. Thank you.

Right now it is afternoon. I am so slow at typing !

Hope you all have a good day.

Hills I hope the day improves for you. It must be hard to have parents and a teenager as well as work and organise all the other stuff for running a household. Could you stop on the way home for 15 minutes respite between one part of the day and before you have to start the rest. Coffee, magazine, book. Self care.

Gold washing😳 I would That away somewhere safe Zoo 🤣you wish.

Can see zoo with her gold pan in a stream, rinsing away 💰

red this is a luxury i have enjoyed in non covid times. It is that missing break that was the hardest bit for lockdown for me. So there have been many trips since it was oked to travel just a little bit (15mile radius is more than plenty here) though I am looking forwards to travelling cross boarders into wales to go sit by the sea. But not yet.

Well it has taken a ridiculously long time but after much overthinking I have finalised the script. I do wish I was someone who could just go with bullet points and improvise but I’m currently a bear of very little brain and there’s no way I could keep track. Thankfully it’ll be slides on screen (mostly just pics) which mean it doesn’t matter if I read from something.

Lunchtime!

sing
Red/hope f.o.l.d washing..if I had gold to wash I'd employ someone else to be doing it🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Finally got hold IASS lady
Decision made on choice school and accepting amendments to EHP.choice sent LEA.niw we wait.if school consult and accept can meet need we may know within a few weeks....eek.now he has ASD statement we opt school 3STREETS AWAY rather than try get D's to travel to school in another county with escort no chance.downside is not been open long enough Ofsted report but can't be worse LEA current choice as they've now said all staff teaching he gets inclusion officer and student services manager online learning.both confess to not being able teach science/maths etc.hes in year 10 FFS...
Anyways.keep everything X for us!

Picked up lil zoo
Forgot after-school pepperami as talking IASS en route get her
Walked home in dog house...
Formally email lea accept plan and opt placement
Panic,have i done right by him
Get call orthodontics remind D's app Thursday
Girls dd2 fretting about school meet yom
DS fret about changes afoot plus orthodontics
Wish could hide,but j don't even have a room to hide in anymore

Mc I remember the fear when mine would roll over at night! In fact all three have preferred sleeping on their fronts as toddlers, I’m surprised my blood pressure hasn’t been through the roof TBH. I was just looking through some old photos and found this of Cagletini, which I’d posted next to a post about DS doing the same years earlier 😂

I'm really not doing well keeping up with the thread! I'm sorry for being AWOL. New increased hours at work this week so I'm a little allover the place

I'm still reading when I can just not always managing to post. I'd say I'm still flying but that's not been going so well. I did change all the bed sheets today though, that's something! Oh and I also decluttered some of dd clothes.

You’ve got a hell of a lot going on foxes don’t worry about keeping up here just jump in when you need!

My evening hasn’t quite gone to plan as the practice didn’t happen, I’ll do a quick trial with DH between his tablet and my phone I think, to try the file sharing thing.

I am so hungry, might need some toast 😳

Evening all! Hills DS sounds Gillick Competent to me, so if he decides not to do the test that's it, I think. Hope you found the plates, my DS2 keeps pinching all the big glasses.

Hazel urgh, mice. Hope it's sorted quickly.

Foxes sometimes life gets in the way of Flying, it's fine.

Mc my DS2 used to sleep on his front by choice, after his operation, it made me nervous too. Good luck with weaning!

All the rest of the personals have fallen out of my head again, sorry. 🍒👋 all round.

Ta Da
🖤 Poked DS2 out of bed to school at 8am
❤️ DW rotated
🧡 Kitchen scrubbed
💛 Hob cleaned
💚 Sink shone with Pink Stuff
💙 Kitchen floor swept and mopped
💜 LOL1 washed and line dried and put away
🤎 LOL 2 washed and tumble dried and put away
🖤 Tesco trip for pharmacy and stuff that Lidl didn't have
❤️ Lunch all round
🧡 Client meeting - going to be very interesting, I think
💛 Client work after meeting
💚 Pilates
💙 Chicken quesadillas for dinner
💜 Cleared up, ran DW
🤎 More work
🖤 Put DS3 in the bath, darned socks while he washed, put him to bed.

I'm pooped. Going to sleep now before I do it all again tomorrow, but starting an hour earlier 😭.

Foxes lovely to hear from you I didn’t do any flying some days when I was at work. I was wiped out after school. Which is why I was up early to get some done before I was wiped out. You could do 🍒👋if you are about no need for anything else and we can say hi back.

When DS1 or DS2 we’re babies it was sleep them on their front. I never felt comfortable about though DS2 did sometimes do it. I did when I knew HV was due otherwise I put them to sleep on side. I was always worried about cot death and my friend, a midwife due the same day as me had her DS3 first and he died the day after mine was born. Our other boys were best friends and I found it so hard when he said we had a baby but he died. She saw my DS for the first time when he was in the pram outside the village shop. It was the best way it could have happened. She said “he looks just like G.” He did only mine was bigger. They looked so alike it was uncanny. The only thing I could think of was that her husband had the same name as my family name. Traced back there will be a link. It is a very strong Scottish line back to 14 th C. So sad but she is with her angel now as she died from breast cancer about 5 years ago. She had a little girl after we left the village so we both had three boys and a girl. She was such a lovely person and must have been great as a midwife.

I enjoyed my day.
I had about 1 1/2 hours of reading. It was so lovely outside. I got some stuff done in the boudoir. Moved a few things and happy where they are now. Sorted out the herb garden cut back the Mollis dead stalks and the leaves caught up in it. Cut back the parsley. The oregano is growing already I love the smell. The mint is showing signs of life in a pot that looked dead last week. Removed all the pots to clear moss and decide how to have it this year. Need to clean out the sink tomorrow. Then I want to paint the old fire and make a trough to fit inside for plants. I think I might have nasturtiums tumbling out this year.
Made Teryiaki Salmon with vegetables and noodles for tea. Cheese and biscuits an hour afterwards. This was DF cheese from DDmy birthday present. It is the best I have tasted. Four varieties. Three opened. We aren’t sure where they were from so will let you know for those needing DF.
Did an hours ironing.

Going to help DS2 in his garden tomorrow and he has booked us for lunch at a country pub half an hours walk from his village in another village. Walk is along the river and over the other side. Should be lovely if weather holds.

🍒👋🍒👋🍒👋🍒👋🍒👋🍒👋🍒👋🍒👋🍒🍻to everyone.

Modern life:
Setting up a zoom meeting with yourself across two devices so you can practise screen sharing.

Friend forgot (I assume) the practise run. But I spent the time making the slides nicer and have (I think!) figured out how to manage it all tomorrow! Eek!

Well done Sing

I am procrastinating. Should be sleeping. Never got around to anything other than feed people and study. So yeah tomorrow's to do contains a very large chunk of todays list.

I gotta start writing shorter lists!

Well today didn't quite go as planned for me. This morning I was frantically cleaning to get the house ready for the inspection. They ended up showing up late due to trees falling down in the wind last night and blocking them in their driveway. I had to go back home to let them in, I left again once they were let in, so lots of back and forth and driving around for me today.
So today's ta das:
🐁 Dropped DC off at school, stopped by the store on the way home to get some steel wool
🐀 Checked mouse traps, one of them had a mouse, no other gruesome discoveries today
🐁 Emptied trap, stuffed the steel wool into the holes they made in the shed
🐀 Sprayed peppermint all around the shed and inside the shed
🐁 Have checked the traps multiple times during the day, no more mice, although we do need to add more peanut butter to them
🐀 Vacuumed whole house
🐁 Quick mopped with the Swiffer mop
🐀 Quickly bleached the bathroom
🐁 Rotated DW
🐀 Left the house with the dog
🐁 Haven't done much more since then, other than driving around everywhere.

waders that is quite a list, I hope you get some rest squeezed in there tomorrow
Sing good luck with your presentation, although I'm sure you'll be fine. Cagletini looks so peaceful in that sleeping picture too.
foxes changing schedules is tough, especially when you're away from the house for longer than usual, just stop in when you can
zoo I hate it when my predictive text gets it so wrong, especially when I try it 3 or 4 times (I also use the swype keyboard) I hope things get better/ easier for you, you deserve a break

🍒👋 to everyone

Looks like I barely missed you Red, sing & hills

I've been wanting to start to grow vegetables and fruit, but I'm not sure where to start, when to start. I'll probably have to wait until next year now as it seems our summer will be full of work on the new house/ garden.
Sing well done on figuring out the meeting. I'm sure you'll do well.
hills as long as everyone is fed and not dead I think you've had a successful day. There's always tomorrow, although maybe start doing PO3 if you feel you need to

hazel - you have done loads of driving.
Hope the inspection goes ok. Oh no mice, hope all the traps do the jobs.
I would love to grow vegatables and them cook them. My uncle who is like my second dad grows lots, he has got Chard grown ready for collection.

Foxes- lovely to seeing you.
You sound like you have alot on. Sending you a hug!

Mc- hope Mctiny is enjoying his new big cot. Did you say he has learnt to roll over? I understand you checking on him all the time, its worrying when they roll over.

ice- i like the idea of transfer tshirt picture! I will look into that. How is your dds lip?

Red- thats very sad about your mw friends son. That must have been hard. and your friend.

The salmon sounds lovely and so does the cheese.
Its lovely you are feeling better about your life and how you are doing things that you wouldnt normally have had a chance to do. I was listening to a podcast and the person explained they have not been feeling ok as they had lost theit job- they said they were grieving as the same as when they had lost there father. Its true we do grieve for our jobs.
Red you do sound alot happier and its lovely to hear all the things you do! Sending you a massive hug.

Waders- i am not suprised you are pooped after that list! Sending you a huge hug too!
Chicken quesadillas sound really lovely, did you use a box? I think my kids might like that.

Sing- weldone sing for sorting your slides and its must have been odd zooming within the house! I didnt know files could be shared on zoom.

I have been unhealthy here with family dinners, today was hot dogs and yesterday was ham sandwiches.

I left my house to return some clothes before i ran out of time on my reciept and ended up grabbing the summer school clothes for the kids. I had to get lots of shoes in different sizes for dd.
Then I went for a bike ride in the countryside and had packed lunch outside.
I didnt want to come home.

Tadas
🌳Lol whites
🌳Repeatedly checked email- nothing
🌳Fill dw
🌳Showered/dressed
🌳Out to supermarket
🌳Bike ride
🌳Pick up kids from after school
🌳Park for 10mins
🌳Home- lol into dryer
🌳Unload dw
🌳Make dinner
🌳Unpack lunch bags- wash 1 lunch bag
🌳Dejunk the fridge
🌳Bedtime for the kids and me

Been awake since 2.30am as all my joints hurting so much. Feel ill or a flare up coming. I managed 2 days of feeling normal. I hope it goes away.

🍒👋 night everyone. Oh no, dd is awake and crying 🤦‍♀️

Hope DD resettled dancing.no talk of unhealthy food "all fed,no one dead" is the standard and a bike ride sounds lovely!hope you feel better in the morning
Red what a lovely day be interested by df cheese.most of it smells vile!
Foxes you can't do everything.RL out trump's us everytime
Hillsyou ended the day alive.this is a win
Waders I love pink stuff too
Sing well done and 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀for today!gorgeous pic cagletini❤️
Hazel busy day,glad nice are reducing
MC weaning and big bed.they grow so fast!

Hazel if you can get yourself a clyde's gardener planner it will be a big help. I really want one but not sure i can justify the import cost and postage. It really helps with the when part. You move the sliders for last/first frost etc and it tells you when you plant the stuff

In a lot of areas the last frost date has not passed. I know we are the 15th May. So all is not lost. I am about to start our beans and tomatoes. It is late and I will hopefully get some before the frost.

You might be able to get starts from a local nursery which might help this year, but probably best to wait for the new house. But yes to possibly just being more on top of house. ALso there is often the opportunity for winter cropping of kale and brassicas. I believe a lot of extension offices have information for locally what can be grown when which can form a jumping off point.

If you get bored - homesteading channels on youtube has loads and loads of stuffs to help and you can plug in your state into the search and that can bring up more relevant information.

Roots and refuge has a good beginner book, and their youtube channel is adorable. but there are loads to chose from. I just picked this one because the author addresses the issue of when. She wants you to have the information and how to make the decisions because everywhere is different and to give you the when means 90% of the time that aint gonna work. looking at you suttons seed packet timings

Any hooos rambling. you can always do just a little this year no one says you have to jump in with a full garden.

nope still rambling. I'm off for coffee....