It's July, Fledglings are Flying towards Freedom (hopefully!)

[EverythingDelegated]

Hello and welcome to the July 2021 Fledgling Flylady Thread. Thank you Willow for an excellent pair of June threads. Welcome to one and all, old hands and newbies, lurkers and longtime posters and anyone in between. This thread keeps us vaguely on track with Flylady and is where we post our Ta Das and Yes Ta Das (what we did yesterday 😁), our To Dos and To Didn'ts, and discuss anything that comes to mind (often not housekeeping!).

The beauty of Flylady is that you are never behind, the whole system repeats every month, just jump in wherever. The aim is to gradually get into good habits and regular routines that keep the house ticking over rather than having a huge blitz on it.

To help you with this I'll be posting links to Flyady's Flight Plan and other useful parts of the website, which is updated daily, it's also good to go in and have a browse (some of it is a bit twee though). Do NOT sign up for the emails, you will be inundated.

The system divides the house up into weekly zones, then in each zone there will be timefor decluttering, a small daily task (the Mission) and each day of the week has a theme too (eg Errand Day). You can switch things around to suit your circumstances, there is a weekly Sneak Peek page to help you plan ahead. There are also 31 Babysteps, small daily habits to adopt (eg wearing shoes around the house if you'd rather not). Finally Flylady wants you to make time for you and your family, so weekends are more relaxed.

Jargon
Flylady (and the thread!) has a little bit of her own peculiar jargon it can help to know:
S&S - swish and swipe - a quick go round a bathroom or cloakroom to keep it acceptably fresh
LoL load of laundry. We are not collapsing into hysterical laughter over the state of our washing baskets
Hotspots any areas that tend to collect clutter no matter how often you clear them - mine is definitely the corner of the worksurface by the kitchen door, and the bookshelf at the bottom of the stairs
5 minute room rescue a quick whizz round any room to create a semblance of order
Weekly Home Blessing (often Home Bleugh here) - an hour a week to keep the house acceptable. I think this can only be done in an hour if you only have one bed in the house to change, so take it with a pinch of salt. I spread mine over the week as I cannot get it down to an hour and don't have an hour to give to it either.
Ned and Ted - imaginary friends often draughted in to assist with washing and ironing
BRC Bag, or box, of Random Crap
(D)LMS (Didn't) Lose My Shit - often a necessary acronym around spouses and teens!
Naughty Corner - the thread's imaginary space for rest and recuperation when it all gets too much. Often stocked with soft cushions, blankets, drinks and snacks. May or may not have a free bar, fire place, sunloungers, hot and cold running barmen etc.
Cherry waves 🍒👋 - lovely type for cheery wave that stuck!
All Fed and No One Dead - a good outcome to a busy day.

The beauty of Flylady is that is can be adapted to any household setup - lots of DC or just one, or none; a partner / spouse, or ex, or those going it alone; those working within or outside the home; shiftwork, you name it.

Our motto is No Fledgling Left Behind, so if you are a returner or a lurker, welcome on board, there is always space her for more Fledglings.

Ta-da

Decluttered DS dress up drawer
Put shopping away
Tidied kitchen cupboard
Arranged DS meeting friends (sometime he does it himself, sometimes he asks me)
Got DS to try on clothes to see if they fit (oh, the trauma!)
Package up clothes that don't fit for return.

Honey I am (impatiently) waiting for the next book too. Totally ship Robin and Strike. ❤️

Dance Great that you got a sound night sleep. Did you put the sandwich box next to DS's bed?

IWill enjoy your time with DS1 and don't scare his g/f have fun.

🍒👋🏼 to everyone else

Glad you slept Dance - when ds was little I used to leave out a little tub with grapes and sandwich and a little pot of cereal and such on the coffee table. He would get up so early sometimes but would happily go down turn the tv on for cbeebies and munch his breakfast before jumping on me.

Yup I saw her posting the other day about the abuse she was getting on twitter and then saying anyway I must get on as Robin and Strike are at a critical moment. Publishing may be a while off yet but at least we know writing is in progress

I've been to the gym and worked hard at that and friend and I have planned a dinner around what we've got - eg I had prawns and remembered her stepdaughter loves avocados so she picked some up and we'll do a salad with those and I have spice mix and wraps and salsa for making fajitas I haven't gotten round to and she has chicken etc. Will try and pick up some meringue nests and a pot of cream on the way over as she has berries.

I'm walking there and back so will be a good calorie burn day if I don't eat and drink them all back. Kitchen is marginally tidier than it was but can't see me getting much else done today.

yup I am currently living in the states. Born & raised in England, met and married an American. He was military, but once he got out he got shipped back home with our DD & me. Been here 15 years now.

Thank you everyone for the encouragement and support re friends. I am going to try to move on. The invitation is out there, not just for tonight, but always.

Ta da:
🌺 Sorted out paperwork and got filing done
🌺 Organised my yoga room a little bit (still a dumping ground though)
🌺 Wrote out my shopping list for BBQ tonight
🌺 Put sheer curtains up on the pergola for when the sun shines through, hopefully it will help
🌺 Had DS mow the lawn
🌺 Swept patio

To do:
🤷‍♀️ Grocery shopping for BBQ
🤷‍♀️ Finish sorting out the patio
🤷‍♀️ Put the boards together for serving stuff (one board for lettuce, tomatoes etc, another for s'mores later)
🤷‍♀️ Make the hamburgers, ready to go into the smoker
🤷‍♀️ Possibly get in the pool to cool off
🤷‍♀️ Start drinking!

Best be going, these things won't get done by themselves, unfortunately.
Sorry for lack of personals, hopefully I'll be back on later

Not caught up yet. Shattered. Quite a nice afternoon though other than the odd teen squabble.

Going to have something to eat (had some fries on the way home around 6, as we had a long wait for the bus… which was then cancelled 🤬) and I might make a new wish list specifically for the books I’ve found for DS for next year - going to my local town with home ed friends next week too, so will make more decisions then.

Just dropping in, sorry for lack of personals - have had the loveliest day with DS1 and GF and DS2 and GF here. Riotous dinner when DD got home from work, DS3 cooked burgers and is very proud of himself. So lovely to have the Whole Gang Back Together Again. Let's do the show right here etc etc.

The DW is working double-time though, and the dog doesn't know where to put himself! 😁

Tada
Cleaned out cupboard under stairs

Empty,wipe and reorganise cupboard one in kitchen
Empty,tidy and reorganise cupboard 2
Tidy baking cupboard
Feed cats
3lol done-2 dry,folded and ready to put away,one on airer

Need pop shops for bread,fruit n veg and milk
Been struggling with very low mood,exhaustion and no motivation whatsoever.need kick up the arse so I can enjoy some time with D's and dd2 whilst they're home and still relatively amenable to spending time with me.....

Zoo- hi, is that list from this morning? Wh
ere you not able to sleep?
Big hug lovely.

Wellies- wonderful to hear you all had a great time meeting up with your family!

Sing- sorry to hear the cancelled the last bus. Glad to hear you have a lovely meet up.

Hazel- hope you fly through the shopping and get to the lovely drinks in hand stage.

Honey- yay, for breakfasts on coffee table and cbeebies!

Yup- 🤣 its a trauma here too to ask the kids to try on new clothes. Yes I had put a little sandwich box in his little table.

Ed- hope you have settled back in from your holiday. How many wash loads have you done so far?

🍒👋 foxes, half, hills, red, double, that, elfy and anyone else i have forgot. Still half asleep here.

zoo you do so much so early. Sorry that you didn't sleep. Will you be able to have a rest or a nap sometime in the day?

dance it's adorable that DS has a sandwich by his bed. I should have thought of that when DS was younger. He used to wake up so early (still does at weekends and holidays but not school days).

Ta-da
Decluttered DVDs. I have 4 left, DS has 1 and DP has quite a few box sets.

LoL in wm

Dancing - the washing is going slowly as we only have one plug in the shed which is where the WM and tumble are currently located so can only use one at a time (too showery for line drying here ATM). Getting used to the lack of kitchen, I actually quite like having the table in the front room, I am sitting at it now looking out of the window). The hosue we stayed in had a WM so we did do some while we were away in anticipation.

Came back to a busy weekend, DCs are doing extra paper rounds to cover for others, trying to work out their routes (lots of estates with tiny offshoot roads here), DD is petsitting for a friend, we completely forgot we had been invited to a party last night too. DD reminded us at about 4 and we were a bit "oh no" as we were tired but we went and had a nice evening, caught up with some people we hadn't seen for ages and it was warm enough to stay in the garden all evening. Today I have taken DS to work, done some laundry and am shortly heading off to London for the afternoon with DD. Back to work tomorrow.

Afternoon all. Had a disrupted night thanks to Cagletini. But a lovely morning as my friend visited with her toddler for breakfast at the local. I took Cagletini too and she was sooo well behaved - sat nicely, used the loo (she’s only recently stopped insisting on the potty) and did some of her new activity book when she’d finished eating 🥰 no running off etc so that was a big relief.

A friend’s DH is picking up some stuff for the tip today (they were hiring a van anyway and booking a slot for themselves so kindly offered to add our stuff) so that’s a lot more space in the house and garden! Including the buggy - truly the end of an era (so many missing bits otherwise I’d sell but I really CBA with the hassle). She’s really growing up!

Not sure what else I’ll get done today. Out of fabric conditioner so won’t be doing laundry, need to put the clean stuff away anyway. And sort the dirty stuff so that the Caglets take their own back

po3.1
❗️Clean weekly planner board
❗️Gather all our (my/DH’s/Cagletini’s) dirty laundry - the Caglets can sort theirs later
❗️Print some more stuff for a maths book I’m making DS

Aww sing cagletini looks adorable. So lovely that she did well at the pub.

ED glad that you had a nice time last night. It can be a real effort to change gears to go out when you've planned a night in.

Ta-da
Emptied and cleaned bin
Cleaned paper recycling bin and filled
Rest of recycling in its bin too
Swept kitchen and futility room floor
Making lunch now

Thanks :) great lists happening today. I don’t feel like I’ve done much although at least I’ve done my first power of three. Topic book is all printed now - 72 pages, I definitely need to buy bigger combs for the binder. Printed some more SPaG as well.

po3.2
❗️Eat something
❗️Help put the tip stuff on the van
❗️Put the clean laundry away

ta da
lateral flow test
fall out with the people
not a lot
I need a nap.

dancing yeh,up at ridiculous o'clock.ive just woken up from a nap I ment to last 30 mins,but D's couldn't get me up I was so tired.hope can still get some sleep later🙁
Sing she's growing up so very fastutter adorable tho!
Ed enjoy London trip
Hillshope you having that nap!

Did some shopping
Felt utterly depressed so decided needed a long walkdd2 insisted on coming,so wasn't at speed I'd have liked as she slows more than I do on hills plus wind kept dropping and then horribly humid.forecast was rain yesterday,then showers but we got naff all y
Today was ment be wall to wall heavy rain with thunder pm,again reduced to showers,but it's just still and cloudy.im cross as was looking forward to a cosy weekend with zoolets indoors listening to it and hanging out tog.oh well...
I walked best part 2hours,passjng usual route of railway line that's now cycle/walking path that's swathed in beautiful countryside and passes by a river,up hill past a farm shop,past that some fields are now new housing estate() then over a main road and into a village.i pass the houses and there's a few big ones I wonder what are like inside..one has a for sale sign so I googled it.fuck my life,it's on the market at just under 2MILLION!!it has huge back garden I can't see from road,5bedrooms and utterly exquisite decor/layout...
Turned into a lane of quiet houses,that probably worth about 500-750,000 then into a copse and onto another estate(old one) past a regular looking house there for sale.quick check £200,000.its literally 10-15 mins from other one which blows my tiny mind
Out that estate,past old uni siteonto our beloved nature reserve and home.its a fab route as doesn't feel especially urban and lots of quiet pure nature bits.normally it's restores my equilibrium,but today it just upgraded me from looking over the abyss to meh...
Made late lunch(230)
Had accidental 2hour nap
I need to
Wash up
sort bins/recycling
Litter tray
S+s

I also promised D's I would watch him play a game on PS4 today as he's very miserable at mo

Sorry you're feeling so low Zoo. I went open water swimming at 9am this morning in a reservoir in a lovely country park with my friend which has lifted my spirits and I'm off to the gym again tomorrow. Next week we're going to a fake beach for swimming at another country park we've found with my ds and her step dd and the week after to the seaside for the day. I don't drive so very grateful that my friend is up for all these things and driving.

I think without some 'different' things to look forward to I would be getting very down at the minute and is taking some effort to not go that way but it's easier for me in that I just have the one ds and he's older. I know how hard it is to be down with a little one (or more) around that need much more from you so sending virtual hugs your way.

Apart from the swim and ordering a takeaway dinner for ds and I that's it for my day. Had a nap this afternoon and am about to get started on a new book. Hoping to get some energy and ability to start tackling the house soon but still pretty flat.

Sorry you’re feeling so down Zoo. Your walk sounds lovely. I love a bit of property porn. Two million up here would buy you a proper mansion with acres of land. Possibly even a small castle .

Sounds like a lovely day for you Honeybadger, sorry you’re feeling a bit flat too.

Cagletini is far too cute Sing.

Enjoy the party ED.

I actually did some flying today :
✅ tidied DD’s room including sorting a few kallax boxes and tidying her wardrobe.
✅ cleared hotspot in living room, hoovered (including under sofas), dusted, mopped.
✅ uniforms washed and ironed ready for back to work tomorrow.

DH did the grocery shopping and cut the grass.

We went out to the local Italians for tea and had a nice walk back along the harbour to finish off the weekend. I’ve enjoyed it being a bit cooler today!

I'm so envious of people who can nap. DP can nap anywhere, anywhere but I find it really hard to nap.

Sorry you're feeling so down zoo. Your walk sounded lovely.

Ta-da:
Mopped kitchen and futility room.

Deep cleaned bedroom. Hoovered and dusted it to within an inch of its life. Hopefully, it will sort out my coughing every time I lie down in there.

That got me thinking, how often do you move the bed and other furniture to dust and hoover? We have a superking size bed and it was a nightmare to move it to reach everywhere. The bottom section (divan) also fell apart into 2 😬 and it was tricky to put the two pieces back together again. Honestly!

Anyway, off to have a shower so that I can enjoy going into a clean bed in a clean bedroom, all nice and clean myself. Ahhhhh.

Night, folks.

I finally got some traction on my life, and big girl pants are appropriately hoinked up. Returned back home today, it feels good to be back. It was our first trip with a baby, and the roadtrip part of it was quite stressful. Unpacked, just a pile of clean clothes left to sort out and put away tomorrow.

Ta das:
💥Fish tank maintenance X3. I am pleased to report there were no fishy casualties during our absence.
💥All plants watered. Immersion watered the bonsai which also faired pretty well during the week, especially given the weather being hot.
💥Pruned bonsai
💥Unpacked suitcases

Tomorrow will get cracking with Home Bleugh. Will also need to do a bit of pruning of other plants.

Apologies, I haven't caught up with the thread yet, hence the distinct lack of personals.
🍒👋

Yup well done on winning the battle with the bed. I hardly ever move the bed itself for precisely the reason you've described! Maybe once a year, if that...

I can only nap when i am really bad with the chronic illnesses or the insomnia. And the nap never helps me feel rested.

Tbh i feel like crap, i have burst a small blood vessel through coughing again. I am fed up of this bastarding chronic cough. Although my new consultant is pretty lovely and is sending options for the GP to try but letters take time, and I feel like death cos of dislocating ribs now...
Odds are that i am going to have to call in sick tomo. that is going to cause drama...

hills
MC glad no fishy casualties in your absence and bonsai coped being home alone!

Morning all! @EverythingDelegated is up to her hocks in it already today, so I've said I'll post links for her.

Today is Monday and Home Bleugh Day. We are in Zone 5 for the whole week, which is really unusual, so grab it while you can!

Today's Flight Plan and mission are here.

Need before I do anything else!

Thanks for stepping in willow
at ED hoping everything’s ok and just busy with kitchening!

I’m sleepy this morning. Had Netflix on all night which I haven’t done for months (it’s a bit of a crutch when I’m anxious and can’t settle to sleep) and I now regret it

I have a Teams call at half 9, just a general information thing with a recruitment agency (education/SN related). Then DH has a zoom meeting, and afterwards we are hoping to go to the local retail park to browse a bit - mainly looking at sofas. My legs are killing though (probably from London) so I’m not totally looking forward to it.

po3.1
❗️Get dressed, brush hair, put earrings in
❗️Downstairs for breakfast, meds and painkillers
❗️Get PC ready and do quick zoom rescue for the background

Morning everyone,

Sing- the photo of your dd is adorable! What a super girl for being great while eating out. Have you got rid of your pushchair? Welldone for getting rid of tup stuff!

Zoo- big hug lovely. 💞

Mc- hope you only have a little bit a laundry to do.

Hills- hope you are ok? Is your cough a long term one?

Willow- thanks for the links

Ed- waves

Honey- i really want to do open water swimming but dont have anything local. I dont like cold water, would i need a wet suit to do it?
I love the aspect of helping lift mood.

🍒👋 everyone

Tmi - alert.
(could anyone advise on this please. Last night i had to perform sort of abdominal thrusts on my dad as he felt like something was stuck in this throat. He has got alittle problem with his swallow reflex. He is 75. I was wondering if i should get him to gargle with something that would lubricate his throat before eating.
I am so sorry to post this here in the morning but last night i had my dd in one arm and trying to help my ddad. I actually dont know what to do. Any ideas welcome.)

Thanks dancing and sorry you had that scary experience with your dad! Yep the buggy has gone. We’ve barely used it for a while but we did rely on it sometimes for when she was tired - due to the physical issues we both have, carrying her is difficult (although DH does manage, he just suffers for it later) and so nursery runs were difficult at times. But she’s more used to it now and just getting it out of the house frees up space which feels good! Our hallway is quite big anyway - a world away from the tiny space which was taken up by the buggy in our old house - but always good to have the room especially now we also have a new coat rack/shelves there.

I also remembered that I always said once we got the buggy out I’d get a massive pot plant to brighten up the space a bit. Recommendations for something big but easy to look after please :o is it mc with Fred the Ficus?

Anyway my Teams meeting was cancelled as the person providing the info couldn’t make it. So I’ve marked a pupil’s homework. Should really move and do some other stuff.

po3.2
❗️LOL
❗️Wake Caglets (and DD1’s friend) up and decide plans for the day as two of ours weren’t feeling well last night
❗️Write a list of what I need to do in town tomorrow with friends