Action Stations for August! Fledglings Flap Frantically and Swish’n’Swipe through Summer

[SingToTheSky]

Welcome one and all!

I’m quickly setting up the August thread (ok seriously I know someone says this every month but HOW is it August already?!) - MN has been a bit iffy today, and I got rather distracted this evening which I fear may be a portent of my hosting skills this month. Thank you to the lovely ED for steering us through July despite much to manage at home 💐

Anyway - do join in as we loosely follow the Flylady system, in order to gradually sort our houses out. The key word here is GRADUALLY. There is no turning the house upside down and banishing chaos overnight, there is slow and steady. You are never behind. Miss a day? Week? Decade? No worries, jump back in, it’ll all come round again.

Newbies always welcome!

ta da
🎹second coat on radiator
🎹took BP
🎹shower and hair
🎹sorted and cleaned more toys, and sent photos of them all to friend to check she does want them (she does, so that’s a bag of stuff out of the house!)
🎹made volunteer phone call and arranged next one
🎹bit more editing of covering letter
🎹park and lunch with friends and Cagletini
🎹job centre appt
🎹maths lesson
🎹sorted clean laundry although it’s not actually all away yet
🎹general toy sorting, including getting rid of some bits
🎹yet more bathroom details (yes I am very slow!)
🎹put Cagletini to bed, which took a ridiculously long time because she found a sticker book about Egypt and that required lots of chatting

I had planned to do more of the bathroom after she was asleep but I have totally crashed after the business of today. Late takeaway dinner ordered and harsh as it sounds we are quite glad that DD1 is on a sleepover and thus we have a night free of the anxiety!

I meant busyness of today, obv. 😴😴😴

🏅That you are a star. Young baby then pregnant with number 6 a Diploma and gaining your GCSE Maths. Amazing!

Congratulations to all the DC.🎉

Up a bit earlier as DDs friend was coming to drop off a large painting of DDs she collected it from the gallery in Bath. A small series and they sold two or three of them which DD was delighted about as they put a high price on them. They keep 50%. I think this is the remaking one unless she has one elsewhere. Her friend has finished her second degree. Lovely girl. Apparently it is four years since I have seen her and you can see the young girl has become the young woman. Lovely to see her. They didn’t stay long as they were going back down to Bristol.

So a visitor gives you a bit of incentive.

Cleaned the basin and loo.
Vacuumed downstairs.
Wiped over worktop
Washed breakfast things up.
Spun a LOL.
Vacuumed stairs.
Quick tidy of sitting room.
LOL
Wiped table, cleared hot spot and put clean runner on.
Wiped some cupboards again, hot plate surround and cooker hood edge.

PM
Made blackcurrant jam, wasn’t setting so had to boil it up again. Set now. 6 jars.
While it was boiling this afternoon I made some Welsh scones. I have never made these before they were on the Everhot site. Bero recipe and they are delicious. I cooked them on the hot plate on the bacoglide paper. So we two with a cup of tea this afternoon sitting in the sunshine. It was dull and showery this morning.

Watched a Complusive cleaner programme. I find it interesting and often explains how people become extreme. It often makes me want to clean. I shocked last night about a mum who hadn’t cleaned her cooker for years. How can you risk feeding your children from something that filthy?
I did feel annoyed that they put some furniture in the skip. A piece that she loved. Why not give it to someone else if she was prepared to give it up? She was quite sentimental about it and other pieces which is the problem I have here. I have some of my grandmother’s furniture and DH some of his grandmother’s pieces and his mum’s oak bedding chest.

Red- your welsh scones sound delish!

Congratulations everyone!

That- superb a diploma and gcse!

Ed- congrats on your dd getting her predicted grade

Hillsjunior- weldone he got into sixthform

Wellies- comgratulations- i hope you all have a fab meal to celebrate!

Foxes- i have spent the day going through the school uniform online shop i did. I am sending half of it back as I was guessing the sizes for ds.
I am usually a last minute mum and I struggled to find the correct sizes for my little boy. The last 2 years at clarks they ran out of stock of the shoe we wanted to get for ds we had to buy some other school shoes from clarks. That reminds me i need to order shoes. 🤦‍♀️

Morning all!
Wow fantastic that everyone got the grades they need! Huge well done to all! 🤩

Pain is high this morning. I’m thinking this week’s to do list was not realistic, but so much really does need doing. So must find the balance between keeping going enough and pushing myself too much.

I do often feel worse when I first wake up so maybe it won’t be so bad once I’ve got going?!

po3.1
❗️Throw some old clothes on
❗️Switch plugs round to put PC on
❗️Take meds with painkillers and have breakfast while catching up on thread

🚙🚙🚙🚙🚙
Do we all have that Friday feeling? It is time to clear out our bags/purses and our cars if we have them.

FLIGHTPLAN

Here are the missions. It is our last mission in the kitchen, and the task is to delve into the cupboard under the sink - what needs chucking, replacing etc.

🚙🚙🚙🚙🚙

Morning all! So pleased that we all got what was needed in this week's round of exam results. All we need now is for zoo's DD2 to be allowed to retake Y12 and we will all be rolling forward cheerfully. I am taking 3 weeks off education now before we all start again on 3 September. DD went to bed at 7pm last night and has not yet appeared 😁.

Red how lovely to see one of DD's friends and have a painting back. Your Welsh cakes sound delicious.
Dancing it's so tedious guessing uniform sizes, isn't it? I've had 3 goes at buying trousers for DS3 (he has decided he wants to be smart this year) and have accidentally bought shirts that are easy-iron, not my usual non-iron. Bugger.

Sing be careful today - you did loads yesterday and mustn't knock yourself into a cocked hat before the weekend.

I'm sure there were lots of other personals, but they've fallen out of my head.

I was up betimes this morning as Last Food had to be before 7.30am, prior to Foot Fixing this afternoon. I shall be busying myself before I go at midday by moving my desk stuff down from the attic again into DS2's old room so I can work for the next couple of weeks if my brain will go.

🍒👋 to foxes, Up, MrsTidy, merryhouse, ED, Yup (are you ok?) Honey, That, Hazel, Hope, Mc, Hills, SC (if you're lurking) and everyone else (I always forget someone!).

what the "fuck it can i just go back to bed feeling?"

Next door moved up from London during the pandemic. You can tell. Damn are they early risers and you never see them. good job i didn't walk around the corner this morning in my not so covering everything pjs whilst doing a garden check with my first cup of coffee

ta da
discover the milk had gone off
ditch most of my coffee
Discover bugs have got into the bug netting so that needs to be dealt with
put gammon joint on to slow cook so that bacon pie can be made
put a load of washing on
Check the dehydrator to see if the marshmallows are done
Look at the sleep stats and start to see a correlation between when i wake rested and when i don't, and then have no idea what to do with this information
Make a nice cup of strawberry and elder flower tea
open windows

About to get up and get the recycling in, flip the rug, change the light bulb in my car and check the fluids, put the marshmallows into storage, hang up the washing and head to work.

So much that i need to do today. But some one remind me to ring 119 after 4pm. I need to get that chased and hopefully sorted. I keep forgetting, and only remember when i don't have time/opportunity to sort it.

Tbf willow i find if you give the easy iron shirts and good shake straight out the drier you can generally get away with it. If you line dry them ironing is mostly redundant as a good shake as you hang pretty much gets most the creases out. if not button 3 buttons and just iron the front

Ds went out last night. there was an agreed time for contact, there was contact and he came home as agreed. He was only late because he got a friend home safe and he told me he was doing it so I knew. They talk about a light switch in 16yr old boys and I have found this to be the case for ds. I still have to warn him about his outburst but that is less, and he regulates better. You told me this would be the case when he was a 3 year old who would bash his head on the floor until he gave himself concussion and I would have told you you needed medical attention for being delusional.

I’m not sure that feeling is unique to Fridays though hills :o

Willow we will be thinking of you this afternoon! And thank you, yes I will try and be careful honest. There is definitely stuff I can delegate today like sanding the door and laundry :o

Ah, shirts - so there WAS something else for uniform we need to sort 😬 last school year was “wear PE kit all day if you have any practical classes” because Covid, and since DD1 does GCSE dance and BTEC sport studies as well as compulsory PE lessons, she basically didn’t end up wearing her normal school uniform at all, and I sort of forgot it exists 🤣

po3.2
❗️Take BP (5 more readings to go after this!)
❗️Gather what I want washed and throw it on kitchen floor
❗️Make the changes I discussed with work coach to my covering letter and try and actually finish it

I cannot get going today...
This is not good as I have a teams meet with family therapist at 10.front rooms a tip and I've only just had brekkie and am sat in PJ's
Joints ache,period started 5-7 days early and us weird.im jittery.
I hate hormones
That is all

Aaaargh zoo 😭💐🍫 (where’s a hot water bottle emoji when you need one?)

I have actually finished my covering letter and am very pleased with it. Phew! Feels like a big achievement for pre-10am! 🤣 Got a stomach ache though - maybe the late takeaway was a bad idea. Although come to think of it I’m due on soon too

po3.3
❗️Finish masking tape of bits I can reach
❗️Gather bath stuff to put safely out of the way, then attack grouting/sealant with mould spray
❗️Start assignment 5

The postman delivered a parcel at 7am today. Both baby and I are bleary eyed. Now he is napping and I am scrolling.

Making progress with my work talk. Took a few goes, but I think my brain is starting to work again.

Willow good luck for today! Hope it all goes smoothly.
Zoo may the therapy session be helpful today.
Sing you are on a roll!
Hills I am amazed at your to do lists. You do a lot.

Ta das:
💥Shoved the silicon over liner into a dishwasher

To do:
-Clean the fridge
-Pass a hoover downstairs

Morning all

Sing have your school confirmed no longer doing the wear pe kit on pe days thing? Both of our schools had this rule too and neither have confirmwd if its still the plan or not! Helpful!

That- its definately not helpful when uniform stuff is not clear 🤪

Willow- goodluck for this afternoon. Make sure you rest properly afterwards!

All the uniform advice has been very helpful and I clearly do need to sort it sooner rather than later, I looked on Next but it's quite a bit more expensive especially for shirts. So I think I'll get the bare minimum that we need for now, and we will probably sort out shoes next week too.

Hope all goes well today Willow

I have been working this morning but have finished now, the dc are at my parents house so I now have the afternoon at home on my own. My plan was to blitz the house but I've been sitting here reading my book for 45 minutes now. Still, it was nice to do that for a change.

Definitely getting up now though.

I do need to double check TBF that! There was a lot of stuff about uniform on the letter so I assumed it’s changing but I didn’t actually read it properly yet 😳🤣

Spray is on, DH is now sanding the door. Going to grab some lunch (ok… more cereal) and then:

po3.4
❗️Wash spray off at 12.15 and hope it’s actually done SOMETHING
❗️Wash door with sugar soap
❗️Paint masking taped bits and preferably the final radiator coat if I have time

The spray worked quite well! Not perfect but a lot better. It was an HG brand spray. Didn’t have time to do the edge bits but I have done the final radiator coat.

po3.5
❗️Shower and defrost
❗️Walk to town to get bloods and ECG done
❗️Chill in town for a bit - I have a gift card to spend and I might go sit in a cafe or something with my kindle, I reckon I’ve earned it!

Well, kitchen worktop fitters turned up at 7.30 this morning and were all done in an hour, which was nice, they look really nice. Just pottering around on the internet spotted this photo and thought of you all. Need to get the kitchen tap on now, it is getting tedious using the outside one. Then flooring and tiling and we're done. Hoping to pop into a tile warehouse over the weekend.

Hills - it is nice to hear that DS is maturing into a responsible young man, ours weren't thread babies but they have grown up on here.

ED you're going to get your tiling done before me aren't you ? 🤦‍♀️😭 How long ago did we start our kitchen and how long ago did you start yours 😂. No don't answer that actually!! That's good news worktops all done this morning, I can imagine using the outside tap must be annoying, we were lucky because we were moving the kitchen sideways a bit so we left our old sink up and took it out once the new sink was ready!

Sing Was it the mould spray you meant? I have an Astonish one but it never works as well as I hope! I probably don't put enough effort into it

I have been productive! Tried to do ten minutes in each in room as so much to do and didn't quite know where to start

Ta das
Hung washing out
Decluttered my bedside table
Dusted bedside table
Cleared out some rubbish from dd bedroom and dusted her desk
Refilled shower gel and bathroom cleaner bottles, rinsed out the empty pouches
Emptied kitchen recycling bins
Washed up
Put another load of washing on
Emptied dishwasher and reloaded
Made lunch and read some more of my book
Found buckets and spades in the shed ready for a potential beach trip on Sunday 🏖️
Binned broken toys from the shed / garden
Put other toys away in the shed
Stopped for a cup of tea / MN / phone scrolling 😂

Onto spare room next I think.

:o ED I love that! I’d be very tempted to copy it if I were still working at the library.

Zoo I hope the meeting went ok.

Foxes did you move in the end? I’m glad you got some proper relaxing time though - it is a rarity having the house to oneself, I find! Must make the most of it!

MC well done on getting the talk underway! I didn’t quite understand how it’s being delivered - do you have to video yourself presenting it?!

Hills well done to DS, not only keeping in touch with you but making sure his friend got home safely too! It is lovely to hear the positives, having autistic Caglets too it is reassuring! 💐

I’m sitting in a pub having a quiet late lunch in blissful solitude. Appt at drs was nice and quick - and to my relief they let me keep my bra on for the ECG 😅 does beg the question why do some people insist it comes off, which I find mortifying

Xpost foxes wow you’ve done loads! Yes, it is called HG mould foam spray I think. Seen it recommended on MN before. I was really surprised how well it worked given the foam just slid down the tiles, I had to rub it in a bit (wearing gloves obv). I think we may have to just redo the sealant at some point anyway but it all looks a lot better. My friend recommended the cillit bang product too so I may try that at some point.

Right, the pub is noisy so off I go. Can I be bothered to go into the mall to spend my gift card… I should really as they have a sale. Hmm.

I hope all is going well willow.

Ring 119 Hills

Ooh well remembered honey!

I have crashed a tad since getting home! Watching cloudy with a chance of meatballs :o