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!

Zoo- i definately feel like that.
Sing- its the same here. We hardly every eat together. I really want to try one meal dishes for the family. I need to meal plan. Where is foxes? She used to bw my reminder. 😁
Mog- its been 4 days of takeaway food for me and my insides hate me. I am the biggest I have ever been and it needs to stop. So yesterday I steam cooked a huge bunch of curly kale, chicken pieces, potatoe with spices and little rice and made a healthyful broth/soup. Dh ordered kfc so i limited myself to 2 chicken strips. I have figured I have to do half healthy dish and a half unhealth part- to ease me into eating fresh healthy food. I need to step away from the crisps.
Has anyone used a popcorn machine before? Maybe if I swap to the kids and me to eating popcorn it might help?

Ta das so far
Got kids up by 7.45am by tempting them with tv.
Breakfast
Wash dishes/put dry ones away.
Give kids a fun writing activity to do.
Shower/dress
Start making kale pancake batter- using the kale my uncle grows in his garden.

Watch more five-0 to keep my spirits up.

Argh...i must put kids stuff to wash. Crap.

DH has taken over food while I'm laid up and it's been mostly readymeals, TBH. He doesn't have time to cook as well as work and run the house and ferry children about and look after me (who knew? 🤷😉). That is partly why I've started batch prepping healthy breakfasts and lunches - I know I will grab a salad out of the fridge, whereas if it's not premade I think "balls to it" and have toast (again). I'm hoping we can go back to more home-cooked evening meals later this year, but right now that's not possible. We used to eat as a family every night, but that's collapsed in the last year with food difficulties etc and now it's only on Sundays. I miss it, but DS3 needs to eat at 5.30 and DD ideally eats alone with no pressure, so there's not much I can do.

i told some one to fuck off and leave me alone to eat in peace last night. One person is a noisy eater that takes the glaze off the crockery
One person is a speady noisy eater
One person needs to be doing some thing whilst eating and eats at odd times
People would die the death of a blunt spoon if we attempted to eat together. It is a struggle to manage it for christmas. most of the rest of the year we don't.

Morning.
I forgot to pick up tape yesterday so need to do that as knee is slipping most uncomfortably and prevention is always better then cure
Need to chase jab situation
need to book a smear
need to do all the things
NEED to rewrite cv urgently. and start applying for things.

want to roll over and go back to sleep. didnt sleep well. Sat bolt upright wide awake with a pounding heart at 5am. No idea why. took a bit to resettle, and apparently slept through the alarm.

🦖🦖🦖🦖🦖

Tuesday is planning day! Write those lists!

tzm=-60 FLIGHTPLAN

Today’s mission is decluttering accessories like jewellery etc.

🦖🦖🦖🦖🦖

She is mad! i am adding to that collection!

Thank you for my birthday wishes ladies🥰. I will get back to replying to you all later today but can I be cheeky and ask for some advice?.
Our living room and kitchen is open plan, currently our sofa has its back to the breakfast bar and is facing the tv. But we are trying to reduce the focus on the tv, as well as allowing more space for yoga and play space for the DC. So we’re considering turning the sofa so that it faces the breakfast bar and mounting the tv on the wall. I’ve attached a diagram but what do you think is better? Obviously option B has more space and makes it easier to socialise but option A feels cosier.

For your objective option B is definitely better but I get what you mean about cosy.

Willow I hope your pain eases off a bit and you manage to get a nap.

Food is a bit disastrous here - way too many takeaways and I'm ashamed to say it's not unusual for me to throw food away that I didn't get round to cooking.

I am running late and useless today - lost track of time and ended up having to do a mad rush to get to appointment and am now running late to go and let friend's dog out and I've forgotten to take washing out of the machine.

Please please could someone remind me later? Hopefully seeing my own post bookmarked will be enough but you never know with the way my brain is today.

zoo there is an app to remind you to drink more water, if you can increase even a little bit each day it might help. Water is very healing. It might also help to reduce the cravings for sugar too.

willow your recovery sounds exhausting! Is there something you can do to keep you busy in bed? I mean like knitting or drawing/ painting etc, nothing else ladies - get your heads out of the gutter! 🤣😂

hills don't forget to get that tape for your knees!

Mog you are definitely not alone, I can't seem to get back on the wagon, and when I try and start to do good, we end up eating out and I just don't make healthy choices 🤦‍♀️ I did log my food in mfp yesterday, and actually pleasantly surprised myself. I do have to be careful with that as it can make me obsessive, but maybe that's what I need right now 🤔

flower I would go with option B. It will give you the space you need, you could always move the sofa around (if it's easy to move) to make it more cosy. I want to rearrange my living room, but I can't move any of it by myself as it's all too heavy. DH isn't a fan of moving rooms around either 😪 so not sure if I could get him to help me.

dancing kale pancakes sound interesting, do you taste the kale? It tastes bitter to me, but I know it's good for me.

honey my morning hasn't gone to plan for me either, my problem was that I sat down to drink my coffee 🙄 I wanted to get my sheets in the washer before heading to my hair appt and ran out of time.

I'm sitting at the salon right now while my colour sets in my hair. Once I get home I'll be able to get my sheets in the washer and get my 2nd cup of coffee. It's DH birthday today so the plan is to go out for dinner tonight. I'll order a salad and give my bread to DS!

Flower I would go for option B. I love big open rooms with lots of floor space.

I've actually not been bad with cooking lately. I ended up taking over cooking from DH completely (he used to be in charge for our dinners until lately. It wasn't working well). Now my kitchen is cleaner and I know what we are going to eat for the week ahead 😬 I still lapse with an occasional ice-cream, but mostly eating has been under control.

Ta das:
💥Old magazines purged
💥Hoovered
💥Mopped
💥Dusted
💥Bathroom blitzed
💥Kitchen blitzed, incl DW rotation etc
💥Lol x1

Mission - my jewellery is still pretty organised, so doesn't need anything done to it.

Sing I remember you used icollectclothes charity and I was very much excited to book them, and it turns out they don't come to my neck of the woods 😭 I was so disappointed! Now I need to find somewhere that I can take my clothes to for donation. I am purging my wardrobe.

What did you, ladies, do for your DC's first birthday?
I want to make it special, but I don't want to do a party. There will be presents and cake, but what else?

arses forgot tape for knee.

ta da
find someone willing to stick needle in my arm
get ds his vaccine dose

feel like crap, off for a nap.

MC Ds obliged by having norovirus so celebrations were, err, curtailed. Even the NHS 24 nurse felt sorry for him when we phoned.

dancingwe have a popcorn machine.i like a little seasalt,dd1 used to like a liitle cinnamon and nutmeg,lil zoo like salt and chilli flakes,dd2 salt and pepper,and if it's hot sometimes a little cheese.ive seen a recipe to toss in butter and marmite then oven cook til recrisps.i really must try that😋
Hills lil zoo hates D's noisy gobbling,dd2 would rather eat by herself,or just with me.i miss early years when everyone could tolerate each other and eat together!
MCnothing special really,it's more for us as a memory than them.i remember dd1 getting sticklebricks and going to the park after we played with them(and fed ducks).a gingerbread man,and some chocolate buttons(precious first born didn't get choc til first Xmas,birthday was just over a week later!)rest zoolets was a present frenzy courtesy of dad and was hell they were over tired and over stimulated.my advice is keep it simple,and take lots photos!
Willow sorry you are struggling.xould you have a kettle upstairs(only works if drink herb tea etc unless have a mini fridge too for the milk) interesting dh can't "do it all" but you could,and did when all of willowboys were still home💖
Sing anxiety and food is my absolute nightmare.dd2 is very rigid with what's safe,lil zoo is apparently similar,cept they have very different safe foods so whilst dd1 on honeymoon it's going to be FUN FUN FUN..
Honey hope you kept on top of the day,and the dog!
Flower it's a b from me.i need space or I would break my neck on kids paraphernalia

Got my toaster
Pop b+m
Take DD for vax.staff were FAB.she was very anxious and I explained had panic disorder and health anxiety.she was taken with me to separate room to have jab and they talk get thru it and were very kind then sent her to sit in car to wait out 15 mins in her own space before we left

mc we had a teddy bear picnic for a party, everyone who came brought a teddy 🧸 even if you don't want a party, you could still do something like that. I ended up putting a couple of blankets on the floor in our living room since it was raining, because we were still in England at the time (in March).

Ta Das so far:
🧁 Hair cut & coloured
🧁 Sheets in washer
🧁 Windows opened to air out the house
🧁 Enjoying my 2nd cup of coffee in an empty house - bliss 😊

To do:
🍰 More LOLs, lots more LOLs
🍰 Skype mum
🍰 Possibly gel on nails
🍰 Take DC to pick up their glasses and have them fitted
🍰 Go out for dinner tonight for DH birthday, and probably have to take food to DD since she has to work

Can I take a nap first?!

Oh, I just remembered! I need to do grocery shopping as well, I haven't planned any meals for this week yet since we had a BBQ and I didn't know what we would have left. I also need to do s&s in both bathrooms as well 😔 might not get my nap after all

zoo DD1 1st birthday sounds like a perfect day. Something you love to do together and lots of pictures! I love it!
Sorry for so many posts, I'll stop now (until later anyway, with hopefully more ta das)
Good to see you stop by foxes

Sorry, it was hope 🤦‍♀️ although I have missed foxes and thought she stopped by.

Hi everyone, I used flap along as a fledgling a few years back.
I think I need a regular check in as things are descending into CHAOS here

Hi Goth - welcome back! I have been using ED nicknames for the last couple of years, I was probably WhoKnows WhereTheTimeGoes when you were last here. How are things?

Hi ED
We're doing okay here, still in Glasgow now in a house with a garden. We moved in couple of months before lockdown which was a blessing.
Somehow I seem to have an almost 17 year old.
Work has started back and I've realised I need to be more organised / get the routines up and running.

Oh my goodness! I have a 17 year old and a 15 year old too, time flies. We were in your neck of the woods on holiday last week, first time for a few years, had a lovely week.

Must catch up with the rest of the thread....

Mog - welcome back to you too, I sympathise over the food/meal planning/weight too, DS has food issues, DD is a bit picky, we have very busy evenings with a lot of sports etc and eating properly doesn't always happen. Especially this summer as we are in the middle of a kitchen refit, the new one is in use now but not finished but we have still got stuff stashed in the garden shed, at work etc.

Mc - we took both sets of grandparents to Pizza Express for DS's first birthday (both mine have middle of winter birthdays so outdoors has never been an option). He was at nursery by then as I had gone back to work and they did a birthday tea with a cake we sent in. For DD, erm can't remember, that's really bad isn't it. Probably similar.

Tada!

Not much Flying, just the basics as it was a work day. Did one LOL this morning and asked DCs to put it on the line but they forgot, did it this evening for overnight drying. Managed to visit 3 tile warehouses, one on the way to work and the others at lunchtime (on the next door trading estate to where I work) - can't decide what to do for the kitchen walls at the moment. Flooring is being done the next two days so DH has moved the fridge out again and I have relocate enough stuff for the DCs breakfast and lunch to the front room again. Hey ho.

Thank you again for my birthday wishes guys🥰. We’re feeling better than we did a few days ago, definitely on the mend but it’s it knocked me about a bit. I could sleep all day😴.
Thank you for the kind comments about the DC too the picture is very deceiving 99% of the day they’re absolute devils🤣
And also thank you for the tips about saving money on uniform. Hand me downs definitely seem to be the way to go!
that DS1 is a June baby and DS2 is a May baby so both fall in the bracket for being able to defer school starting. We most likely won’t defer DS2 but I do think it’ll be beneficial for DS1 to defer. DC3 will be a September baby so one of the oldest, I’m an august baby so I was always very envious of the september Borns.
zoo my DC have unusual names so I was hoping that would mean we wouldn’t lose school clothes🤔I might just sew the clothes to them so they can’t lose them🤣
willow definitely more adorable when they’re asleep😂. That’s awful about the scorch marks I wouldn’t be happy at all!z
dancing DS1 will start pre school in September and I’m dreading it a little bit. I’ll feel a bit lost without him🙁
mog you are definitely not alone, the DC eat well but I end up getting DH to get a microwave meal for us as I just cba to cook. It’s something we really need to change.
honey that’s very lucky about the hairdresser!
hazel happy birthday to your DH! I can’t move much of our furniture around either but luckily after a few days of nagging DH gives in and does it😂
mc for both of our DS’s first birthdays we just had a bit of a tea party with family, hazels teddy bears picnic sounds like a lover ideas.
Well I but the bullet and have moved the sofa, pic attached. It’s actually cosier than I thought it would be so I think it will stay like this. It gives us so much more floor space too.
Flying is still minimal, earlier I thought I’d sort through my clothes and get rid of stuff I don’t wear. It ended up with me pulling out all my wardrobe and drawers and then crying on the floor when I saw the mess😂. I’ve left it for now, I’ll have to get back to it tomorrow.

Hey goth! :)

ta da
🦕got DS to workshop
🦕taught maths
🦕taught piano

Errr think that’s it. Shattered, headache, nausea blah blah

Got to get up early for tutoring tomorrow. Should sleep.