Festive Fledglings are Flying into December

[EspeciallyD]

Welcome, everyone!

Here is the December 2022 Flylady thread. We use her system to get on top of our housekeeping and our lives and families and, mostly, it works. By all means have a look at her website - www.flylady.net/ but don't sign up for the emails if you value your sanity, she sends hundreds!

The system is very straightforward. Starting one thing at at time, you build up morning and evening routines to keep things on an even keel daily. Then you add a weekly structure to get various jobs done:
Monday - quick whizz round the house cleaning
Tuesday - planning day
Wednesday - anti-procrastination day
Thursday - errand day
Friday - clean out your car and handbag / date night
Saturday - family fun day
Sunday - renew your spirit
Then, through the month you have a weekly cleaning focus Zone so the whole house is mostly cleaned every month.

It can look overwhelming if you've never tried ot before (and even if you are 19 years in like me have), so go slowly, do what you can.

Two important things to remember are:

you are never behind. Just jump in where you are and do something
you can't clean clutter, so if you need to run round with a binnag once a day for the first week / month / year then it's ok to do that.

I'll be posting links to the Launch Pad every day, which you can click on to find basic tasks, Zone cleaning, daily focus etc.

There's also a Flylady app if you like ticking things off on your phone.

Although this is a long running thread with many regular posters, all are welcome, if you are curious about the Flylady system or just fancy joining in the chit chat while you go about your daily life please join in, also ask if you don’t understand anything.

Welcome back elf is good to hear that some things stick over time. I have to get into a better routine myself.

Username Hopefully weaning goes well for you. I didn't last very long (dried up) DD was 2 1/2 months old and DS was 5 months old. My mum dried up quickly too though. I'm sure it's harder as they get older. My thoughts are with you!

Perry 🤞 your fridge organisation will continue. I find that if I can do weekly clean outs then it's easy to keep on top of.

ED I have joined the low carb bootcamp that starts in January (2nd week in I think). I have been joining them for a year now, they have kept me mostly maintaining (I'm sure I would have fallen and gained instead if I hadn't). I have big plans to log meals etc again and may get involved with the chat this time (haven't since my first bootcamp before Halloween 2021), but I do follow along, always.
I plan on taking my tree down Saturday, now vacuuming will be done after that.

DH and DS have been keeping the house clean, doing odd jobs around the house, while I'm slogging away at work, wishing I was home!
I'm trying to work on building better routines, have good intentions, but fear I may be trying to do too much at once!

Oh I just remembered something, this morning I realised I forgot to pull out my clothes last night, it completely set me off wrong, was a couple minutes late to work and not in the best frame of mind's. I'm not doing that again, so I'm going to be my future friends and pull my clothes out for the morning in just a few minutes. None of this time wasting in the morning again!

I should probably consider joining the bootcamp, they are very good at getting me on track.

Woken up in a joult when a lorry went past the house and shock the entire house. I have a thumping headache though so that is not good.

Do we have a volunteer for Jan? Cos that is coming up fast. too fucking fast

I'm off for coffee and thinking and considering what needs to get done vs what i have the energy to do and trying to get going.

I can do January. I didn’t lead the thread at all this year, and maybe it’ll force me to actually pay attention to the system?!

Welcome elf well done for starting NOW and not waiting till new year like me 😁

Hazel I really need to do more future friending again! It’s such a good concept to make things easier for ourselves tomorrow. I agree re a weekly clean out of the fridge - in fact DH and I had agreed on Fridays so I will have a look later.

My plan for today is to dig out the soup maker as we have loads of carrots and some parsnips left. While I’m peeling/chopping those I can prep the other stuff for dinner. DH didn’t include the peppers in last night’s dinner so we have those, half an onion and various other veggies in the fridge. DSD2 gave Cagletini some lovely child sized kitchen stuff for Christmas so she can help. DH can cook it all as a stir fry with leftover chicken though as I’m rubbish at cooking rice!

I had another lie in today and sent DH up when I came downstairs as he was up early with Cagletini. When he’s up later I REALLY REALLY REALLY must do uni work 🙄😬😩. In the meantime I’m going to finish a book.

I have tried the bootcamp and it wasn't for me (neither the method nor the threads), but I have been following a different low carb based way of eating for the last few months and that does work so I'll be getting back on board with that over the next few days.

@CurseYouPerryThePlatypus thank you for offering to do the January thread.

@HazelNuttyElf I always put clothes out the night before on weeknights and it does really help. I also make my packed lunches and sort out my work bag the night before.

I think I need to start doing that, I tend to stay in my pyjamas all day if I don’t have to go anywhere and it’s not good really. I also don’t eat properly during the day and we are all lacking structure - I need to at least plan what to have for lunch if not actually making it (sometimes I hope to take some time out to cook with Cagletini at lunchtime)

I have finished my kindle book. Just want to finish an old childhood favourite and an audiobook by the end of tomorrow 😁

Feeling pretty tired and unmotivated today though. Lots of things I should be doing.

Going to be honest I don't follow the bootcamp strictly and only do the the first bit really to drop the sugar / carb dependance. Big plate of pasta and cheese toasties are my comfort food. Their carb levels are too low for me. But whilst i don't follow their stuff stricly and only stick to seasonal veg I find the fact that i am reading the thread and doing the weekly weigh in with the reminders. Although not looked at the threads in years and vaguely remember that the tone had changed significantly from the early days. Who knows.

All sorts of building work planning drama going on here.

I have no energy to deal with this.

To do
crap tonn.

It's several years since I went on the bootcamp threads, there was (it later transpired) a massive trolling going on. Plus someone (not one of the lovely thread leaders) gave me a massive bollocking for being kind to someone who had eaten a croissant 😠. Which was somewhat offputting. It is the high fat aspect rather than the low carb one I struggle with, putting cream and butter all over everything. Whereas I've been doing no dairy low carb just lots of veg, meat, olive oil, seeds, oily fish, avocado etc&.

I need to get my life diet back on track next year too. I've eaten too much junk over Christmas and done no exercise. Meal planning became non-existent. I normally keep an eye on my weight weekly but I've been avoiding the scales!

hills & ED the last time I contributed to the thread I got told off because I mentioned avoiding carbs instead of low carb of course I eat the veg! It puts me off adding my 2 cents and I've been doing keto since Jan 2018, pretty successfully, my weight is less every Jan! But it's the terminology they don't like, even though I stick mostly to the plan (and eat all the veggies!).

Anyway, I'm a believer of you do what works for you, I'll stick to what I know works for me! So I usually keep to myself what I'm doing to avoid conflicts and lectures IRL. My boss does low carb, but also low fat and is always having a hard time with calories and sticking to it. I'm not going to try to get her to eat high fat, just like I appreciate her to not tell me I'm doing it wrong 😤

Phew, that felt good to get off my chest! As you were.. 😁

@CurseYouPerryThePlatypus planning lunches is something I often overlook and then we end up scrabbling about unless I've made a huge pan of soup which I'm
Happy to eat every day. It's a cheap way to live my H doesn't want to do that everyday so it's cheese sandwiches for him.

Oh I need to start making large pans of soups to last few lunches. What is a soup maker and how is it different from slow cooker?

I do t have a soup maker but o just make a massive pan of random soups. Each week I live off them and put a couple of portions in the freezer and over time you get a good selection in the freezer.

Oh god...wine typos sorry.

I don't have a soup maker and I'm not sure they'd be able to make the quantity I'm used to.
Do they chop and cook and purée the soup? I think they do smoothies too.

Yes, soup maker is a gadget where you roughly chop everything, shove it in with water and 22 mins later, magic smooth soup (or 24 mins for chunky) 🤣 I wouldn’t have thought to buy one but my mum gave me hers and it is useful. I’m the only one in the house who particularly enjoys soup and I get bored quickly (and don’t have a lot of freezer space) so it’s better for me to do one portion for that day and one for the next. Great for me especially as the extra energy involved in stirring/checking/blending soup is enough that I don’t usually bother making it on the hob (for newbies I have some health conditions). But if you’re happy batch cooking then it really wouldn’t be worth it!

Today has actually been total shit TBH, I almost don’t want to go to bed as I am fairly sure I then won’t want to get up all tomorrow. Might sleep downstairs with the TV for distraction instead. Must feed the bunny first. Night all 💐

Oooh I love the sound of a soup maker Perry although I know DH isn't as keen on soups as I am!
Sorry to hear you've had a shit day! It's there something you can do in the morning as a distraction? Like watching your favourite show or going out for a walk for example? Maybe doing something like that could improve your mood 🤷‍♀️

We ended up going out for dinner tonight at our favourite local restaurant as I didn't think about DH and DS eating the last of the leftovers for lunch 🤦‍♀️ it was good, I am feeling pretty good with all the alcohol in me! Hopefully I won't regret it in the morning.
I can't believe the year is almost done!

I can’t quite believe it’s NYE either!

I got to sleep about 1.30 I think so not as bad as it could’ve been. In the end I finished the audiobook I’ve been listening to, it was lighthearted and funny so that helped.

And it means I did reach my arbitrary and a bit silly/embarrassing goal of finishing any books I’d started by the end of the year. This year I’ve read (or listened to) 17 books, not including uni textbooks. Last year it was 15 so I’m pleased it’s improved a little considering I completely lapsed for most of this term. I’m not sure what’s a realistic aim for 2023, but hopefully it’ll be at least 18 if I’m consistent. I really need to read more and faff about online less!

See also housework and study. <ahem>

Anyway Cagletini is the only other one awake so far, so not about to go crazy on the housework just yet, but also too sleepy to study just yet 🤔🙈

I might try and start figuring out the diary for the new year as I meant to be doing that before Christmas. And last night I had a dream about missing meetings and being late for work, so that probably means I should tackle it, no? 😳🤣

Morning all, I didn't sleep brilliantly, kept waking and having to turn over carefully in order to not disturb a sleeping cat 🙄.

Re reading, I joined a 26 books thread this year and it really spurred me on. I managed 37 of which 20 were audio. Also I am in a bool club so read one a month for that. A few of the audio books were abridged versions from BBC Sounds so a bit shorter, on the other hand I listened to the entire Harry Potter series and they are very long. I want to get up to 26 actual reading books in 2023. I have started a little notebook to list them all in.

Sounds great ED we can remind each other! I just keep a list on my phone. I really want to get better at listening to audiobooks as I rarely make the time. 2 this year and 2 last year - I cancelled my audible subscription which I’d originally got in order to get the ones the Caglets listen to at night. But I still have loads left to try! I can’t usually process spoken word and do something else so it has to be dedicated time IYSWIM.

Anyway, I have set up the new thread, so do feel free to placemark until tomorrow!

www.mumsnet.com/talk/housekeeping/4709167-fledglings-january-2023-the-one-without-an-interesting-title

Must get on with something.

po3.1
❗️Take meds and eat something, drink lots of water
❗️Gather and put on a LOL
❗️Read and make notes on resource (because no I didn’t yesterday)

I didn't get to sleep til 3am, i am currently still in bed and very greatful that if you put the oven timer on it automatically turns the oven off as i have just realised that i forgot the breakfast i put on to cook. - i took my coffee back to bed this lunchtime.

Massive fibroflare has kicked in and my joint are sore, swollen and very painful. But i have a house to tame and food for tonight to prep. We do fancy sandwiches for tea. So there is bread to make and stuff to take out of the freezer to defrost.

Book wise - my goal was to read more. And i succeeded that but i have around 15 started books that i need to finish. And i am still stuck in study for exams so there are text books which take higher priority. I am hoping to transfer some ebooks onto my tablet (it is old and can only have 2 or 3 on there at one time) so that i can use those when i am trying to sleep rather than relying on youtube videos to quieten my brain. That said i have learnt so much with the videos i have chosen.

Thank you for running the december thread ED

I'm looking forward to becoming a completely new and better version of myself as if by magic on the stroke of midnight tonight... When I wake up and I'm still regular old me, I'll get cracking on the slower more realistic self improvement measures 😁

Today's efforts involved sleeping for 12hrs and crawling out of bed far too late. I shall now spend the rest of the day residing in the Naughty Corner, getting fatter eating biscuits and doing nothing. Life starts tomorrow.

Getting lots of sleep is an achievement I reckon ditzy!

Sorry about the flare up hills I am intrigued by the sandwich fillings!

My main ta da today is that I have finished and submitted my assignment. It’s not due for another few days, so it’s early in that sense, but considering I started it ages ago it feels late - I’d hoped to finish it before the end of term TBH. But oh well.

Happy new year, lovelies! Xxx

Happy New Year! 🎉
Hope everyone had a nice evening. I should really go to sleep now! See you all on the new thread (link a few posts back)