Flylady Fledglings February: Thawing out of winter

[freezingpompoms]

Hello everyone, iWelcome back to our regulars, and if you are new or returning, a huge welcome to you as well! Please feel free to post or lurk, whatever helps you most.

This is an incredibly helpful thread and the system can be confusing but someone on here will be able to answer your questions and get you on track.

So, Flylady. That mysterious system that promises a lovely clean house! This link is a good place to read about the basic principles, but we strongly recommend ignoring the first bit - do not sign up for emails as you’ll be inundated!

www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/

If you’re new to the system, or are wanting a refresher course, the baby steps may be a good idea. Some are more useful than others, we’ve found, and stuff like affirmations may not work for you, so pick and choose what you want to try. You don’t have to do it all! Perfectionism can be left at the door, we celebrate any achievement here no matter how small it seems (this is why you’ll see our Ta Da lists as well as To Do lists!).

www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/

There are parts of the house called zones, each taking a different part of the month, and missions in those zones to do little tasks we may have neglected. If you don’t feel ready for those though, a good way to start is doing 15 minutes decluttering in that zone! Remember it didn’t get messy in a day so it won’t be fixed in a day either. Slow and steady.

Then there’s the daily focus - each day of the week has a theme, although many of us switch them around to suit our own lives.

Each day I’ll provide the link to the launch pad, which is where you can see what is meant to be done that day (but again don’t feel you have to do all of it! That way lies burnout!).

A couple of principles we talk about on here are:
Future Friend - the idea of doing something today that benefits you later, such as choosing your clothes or making your lunch the night before.
Power of Three (po3) - if you’re overwhelmed, just pick three easy tasks - no matter how small - and forget about the rest until they’re done. Then reassess and decide another three.

Finally a few acronyms:
DW - dishwasher, not dear wife!
LOL - load of laundry, we aren’t finding washing hilarious
WM - washing machine
TD - tumble dryer

You know the good fat, bad fat thing is a construct of the food industry and sugar lobbists right?

<hides soap box having deleted a NHS diet advice/vitamin level rant>

<realises not heard ds up and needs to hit the ground running now>

Urgh. dont. wanna.

Hey,

Thursday, nearly there aren't we. Weekend in touching distance. Didn't get much done productive round the house yesterday. Wednesdays are my worst days as I have to take ds to football practice in the evening....Ends up being such a long day always.

Ta da yesterday

• fed everyone breakfast ✅
• made beds ✅
• dropped ds at dm for the day (school strike) ✅
• picked up ds ✅
• brought the bins back in from bin day ✅
• made tea ✅
• washed dishes ✅
• took ds to football practice ✅
• made packed lunches ✅

Fingers crossed you find somewhere nice soon @UsernameNotPresent and yeah, wash basins in bedrooms is a bit odd I agree. Just another thing to clean aswell.

I definitely subscribe to doing bits whilst tea is cooking. A quick tidy up in the living room, bleach down the loo, change the bin, etc. It's a big part of how I wing it 😁

Oh, and adds vents clean to my to do list 👍😁

Morning all, wow on page 2 already! I didn’t sign in yesterday but thank you for the new thread pompoms 💜💐

YesTaDa
👽reported tutoring finances to UC
👽packed bag and printed something for colleague
👽yesterday’s LOL in TD
👽new LOL
👽shower and dressed
👽ran focus group. Successful but stressful!
👽lunch/work chat with team
👽put laundry away
👽put Cagletini to bed

I was hoping for a lie in till 8 today, but Cagletini had other ideas 🙄 I have been entirely unproductive thus far. Got a few phone calls to make for work and then I’m off out for a meeting later, desperately hoping the trains are ok!

hills absolutely!
I'm not afraid of saturated fats, so to me animal fat is good, along with avocado oil, olive oil and butter. I avoid vegetable oil (what vegetable is fatty?!), canola oil, sunflower oil, margarine - all the really processed stuff. Full fat dairy is good, milk has too many carbs so I use heavy cream instead.

Username there's nothing wrong with expecting a property to be clean and well kept before moving in or agreeing to anything!

Lolly I'm wishing the weekend was coming a little faster than what it is!

Morning routine is improving with getting up earlier, bashing about for half-an-hour, then having a cup of tea before starting breakfast. Also going to bed a little earlier. I discovered a bedtime routine thing on the iPad, and it chimes at me to go to bed.

Did some pruning in the front garden. The wind has damaged some paintwork that was already peeling. Garage is looking better every day. Can that count as the entrance?

Scour I would count that for sure!

💨 went to garden centre and bought a few bits with vouchers I had had given.
💨 returned books to library and picked a couple up
💨parents evening at school
💨cut hair
💨potted up new plants and weeded.
💨 tidied around the house

Flight plan is here:

www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=0

But basically it's Friday:

Shine sink

Declutter 15mins

Clear out purse and car

Add a personal touch to the entrance, Dining Room, and Front porch. This can be a table cloth for the dining room, or a welcome mat for the porch.

Or if you don't ant to add something:

Turn on your favorite music and get rid of 27 items

Nothing worse than sleep ubrupted early....How old is Cagletini @CurseYouPerryThePlatypus

Ta da

• made beds ✅
• made tea ✅
• washed dishes ✅
• packed lunches made ✅
• kitchen tops antibac'd ✅
• kitchen floor mopped ✅
• washing machine on ✅
• bath cleaned n antibac'd ✅
• both bathroom basins cleaned n antibac'd ✅
• both loos cleaned n bleached ✅

• Will tidy living room before bedtime 👍

Otherwise I'm currently smelling of antibac (will have a shower before bedtime 😆)

She’s five rocket :) she’s good at going to sleep but just recently she’s been waking up in the night and coming in with us 🙄 really need to nip that in the bud!

ta da
🧩work
🧩went out for meeting
🧩LOL in dryer
🧩phoned DS’ tutor
🧩put Cagletini to bed

I would've been interested in the diet and vitamin rant Hills 😤 I take quite a lot of vitamin because I feel like I'm falling apart if I don't. I swear the NHS criteria for anything is just Not Dead ✅and that's it. Very frustrating

I like the scruffy places UNP. It means the landlord hasn't felt the need to paint over the mould place hopefully doesn't have a damp problem and you won't get your deposit docked for the odd smudge or ding because it'll blend in with the rest 🏚

That's some fierce wind you've got there Scourgify if it's damaging paintwork 😱

Ta-da's:

🐒Morning routine
🐄Replaced shower hose because it was leaking
🦃Tidied living room
🦁Gathered up all my exercise wear and found a drawer to store it all together
🐪Life admin
🐰Decluttering
🐷Evening routine

Ta Das:
💜 worked all day
💜 cashed in some winning scratch cards
💜 cooked dinner
💜 wiped countertops (DS & DH loaded DW)
💜 got my lunch ready for tomorrow
💜 got my clothes out for tomorrow
💜 took a shower, ready for bed

Ditzy well done on replacing the shower hose!

WHO actually did a report that said that a number of the vitamin levels at which the UK treat for deficiently is too low for a lot of them (basically not been revised since the 2nd world war) it is especially noticeable for vit D.

I will admit that of late i have noticed an unofficial shift and that when going through my vitamin reguime the specialists have been excellent that is good for this, that combination will help with that. And that is despite the fact that for some i am taking well about the RDA but that has been done under medical supervision and agreement for treatment of a medical condition.

The NHS dietary advice is like the health visitor advice and restricted by what is deemed ok by the powers that be. there is a real problem of museli kid syndrom which they saw in one of the scandinavian countries (Sweden iirc) where by the children were fed such a "healthy" diet they were actually malnutritioned because they were not getting enough fat into their diets which was resulting in poor uptake of the fat soluble minerals and stunting their growth because a certain amount of fat and colesterol is actually needed to be healthy (it is used in wound healing, DNA repair and replication for cell replacement/creation, and all sorts of other things)

The whole fruit and veg thing gets my back up. the number of people i know who eat 3 or 4 portions of fruit and then complain about having weight problems. seriously, fruit is about in the summer, it is designed specifically to be eaten in the summer to help you put on weight to survive the winter. 1 portion of fruit it more than enough and mostly you should be eating vegetables. There are more vitamins in swede then there is a lot of fruit - especially with modern high yield varieties that were breed for quantity over quality.

My soap box is large. I accidentally got someone onto the topic of E numbers the other day. That was a bit horrifying for them. Especially as they were just looking at a list of the E numbers with no context. Not all E numbers are found just in food. They will never look at a food label in the same way. And i think i scared them with my knowledge of E numbers - tbf some of them trigger migraines so i need to avoid those, and one of them is night shade based so obviously that is one i need to know that e number off the top of my head too. Oh and knowing about the alternative cl. numbering system existence is also helpful cos toothpastes/beauty products...

If you read labels regularly and understand what is in process and pre made food it is a very scary world where you have to chose between the convenient option and the healthy option. And imo NOTHING that reads like a chemistry lab is a healthy option no matter how much the food industry tries to convince me otherwise.

Ethics of food is another one. Ethics behind vegan food vs non vegan food when taking into account impacts of cash crops and that shit show of an ethical mess, air miles, processing methods vs ethically raise meat. that is a fascinating worm hole. depressing but fascinating.

EG US - chlorine bath at processing will make the chicken safe to eat, grow your chickens how you like.
UK and Europe - you cannot fix in processing, you must have better animal welfare standards in the growing.

You could literally lose days to this stuff. And then at the end of it it comes down to wat you personally deem acceptable. I just know that i dont generally agree with what the food industry deems acceptable and this for me, means i have to be more creative and proactive.

Stepping away from the rant the plan today is to:
set up some carrot and ginger to ferment
make some bread
cook veg laden rice for tea - i have veg in the fridge that needs eating.

As ds is a way i need to take a lasagna out of the freezer to defrost for tomo's and sunday's tea for the people. Cos i lazy and i dont wanna cook for them. Current me thanks past me for being organised and spending the energy making it. But it is the last one so future me needs to sort her nonsense and do another batch cook run. I could teach the people.... hmmm. there's a thought.

Cross posted with you willow

Only thing that i missed out was the strong feelings about the misleading information about long term carbs vs short terms carbs...

All carbs get converted into fats if you eat too much. Long term carbs are only "healthier" because they don't spike the sugar levels in the same way as short term carbs.

have you tried rice bran oil? i use if for the one who has oil allergies here. I should probably research the extraction process for the oils but i fear that i dont want to know the answers.

@HillsBesideTheSea I found all that very interesting. What do you deem acceptable food wise if you don't mind me asking?

I try very hard, I cook from scratch and bake but I don't buy organic or even locally grown to be honest as it's just beyond us financially. We grow kale and tomatoes but there than that it's Aldis all the way and I can't believe how much our shopping is.

@HillsBesideTheSea also what's veg laden rice? I'm in the market for more ideas as I'm so bloody sick of all our food

So veg laden rice tonight is kale, snap peas etc what ever is in the fridge that needs saving from growing its own legs and escaping.

Veg laden rice could be the small piece frozen veg cooks til soft and then mixed into cooked rice with a scrambled egg, or some seaseme seed oil/ soy sauce.
or it could be a 15 bean mix of various dried beans and lentils that i have soaked and cooked mixed into cooked rice with some soy sauce/ plum sauce type stuff.

I bug the BIG bags of rice as they are more economical and they last and 1/4 cup is more than enough of the beans and lentil mix if i am the only one eating it with a portion of rice.

I invested in a rice cooker and it has been a complete game changer.

My rule is that generally i try to cook from scratch and that food should not have and ingrediants list that would look comfortable in a lab. I use a lot of frozen veg and rarely buy fresh. I never seem to get it used up fast enough when fresh, and there is a conveience with frozen. I am atm introducing fermented foods for the gut supporting bacteria. But a little of that goes a long way as daily intake ish for those not used to it is only 1 tsp.

but i honestly am not going to judge you for whatever you choose because i know how much work this way is, i also know that budgets are a real thing. I just personally try to avoid the jars of premade sauces/ready meals especially as we are a family of super reactives so allergies and intollerances are higher the more a food is messed with etc, but tbf you bulk a jar sauce out with frozen veg or beans and lentils? who cares? bellies are full and there is good nutrional value in what you have added.

One thing i do try to do is buy in season, and i have many tricks up my sleeve for buy veg when it is cheap and preserving it until i want to use it. It limits my usage options because dehydrated carrot might work excellently in a stew, but it aint gonna work as carrot salad.

I actually pay more attention to the ethical practises of a company. Nestle is one i struggle with and will avoid as much as possible as i do not agree with a number of contriversial ethical decisions they have made in the past (water/baby formula etc) . Does it mean i wont buy from the company ever? No. i just take am moment to think about it first smarties, do like my smarties. And nestle chocolate is better than cadburys these days

Also remember that i am lucky that i do not have to contend with opinionated little people. My lot might tell me that the meal wasn't their favourite but they will eat it first, or ask for help to make it so they will eat it.

I like the pictured frozen veg because it is corn free (allergen here) and it is small pieces so goes into lasagna/cottage pie/pasta etc etc easier. Fancy ass veg? nope.

@HillsBesideTheSea I'm the same as you in that respect. The ingredient lists are frightening!

I don't do frozen vegetables though but we do eat frozen fruit everyday in our porridge. That's something that was new to us in lockdown but which we've kept up long term.

I also have a dehydrator so I see a bargain I will buy a tonne of something (mushrooms) and preserve it that way. Also our own tomatoes and strawberries and kale get dehydrated.

Today:
Not a lot in the house.

✅baby group
✅evening po3
✅lol
✅made tea
✅cleaned any car rubbish I could find.

SATURDAY:

Family fun day
Shine sink
Declutter 15mins

Here's a link to family fun activity ideas:

www.flylady.net/d/fly-sense/family-fun-time-ideas/

We have such interesting discussions in this little corner...who knows...sh just us.🤔
I have some allergens/ intolerances and also came from a family who cooked nearly everything from fresh. I don't think I ever remember having pre made or fast food as a child or teenager. I think I once had KFC and enjoyed it but when one opened up here and I bought some for myself and kids I didn't like it.I found it very fatty and greasy and not as much flavour as previous memory.It was about 20 years difference so either my teenager tastebuds or the recipe had changed.I vowed the latter. Never had it since! I did have the occasional BurgerKing as DS1 and DS2 worked for them for a while when at school. DS1 carried on as manager after being ill during A Levels and had masses of 100% certificates around the hatch area. Now works for pub chain as Kitchen Manager but he cooks his own meals from scratch.😂I knew a lot about E numbers when he was a child as allergies lead to ADHD diagnosis.

DD is vegan but doesn't use supermarkets versions and cooks from fresh and is now a good cook.Probably even better as she is working in a Vegan restaurant in NZ.
The other two boys cook from scratch. DS2 less as he is challenged time wise because of his job. Works long & odd hours too. DS3 has an air fryer which he loves and experiments with and also phones me to talk him through cooking and reports back.I love him doing that.

We have the occasional jar of pasta sauce which is added to veg.I usually buy passata.

Meat and fish is as local as we can get it.Fish comes from the North East and Scotland.We are near to both. Meat is bought from the butchers and occasionally Booths. They can tell us which farms it is from and Booths is mostly local meat due to the one we shop at proximatey. sp Veg is fairly local as we get a veggie box and they try to buy local.Obviously oranges etc aren't. We grow summer veg.No point in growing winter veg as we have clay soil and it is just boggy.Cut again lettuce until October and this year still had toms.

Thanks for the best wishes. Still not well. Test results void as were not labelled correctly even though I asked receptionist. So had to take repeat test today.Receptionist couldn't find any record of phone call I received this morning So will have to wait until Monday.Unless I get worse and back to A&E as told by two Drs and GP.
They think I might have an internal bleed.They think it has stopped.They don't know where it is coming from.Two options. I might have an infection in my stomach...or bowel.It might be my medical condition which is bowel related but as the pain isn't in that area myself and two DRs have been sceptical. I have had pain since Monday.It hasn't let up but hasn't been any worse. Food to be bland, no curries😂doctor trying to be funny. I received excellent care except that I thought a scan might be and idea but I presume they cant see the bleed if there is one. Possibility of being referred for more tests in a fortnight window.

No flying I don't feel up to it.I was going to put the Holly dishes away but after having to go back to town I was exhausted and watched a film and fell asleep on the sofa. I have cleaned the basin and the loo. I haven't even made the bed today. I feel very lethargic and not very well.

The wifi upstairs has been crap but I read along when I can during the night. Dh has (supposed ) told the company. It isn't as good as previous owners.I wish they hadn't sold it.Local company and they fixed things immediately and apologised even within days during storms.

Cant do cherry waves on here but wish them

Evening all,
I’m following a keto diet at the moment too (although I do lapse in and out quite a bit). I have lost 25lb since September. Sadly I really miss bread, crisps etc and that’s hard. I also miss baking so I still make the occasional sourdough loaf. Don’t miss the sweet stuff much though. I don’t do the really high fat version, I tried that before and didn’t like it, everything tasted greasy so its a fairly high protein version with a reasonable amount of fat. I can’t give up milk in coffee either (can’t drink it black, with cream or with nut milks) but only have one or two a week and drink lots of herbal tea the rest of the time. Re starches vs sugars, yes, all the starches do get converted to sugars but that flattening of the glucose spike does seem to be really important, I have been reading a book called Glucose Revolution which is really interesting on the subject. I am using a lot of avocados, oily fish, seeds and mayo (homemade) but I am also struggling with the right oils - coconut oil and butter are good for cooking with but I am struggling for salad dressings. I buy a cold-pressed rapeseed oil sometimes but mayo made with it is really unpleasant, same with extra virgin olive oil, not to mention expensive. I am only able to do this as my fussy DCs are older now, with DS at uni and DD able to cook for herself if it suits her better, it would have been impossible when they were younger as they are both massive carb-munchers.

Meanwhile on the Flying front, things are going well. I have had a really good declutter of the bedroom (drawers and wardrobe) and got rid of a lot of surface clutter. Now when I go up to get ready for bed (usually before DH) as well as doing my face cream etc I do a little tidy of anything that has got left out that shouldn’t have, put away clean laundry, put out my clothes for the next day and it really does feel more calming and peaceful. I have also been able to buy some new clothes as I threw away a lot that were getting tatty or were never really worn. My drawers have all been Kondo’d so they look really neat when I open them and you can see what’s there, my tee shirts do seem to be more creased though.

I also had a good sort out of my car boot a few weeks ago and put in one of those holder things with 4 sections, so I have one for bags for life, one for random small objects for non-doorstep recycling/tip/chazza, one for the little plastic bags that come through the door. When I have clothes to get rid of I use one of these bags to bag them up and take to the charity shop. It is so much more useful than before when everything was just thrown in and I had to rummage.

DS is home from uni for the weekend, I drove up and fetched him today. He is having driving lessons up there now so maybe I won’t have to do it at some point but I am enjoying my little trips, he is in a beautiful part of the world.

@Redsquirrel5 sending sympathy, that sounds really tough. Especially as the medics don’t seem to know exactly what is wrong. Times like these concentrate on yourself as much as you can. Take Care and really hope you feel better soon.

@EasilyDirected sounds like you have been very productive! Nice to catch up with your DS in a lovely place.

I have tried a ‘bit’ of keto, not very well, and found it very tough. It’s hard to balance all your body needs isn’t it. I have kidney stones and high cholesterol and more meat and cheese(which for me was one of the few ways I could stick to it) wasn’t great. I’m really trying to be 95% vegetarian, and less carbohydrates. I also don’t like to have breakfast, so I thought why not go with that and not eat until late lunch. That has really helped, and trying to have less food straight away. Also having more soup and porridge, both excellent for upping the veg, fibre, legumes and lowering cholesterol.

@freezingpompoms I shall try the family fun day!

@HillsBesideTheSea you sound super great at the healthy but cost saving meals! Wish you lived with us…My family has shrunk, it used to be step kids and my older DS, but now only younger DS and DP, so I used to cook big meals of fajitas, curry, pasta and buy in more bulk. Now that’s changed, DS is extremely fussy, so is DP and I’m trying to eat more healthy and less meat (which no one else wants to do).

So what to do about food if everyone eats differently? I’ve started to only cook 3 times a week, and DP cooks twice. DP cooks something him and DS like. I make the roast on Sunday, and a rice and pasta meal for me and DS. I make more pasta and rice than I need and use that with cut up vegetables, and just add fish that is already cooked, or tuna, or egg or cheese.

Oh and I have to confess I have done very little in the last 2 days. Two work problems came up, and older DS moved house at college and had a few problems which I had to sort from afar. I feel a bit frazzled!

But I did go to town, sort out work and had a healthy lunch in a cafe on my own as a reward! Back in time to pick up DS from school (he finishes early).

😰Everthing looks uncluttered and tidy from the outside. But inside… eek.
😰Also did not even do an evening routine…
😐I did clean the draining board and taps, threw out any old food from the fridge. Also, amazingly, my new ‘folded clothes in drawers that look nice’ that I did 4 weeks ago in the clothes unclutter, are still being folded and look nice!