Flying out of summer (what summer?!)

[partypompoms]

Welcome to this long running thread, we may seem clicky, but all are welcome to join in!

Do NOT sign up for the Flylady emails - it's an excessive amount sent every day.

There are Baby Steps for starting out, add one thing at a time to start good habits and routines.

There are 5 zones that we will rotate through, don't worry about finishing it all this month, it'll come around again next month! Flylady is NOT about perfectionism!

Habit of the month of August is Laundry

Daily missions: each day of the week has a different mission.

• Monday: Home Blessing (or as we call it, home bleugh)
• Tuesday: plan & play
• Wednesday: anti-procrastination
• Thursday: errand day
• Friday: clean car & purse out and date night (what's that again?? 🤔)
• Saturday: family fun day
• Sunday: renew your spirit

Common acronyms we use:

• LOL: load of laundry (washing is certainly NOT funny!)
• DW: dishwasher, we are not rotating wives by any means, although an extra pair of hands could come in handy sometimes 😆
• LMS: lose/lost my shit
• DNLMS: did not lose my shit

I'm sure there's more I haven't mentioned, feel free to ask us to explain something. I'll try to update links every day, although if you can, it's worth downloading the app, you can even have it send you notifications (although I only have it for when the zones change).

I like the app as it has a tick list and I love a list.

Links are below 👇 and I'll tend to post the links the night before ready for the next day.

Launch Pad: www.flylady.net/d/new-links/

Zones: www.flylady.net/d/zones/

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

Popping in whilst I'm at gymnastics (again 🤦‍♀️)

Tada
✅ 2 x LOL both school unforms whiich means I'll have a pile of ironing to welcome me home !
✅ 15mins decluttering/tidying dining room
✅ 15 mins laundry putting away
✅ quick hoover through & beds made
✅ meal plan and shopping list
✅ dropped dd2 to gymnastics
✅ food shop
✅ unpacked food shop
✅ returned items to next

Dd1 has got friends over this evening for birthday celebrations so I'll have a busy home , luckily the weather is ok so hopefully they'll stay outside for most of it , I didn't realise until Thursday that this was her plan so I haven't organised or planned anything , hoping they'll be happy with a takeaway!!

I must admit I’m glad we’re all done with the school uniform and stuff. I don’t know when DD goes back to college, she was doing an online re-enrollment this morning. DS goes back to uni in a fortnight, he did his re-enrolment a couple of weeks ago. We will need to go to Ikea for a few things for him, planning to go after work one night next week.

@HillsBesideTheSea our WM drawer used to get like that wehn we used liquid detergents, its much better since we switched to powder.

Today has been a much lazier day.

Tada!
Fed cats
Put washing on
Went to allotment for a couple of hours
Cut grass
Hung washing out
Put dinner in oven
Fell asleep in the garden
Got washing back down again (its a warm breezy day here so it didn’t take long)

Think I might go to the gym in a minute, I’m feeling sluggish.

Afternoon everyone

cherrydog sorry DP is being rubbish

We went to Thorpe Park on Thursday, which was when DS should have been enrolling for college. We're waiting to hear about his application to the only Accounting apprentiship advertised now. if he doesn't get it he will be gutted and don't know what will happen for him retaking his GCSE English.

Have done my 2nd 8 hour friday shift 2 till 10. I'm finding it quite hard, dyspraxia doesn't make working in clothing any easier! Dd is really hating me not being there for tea, her anxiety is getting so much worse with me now working more.

I have Kindle Unlimited so can read loads, great relief when my anxiety gets bad, doesn't help with FLYing though.

Need to get moving now my back has stopped hurting, went about 9:30 last night so hope I didn't forget anything important at the end of my shift! I now have my uniform so look like a proper Tesco employee!

Back later, hopefully washing will have been put away

Ta Das:
🍓 groceries bought for brunch and dinner tonight
🍊 brunch prepped and cooked - French toast, scrambled eggs, sausages, strawberries, oranges & raspberries with orange juice. Cupcakes were served afterwards with milk
🍓 kitchen cleaned up
🍊 rotated DW
🍓 house is currently airing while I drink my 2nd cup of coffee

They are due back any time. DH realised last night that a waiver needs to be signed by the parents so is it getting those signatures.
.. and they just pulled in, I'll be back soon!

Thanks to Hazel 💐and pompoms 💐

Will read later and catch up.

@SingToTheSky we've ordered the other two Pippi books and the bookseller said that the author Astrid wrote other series of books and they are even better than the Pippi books. Also there's a Pippi film in the making.

We also bought The Borrowers and I can't believe I'm saying this but we really don't like it. We've read three chapters and have given up. We love old style books but it's so old that my daughter hasn't got a clue about any of it and it's hard work explaining every other word. It's also written in a style that's hard work in my opinion. I keep having to ad-lib to make it more reader friendly. Maybe I should've persevered but I couldn't.

I can recommend Nature Stories by Enid Blyton. It's brilliant.

Today we've
✅ 2 lols
✅ family time: party
✅ made pizzas from scratch
✅ paddling pool and trampoline time
✅ s&s
✅ ironing

SUNDAY:

www.flylady.net/d/daily-focus/daily-focus-sunday/

Each Sunday is the day to Renew Your Spirit. This is a day to take time for yourself and build YOU up with your favorite things. If you don’t Renew Your Spirit, you can’t renew the spirit of others.

We have another birthday party to go to and then I'm taking the kids on a very cheap boat road along the canal. Then I'll be crying that the school holidays are over.

Ah yes I remember the borrowers being a bit on the wordy side! We also read bedknobs and broomsticks to DD1 as she loved the film, I may be misremembering (she’s 16 now!) but I think that was easier going.

I am feeling rubbish - coming down with a cold. If I can I’ll sit in steam tomorrow but for now I’m just knackered so I need to move the laundry on and go to sleep.

I find a lot of the older books are wordier for the sake of being wordier. And would firmly plant dickens, tolkin and many others into this category. Some authors like to shove off the fact that they know a lot of fancy words, rather than them necessarily be important to the story. There are many "adult" authors i find totally inaccessible for this reason.

Lion, witch and wardrobe series was easier going irrc.

ooooo Astrid also wrote the Tomte book series. That is an interesting one. I knew the Tomte under the Jul nissen name. Apparently she has many different series if you like her writing style.

Today has not gone to plan and i have waaaaay too much of the to do list carrying over to tomo. But that is what happens when you find a disaster in a cupboard and need to focus on figurative fire fighting rather than the to do list.

<sigh> at least the 2 must be done today jobs have been done.

Aww thanks for the support 💕
It's was quite a relaxing day in the end.
I made my soup which was delish 😋, the soda farls not so good, I put them in a too small skillet so they were a bit stodgy in the middle.
I took my Dyson apart and gave it a clean and washed the filters.
Did about 983 squillion loads of pot washing. Loaded DW. Sat in the garden with a cup of tea watching the dogs playing.
Now (obvs) reading this thread and enjoying hearing about everyone's achievements.

It's my turn for the insomnia tonight ! I was half expecting it for tomorrow night with going back to school & work however I'm also due on Friday and usually get a few nights of troubled sleep beforehand so they are both battling against my need for sleep ! After 2&1/2 hours of tossing and turning I've given up and came downstairs. Hopefully I'll get a few hours later on before the 7am alarm goes ready for taking ds to football .

Thanks for all the uni advice ! She was pretty set on either Falmouth, Nottingham (which she could stay at home and commute to) Lincoln or York, however now that she's got the decent grades , if A levels go well, she's wondering about a different one (I can't remember what she said now but it's in a group of unis that are meant to be the top ones ?)

@EquallyDetermined I have been told that the jump from gcse to a levels is a big one. Dd currently works 2 jobs , 1 of which she has had since the age of 14 and absolutely loves , kept up with it all during her studies and exams (I think it helped her actually to have something else to focus on) the other she started once her exams finished . She is quite determined that she is going to work both jobs , although she's cutting her hours back, during her a levels as well as 2 driving lessons a week ! I think she will burn herself out and have suggested she drops the Saturday shift all together so that she has at least 1 day off to recover . Her compromise at the minute is to work the afternoon rather than all day so she can have a lie in 🤦‍♀️ we shall see how the next few weeks unfold ! Did your dd settle into them by the end of the year or is she still finding it hard ? Also your tada list is amazing! I have never even thought about making butter !?! Did you go to the gym?

@partypompoms marshmallows for breakfast seems to be ok so far although I'm only 3 chapters in 🙈

@InAndOutOfTheRedBalloon good luck for the super early morning! And I hope all goes well for Monday 💐

@SingToTheSky sounds like a great productive day ! 🎉 for your own workspace!! Good luck to your Caglets on their next journey - so lovely to watch the kids grow up but also scary how fast time is flying by ! It seems there are a lot of us this year that have dc moving onto their next chapter ❤️

@HillsBesideTheSea I will make sure that I do not take the washer drawer out for cleaning ! It's always the way that when you think something is a 5 minute job it ends up an hour .

@BloomingHazel that is some tada list ! I hope DS had a great birthday celebration? Dds was quiet this year compared to previous years , just had a few friends in the garden for a takeaway, they all left around 930 as dd has work first thing tomorrow. We have a driving lesson booked for her on her actual birthday on Tuesday 😱

👋 @Shannaratiger hope your ds hears from the apprenticeship soon 🤞🤞working is tough with dc , I love my job but dreading the chaos starting again next week ! I hope your dd's anxiety eases soon .

Thinking of you @CherryogDog 💐

@Searchingforsunnydays your D sound fabulous, what a great work ethic she has a energy for life. She'll either learn to cut back or else she'll be one of those amazing superhuman people who can do it all.

@CherryogDog I think cleaning the Dyson is the key to a long Dyson life.

@HillsBesideTheSea I'm going to look into Astrids other books as the bookseller was quite passionate about them being brilliant. He said there was one about a burglars daughter that he loved.

@SingToTheSky sending lots of vitamin C to you. We all have colds coming too here.

@Searchingforsunnydays sorry about your insomnia, it's tough 💐 And thanks for clearing up my confusion about marshmallows for breakfast, I've been thinking what a strange menu choice 😁
I fell asleep really quickly last night but I've been awake since 4am.
@HillsBesideTheSea I always used to take the drawer out of the WM but I can't work out how to do it with my new one.
I've had washing the kitchen and dog room floors on my todo list for about a week now 😳 today just might be the day 🙃

Heehee @CherryogDog marshmallows for breakfast would be a strange , we did have s'mores after tea over the outdoor fire last night thought - delicious 😋 glad you got a better sleep - I went to bed as you got up and I've managed a couple of hours.

Dd1 is amazing @partypompoms, she does a lot for our community and has a good reputation that people naturally offer her jobs before they advertise positions 😂 however as parents we will always worry - exams we're tough, a couple of panic attacks and constant anxiety on the run up, she puts alot of pressure on herself and we are constantly reminding her to 'chill out'. Both her employers are amazing with her though and they work around what she can do . After her first day at her new job, they said she didn't need any more shadow shifts and gave her a pay rise there and then 😂 I'm not sure where she gets it from - her organisation skills are definitely not from me !!

Tada
✅ a couple of hours sleep
✅ up washed and a coffee

About to get the kids ready, dd2 is going out for the day with her friend and I'm taking ds to football ⚽️ lots to do this afternoon regarding getting ready for the week !

@Searchingforsunnydays no, things got harder as the year went on, I am a bit concerned. She has always been a hard worker and conscientious but has struggled with the college set-up, lots of free periods but not always easy to find anywhere quiet to study etc. She is quite severely dyslexic which doesn't help, it takes her significantly longer to finish work than her non-dyslexic peers. She started a new job in a pub around half term (previously only had a paper round) and I think it was bad timing as it was exhausting her - she has carried on with it over the summer but I think they expect her to work Sat and Sun and this is just too much. She doesn't love it but likes having a job IYSWIM. So that is a problem. The unis you are talking about will be the Russell Group, they are highly ranked for research and are amongst the highest entry requirement ones.

No, I didn't get to the gym, must try harder today. I did a bit more gardening instead but nothing strenuous. Ended up in the pub with my friend for a couple of hours too.

@EquallyDetermined hmmm something to keep an eye on then, I have been told this before , a family member nearly dropped out after her first year and ended up going back but only really put efforts into one subject because she knew that she wouldn't be going to uni, my friends daughter did drop out after the first year and now is happily working full time . There seems to be a running theme . My dd will be working Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday evening 2 hour shifts , then Saturday afternoon and Sunday both 6 hour shifts so that'll be 18 hours a week , plus a driving lesson on Monday and Thursday and then her studies . It's going to be too much but like you've mentioned, the independence of having a job is appealing but we know they'll have their whole lives to work and its probably best to concentrate on studies if that's what they want to achieve . It's quite hard to advise but sit back and let them make their own decisions sometimes isn't it ! Yes that group of unis has been mentioned - I never went to uni and neither did my oh so we haven't really got a clue about it all ! Just trying to support where we can .

Tada
✅ dd2 dropped off at friends
✅ everyone ready and currently on route to ds football - the match is about an hour away so it'll take the rest of the morning up and possibly eat into the afternoon!

Decided to have a dig around in the FlyLady archives today and discovered what I think is a missing piece of information -

Everyone says you can't do Home Blessings in an hour. I've never timed it, but I reckon I would have been able to in the past, when I was healthy. However, our place is very small, we're clean and tidy people here anyway and I used to be a professional cleaner. So not the average situation

I'm wondering if people are struggling because everyone is only doing it weekly on Mondays because it's designated the Home Blessings day by FlyLady?

In the article Saving Your Saturdays she talks about using your timer for 7 minutes 3x a day alongside your routines in the morning, afternoon and evening to do a Saturday Rescue, basically picking up, putting away and bits of cleaning. Then on Saturday you do an hour's Home Blessings again first thing after the morning routine, before going off to have your Family Fun Day. So Home Blessings is actually supposed to be twice a week, plus 21 minutes per day in 7 minute blocks

Today I braved under the bed 🛏️ for a declutter 🗑️ and clean up 💣. Found stuff I forgot I had 👀. Where does all the dust come from?! 🤧

@Searchingforsunnydays sorry, I don't want to be a downer, your DD may well be fine. Mine used to do masses of extra-curriculars and gradually dropped them through secondary school, she was still doing something most days until y11, she stopped competitive swimming and moved to recreational squad in y11, so twice a week of fairly hard training still but it didn't really work out and she quit altogether about 6 months ago and just does archery 2 or 3 times a week now. A rule of thumb from college is no more than 10 hours paid work a week though.

@DitzyDaffodils we aren't tidy! Clutter is still a major problem here. I possibly could manage Home Blessing in an hour but we don't change all the beds on the same day (typically do ours on Saturday and the DCs on Sunday) and we wash, dry and remake with the same bedlinen so there is a several hour gap there. We don't dust and vacuum upstairs as often as we should. The 3x7 minutes thing is something that tends to happen though.

Major decluttering of DS's room today, lots of old toys and books going, it feels a bit emotional.

sunny your DD and my DS have the same birthday! His birthday is Tuesday also! He will be turning 14.

I can't add to the uni discussion as DD didn't go, and we're in a different country!
Ditzy you might be into something there. I think a lot of things just end up getting done out of habit or routine so we don't even think about it being the home blessing!

I ended up not cleaning the house at all yesterday, but I did wash 2 LOLs.
I also cut up watermelon, took half over to air soft and they devoured the lot! I then split the remainder into 3 ziplock bags and gave 2 more away last night so we only have 1 bag to eat now (there's still quite a bit in there!).

To Dos this long weekend:
☕️ meal plan & prep
☕️ buy 2 pots, MIL is going to come over to help me transplant my honeysuckle and lilac bush before work gets done as they are in the way. My lilac bush may or may not make it (only a little bit of green on it). I only just bought it this year so it's just a baby 😢
☕️ home bleugh
☕️ repaint my nails (fingers and toes)

It would be nice to finally sort out paperwork, but it's a little overwhelming, so I would have to convince DH to help me and I'm not sure he'll be willing to 😢
Maybe I'll be back with some ta das 🍒👋

MONDAY:
Flight plan:
www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=-60&d=1

✅ home blessing hour
www.flylady.net/d/daily-focus/daily-focus-monday/

Basically run round like a lunatic getting everything done.

✅ zone 2 is the kitchen this week:

Take 15 minutes and scrub your stove top! Soak the knobs and drip pans in hot soapy water while you clean the stove top. Some elbow grease and hot soapy water will take care of a lot! Don't become a perfectionist and try to get it as clean as the day it was new. Just do the best you can and then scrub the drip pans and knobs. Don't scrub the knobs so hard that the numbers and words scrub off!
Anything that you do will be better than what it was!

Ta Das: (not in any particular order)

📑 filed a bunch of papers (all the way from 2020 😳)
📑 sorted out a bunch of shred paperwork & throw away (no recycling here unfortunately)
📑 sorted through our bedroom, took a box out of there (had coat hangers - DHs)
📑 took some things from spare bedroom downstairs
📑 showered, shaved, moisturised

There's more paperwork, hopefully that won't take long to file. I also still have to shred the papers I've sorted

Aaagh lost my post!

YesTaDa
🐷 (x2 I think)
🐷helped DD1 get stuff back into her room
🐷updated some financial info online
🐷cleared up a bit in my room - gathered laundry, bagged up rubbish etc
🐷cleared old tiny desk inside and out

Ta Da
🤧sat in steam for a while
🤧quick top up shop
🤧dryer on
🤧hoovered and wiped skirting in desk area
🤧built desk (slowly while catching up with celebrity masterchef)
🤧LOL
🤧hung up LOL

Feel like absolute trash and will have to probably leave my camera off during tomorrow’s first staff meeting as I’m a sneezy mess! But I’m glad I got my desk built, and I also finally built my little Lego Wile E Coyote and Road Runner to live on there. Meep meep 😁

Oops, first 🐷 was meant to say LOL!

Sing well done on getting your desk built! That's a huge accomplishment in itself. Hopefully you'll feel better soon 💐
I have a feeling I'll be needing to start making myself some hot toddy's pretty soon. I'm not there yet, but the weather is changing.

Ta Das:
🍹 the rest of the paperwork got sorted and shredded with help from DH
🍹 got dressed, makeup on, hair done and went out for dinner with friends
🍹 watched a movie (Thor 2 The Dark World) we've seen it lots of times, but started watching the Thor movies again. Now I also want to watch the Avengers!

I don't have to go to work tomorrow, but I don't want to be up as late as last night! I saw 1am, I'm too old for that shit!

Hello 👋 everyone
You all seem to have been very busy and have lots of TaDas!
Yesterday we started work on our new field, it was trashed by the last tenant, so in pretty poor condition.
We will be allowed to put up shelters and storage, and run a water pipe into it, so things will be so much easier plus will get all the horse stuff out of the house.
We spent a couple of hours pulling ragwort, I know I moan a lot about DP, but he's very hands on when it's practical stuff, he's topping the edges tomorrow so we can get the fencing up.
In the afternoon we went to a pub that had some live music, so yes, a lovely 😍 day.
I'm going to visit family for a long weekend, so my ToDo's are to clean the house, not really flyladying, as I like to come home to everything nice and clean.
I'm in the middle of cleaning my bedroom, it had got a bit teenage with clothes strewn everywhere 🙃
I'm still working on clearing products from my bathroom, my daughter is taking some, but I'm struggling with throwing part used things away. I've finally found things that suit my hair and skin (I'm only 60 😅), but having grown up in a huge very poor family wasting things doesn't sit easy.
I might take the perfumes to one of those pubs that have toiletries in the loos.
TTFN 🙋‍♀️