Festive Flying with the Fledglings

[ExpensiveDecorations]

🎄Welcome to the December Flylady thread, this is a long running thread with many regulars but newcomers and returners are all very welcome. We love to chat as well as looking after our homes.

Do NOT sign up for the Flylady emails - your inbox will end up very cluttered!

There is an app that you can customise to suit your schedule and home but I haven’t tried it, others on here have, you can customise it and use it for notifications.

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!

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 a week. It's also date night (with your significant other, or friends, or yourself!)
• Saturday: family fun day
• Sunday: renew your spirit

Common acronyms we use:

• LOL: load of laundry (we aim to have lots of laughter too)
• Mount Washmore - multiple LOLs
• DW: dishwasher, not wife
• LMS: lose/lost my shit
• DNLMS: did not lose my shit
• BRC/DRC: box/basket/drawer of random crap

I'll try to update links every day, although it could get a bit hectic as we proceed through the month.

Links are below 👇 if I happen to not add links in time, they do update at midnight for you. Ask if there us anything you understand - our motto is No Fledgling Left Behind.

Launch Pad (the heart of the system): https://www.flylady.net/d/new-links/
Zones (different weekly focus areas of the house): https://www.flylady.net/d/zones/
Baby Steps (these build up into daily habits): https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/
31 Beginner BabySteps | FlyLady.net
https://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps
Flight Plan (daily summary of the relevant parts of the system) http://www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=0
Festive Flying http://www.flylady.net/d/cruising-through-the-holidays/

Having said that I don’t actually regret relaxing this week. The previous two school holidays were filled with DIY-related stress, and this is the most at peace I’ve been in at least a year I reckon. So I’m making the most of it and everything else is January’s problem!

After my huge housework day Christmas Eve, I did nothing Christmas Day and we mainly are cake and chocolate. It was lovely

The unpleasantness continued after Christmas but I stamped on it quickly. The results of this remains to be seen, but so far all is quiet again

Women Don't Owe You Pretty - is that any good Sing? I considered buying it haven't got round to it

Morning all, apologies for the long absence, we were away for a couple of days and I just haven’t been feeling any motivation for anything since getting back, this is by far and away my least favourite week of the year, everyone at home on top of each other, weather nearly always shit, off work, friends not generally around, nothing much going on locally (and TBH we’re tired after a very busy December), basically bored stiff. Been eating badly and sleeping badly as a result, roll on Tuesday and the return of normal routines.

I haven’t even looked at Flylady this week, just been keeping the basics going and putting away new presents etc. We are firmly in the decorations up till 12th Night camp here though, they are about the only cheer at this time of year, and I love the tree so much (also it’s a real one so we want to get maximum usage out of it, it is on a table as our living room is so tiny so not taking up any extra floor space).

However DH and DD have gone out this morning and DS hasn’t surfaced so at least I’ve got a bit of time to myself. Stuck some washing on and am about to update my budget spreadsheet.

Would anyone like to take over the thread next month please? I could do it but to be honest am feeling apathetic and don’t really feel I’m giving it my best this time (some of you will know I have been on here 10+ years). Sometimes it really needs a fresh pair of hands.

It’s ok ditzy - really thought provoking in some ways, but I was eye rolling at some parts. I was surprised the author was only 21 when she wrote it as well!

Listened to a bit of the audiobook before bed and some more this morning, not done anything else yet today! Had some really unsettling dreams so didn’t sleep well.

po3.1
❗️Brush hair and teeth
❗️LOL (towels need washing)
❗️Discuss plans for the day with H

No plans for the day, phew! I am struggling to stay awake TBH.

po3.2
❗️Listen to more audiobook
❗️LOL in dryer when it’s done
❗️Go through to do list and see what I can do today (some needs to be on a weekday etc)

po3.2
❗️Book next set of home ed dance lessons for Cagletini and message her friend’s mum about it
❗️Look for some clothes in the sales for Cagletini (she’s outgrown or worn through eeeeeverything)
❗️Book a Tesco delivery

ED if no one else can, I should be able to run the thread in January. I don't think there's anything crazy going on for me that month.

Ditzy that sounds like a perfect Christmas!
Sing well done on getting to actually relax!
Elf I'm so impressed with your progress after the move!

Thursday night was hell for me!
I got home from working all day (out of the house almost 12 hours) to a complete mess!
The restoration company had been here to add texture to the ceiling, where they had to patch a hole. Apparently it's a spray on thing. It was everywhere on all the walls in the kitchen and dining room, on all the cabinets in the kitchen, countertops, windows, curtains in the dining room, tablecloth, chairs. They even got it on the dogs and DS, when they snuck upstairs and he had to go get them 🤬
I cried, sobbed 😭 it was awful.
It took me 1 & 1/2 hours to clean it all up, thankfully it came off easily.

Of course, hormones were at play so made it worse, but DH was due home late that night, I planned to turn on a movie, cook dinner leisurely and relax. That didn't happen 😕
I'm done with them being in my house. The painter is due back, he doesn't make a mess so it's welcome. The restoration company is no longer welcome inside my house to do anything (but they should be done now anyway).

The fence is getting installed next week, so that's exciting! It's a fencing company doing it, so should be done well.

Sorry, last post for a few hours, maybe!

Today we are going to pick up our camper. The roof has been fixed, not under warranty, but the company we bought it from last year is working with us, as far as cost. It's still a lot of money 😫

More to dos:
☕️ meal plan
☕️ grocery shopping list
☕️ grocery shopping
☕️ take tree down (although I'm not ready, we need the space for new years eve) 😪
☕️ put up new years eve decorations
☕️ go to ILs tonight for dinner

I also need to find a good budgeting app. We're going to do a no/ low spend January. Only buying what we need: groceries, fuel, bills. Our spending has been a little out of control and we need to take back control! I've tried to do it in a journal, logging everything, but it takes so long that I don't keep it up.

OMG hazel that’s awful 😡

po3.4 (just realised I misnumbered the previous one!)
❗️Bit of digital decluttering (online shopping wish lists)
❗️Message a couple of friends about meeting up with our DSes
❗️LOL

Hazel that sounds soul destroying. Made doubly worse as you were expecting a relaxing evening. Thankfully they have finished and can fuck off with their mess.
I am sorry to hear about your camper. I missed what happened to the roof, but hopefully all will be mended. I appreciate it's yet another thing to deal with.

Re budgeting app, I am a big fan of YNAB (You Need A Budget). Now I do all my budgeting on it. It's not free and at first a bit pricey even, but their system works well. I am usually fairly tigh fisted and don't do paid apps if I can avoid it 😬 You get a month free trial without any commitment to signing up to see if you like it.

ED I hope you manage to get out of the funk. I love New Year's, there is something special about new beginnings. In my birth country, Santa usually comes on New Year's rather than Christmas, it still keeps that magic for me from my childhood, although now we do Santa on 25th of Dec.

Ta das:
🎅Bleached other two bathrooms
🎅2 lols
🎅Folded and put away all clean laundry
🎅Sorted out the kitchen. DH cooked lunch today and honestly, the mess. I had to break out my Elbow Grease.

Elf I don't remember if I mentioned it TBH, but they noticed the seam was starting to come apart on the roof when we took it in to get winterized. We left it there back in October, so it's been gone a while!
Thank you for the app recommendation, I'll look into it.

Ta Das:
🎄tree is down & put away
🎄New Year's decor is up
🎄vacuumed living room, especially where the tree was
🎄dusted living room
🎄moved sideboard back into living room, with help from DH (the tree goes where it usually is)

I'm going to go grocery shopping tomorrow, mainly for our party!

@HazelNuttyElf thank you so much for offering to take over the thread, I intend to stick around but just haven’t got the thread leading mojo at the moment. Nightmare about the ceiling spray, you have had a long, difficult time of it with the renovations.

Re budgetting spreadsheets, I have tried so many things over the years, it doesn’t help that I follow Martin Lewis and am always opening and closing accounts for better interest rates / incentives and ending up with my savings scattered over multiple places. I have three current accounts for different things and two credit cards too, it all works but it makes keeping track a bit of a nightmare. I have finally settled on a spreadsheet format this year which seems to work, in fact that is one of my jobs for this morning to get it updated. Key is not to let it slip for too long. I don’t write down every transaction but do print out my credit and bank card statements every month and tally up categories eg car expenses, food out etc.

I've woken up feeling slightly more human today . I wasn't well enough for visitors on Friday and I had to miss ds fundraiser night 🥲 yesterday was spent moving as little as possible but I managed a bit of food .

Today's plan of action is to get out of my pjs and have a bit of a tidy round ready for tonight. I honestly don't feel the life and soul of the party but the kids always have a great time, dd2 who is 7 has already announced that she is going to have an afternoon nap today so she can stay up 😂

@HazelNuttyElf the mess sounds utter hell and I'm crying for you!
We are also trying to spend very little in January although it's the youngest's birthday so there will be spending! But hopefully we've done most of it.

✅ made a huge vat of tomato soup with free tomatoes
✅ squeezed in 1.5 litres of orange juice with free orange juice.
Now I'm off to at Xmas cake.

Oh @HazelNuttyElf ! That sounds awful - what a relief it came off easily, I hope the camper roof gets sorted as easily as possible. Thank you so much for offering to take over the thread in January.

Thank you @ExpensiveDecorations for all of your brilliant thread leadership 💐

Making further inroads into flylady habits is definitely on my NY resolutions list. Not sure where to start right now though...maybe time to take the decorations down. I only put up about half this year so shouldn't take that long! Maybe I'll find that missing jigsaw piece too...

How depressing about the mess Hazel. Can't believe they sprayed it on the dog!

If you only used half the decoration House do you need to declutter any?

Hope you get your mojo back ED you've done well this month regardless of not feeling it.

Good luck with the no-spend Pompoms.

Hope tonight isn't too taxing for you Santa.

I'll be asleep I suppose before the bells ring. I like new year better than Christmas but I never do anything any more so it always feels a bit flat now. It's the downside to living somewhere quiet.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/housekeeping/4974362-new-year-fresh-start-with-flylady

☝️link to the new thread for January 😇
I'll do my best to keep it updated every day, but you know how that goes!

We are having a party/get-together tonight at our house. I have my grocery shopping list and online coupons clipped. Now I just need to get dressed and ready for the day!

ED thank you so much for running the December thread, you did well, especially with everything going on.
Ditzy it just makes a mess & gets everywhere, they were lazy and didn't put plastic up to contain it. We always host new years eve, I like to stay in, and love to host!
home the camper is now repaired and back home, we picked it up yesterday. I need to get better at flylady routines also, hopefully being thread leader next month will keep me motivated.
pompoms birthdays do make it hard for no spending, but even low spend months help.
Santa I'm glad you're feeling a bit better. Don't overdo it today though!
ED we used to always use a spreadsheet, but now never get on the home computer. I'm going to try a combination of the budget option on my banking app and the financial journal I have. I will sit with DH tomorrow to get it sorted & planned out. I'm not ready to link my bank details with a budget app yet, it scares me!

Sorry posted on new thread. Hope everyone has a Happy New Year. See you in 2024!

If you only used half the decoration House do you need to declutter any?

Yes - I think I do @DitzyDaffodils ! Not as much as half though - as I do usually use more than that. This year was quite minimalist as I could barely be bothered to do it and didn't decorate two areas I usually do, or put as many as I usually do on the tree. Some are definitely going though! I must finish it. Now would probably be a good time! I will pick out the ones I haven't used for the last 2+ years and get rid of those. Thanks for the increased motivation to do this!