Fledglings Flying into November

[ExquisiteIyDesigned]

November is the month where we move from autumn into winter all are welcome as the Fledglings cosy up in their nests on this Flylady thread.

This is a long running thread, but we are a friendly bunch and all are welcome to join in.

Do NOT sign up for the Flylady emails - it's an excessive amount sent every day. Check in here instead or download the app, see below.

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. 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 (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
BRC - box/basket of random clutter/crap

There are more, 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. You can also modify the tick lists to suit your home & lifestyle.

November’s monthly focus is menu planning.

Links are below 👇 if I happen to not add links in time, they do update at midnight for you.

Baby Steps http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/
Monthly habit http://www.flylady.net/d/habits-of-the-month/november/
Launch pad http://www.flylady.net/c/lp.php
Flight Plan (all the day’s tasks in one place) http://www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=0
Sneak peek for the week - summary of the current week so you can plan ahead http://www.flylady.net/c/sp.php

Balancing chronic illnesses with doing stuff is really hard to get right. I got it wrong this weekend. I am grateful that i am not the one dealing with the lifting of flooring, just prepping the area. But bed ridden this morning which has not been helpful. Lost grip in hands, severe pain in hips, muscle spasams making moving hard. This is why i am looking forwards to getting to a point where i can fly properly because it should really help the pacing.
My job is to put stuff away with the goal of clearing a floor. It will be nice to have a floor space big enough to just lie on it and allow the back to untwist itself. I have no idea how i haven't worn out my foam roller with all the muscle issue work i have had to do with it the last year.

Cleaning out the fridge was so satisfying. However, a big hall of shame moment for me in realising the unopened box of shortcrust pastry I had bought "recently" and would use "soon"... had a best before date of January 2024. I must have bought it for mince pies last December and just never got around to it 😬 So that's gone. No weeding today, but did plenty else and even got a 2hr nap and a short walk in there, so I'm very happy indeed. I'll save the weeding for another day.

Today's wins:
Emptied and cleaned out the fridge
Screened fridge contents
Vacuumed kitchen
Washing up done and put away
Emptied kitchen bins
Vacuumed lounge
Breadmaker bread made
Fresh towels throughout
Changed soap dispenser in WC
Changed 1x set double bed sheets
4x LOL done and put away
Washed my duvet protector (discovered "down wear" setting on tumble dryer. Game changer. Now want to wash every duvet in the house).
S&S ensuite

Oh, also did 15mins tidying in the garage and found some dehumidifying pellet box things, so I set one of those up under the stairs. Curious to see if it works - we sometimes get a bit of a musty smell and 'tis the season for a bit of mustiness so figured I'd give it a shot. Has anyone used these things before?

Tada
🎉 breakfast pots and quick tidy downstairs
🎉 finished getting ready for work & school
🎉school run and work
🎉 school pick up
🎉 encouraged dd2 and ds to empty bag and put away coats and shoes as they can in
🎉after school snack (just some carrot sticks today)
🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 10 mins with a coffee!!
🎉 tea dished up and warmed through (roast dinner leftovers)
🎉 kitchen tidy , dishwasher filled
🎉 my plan was to have 15 mins tidy in ds room and have 30ish mins on the home blergh upstairs however the full 45 mins was in ds's room with him . It is in a bit of a state so we've decided to have a full declutter , doing it in bits when he hasn't got football . So the top of his drawers , 1 drawer and we pulled them out as lots of things had been shoved down the back and sides have been cleared and cleaned . 2 x small rubbish bags, lots of recycling and a donate pile from a small area of his room ! He was very grateful , I didn't realise how much having a messy room has affected him 😢 I have full mum guilt ! hopefully this will be a turning point and once we've sorted through it together , he will help to keep on top of it .
🎉 dd2 showered
🎉 washing from upstairs collected and put into wash buckets

I need a shower, pack bag for tomorrow and have a quick tidy through as well as timetables , with dd2 , reading with ds & dd2 and bedtime routine . I'm ready for the weekend and it's only Monday !! 😂

@SleepingIceDragons I really feel for you coping with chronic illness , I hope that you feel more comfortable this afternoon?

Ooo a nap sounds good @BeetrootBootreet ! Let me know how the dehumidifier pellets go ,I have a dehumidifier on the landing but still get lots of condensation everywhere. How are you feeling ? Amy more false labour pains?

@Searchingforbaileys lots of "is it happening?!?!" moments and then it all tails off. A bit frustrating but she'll come when she's ready. I get more positive labour signs when I'm pottering about keeping my mind off it and staying low-key busy, so lots of flying this week hopefully!

Sorry, overslept a bit and then headed off to work without posting, quick link drop to the flightplan
http://flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=0

The mission for today is to declutter at least one shelf of your pantry or food cupboard. Back later.

Thanks, ED.
Feeling a bit smug because the pantry was cleared out quite recently and looks pretty good still. I've got one more work surface to clean and think I'll then devote myself to some cupboard fronts, especially the handles.
We're due a shop tomorrow so the planning today will be necessary. As for the play, that's deferred to tomorrow when I'm going out for coffee with a friend.
Mind you, we do the Times crossword every day and I count that as playing too
Happy flying today, everyone and hope you're feeling a bit better today, SleepingIceDragons.

Yes, I had a box with a dehumidifying stuff in the top and then water would collect in the bottom. Very satisfying. But not as satisfying as my new dehumidifier! It’s been so helpful in making clothes actually dry…

I did my shelf - got shot of an out of date jar of pickled onions, some chipotle paste I should have used and two large hexagonal jars of Costco chutney we were given for Christmas in a selection two years ago. The minute I unwrapped them I knew it was their fate to take up room until they went off. Unfortunately DH is a bit of a hoarder and they came from his side so I wasn’t allowed to donate them

Well, glad the Flylady website came back, it was down for quite a long time yesterday and there is only so much of it I can remember.

So, pantry, we don’t have one but wish we did, my grandparents had a walk in one in their original 1920s kitchen and it was fabulous, I can still remember the smell of the food in there. But I did clear out our main food cupboard top to bottom a few weeks ago so am letting myself off today. We did the fridge yesterday while putting the food shopping away.

Going to go back to the babysteps, as well as shining our sinks, babystep 2 instructs us to get dressed (to shoes but that is controversial) as soon as we get up, so we are ready to face the day and not tempted to make a cuppa and go back to bed. Babystep 3 is to look at the Flylady launchpad, which is what links all the different aspects of the system together http://www.flylady.net/c/lp.php

Babystep 4 is an introduction to our control journals, which is where we plan and record our routines. http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/day-4/

Tada
🎉 up, showered (including hair wash) dressed
🎉 lunches
🎉 prepped tea ( easy hotdog and wedges so only had to open a tin and cut the hot dog buns 😂)
🎉 made everyone breakfast (bacon & cheese omlette)
🎉 breakfast pots , super quick tidy
🎉 finished getting ready
🎉 school run & work
🎉 school pick up
🎉 tea made
🎉started prepping granola
🎉 dd2 ready and dropped off at gymnastics
🎉 nipped to Tesco
🎉 finished prepping granola , cooked and boxed up
🎉 LOL in dryer
🎉 tea pots and kitchen tidy
🎉 quick tidy
🎉 clothes ready for tomorrow
🎉 spent a little time filling out some dates on the calendar

I'm absolutely shattered , all of a sudden my legs started hurting again this evening, low energy levels and had a bit of a cry , looked on my app and I've got 9 days left so i am in pms / pmdd zone , I get surprised by it every month 😂

Got under my sink this evening, thought I'd given it a good go last month but there was more grot lurking in previously unidentified corners today.

Polenta, dosa mix and some aspirational lentils chucked from the pantry. All mid Covid purchases I think, the period when we were allowed to shop but not allowed to socialise and I got all ambitious with my ingredient purchases.

Hot spot cleared and kitchen tidy and off to bed. Phew.

@DillyDeclutter "aspirational lentils" 🤣 I love this. I finally used some of our aspirational dried lentils (bought when I moved house in, er, 2016) in a slow cooker recipe recently and I just wasn't keen. Canned we get through plenty, but dried just don't work so well. You made the right choice.

@DillyDeclutter you are so right with the aspirational lentils . We only ever use bog standard red ones or pouches of green ones and yet the fancy ones creep in. I also have aspirational popping corn (different colours) and aspirational noodles (lots of different types).

@Searchingforbaileys great list, hope you got a good night’s sleep.

Tada!

Fed cats
Filled bird feeders - I like getting out into the garden for a short spell first thing
Emptied dehumidifier, the weather is so damp at the moment here it fills up fast
Got packed lunch out of the fridge, heading off to work shortly.

I am hoping to up my game a bit in the next few days, I have had a bit of an energy crash, last week was a busy one and next week is also filling up so I have had a couple of lazy evenings to try and restore energy and have slept a bit better the last couple of nights.

So, today, being Wednesday, is

Also, babysteps, the 5th was to start dealing with negative voices in our head and give ourselves positive messages, which is where this thread really helps I think. Flylady suggests putting positive affirmations on post-its where you will see them, gratitude journals or similar are also effective.

The 6th is Hotspots, those flat surfaces where clutter accumulates. I had a blitz on some of ours last month and managed to keep them clear for a few weeks but it is creeping back in, the idea is that if you keep on top of them they should only take a moment to clear.

Wednesday is Anti-Procrastination Day - is there something you keep putting off? I need to email the garage about a non-urgent repair to my car.

Our Flight Plan is here http://www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=0 and the mission is to shine that sink. Which we have been discussing anyway. So hopefully that’s a straightforward one.

My anti procrastination task today is to trial a few ways of tackling our mysteriously sticky kitchen door. It's wooden and feels like the wood extractor fan hood cover does when it hasn't been wiped down in a while, so you'd think it was just cooking grease build up... except the stickiness is on the non-kitchen side of the door. I have tried normal spray, washing up liquid and now vinegar (?). Scrubbing it does nothing except remove some of the varnish (woops).

Next trials: nail varnish remover (carefully), WD40 (why not). Not sure what else to try. It doesn't glisten, doesn't leave anything on your hands and doesn't smell. So no idea what caused it as it's been like that since we moved here. A mystery I'd love to solve.

Have you tried Elbow Grease (the product not the action) @BeetrootBootreet ? Get it in places like Savers. Sometimes nothing will shift it though, there's a pub near us with sticky tables, my friend asked for one to be wiped last time we were in there and the landlady sighed and said they had tried EVERYTHING and just couldn't shift it. Annoying.

@BeetrootBootreet it might just be that the varnish has broken down, might need a strip and revarnish if nothing else works.

@ExquisiteIyDesigned I also have a lot of aspirational noodles haha. I do cook a lot of Indian food so we do use a good variety of lentils. Just not ancient toor daal!

@BeetrootBootreet tooth paste is surprisingly good at removing the sticky left behind from stickers so might also be worth a go.

Re inspirational lentils... yeah the red ones become a red lentil curry that is adored in this house, i chuck a cup full of soaked brown lentils into the mince for lagsana and cottage pie. I am currently looking at lentil noodle recipes and suspect that my poor little coffee grinder is going to feel used and abused more because it never has seen a coffee bean. Only mushrooms, and herb and other veg.

burnout is strong, it is a complete struggle bus to get anything done which means that i am sliding further and further behind on the to do list. And this is a problem because there is a hard deadline on Saturday. <sigh> let there be heat? ...

I have some prep for DIY stuffs, and a kitchen that is a DIY dumping ground disaster.

I was feeling a little despondent this afternoon, read some posts here, and got up and ploughed through another of the chest-of-drawers shoeboxes. It is truly remarkable how incapable I have been in the past of seeing that crap is, in fact, crap,

Chopped back some branches in the back garden. Tidied the kitchen, got the tea ready, filled in Teens’ consent forms for a school activity, and now thinking of what to do to sort the kitchen. Fridges need checked over, and the clutter corner needs cleared out. All the homeless stuff ends up in there.

YesTaDas:
🍂 received new upright freezer
🍂 LOLs x4 (including sheets & towels)
🍂 took dogs to groomer
🍂 bathed dogs
🍂 bank
🍂 meal planning
🍂 grocery shopping
🍂 rearranged coffee corner in kitchen
🍂 vacuumed main floor & stairs
🍂 mopped
🍂 clean bathrooms - I used an abrasive cleaner on my vanity top in one of the bathrooms, which removed some of the finish. Now I'm going to have to refinish it 🤦‍♀️nothing like giving myself more work to do in the future!
🍂 checked with local music store about guitars for DH & DS. A lot cheaper than I thought they would be!
🍂 actually took donations to 2nd hand store (the box has only been in my Jeep for over a month.. if not 2! 😳

Hello ladies may I join? I want to gut my house pre Xmas- it's clean and tidy but I have just sat an exam (work related and prob have failed but have neglected life in general in the past few months while I revised)

So I want to get back on track with meal prepping and gut the house.

Today was day one and I have filled 2 bags from my bedroom.

Tomorrow I am going to sort the garage and get any bird food out to use.

Has anyone any tips in getting finger marks (probably make up or moisturiser) from muted painted furniture (my bedroom wardrobes have finger prints on them and cream cleaner has not worked)

I'm posting because if I don't post then I will fall off the bandwagon....again! Good day , lots done , everyone has eaten well which is my main priority now with my health investigations . Ds thanked me for all the yummy food this morning and said that he had felt better for it , so positive changes all round!

Tada
🎉 the usual school , work , school, home , tea , gymnastics routine
🎉 anti procrastination task was nipping to Tesco on the way home from gymnastics to buy advent calendars and look at pjs/snoods/slippers for the kids , will look in Sainsbury's on Friday before deciding.
🎉 folded some washing

I'm off to bed now , 2 more days until the weekend 🥳

@cunoyerjudowel hello and welcome. if you've got any talcum powder that might work if you dab some onto the fingerprints and leave it for a bit, it soaks up oil, I use it to get greasy marks off clothes.

Great idea about advent Callander and pj shopping! My dd and I are doing beauty advent calendars this year (we opened 2 for making smaller gifts and splitting the good stuff) and have the boots one between us. She has an allowance for clothes etc (15) but dd1 will need a proper Callander and I always leave it too late.

Today I have training tonight for dd2 and I which means we are out from 530-930 mma / grappling. So I need to get the meals prepped but I am off work tomorrow and want to get my car washed and valated.

Todays task as I am wfh is to go through the ironing pile and do any of my clothes and get rid of lingering items (everyone does their own ironing in this house)

I have gone through the spice and sauce cupboard already and got rid of out of date stuff