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

Thanks @HazelNuttyElf & @ExquisiteIyDesigned . Unfortunately even having someone look after dd2 whilst I do the ironing doesn't happen and that's when she stays at home and all that she needs is playing with and keeping away from the iron . I'm sure I'll get it sorted somehow , it always works out in the end doesn't it 🙂

Tada
🎉 eventually some sleep, was about 3ish when I went back to bed
🎉 showered and ready
🎉 dd2 and I went to an Xmas Fayre for a few hours, it was lovely ☺️
🎉 I popped a Christmas film on in my bedroom , dd2 got under the covers playing a game on her tablet and I tidied my room for the whole film - it hasn't scratched the surface really (like I've mentioned the house is in a state) but it's better than it was a few hours ago !

Oh is finishing off the Sunday roast and then I'll have the ironing to complete sometime this evening .

@HazelNuttyElf im sorry coco is poorly !

@ExquisiteIyDesigned sounds like a lovely afternoon you have planned !

Morning all,

Hope things have improved for Coco @HazelNuttyElf , that’s not nice for any of you.

Well done on the bedroom @Searchingforbaileys that’s the zone we’re moving into this week so you are ahead of the game. I managed to get my ironing done on Saturday morning, but I only iron for myself and mainly teeshirts so it’s fairly straightforward.

So, Monday is Home Blessing Day. I am having the morning off work to take DCat back to the vet for her post-op check (she seems fine to me, bossy and demanding as usual) so I might get some of the Home Blessing done. I have noticed quite a lot of dustiness and the bins do need emptying. I still maintain that for most peopole it would be a struggle to do all this in an hour.
http://www.flylady.net/d/daily-focus/daily-focus-monday/

Our flightplan for the day is here http://www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=0

Our mission is to spend 15 mins clearing under the bed. We have one of those lift-up divan ones and it had a really good clear out not so long ago, but small items such as coins and hairbands do get kicked under there so every now and then I get the metal pole which opens the loft hatch and use it to hook them all out again. I also have a bag of clean laundry to sort and put away.

Paddington 3 was fabulous BTW, if you haven’t seen it, definitely recommend.

I have fallen off, crazy busy with dc activities and weekend matches and fixtures on top of working extra myself in last few weeks. A few days off now so getting myself back on track. House not too badnbut just need to be a bit disciplined and productive in next few days.
Tadas:
School lunches
Dc breakfast and school drop
That's it 😆
To dos!
Empty dw
Take down and put away clothes on clothes horse
General tidy
Bake banana bread and flapjacks for lunch boxes
Quick hoover and room tidy
Start going through a box of college notes (!!) from the attic (sorted one of old toys last week)
Clean bathroom
Make dinner
Pickup dcs as raining
Help dc1 find sports gear for a final match Weds
Pay car garage and heating oil

I mentioned an estate agent last month, yes, planning to move in spring/summer so the devlutter has great purpose. Rooms in good shape now but attic and playroom the longer term sorts!

Hope everyone doing well.

A quiet day here - a rubbish night's sleep and lots of neighbour noise 1in the morning! Smugly, there's nothing under my bed at all so - tick! Instead:

Changed 2x sheets
2x LOL
Vacuumed lounge, hallway and bottom of stairs
Cleared draining board
Put together grocery order

Well done Beetroot, I can't stand it when neighbours make noise. I had it here all summer with ndn doing late night work in a hotel and coming home loudly!
Checking in with my tadas!
Lol and hung it up
Took down the dry and put in rooms
Steam mopped bathroom, cleaned toilet and sink
Made 2x snacks for lunchboxes
DW
Swept floor
Prepped dinner
Made tomorrow's school lunches
Tidied sitting room
Dc homework
General tidy bedroom
Paid car service
(Not enough for oil payment until Thursday payday :/ )

Still to do:
Hoover
Sort box from attic
Put away my own clothes

Coco is doing worse now 😢 luckily DD was home for a surprise visit, so dropped her off at the vet for an emergency visit. They are doing blood work on her and will get her fluids. When I called the vet they said they couldn't get her in until tomorrow. I tried 2 other vets as well, no luck. But DD was to the rescue. She put her in the car and took her over there, appt or not! Needless to say, I'm stressed, worried about her. Tired due to broken sleep all weekend and I'm stuck here at work (it's a slow work day here too, which doesn't help).
I'm not sure when she'll be coming home, it wouldn't surprise me if they keep her overnight.

Sorry for not posting personals, I just need to let out my worries somewhere! Hopefully I'll be back later with a better update and personals.

Morning all, hope you’ve had some answers for Coco @HazelNuttyElf , and some sleep.

@BeetrootBootreet grrr to neighbour noise, we are lucky here in that both our immediate neighbours are quiet, we just get a lot from further down the road at times.

Any snow anyone? We are in the deep south so it is just heavy rain here but a very cold breeze, it’s the same temperature as yesterday (8°) but yesterday I was able to go out in just a thick jumper, today is full thick coat weather. DH is away near Manchester and sent a snow photo last night.

We haven’t talked about November’s monthly habit, which is menu planning, it is my single biggest fail when it comes to organising the household. Ac combination of fussy eaters (some SN related) and hobbies that take us all out a lot in the evenings has meant it has never really worked. It is abit easier now with DS away at uni as one less person to consider, and DD cooks either just for herself or all three of us quite often now, but there is still always a lack of an actual plan. With that in mind I will need to pop to Sainsbos on the way home from work.

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

flightplan is here, the mission for today is to get rid of anything that does not belong in your bedroom. Ours is very small so that doesn’t happen too much, there is no space for it to become a dumping ground, but another ironing pile has occured so I amd going to try and tackle that tonight.

Thanks, ED.
I'm in the fortunate position of being retired (I always point out it was early retirement, but that's less relevant as the birthdays go by!) and I like cooking, so I've plenty of time to spend in the kitchen these days.
However, I've always done menu planning which for me is deciding on meals for the week (although now it's more like every 4 or 5 days), making a list of everything I need, getting any frozen items out the night before and checking the recipes I'm using as part of my morning routine.
Also been fortunate in that DC weren't overly fussy as children go and no allergies. Younger one became vegan after leaving home; would have changed matters a lot if she'd decided sooner.

So sorry to hear about Coco, HazelNuttyElf. Sending best healing wishes her way and really you manage to get some rest.

We've a sprinkling of snow here but, hopefully, not enough to stop our new hob being delivered.

I'm using bedroom week to sort out, and try to jettison, some of the literally hundreds of books at the top of my wardrobe. I know I won't read lots of them again, but I hate getting rid of any book just in case.
I've already got a big pile, so will have to distribute them around the charity shops in town carefully otherwise they might start hiding when they see me lumbering up with yet another bin bag full 😆

Thank you! One thing I'm fairly good it is menu planning. I'm all set on that one this week. Beef stew tonight.
To dos:
Dw
Continue to declutter attic boxes, I've been v sentimental going through old docs from precious jobs and uni notes, I was sooo organised!
Tennis game
Walk dc to school... now! 👋

Oh I'm sorry to see that *HazelNuttyElf 😔 *

ED, LaMarschallin& mikado thank you re Coco. She stayed overnight. It was my choice, encouraged by the vet. They can keep an eye on her and check her over this morning. They will be calling me with an update and I'll be able to bring her home at some point today.
Dobby is moping around, he misses Coco, so he'll be excited to see her when I can bring her home.
I slept like a log last night! Almost 8 hours! Much better than the broken 5 hours I got over the weekend each night. I feel well rested, even with waking up early.
I have a very busy morning, all out of the house, of course!

ED we have had some snow here (although I know it doesn't actually count since I'm not in the UK). The roads were dry this morning, which is nice, but there's snow on my grass! It is absolutely freezing here too.
I need to get my meals planned for this week. We ate out last night, but can't do that every night! I couldn't get it done this weekend with Coco feeling sick.
I always plan and cook meals that will last a couple of days, so that means less cooking, which is nice.

LaMarschallin I've heard of places (I think online), where they will pay you for your books too, if that helps. I've seen them mentioned on the decluttering thread before, but I haven't paid attention to the details.

mikado it really helps when you're organised! I have areas I really need to declutter and sort out, some is organised, the rest is in shambles! It can be overwhelming though, either way.

To dos:
☕️ LOLs (lots, although washed our bedding on Saturday, so that doesn't need to be done today!)
☕️ hair appt
☕️ drop off a package, a return DH has
☕️ dentist appt
☕️ lunch with a friend (a late birthday lunch, I still have her good over a month later..)
☕️ pick up Coco, at some point today
☕️ bathe dogs
☕️ vacuum
☕️ mop
☕️ clean carpets (depending on how Coco is doing)
☕️ meal planning
☕️ grocery shopping
☕️ cook dinner/ meal prep
☕️ clean bathrooms
☕️ maybe start on my treats, since I haven't been able to yet, orders for Christmas are starting to come in!
☕️ general tidy around the house

I guess I'll see what I can get done today.. it's still early, only just gone 7am! Multitasking will be my friend today.

I meant my uni notes were organised.. me not so much but know now what I need to do having started. Shred pile, dump pile, keep and donate/recycle! Of course the dc are spotting old toys and pulling them out to play!! Slow moving today. Great you got a decent sleep Hazel!

Glad you're more rested, HazelNuttyElf, and thanks for the tip about potential profit for the books. I'd be jolly grateful just for somewhere that would take a load but extra money is never unwelcome 😃. DH has been bitten by the bug too, but his books are more specialist: a lot of chess, philosophy, physics etc which probably wouldn't be that useful for the local charity shops.
I'll hie me to the decluttering thread and have a look.
Failing that, I may start a thread. Thanks for the good idea 😊

Morning all,

Yes to the book buying website, when I was on the PTA many years ago we had loads of donated ones left over after a Christmas sale and made some money on them that way, can’t remember which website it was though. I tend to charity dhop mine in dribs and drabs but do sometimes get a bit of cash from a secondhand bookshop for them.

Brrrr. No snow here but it is 0ºC and first proper frost. Very pretty sunrise.

Wednesday is anti-procrastination day, our mission is to wipe down the lightswitches and doorknobs to our bedroom PROPERLY (as opposed to a quick wipe over last week). Ours were replaced last year so they are still in farily good nick, I might skip this one, I do need to vacuum upstairs though, it didn’t get done at the weekend.

Here is today’s Flight Plan
http://www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=0

Big anti-procrastination tasks done today! We had snow, although it has mostly melted away now it was a lovely 24 hours. Today's wins:

1x LOL
Household admin
Cleared landing of all clutter
Vacuumed landing and top half of front stairs
Fixed multi photo frame photo slippage
Hung more pictures on gallery wall
Put up new house number
Prepared rice pudding for cooking later
Breadmaker on
Received grocery delivery

And I'm also excited to report that the nail varnish remover seems to have worked on the sticky door. I did have 3 really good goes at it but it worked! We'll be replacing all the downstairs doors at some point so I don't mind that I also took off some of the varnish 😬

You are doing well @BeetrootBootreet , glad the nail varmnish remover worked, it does shift just about anything.

Well, I am floundering a bit, Flying-wise. Life suddenly seems to have got very hectic, Christmas stuff starting to happen, DCs, work, school governor stuff, plus a friend is very seriously ill and needing a lot of support from DH so he is rushed off his feet too. So, not much attention being paid to the house this week. However I am stacking up notes in my brain for when I get a free 5 mins and keeping on top of laundry and hotspots so that’s something. I need to anti-procrastinate a day late and phone the dentist today.

Thursday is Errand Day, I don’t think I have any of those to do at least.

The mission for today is to put away stuff in your bedroom, I’m sure we did that earlier in the week (or not in my case). If you did do that already I would suggest dusting your dressing table, bedside tables etc.

http://www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=0&d=1

Tada!

I x LOL washed, will put it in the dryer tonight
Cats fed and cuddled
Milk fetched in and put away
Packed lunch made
Dishes put away from drainer
Empty conditioner bottles rinsed and removed from bathroom (that is usually one of the bathroom missions but didn’t pop up last week)

Thanks, ED, and well done on the ta das.
Love a rice pudding, Beetroot.
I've been down and done the first part of my morning routine plus put a pork shoulder in the slow cooker for supper of pulled pork and disposed of a mouse neatly laid out in the centre of the floor, poor thing.
Back in bed with electric blanket and coffee, unenthusiastically contemplating the upstairs hooluse bleugh to come.
At least it'll warm me up

The front room has been drying out nicely, all the towels are laundered and back in cupboards. DH will check under the carpets that the boards are totally dry then everything can go back in place.

The upheaval has pushed me to acknowledge the true extent of my clutter, and how very distracting it all is in a crisis.

I’ve been struggling with it a bit too, @ExquisiteIyDesigned - getting all our stuff to fit in our new place has been a struggle and DH has so much bloody stuff, you would not believe. So many clothes - and will not throw anything away.

If you are finding it a bit hard I wanted to say how much I appreciate you running this thread, I’ve dipped in and out as I’ve been more or less motivated, but I do find it useful and it keeps me hopeful I will eventually get to a stage where I am properly on top of things!

My errand day task was somewhat delegated - arranged a parcel collection instead of going to the post office. Bit worried as I selected "bring me a label" and they didn't... took the parcel anyway and said they'd do it at the depot. Time will tell! But lesson learned, don't rely on RM actually bringing a label. Meanwhile:

Wiped down soggy windows
Disinfected oboe reeds
Household admin
Parcel collected
Baked cake loaves
Cleared draining board
2x washing up

beetroot I use bring my label all the time and it works brilliantly. I'm always recommending parcel pickup!

I've dusted my bedroom but not got a lot else done this week mission wise.

Any tips for cleaning fabric lampshades? It is (was) cream pleated fabric and has got dusty and fly spotted. I'd love to put it in the washing machine but suspect it wouldn't survive. Dry cloth hasn't shifted most of the dust and a damp cloth has made it look dirty all over. Was a wedding present from someone we didn't know very well and haven't seen for years so I don't really mind replacing but would prefer to save if I can.

@DillyDeclutter I was definitely surprised. I've now had an email saying the collection has failed and to rebook... but they have my parcel! So that's alarming. Hoping RM turn up today to return the parcel to me at least...

Re: lampshade cleaning I tend to use the dusting vacuum head or a lint roller, but would probably do a "hand wash" the spots off in a washing up bowl. How bad is it - can you share a photo?