Fledglings Feeling Festive - come Fly with us

[ExquisiteDecorations]

December is where the winter starts properly, all are welcome as the Fledglings prepare their nests for the frosty times ahead, we are following the Flylady system for running our households - http://www.flylady.net

This is a long running thread, but we are a friendly bunch and all are welcome to join in. We recommend you do NOT sign up for the Flylady emails - we have been saying that for years because it used to be the case that there were far too many, no idea if that’s changed, if anyone has tried do report back. If you’d rather not, check in here instead or download the app.

There are Baby Steps for starting out, add one thing at a time to start good habits and routines - link here http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/31-beginner-babysteps/

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.

December’s monthly focus is pampering 😀.

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/december/
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

ED I am definitely feeling better, although still get a dry throat and coughing phlegm up randomly (sorry for TMI!). Thank you to those of you sending get well wishes.
Because of not feeling well, flying just hasn't happened this week, other than 3 LOLs on Tuesday before sickness really hit me.

I'm going out with MIL tonight to watch The Nutcracker (our yearly tradition), but this weekend will be dedicated to sanitizing every surface in the house, catching up on laundry and making caramels & cashew clusters.
I have orders I have to finish!

The threads really do help keep the house presentable and are really motivating.

YesTaDas:
🍬 caramels made
🍬 cashew clusters made
🍬 handwashed dishes
🍬 rotated DW
🍬 wiped countertops down multiple times
🍬 bleached bathrooms
🍬 made bed in spare bedroom
🍬 dinner and movie at ILs house, where DD & her BF joined us!

I had a productive day! I discovered I'm 1 orange truffle short and 5 oreo truffles, so that's my mission today. I do also need to wrap the caramels.
I should be able to get a bunch of orders completed today, but do need to pop to the grocery store for chocolate candy coating, as I don't have enough.

DD called me yesterday and wanted to surprise everyone else, which was a nice surprise for everyone!

I would like to finish my orders completely today, and redo my nails, but we'll see how it goes 🤷‍♀️

I need to redo my nails too, I did a French with silver tips (v.short) and glitter topcoat, which has been nice and sublte but is all chipped now. Might go for full on glitter now we are so close to Christmas.

Hope everyone is OK and not too overwhelmed by the seasonal stuff. A few basic routines are really helpful at this time of year, laundry, putting clothes out the night before etc.

Tada (whole weekend)!

Several lots of washing
Robovacced whole ground floor
Mopped kitchen floor
Put up back garden fairy lights
Finished decorating front window
Finished cards
Got cash out for cards for postman and milkman
Cancelled milk as got too much so that one will have to wait
Bins out
Cats fed, tabletted etc, litter trays done
Birds and hedgehogs fed
Carol service
Main weekly food shop
Taxiing DD around
Drinks with friends last night after Strictly, did anyone else watch? Wasn’t it fabulous.

Going to post the Monday Flightplan now, as I am going into work early tomorrow

We are moving into Zone 3, bathroom and one other room

Our mission is to clear the flat surfaces in the bathroom.

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

All orders, bar one, are completely done and ready to be delivered!
I just have to make more caramel to finish the one order 😇

That's such a relief to get them all done the caramels won't take long to make, although I'll want to make more cashew clusters for gifts too. It still only takes 2-3 hours total. (It's the same caramel).
I didn't get to do my nails though 😕

Well done on the orders @HazelNuttyElf hope you get the nails done soon.

Didn’t get much done last night as we were all out but have had a little blitz this morning, swish and swipe, DW emptied, cats and birds fed, a bit of general tidying and a shopping list made, just odds and ends like toilet cleaner and toothpaste. Off to work shortly.

Our mission today is to straighten up the laundry area.

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

We don’t really have a laundry area, WM is in the kitchen, dryer in the garage, ironing board in our bedroom. However there are two Ikea bags full of unsorted clean laundry from the weekend on our bedroom floor so I will try and do those before going to work.

ED I still haven't done my nails! They are bare right now. I hope to change that at some point this week though.
I won't get much done today as I'm out most of the day. MIL asked me to go with her to do some bulk shopping, then Dobby has a vet appt, I'll need to deliver an order and I need groceries.

I really need a full day at home to get the house in order 😩 I'm behind on laundry, bathrooms need deep cleaned. There's just not enough time in the day!
I will see what laundry I can get done before MIL picks me up though. We have our annual christmas party this weekend and I need to figure out games!

Well I have accomplished something already today! It's only just gone 8am here.

Ta das:
☕️ took DS to drivers ed class at school
☕️ 1st lol washed & currently in the dryer
☕️ 2nd lol (our bedding) is in the washer
☕️ ironed DS concert outfit, ready for the dress rehearsal tonight. The concert is tomorrow.
☕️ pulled chicken out of the freezer to thaw for dinner tonight

I still need to put clean laundry away to empty the basket.
Lately we have been eating out a lot. Between being busy, not planning properly and running out of time (not managing my time better). I'm ready for a home cooked meal, with lots of veggies! My waistline isn't doing so good either 😕

I ended up with a productive day, although still didn't get everything done I wanted to do around the house.

Ta das:
😴 LOLs x5
😴 shopping with MIL in next big town
😴 most clean laundry put away
😴 took Dobby to vet
😴 bank
😴 got a return ready for Amazon (I didn't get what I ordered)
😴 wrapped a present (work gift exchange)
😴 gave someone their order of treats
😴 got a game ready for our party
😴 got a prize ready for our party
😴 rotated DW
😴 clothes & lunch ready for tomorrow (back to work)

I hope everyone is well. It's awfully quiet on here, but I know, it's almost christmas!

Just you and me at the moment @HazelNuttyElf . I'm not surprised it's quiet at such a busy time of year but also hoping everyone else is OK.

Horrible day out there, wet and windy and still dark, Just read on FB that there’s a tree down on my way to work so will have to go carefully. Going out again tonight, pub quiz, but will have a couple of hours after work to catch up a bit (went out straight from work last night). Still haven’t sorted the clean laundry . Might have to open up the traditional Fledglings Naughty Corner I think.

Last night I went to clean the litter trays and found a cat had pee’d on the floor round the tray, we keep the trays on cheap doormats so that had to be washed and the floor cleaned .

Anyway, tiday, in missions I may well not get round to http://www.flylady.net/c/fp.php?tzm=0

We are wipinng down knobs and switches again. I swear I only did that about 2 days ago.

Hi, can I join please? I found this thread about 6 weeks ago and have been following the flylady zones and daily tasks (more or less) ever since. It means most of my house has has some attention, and is definitely looking better, and I feel more in control.

I cannot do full flylady all the time because both DH and I have long term conditions. Our energy levels and capacity to do tasks fluctuate, and sometimes we are busy just looking after the other one, or rarely we are both having off days at the same time, and its just staying warm and fed for a little while. But it is just the two of us and the dog, most of the time, so I am keeping on top of things more or less.

Hi @Nellieinthebarn and welcome, glad to hear you've been finding it useful. Over the years there have been many posters on these threads who have struggled to keep on top of their houses because of health/neurodivergent conditions or caring responsibilities, that's the beauty of the system, it is flexible, it all comes round again fairly quickly or you can adapt it to suit yourselves. The threads are a nice place to hang out for a bit of chat too, it's quiet at the moment but usually picks up again in Jan.

I'm here! Reading not posting mostly, lurking really. I'm hoping to be able to use one of our baby carriers soon to enable me to move around a bit during the day. It'll be a balance of doing things and still resting, but I'm looking forward to being able to get things done if I want to. Generally that can only happen if DW holds baby and if baby doesn't need feeding which at the moment is all me.

But yesterday I had about an hour of getting little things done - a quick vacuum of the lounge, putting away laundry, putting away one of the breast pumps I've decided not to use (someone loaned us a few to try), decluttering the steriliser, renewing the cloth wipes box, and a brief tidy of the coffee table. Nothing strenuous or difficult, just "needed to be done" jobs. When stressed, I really quite like organising things and tidying falls into that category as it's just "putting things where they belong".

Welcome @Nellieinthebarn officially to the threads! I have found my whole year vastly improved by being part of these threads even though my engagement with FlyLady has been sporadic at best! I hope you find similarly

Welcome Nellie, hello everyone else

My phone keeps doing reactions as I scroll so apologies if there are weird likes etc!

Pretty much ready for the Christmas hols here, at the expense of flying though. Should get a bit more done while I'm off!

Morning all,
Well all plans are on hold here, my mum has had an accident and is in hospital (broken hip). Hoping she will have surgery later or tomorrow. Probably not much Flying, if I don’t manage to post much please scroll up and use the previous link to the flightplan, it updates daily.

Oh ED that's tough for all of you especially at this time of year. I hope she's doing okay and you too.

@ExquisiteDecorations sending my best for your mum, that's rotten timing

Oh no ED! I hope your mum makes a speedy recovery.

Welcome @Nellieinthebarn 👋
Baby steps and little and often help. Flylady is not about perfection!

Chestnut as new mothers it's an adjustment with a new baby! You'll eventually find a routine that works for you all then baby will decide that won't work for them anymore, all of a sudden enjoy that baby and all the snuggles you can get!

Dilly I'm in the same situation as you!

I can't link but here are the missions . . .

Friday is car and handbag day. My car is OK but handbag needs attention!

Mission is a 5 minute declutter in the bathroom and your most cluttered room. That's supposed to be 5 minutes total - think I may need 5 mins in each!

Thinking of you ED

Thank you for that Dilly and others for kind wishes, I went to visit mum again last night and she was much better, having had surgery under spinal anaesthetic in the morning.

My car has become a holding point between things DF has asked me to take down to her (he’s frail and it’s a huge hospital so easier if I go without him), things I’ve picked up myself for her and all the bits she keeps sending home again as she is worried about having too much stuff to carry when she goes home (as if we are going to let her walk out and get the bus 😀). But I did have to do an emergency wiper blade replacement on Weds eve before visiting her, mine had split and it was raining, couldn’t figure it out for a while but got it done thanks to youtube (too tight to pay Halfords to do it), so the car has had some attention. Bag isn’t too bad as it is very small so cannot hold too much clutter.

@ExquisiteDecorations thats really good news about your mum, best wishes for a speedy recovery.

My handbag is tiny on purpose, so it took 2 minutes to clear. The car however, is a complete pigsty on wheels, but I will do something towards it after elevenses. The bathroom is done, so I just wiped the bath, loo and basin round.

Weekends are not so important to us because we are both retired. We don't have to squeeze in a date night on a Friday anymore, so we tend to do a date lunch in the week when its quieter.

Well, not only did I declutter and vacuum the car, I put air in the tyres and checked the tread depth. Then I went to pick DS up from uni so it is full of clutter again 🤦‍♀️.

That's good news about your mum ED
Well done on keeping up on your car, mine needs it but at this point I'm not even going to attempt doing anything about my Jeep until the new year 😳 I should take it through the carwash at least, but I can't do it if it'll freeze, or my handles get stuck 😡

Nellie well done for doing zone work! I can't wait until I can retire, but I've still got a ways to go 😪

Thank you Dilly for stepping in with the missions!

Today is our annual Christmas party! I've been working on the games throughout the week when I can. I have 2 ready to go!
This morning I'm going to have DS help me bake some cookies for the 3rd game (guess how many cookies in the jar, winner takes home the jar with cookies.

I have everything written down that needs to be done. Hopefully I'll be able to delegate some of those to dos to DS & DH.
I still don't have my nails done, so it would be nice if I can get them painted before tonight, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

Hotspot ill be back later with some ta das, but if not I should be able to get back on here tomorrow!
What is everyone else doing for family fun day?