January Fledgling Flyers - The 15 minute mess removal squad

[droitwichmum]

Happy New Year!

This is the place for you if you have made a New Year's Resolution to get on top of the chaos in your home

Here you can do any of the following:

• repeat or start baby steps

• repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone

• reinforce babysteps and do daily missions if you have finished decluttering

Here you can find out what it is all about. Try to ignore the cutesy stuff - cute the regulars on here are not! We also take some of the suggestions with a HUGE dose of salt (look out for wearing tie up shoes in the house)

If you decide to register for the e-mail updates from flylady be warned: unless you choose the daily digest only option you will be innundated with e-mails throughout the day. I will post the links you need each day so you don't need to register on the site to join in.

Dive in and mark your place - we start on January 1st!

Thanks everyone for lovely welcome

DH has promised me 2 child free hours tomorrow to make a start. Am actually quite excited about it!

Mrs Dinky my Mum gave me a slow cooker for Christmas and so far have used it to make a chilli and soup. Both were lovely

Also have a journal type thing that I had from my sister (plain ruled spiral bound book) and am wondering if that would do for the control journal?

Good luck with party MrsDinky - my advice is not to have many games where there are winners and losers - always causes terrible scenes when people refuse to be Out..
Lots of dancing is good with vague goals such as dance like cat, dance like robot, dance like snake.

DONE
more babysteps with decorations [bored now with subject - they are looking like part of sittingroom - do I care?]
tree removed to garden
front room thoroughly de-needled and swept
set up Wii sports for first time for kids
made choc cake and scones
various meals eaten and cleared up
clothes in my bedroom hung up
sorted out gloves, hats and scarves in hallway

YET TO DO
dust surfaces
any missions
put away some of clothes

Flame, hope you are managing, husbands can be awful when there is a new baby.

Positive - that's alarming, glad you were there, that's amazing really - you rescued her - perhaps you are feeling a bit shocked by it all and it's having a knockon effect? It's frightening to realise that just leaving one's house is so dangerous. We haven't ventured out today much, it really did feel like we were captives of the icerink situation.

Thank you all for your encouragement re the party. If all else fails I'll stick a DVD on!

SR From experience with DS (6) I found that you could still get away with "out" at age 4, but at age 5 it became much harder. I am hoping to get away to a large extent with generally leaving them to play, as they do when they come round on normal playdates.

Hi Neenook, welcome to the thread, have to confess that although I joined this thread at the start of Nov and have been quite diligently plugging away, my control journal still only consists of a loose leaf file with one page in and numbers 1 to 10 (or whatever ) down the left hand side. I rely on memory and my calendar and writing lists. I do think I ought to take the plunge and use the journal though.

PA when using the slow cooker for staggered eating times, what do you do about your potatoes or rice or whatever you are having with the meal? Poor lady, that fell, hope she is OK.

Flame, so sorry to hear of your woes, hope you can get the support you need to get you through this period.

Also, everyone please tell me the benefits of a slow cooker over a casserole left in the (gas) oven on low all day, which I do sometimes, is it much cheaper to run do you think? Safer probably if you go out.

Finished the other worksurface now.
Moved appliances around and now have a place for my shiney new food processor and even used it for dinner tonight.
Washing up done from dinner and I have a shiney sink
Wash in machine to start in the morning.

Still to do cooker and wash floor but that will have to wait till tomorrow.

SC I really ought to lose some weight but haven't got the motivation at the moment . Maybe OM is right and we should have another babystep.

No snow here yet

MrsD hope the party goes smothly and fun for all.

PA Wow! well done you on helping her and being a good samaratain. I asked DH to pop into the supermarket on the way home from work Friday and asked him to get some specific things to tide us over if we get snowed in, didn't need a lot but he has spent a fortune and bought things that I didn't tell him to and duplicated stuff I have on order.That's the 2nd time he has done that so never again [rolls eyes]

Also time with your family is a must, so enjoy it. The fat fairy would approve I think

Am thinking a slow cooker might be something I need to get as well, will be following peoples exploits with interest.

SC any idea what the zone is next week?

Gosh, doesn't this thread move quickly!

Just a quick note to say that I have successfully resurrected my slow cooker and we all ate pork steaky things and veg from it today! It was fine, though I won't put in so much liquid next time, and nobody has food poisoning. It's meant to have digital numbers but the long stay in the garage means it has 2 modes - on or off. So I put it on today to keep an eye on it in between the attempted journeys through the snow to dancing (one successful, one failed).

Otherwise - lots of washing and decided against mopping kitchen floor because everybody bringing in snow and grit constantly. Babysteps going ok.

Hope you all having peaceful weekend

MrsD hope party goes well - a game I used to do for January birthday girl was to cut Christmas cards in half and hide them round the house/hall etc. Game is to find 'pairs' and can reward with sweets or person with most pairs etc. Has the added benefit of getting rid of all Christmas cards! Also remember one party when all they did (aged around 5 I think) was play with Polly Pockets. Was marvellous - we did very little!

DD1 currently at party - she has gone dressed as cow! Including udders made from rubber glove fingers!! There will be alcohol and has gone with friend in friend's car. Friend not drinking I am told. Feel quite calm considering!
.
Today i have menu planned and done shopping. Was hell in supermarket and looked as though plague of locusts had descended on shelves. Never mind, is done now! Kitchen remains clean and sink shiny. Bought myself new cloths for cleaning! Bathroom also clean. Have put clothes away in bedroom and DD1 has found her bedroom floor.

Have also done work on control journal. Must think of better name! Have thought about jobs to do in each zone and also decided on zones for my house. Also made a list of meals we like which should help with planning in future. Tomorrow is chilli in the slow cooker - as posted earlier!

Have not done weekly home blessing so will try tomorrow. But not done badly.

Off to bed now - just started 'The Night Watch' by Sarah Waters - seems good but long chapters. Night all!

Good Morning!

Might I suggest tweaking the name Chaos has for her file, and naming the Control Journals the Binders Of All Knowing (BOAK)?

Neenook, I'm also new to the BOAK so probably more experienced flyers will have more to add, but I'm using a notebook with some post-it flags nicked from work I had lying around. I'm not bothered about the book looking messy if I scribble stuff out and start again. Anyway, I'm sure the fat fairy would say that it's more important to make a start than to worry about getting the perfect tools.

Does everyone have a different morning routine for the weekend? My family are cluttering up the house making the routine hard to get through

I assume that weekly home blessings come later, because I have no idea what you're all talking about. I'm sure it's another worthwhile idea in need of a namechange.

MrsD - Good luck today

StillCounting - yep, there is a hospital nearby, but you wouldn't want to use it unless you had to, iykwim. And having gone all that way, I wanted to see some friends and eat some sushi before coming back. I left my 3 yo with dp and just took the baby, so it was actually quite relaxing

Wow, that's quite enough emoticons for one post. I'll stop before I get the complete set.

Positive Attitude Missed your post before. I had a traffic accident a few years ago, my leg was badly broken and needed surgery in the end. I'll never forget the woman who stayed with me and talked to me while the ambulance was called, it really helped me stay calm. So well done and I hope you feel better today.

Bloody hell, another one.

Good morning everyone.

Quick post of babystep then back to bed

Link is here. This is a great mantra - 15 mins of anything achieves so much.

Back later

Just a quicky, then back to bed

Thanks for all your messages about the lady who fell.

MrsD - You asked about rice or potatoes. I have a rice cooker that keeps it warm nicely, so use that a lot. FOr pototoes I keep baked potatoes in the ordinary oven. Once cooked it is turned down low just to keep them warm.

MrsGok - I am so excited about all this slow cooker interest. I was given mine 21 years ago as a wedding present. I still have the same one! It took a while to get used to and did spend quite a lot of the first 5 years on a cupboard, but once I had sussed it out I have used it loads. It is only recently that I have noticed others getting into using them.

For today I am going to do shepherds pie. I brown the mince, add all the rest for meat part into the slowcooker. Leave til this afternoon. Cook potatoes, mash and spread on the top, using the slow cooker pot. I then put it under the grill to brown the cheesy top and once done, put back into slow cook holder and it keeps warm as we all dip in.

All these snow days mean that my routines are sort of flying out of the window!
I would like normality to return!

Right, back to bed. Just got up to let the cats out!
Have a good day everyone.

Mmmango - what is BOAK

DH is taking DS's for dog walk so am hoping to have a bit of a blitz this morning. Hopefully I will be able to see floors/surfaces then.

Do I post what I have done later?

Morning fellow flyers waves madlyNeenook boak is what MNers put down for that noise you make in your throat when you are trying not to be sick.

We usually put our to do lists down on here and then mark them done when we chenk back in later, obviously if we have

Today I need to clean the cooker top, hood and tiles.
Wash kitchen floor
Will do my 15 minute babystep in the hall
Washing on done
Keep o top of the washing up.

Am off to my PIL's this afternoon for lunch so won't get much done today. But it's nice having a kitchen where I can actually do things in.

Neenook I think you can post how you're getting on at any point! I am finding that writing it down, and in public, as it were, is somehow making me do whatever it is I was going to do!

Very pleased this morning - managed to complete getting out of bed, washed, made up, swished and swiped and downstairs in the space of 20 minutes! Including dressed to shoes. Boots though, not lace ups. There is a limit!

Right, today I am going to:
-make chilli in slow cooker - also a somewhat elderly wedding present from 20 years plus ago! (Oh heck, I got married in the 1980s!! Feels like another life time ago!)
-get to church with both DDs
-home blessing - which by my reading is a sort of general tidy and spruce up - but is naff name. (Would it help if I was American, I wonder?) I know the theory - it's putting it into practice I find difficult!

• sort out papers for work tomorrow and try and make up some sort of work plan/list of what I need to do
• ditto for Guide stuff

See you all later!

Didn't get back to bed as DD2 is BOAK-ing!! Lovely! Lurgy has arrived!

morning i think. ds has just woken me up to: "i'm going to have to discover mybed tonight. You have slept in the day so you had better get up and dressed one you have help me build my skaletrix"

plan today is to finish the washing and then get everything folded and away.

Been up and gone back to bed once already today - not sure what time it is now!

today:
wash up
sort laundry ready for laundrette tomrrow
shopping (here's hoping there's food left to buy!)
make DS packed lunch
do evening routine
not panic about tomorrow being DD's first day at nursery .. and potentially my first day back at work (supply teacher ... who knows )

Today I need to clean the cooker top, hood and tiles.done
Wash kitchen floor
Will do my 15 minute babystep in the hall
Washing on, one lot out and table cloth in done
Keep on top of the washing up.done

Can I say thank goodness for Stardrops, don't know what I would do with out it. It cut through the grease on hte cooker hood and filter and made the job so much easier and quicker. I have never taken the filter out to clean it and it was gopping. Can any one tell me, should there be something in the filter?

Don't think I am going to get time to do the floor today, will see what I am like when I get back from hte in laws.

But I have to say it is nice having a kitchen that is habitable and I can get the kids in there to help me with cooking etc.

Does anyone else wear an apron when they are cleaning? My neighbour laughed at me because I had my apron on. It isn't a prissy one, it's a heavy duty green striped chef's one (I used to be second chef in another life, long story.) Also I am fiding putting my shoes on useful as well, I have a flat pair of leather shoes that are really comfy. It's great to just go out and put the rubbish ags or recycling out straight away rather than the bags getting in the way.

Hi everyone - I'll do a round up of what you have all been up to later but can see there are some burning issues I will attempt to look at now

Zone for next week is the bathroom + a bit extra

Home Blessing does come later but it is fab. If you want to start doing it now here is the link to the flylady's FAQ page which tells you about that and loads of other things

Here is where you can find out everything you could possible want about control journals. I think the message is - make it work for you. You do not have to do everything she suggests, just choose what will help you to take/keep control of your life

I've had a look for links about weight loss but can't find any. Whoever has the book (was it SC or chaos?) is there anything you could 'borrow' from it?

Neenook its up to you how often you post. Most of us find it useful to post a couple (or more!) times a day - initially to post a list, then updates of how well (or not) we are getting along/ask questions/moan/shout for help

DH wants to play poker - see you later!

Oh, yes,MrsG, I definitely wear an apron. It is a family joke that I have many aprons amturningintomymother and had lovely new Kath Kidston one for Christmas - feel a bit like Anthea Turner in it though!!

Well, so far...
-chilli in slow cooker - done
-get to church with DDs - done
-home blessing - done
-sort out work stuff - not done
-ditto Guide stuff - not done

So not doing too badly. But having break now to watch DD1 on Wii music - and hope she lets me have a turn! - and have cup of tea with fresh cookies made by DD2 - anyone fancy a cookie?

Mrs G - you wear a pinny if you want!! The fat fairy has all sorts of denim tabards and 'pants with loops on' which caused all sorts of hilarity on the thread at the beginning!

PA - well done on your Good Samaritan act ! Hope you haven't caught the lurgy!

I was v. pleased with myself yesterday as I decided to get a grip and do all the kitchen missions in one go as I had been pissing about all week busy earlier in the week .
Today I have ventured with DH down the country lane to the school where I teach to see what it is like . Actually it wasn't as bad as I thought and I'm pretty sure my very robust and lovely head will open all day tomorrow. Just hope my boys' school has got its act together!!

Off to do the veg and check whether DC have stripped and remade their beds(before September it was an unheard of activity!!)

Catch you all later...

Just got home from PIL's and having tea.

Will see if I can get up the energy to wash the kitchen floor. Won't be a proper clean I don't think ut it hopefully will look better than it did before.

Thought I had no washing to do tomorrow but when we came in I went up to DC1's room to find the PE kit that he claimed was not there [roll eyes]. Found the bag, his school shoes that he said were else where and 1 and a half loads of washing so the washing machine is on again sigh

Hope everyone has had a good day

Have survived the party, phew. Only about half the original invitees made it, which was probably just as well, and a nice time was had by all (apart from someone being sick). Dairylea sandwich anyone?

Didn't bother with any games as such, only about half of them have been here before, so they all went off and investigated toys or did colouring very nicely. MissBennett top idea about the card matching. I had very efficiently recycled my cards into gift tags already, but we had an old set of matching pair cards, my two hid one of each pair round the house, then each child was given one to find the other of, when they got a pair they got another one, worked very well indeed, thank you.

Aprons - wearing one now, tend to wear them for cooking more than cleaning, only really if using bleach. For household use I keep a pair of crocs in the kitchen (our floor is freezing), also brill for popping in and out of garden. However was bought these

www.moshulu.co.uk/products-BO_BO.htm

the comfiest warmest slippers I have ever had, worth every penny, they have rubber soles so can pop out to garden in them (not this week, obv, using wellies). Crocs have hardly had a look in since.

Anyway, flying, Well, we had a big tidy up and hoover this morning, need to hoover again, will leave till tomorrow. I'm shattered also I twanged my back this morning and it is getting stiffer and stiffer. DS's school says it is open on their website, hoorah.

Going to go now, presents to unwrap.

HI everyone, i havnt been able to pop in much but the flyings going okish.

Had a mad busy weekend of entertaing friends with 2 dc by sleding and lazy sleding (towing the sledge's with the landrover), hot chocs and an endless supply of home made soup and the bread maker has been on over time.

Fab time had by all and the house doesn't look too bad, just the toys in bedrooms need tidying.

All children fed, bathed, nit check (does everyone else do this on a sunday?), nails, lunches and uniforms done for tomorrow so we're puttin our feet up with a good dvd.

Does anyone have any good ideas of what to do with chicken breasts and some lemons please?

Have a great week eveyone

You can make lemon and paprika roast chicken.
Rub some of the lemon juice over the breasts and chop up a bit more lemon to cook with in roasting tin. Rub a bit of paprika on breasts before roasting. very yummy