May's Fledgling Flyers: shed that clout May Flyers are out

[elliepac]

Welcome to the May edition of the fledgling flyers where we are going to merrily fly around the maypole, dusting as we go.

Here you can do any of the following:

• repeat or start baby steps (again!)

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

or

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

For those who are curious, these are the Babysteps, which we all hope will restore order in our homes and make our lives a little bit easier with lots of support (and chat, and wine, and a little more chat )

So please come and join us, old and new, from May 1st.

at Mt Washmore. I dream of scaling its dizzyin heights!

Mt Washmore is a bit like the magic porridge pot - I haven't seen the bottom of the basket for years....

Can I join you all - have tried befor but have always been really bad

Welcome back Neenook

welcome back Neenook, no need to beat yourself up about it. It is a fresh, shiny new start for everyone. .

Am having a mini flouce. got caught in the crossfire of a misunderstanding that got really nasty. Fed up of personal attacks being banded about so taking a long break.

Happy flying during May. Hope the various mount washmores get tamed. You are all lovely ladies.

My goodness, I can't believe I need to catch up with the thread before it has even started.

Marking my place

Hello everyone, this is your first post elliepac styleeee.

Today's very first babystep is shining our sinks. I remember the first time I saw this I thought it was bonkers but it really works. Trust me . They let me teach children so I must be trustworthy .

As it is the weekend there are no missions which is fabulous seeing as, here in Blighty anyway, it is a Bank Holiday weekend so this is family time. Enjoy! (sorry sc and linzer and anyone else who resides in exotic climes)

For those of you who are joining us, focus on the sink shining, anything else is a bonus not a necessity. Oh and massive big welcomes, I hope you get as much out of this thread as I have done!

For those of you returning, how lovely to see you, let's get cracking. . I know for me new month is going to equal new beginning. (in addition, if I stuff up and forget something, please remind me, no offence will be taken, honest )

Happy flying! .

....and breathe. I am ridiculously nervous over words typed in cyberspace and the responsiblity that comes with an online cleaning forum. .

dem quick word to say I hope you are ok. You are a lovely lady too. We will miss you and look forward, hopefully, to your return sometime in the future .

Neenook - totally agree about laundry and magic porridge pot! welcome aboard.

MM have a good rest this month; after leading us all with the flying you deserve it.
DEM we don't do personal attacks on this thread! we will look after you!
Ellie don't be nervous! I will be trying very hard this month.

Lets compare shiny sinks tomorrow

Evening Ladies,

Well done everyone for flying though to the end of another month and thanks for all your kind words. I'm handing the fairy wand to Ellie for May, thanks Ellie .

I hope you are having a good evening with DH PurpleWednesday. DEM I saw on the other thread that you are taking some time out. Hope you come back and join us soon, you know where we are if you need us (or just want to share some virtual wine, biscuits etc) xxx.

PA I hope the icing sugar incident has passed and things are now a little sweeter (sorry, DREADFUL joke)!

SR I've decided over the past few years that I have to not worry about the state of my house or myself where neighbours are concerned - they seem to turn up unannounced at all sorts of times so they have to accept that there might be a stack of washing in the hallway and I might be wearing my pyjamas!

Sounds like you have early starts Linzertorte. Good luck with all the washing.

Sounds like you've done really well this week Biddy, you'll be flying with style in May I'm sure .

Well done on ground floor tidyness and laundry being under control SC - I still remember all those swimming towels from back when I first joined!

Ellie hope the wine is going down well.

Glad you are looking forward to more flying Nettie . Me too - lots of decluttering to be done. DS (20 months) decided to empty two of my clothes drawers today and I realised how much of it I've not been wearing - time for a trip to the charity shop I think.

See you all in May x

It is clearly time to step away from the wand - posted in the wrong thread !

I've climbed Mt Washmore, and Mt Shouldironmore, but am still not tackling the dreaded shale of Mt Paperwork and Mt TobeFiled or even worse Mt Shreddy. Do you hink if I can just put it all in the bin and wait for Final Demands? Dh just puts everything under his desk, waits five years and chucks. Well except passports. He made need to make a getaway from cross wife.

Have a wonderful vitamin D filled weekend all!

Good morning ladies,

Thank you for the flying start Ellie (oh you young and beautiful one!!!) and the round up of last month on here MM (was that to confuse me this early on a Saturday morning?

Icing sugar all cleared and stickiness abating. Relationships back to normal with DH and me!

SR - not too convinced about the vitamin D, I think it could be H2O here!

I think after 9 months of practising I can cope with todays babystep!

Last week of election fever. I am getting very excited and obsessed with all the goings on. Am planning an all-nighter with a close clooeague to follow it all into friday morning.

Yesterday I managed to do a mass hoovering.
SO far today I have put the dishwasher on (forgot to push the "ON" button last night.
Loaded tumbler.

Lots of taxi-ing today, oh the joys!! DS -Tennis, DD2 - work, DH - meeting, DD3 - to a downs syndrome meeting (for childcare experience) and then I need to hang around to bring her back home when she needs to, so looking forward to an hour of reading my book in the peace & quiet of my car.
Shopping to do.
Curry to cook.

Ok, have a good day everyone.
to everyone!

Morning all,

Oh I do like a new thread - and have lots of good intentions for this month. Having managed (sort of) to get the hang of the morning routine last month, I'm going to focus on the afternoon routine in May. And go back to basics with the babysteps too, which I more or less ignored last month.

We managed to get a first communion dress for DD1 yesterday but I was at the prices. We went to C&A as we thought it would be relatively cheap, but the dresses there started at 100 euros! Luckily everything was 25% off and we bought the cheapest dress we could find (actually quite nice) but still, 80 euros for just one day...

List for today:
Persuade DH that we need to go and check out the new M&S in Bratislava
Shine sink
Tidy up downstairs
Tackle ridiculous amount of Playmobil that the DH have

Hope you all have a lovely bank holiday weekend! It's a bank holiday weekend here too - weekend being the operative word however, as the bank holiday is today so we don't get a long weekend unfortunately (but do have a few to look forward in May and June).

Morning!

Sun is shining here (for now) so I have 1 load of washing on the line and another in the machine. DW is on and my sink is soaking in bleach.

I have decided not to do too much this month although more than last month . Had a couple of months feeling very down BUT over the last 3 days have taken control of the household finances and feel MUCH better now. Things don't look anywhere near as dire now as they did last weekend.

It is swimming today and a family day in town so if it doesn't rain, that is where we will be this afternoon.

Have a good day everyone

oooh, i've got a wand, how exciting .

Morning all,

This month, I am going completely back to the babysteps and starting again because I really need to get the hang on of those routines (have only had 8 months, clearly not enough time!).

Today is a busy day with supermarket trip and coffee at friends afterwards. Then have SIL round this afternoon. Plus DS is going to some Beavers orienteering thing this evening which necessitates a drop off in some woods at 5.30 and a pick up at 9.30!

Have a good day everyone. Back later!

Just actually read your messages, lol at pa! (happy taxi-ing)

dwm sorry to hear you have been feeling down but pleased you are starting to feel a bit better. Just do what you want to/can..

linzer I would feel cheated if there was a Bank Holiday on a weekend!

Happy may everyone :-)

I have this morning purchased some proper sink cleaner for graphite composite sink (who knew I was sure it was granite!) so I sound be shining it with gusto, not bleach in 5 working days.

today's list

banking
washing
ironing
tidy hall
clean dining room chairs
today is the day for bookcases clearout!!

Good luck everyone

Good morning all - happy shiny May!

Ellie - glad we are easing into May gently - shiny sink I can do! No missions - I can do! Don't be nervous you will be great!(and you've got a wand don't forget!)

MM - thanks so much for last month - I know I was only there in April for a week, but it was a good week and I have made progress so thank you very much!

Morning all,

I'm determined to get back on the wagon today. Still tired but I am planning on spending all day in my PJs tomorrow while DS is with H.

Before that I want to get the house in order so I can relax and veg out tomorrow, so for today:

• Play with DS and his new football
• Go out for a relaxing lunch with a friend and DS
• Give kitchen a good clean
• change bedcovers (nothing nicer than lounging around in clean sheets)

• hoover downstairs
• swish and swipe bathroom
• close doors on untidy rooms

(cleaning through should only take an hour!)

I have bacon, sausage and egg ready for tomorrow's brunch for one, and some DVDs lined up to watch in bed

Hope everyone has lovely family weekends. I'm going to enjoy this peaceful one (DS off about 3 today) as I won't have many left before the baby comes!

Morning! I got a bit lost on the April thread and couldn't catch up but I will stick to this one.

Hope you all enjoy the weekend. X

Right, I am going to be good this month and do

1. babysteps
2. decluttering

Lead the way Ellie .

I am doing ok so far as the first thing I did when I get out of bed this morning was to declutter the remaining two drawers in my chest of drawers (DS was only too happy to help me empty them and then tried to empty the ones we tidied yesterday)!

We have also almost selected some tiles for the bathroom, phew!

Just need to shine my sink now...

[Pursuing Ellie around the maypole brandishing a feather duster]

Happy May Day everyone!

Hope you are all having a restful weekend.

My challenge for this month is to maintain baby-steps and routines AND declutter and not to let any one of them slip. It will be a battle but it MUST be done. Only two months until end of term (summer hols start 1st July here). Yikes!!

Having said all that (!!) having a lovely day today footling around in the garden in the sunshine, although rain is threatened shortly. Also feeling very chipper as received completed unexpected breakfast in bed from dh accompanied by a bunch of lily-of-the-valley from dd (it's a May Day tradition here to present little bunches of it to the women of the household).

Going to get cracking with sewing and laundry this afternoon however and inspired by MiniM (thank you!!) I need to sort the two remaining drawers in my chest of drawers as well!

A warm welcome to Frubear and a warm welcome back to LittlePurplePrincess and Neenook (sorry if all the chat on here is making thread hard to follow - I am one of main culprits ) Hope it doesn't put you off

Take it steady Chairmum - hope you have a lovely relaxing w/e

Sorry you have been feeling down Mummy hope this month treats you better...x

Yes Linzer - at least we have compensation of Ascension and Pentecost hols coming up ...thank heavens - dress sounds lovely btw

Crikey PA up with crack of sparrows again I see - am quite of your election fever .. am missing all the debate ... have lived over here for so long I am now disenfranchised ... Good luck with the chauffering today!

Swanriver - get out your crampons girl - I shall be accompanying you on your dual ascents of Mt Paperwork and Mt Tobefiled (latter is a killer!!) WE CAN DO IT!!

Mini you have a very good memory!! Yes, thankfully can honestly say things HAVE definitely improved since those dark days thanks to this thread. That's the thing about Flying isn't it? It's so gradual that you don't sometimes notice the progress you have made. Newbies take note - if I am saying this (my house was complete and utter pit back in August last year) then Flylady system will most definitely work for anyone!! MUST conquer the home office and basement of doom this time though. No excuses.

Hope to see you back soon DEM

Waves to Biddy, Nettie PurpleWEd Optimistic Iloveasylumseekers and anyone I have missed!!

Out riding most of tomorrow but back Monday.
Take care everyone!

Hi again all,

• Play with DS and his new football done
• Go out for a relaxing lunch with a friend and DS done
• Give kitchen a good clean
• change bedcovers (nothing nicer than lounging around in clean sheets)
• hoover downstairs
• swish and swipe bathroom done
• close doors on untidy rooms

I've found a surefire way to stop myself getting worn out. I'm catching up on the vampire diaries that I recorded and only doing housework in the adverts Should slow me down sufficiently!

Afternoon all!

Well, I survived a very eventful week including working 2 extra days but actually enjoyed them and things have settled here.
Thanks for all your kind messages regarding DD ( she is much better now and is trying to do revision etc in small steps so we shall see...) and DS1.

So far today I have:

Done 2 lots of DHs washing
Room rescued Kitchen/Masterbed
Done 2 lots of drying
Banking
Driving lesson with DS1
Had nice lunch out with DH (the joys of having teenagers!)

Still to do:
Take DS1 to rugby training
Pick up DS2 from cinema
Check on DD
Go to lovely neighbours for takeaway curry.
Tescos (arggh!)
Ironing (arggh!)

See you all tomorrow with the rugby result! Fingers crossed everyone!!