June's Fledgling Flyers:"two flyers are "blooming marvellously" : here come the rest doing their flaming best"

[elliepac]

Welcome to the June edition of the Fledgling Flyers where we are going to attempt to restore order in our houses, chatting 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 June 1st.

This morning's work has consisted of wandering round garden with dh discussing relative wishywashyness of various blooms,
locating Legoland on Google maps, trying to work how to get train to hotel etc,

linzer at least you can just work uninterrupted knowing they are having a nice time

Sorry Ellie - we had pizza. We used to always have Chinese, then domino's opened up in town. DH did suggest Chinese, but he only ever wants the same things (nothing with any veg in it basically) and I get bored of it now.

He's taken the DCs swimming, I was going to go shopping, bought DH some shirts in M&S during the week, he said he though they would be too big and was going to try them on this morning so I could change them if necessary, but he forgot, so have postponed shopping till later. Going to try and do lots of gardening today, also hoover.

Agree with what Ellie said, before Flying it would take an hour and a half of tidying before I could hoover the whole downstairs, now it take 5 mins. Can now tidy, hoover, dust and clean kitchen and bathroom surfaces and floors in 1.5 hours, rather than just tidying. Still hate hoovering, but it is so much less of a chore now.

Like Linzer (sympathetic wave) I am also working today, so shouldn't be looking at this thread at all really. DH and MIL have taken DC out for a couple of hours (DH and DS1 both feeling better today) so that I can get some uninterrupted work time. Trouble is, I have so far spent it eating lunch, doing chores and catching up here. Am quite disappointed that I don't have a 'mission' to do today.

Have done all my morning chores and even put all my dried washing away. Have actually reached the bottom of my bathroom laundry basket, which has never happened before. This must be because I have been conscientiously washing a load every single morning this week. There is another laundry basket to get through, but that belongs solely to DH and is too much for me to cope with yet.

Ellie and MrsDinky - it's great to know that this Flylady system works. I am feeling the benefits already. At last, I don't feel overwhelmed by the state of the house anymore - and the shiny sink gives me a real boost in the morning.

Am really looking forward to tackling my bathroom next week. The shelves are bulging with shampoo bottles etc. and there are countless toys scattered all round the bath and in a crate on the floor. Can't wait to get at it!

OK, must start working now. Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Hi - I want to join in here but I just can't fly... stitches in my right hand (carpel tunnel op so it's a bit weak too.

Anyway, my kitchen sink is driving me insane now it is under the command of dh. He is trying, but, well, I probably don't need to explain! I thought I could try to miss out all the things that would be risky for my hand but I'm struggling... Any ideas?

Hello Gentleness welcome to the thread, about your hand.

You can start by doing very little, the thing is to get good habits established gradually, and then some sort of schedule for all your jobs so it will all fall into place and your home will be beautiful! That's the theory anyway! There's plenty of help and encouragement here. Maybe start with a few babysteps. Our current leader elliepac posts links every night to the next days babysteps (beginners) and missions (advanced) work.

The sink needs a good scrub first, then to be wiped down thoroughly once a day. My DH NEVER does this, so it is left to me (as is most of the washing up anyway, come to that). You probably need a good browse of the Flylady.net website to see how the system works.

Waves at everybody else.

Feeling pleased with myself tonight, managed to dig a tree stump out of the garden that has been defeating DH for 3 weeks!

Got to go, football beckons.

Alternatively, issue FLYing instructions to DH! Welcome Gentleness and hope you are healed very soon.

Evening ladies,

Warm welcome to Gentleness.

MrsD Good on you for disodging the tree stump. Extra sense of satisfaction when DH has struggled Enjoy the footie. Those bloomin' trumpet things do my head in!!! Sounds like a hornets nest in my head, permanently. DH has refused to wtch it with the sound off .

Toffee and Linzer Hope your day went well. Working on a Saturday!!

Swanriver, sounds like a wonderful days work

Linzer of you wilting in the heat. I will be in 12 days time (He he cant wait!!)

Welcome back Muckyduck.

Big waves to MM MissB SC DWM Ellie Desire OM and everyone else I have missed.

Weekend going ok-ish so far. Last contingent arrived home at 3.40am this morning. First lot up before 8am for breakfast before work, so I felt as if I had very lttle sleep. THe most humungous amount of BBQ food consumed at lunchtime, now all disappeared until the early hours again.
Only niggle is that I have discovered that it is no solely my teenagers who are incapable of replacing wet towels with dry ones after having showers. I found a mountain of wet towels in the shower room and absolutely NO dry ones. I suppose I should be grateful they are showering!!
I do feel appreciated though, and have been told all day that I am "A legend" and I "rock". I feel as if the only way I am going to rock tonight is in a grannies rcking chair!!! Stupidly tired!!

Cats are still unsettled. To dissuade No.1 from pooing in his favourite place in the house when he shows disapproval I blocked his access and put down airfreshener to put him off. It worked!!! But unfortunately I came down the stairs this morning to have poo squelch through my toes in the most disgusting manner possible. If it wasnt for the fact that I would have woken up the whole house I think I would have screamed! Every time I have even thought about it today I have had a shivery spine and felt all weird!! Such a woos!!

Brain is now asleep! I think I may doze on the sofa before picking up DCs tonight. I think I am doing a trip at 1.30, then any others will make their own way home.

Have a good evening and see you all tomorrow.

Evening everyone

I really want to say hello to gentleness and a big hoohaa to everyone else.

I have just sat down and my day has been a busy one!

morning routine-done
check smoke alarms-nope
homemade cottage pie for dinner not a jar in sight [proud of me emotion] made at 5.30am
washing dh pile of clothes now dumped in corner next to laundry basket-nope
iron clothes for packing-dh did most
check tyre pressure & petrol-dh did
packed lunch-done
go to childrens festival with dc-done very nice two tired people tonight in bed at 6am
unpack and tidy car-done
packed dcs toy cases-done
wrapped fathers day presents-done
cleared out fridge
mopped bathroom floor
swept living kitchen flior
tidied dc bedrooms
try and pack car-done
proper house rescue can't stand coming home to pig sty!!
round up missin items from list-still to check
make packed lunch for journey-done
put final fix on holiday ocado shop-still to do
watch bb and bed-still to do

I am almost ready for holiday but definately ready for bed.

Sorry not to do individual mentions. I hope you all have a lovely week and I'll prop pop by cos I'm addicted to see how you all getting on and to keep an eye on any new news x

Evening everyone,

well that was an anti-climax .

How are we all doing?

nettie has been a veritable whirling dervish and is in need of a holiday. Good job she's going on one tomorrow . Have a lovely time .

pa won a poo battle with the cat, then lost a poo battle with her cat. She continues to be supermum but that's because she's a legend! I am sure your brood truly appreciate you, I hope I can be half as tolerant with mine when they get older although I wouldn't like to bet on it .

mrsd had a battle with a tree stump and won, a battle her DH had previously lost going to prove that, at times, men are entirely superfluous .

toffefudgecake has been working very hard at both RL and flying and is beginning to see a real difference . However, she is starting to scare me a little bit because she is looking forward to doing the bathroom.... Even with flying I never look forward to doing the bathroom, my DS has rather wayward aim .

sr spent her morning discussing wishywashyness, whatever that may be . Hope you have a fab time at Legoland!

desire did you manage to get the floors done? If not, fret ye not. And that's an order. Babysteps are where it's at and missions are an added bonus. Just pick up where you left off and remember that this is not about one mahoosive clean up, it's about establishing routines, every little helps (I should work for Mr Tesco )

linzer has been very busy with work. I hope she hasn't melted in the heat! Remember, babysteps, babysteps!

Last but no means least gentleness I would like to officially welcome you to the fledgling fliers . I am so sorry you ahave hurt your hand. I post the steps every evening. These are called babysteps and are siple steps to establish routines in our households which stop them from being in constant chaos . I suggest you follow today's link and have a look around the site. I also post a daily mission although I wouldn't worry about that for the moment. The crazy utterings above are the round-up where I sumarise what everyone has been up to to try and save you some time because us ladies like to chat . Just dive in and do what you can, or just chat for the time being, familiarise yourself with the routines until your hand allows you to get stuck in. Welcome, welcome, welcome .

elliepac astounded herself today by doing all routines, all washing, all putting away, all cleaning . She suspects she may have been possessed by some strange fat fairy spirit .

Big waves to sc om muckyducky missb gormers chairmum (hope you are ok ) feetheart nick mm dwm and anyone else i've missed. Hope you've all had a lovely day .

Today's wonderful babystep is.....drum roll please.....deleting e-mails. Slight anti-climax there . This is only relevant if you are still receiving the fly mails. Don't just delete, stop them .

Have a good day everyone!

Hi, all.

ellie your round ups are fab! And PA you are supermum to cope with all those people - and I think your rules eminently reasonable!
toffee I am joining you in irritation at fruit flies!

Well, what have I done today?
-Got DD1 to work
-Back to DD1's work with forgotten house key
-Fat club. Put on lots - birthday and excessive stress eating (lunch yesterday = scone, muffin and capuccino)
-Fresh start to diet and been VERY good so far and counted everything (virtuous symbol!)
-Back to DD1's work to see if she was ready
-Home to collect clothes for DD1 and make her lunch so could go straight off from work....
-Back to DD1's work to collect her - finally! and to follow DH and DD1's car to garage to drop it off
-Trailed round shopping centre with DH (if I have to consider the various merits of a new shirt again I might scream!) and pre-occupied DD1
-home.
-cleared out fruit/veg basket - and I disposed of 1 x rotting lettuce, 1 and a half rotting butternut squashes, 1 x unidentifiable item (?lime), several sprouted-beyond-use potatoes and a manky leek. Not very pleasant and generally smelly and soggy
-shouted at Dh and DD1 who could not offer any tea suggestions
-trip to supermarket to purchase tea items
-cooked tea
-shined sink
glass of wine

Roll on tomorrow! Having reread this, I am beginning to realise why I never get anything done!

Evening All

V quick post before bed to wave to everyone and wish Nettie a fab holiday.

Ellie I also love all your round-ups but last night's was especially good - I think the wine added a certain je ne sais quois!

Night all x

Ellie - sorry I'm scaring you! I'm sure the novelty of Flying will pass soon enough. I love your round-ups - keep them coming.

Not much Flying today as I have been working, but I did manage two loads of washing and put it all away

Cooked shepherd's pie this evening, washed up as I went along and had loaded all the dirty dishes into the dishwasher before bathtime. Kitchen still sparkling.

DH a bit nervous about the new me. Think I might be scaring him too, Ellie.

Positive - I don't know how you're managing on so little sleep, but I'm very impressed. And as for the cat-poo... I just hope the memory fades.

Linzer - hope yr work is going better than mine.

Gentleness - welcome to you and hope the hand recovers soon. In the meantime, I like MiniMarmite's suggestion about giving the Flying list to your DH.

Back at my desk now. Wish you would all stop talking about wine. I really fancy a bottleglass, but have to keep a clear head for my work and DH still can't drink because of the evil antibiotics. Will celebrate meeting this deadline (if I ever do) with a drink next week.

Goodnight all.

Good morning,

I'm feeling quite refreshed after a lie-in until almost 8.30 this morning, which is virtually unheard of and only manageable when the DC aren't here (a v. rare event).

Really must make more of an effort with flying today. All I managed to do yesterday was one load of washing (finally hung up at around 8 pm). If I can get the work I've planned for today done this morning, I may have a few hours to myself this afternoon (not sure yet when DH and DC will be back). Will be back with a list later anyway.

Toffee How's the work going today? Despite constantly getting sidetracked yesterday, I managed to get everything done that I'd planned - it sounds like you're ahead of me on the flying front, however. I will join you in staying off the wine for the time being; when is your deadline?

MissB Must admit I liked the sound of your lunch yesterday!

ellie V. impressed by all that you've done - you are a worthy leader.

Nettie Have a lovely holiday!

PA Where are you off to in 12 days - is it the wedding? I'm not sure I'll be able to cope with my own teenagers when the time comes, let alone a horde descending on the house - you are indeed a legend.

MrsD Well done on the tree stump!

swan How was Legoland? We were thinking about going to the one in Germany, but I've heard varying reports about it.

And last but not least, welcome Gentleness! Hope your hand is better soon; I think quite a few of the babysteps should be manageable even with your hand out of action (getting to bed at a decent time, meal planning, not getting sidetracketd, etc - all the things I'm bad at!). Could you perhaps manage some decluttering (some things might be easier to declutter than others - paperwork, say)?

Off to have a shower now and then start work. Have a good day everyone!

Hi all. Just popping by as haven't been on MN at all for weeks and just wanted to say hope the flying is going really well. I am very short of time for coming on here so won't be around until the school hols I don't think but will come back then and have time to post & catch up with babysteps etc.! Hope everyone is well - big wave to all!

Too tired to fly today. Up till 1.30 again, doing work, and will have to keep at it today. DH still ill from the antibiotics, but MIL has agreed to stay an extra day so I can get on with work. She is being fantastic.

Linzer - Well done with your work! I'm not doing so well. I have roughly 160 pages to proofread by Tues afternoon. That's about 60,000 words. Do you think that's reasonable? It seems like an awful lot to do in a short space of time, but I'm so rusty that I can't tell if this is reasonable or not. It's taking me a while to get back into the swing of it again.

When is your deadline? Maybe we can both open a bottle to celebrate when our work is done.

Hi to Biddy. There are a lot of Flyladies out there, it seems.

Bye for now.

Morning all,

It is a not very nice day and am feeling rather uninspired. Not done a thing yet and am still in my Pj's!

Plan for today looks like this:-

Quick whiz round downstairs
DW unloaded/reloaded
WM on
Dinner prepped
Schoolwork to do

biddy nice to 'see' you. Hope RL is ok although clearly busy! Look forward to seeing you in the summer hols .

toffeefudgecake wow, you are working really hard! Good luck with the proofreading . How lovely of your MIL to help out. I am blessed with a lovely MIL who is always willing to help out where she can .

linzer another one who's working very hard. If you do manage a few hours to yourself, I truly think flying should be at the bottom of the list, you need a break . PS we will be sending a postcard but there are none in this godforsaken town. Am going away next weekend so will pick some up then and send them next week if that's ok!

DH just taken DS out to my mum's to do a couple of jobs for her and DD is watching our old favourite Peppa Pig so am going to finish my coffee and commence sweep round.

Have a lovely day everyone. Back later!

Toffee I can def. empathise as I was up until 1.30 on Monday and only now feel like I've caught up on my sleep. Just about to put some coffee on if you'd like a cup!

160 pages does sound like a lot but it depends how many corrections you need to make - if it's only correcting one or two typos per page it would be quite manageable, but I've had nightmare jobs (usually written by a non-native speaker) where it would take me weeks to proofread that number of words. I'm sure yours can't be that bad, though! Have you worked out how many pages you can/need to do per hour? I find that usually helps me not to panic too much; I give myself a set number of words to translate/proofread per day and any extra I can get done is a bonus.

Hope your DH is better soon; it's great that your MIL is happy to help out. My ILs are v. good at taking the DC off my hands when I have to work; my parents OTOH are a bit about me working.

I have roughly 30 pages to translate and another 30 to proofread by Thursday lunchtime; I'm aiming to get my half translated by Tuesday to send to the other translator for proofreading (am about halfway through atm). A bottle or two of wine when we're both finished sounds like an excellent idea.

biddy Hello, good to see you back (even if it's only briefly for now)!

x posts ellie - I'm not feeling v. inspired today either (work or flying wise) but at least you have a list, which is always a good start! No worries wrt the postcard; we'll be happy to receive one whenever you have time to send one (and can get hold of one!).

Thanks for the advice, Linzer. Have just completed one difficult chapter, but I was warned that would be bad. Hopefully, the others will be easier. You are right about working out how much to do per hour/per day. I have also been trying to break it down into 15-minute batches (like Flylady), so that I don't lose concentration. It's getting very boring. Mumsnet is a terrible temptation. I need to be more self-disciplined.

Apologies for the hijack also, everyone.

Very little Flying today. Have done my sink and loo, and put a load of washing on. That's it. Delegated lunch to DH.

Bye for now.

Oops, just woken up after a 2 hour sleep - so not much flying happening here!

DH has taken DS out for a bike ride now so I have an hour to rush around!

Hello everyone and welcome gentleness (what a lovely name!)

Have set myself a challenge - invited PILs to tea next Saturday. So I have 1 week to get this house looking presentable without hiding the rubbish in the spare room. Should be do-able and just what I need to give myself a kick-start.
So tonight I am going to:
tackle the ironing (she always thinks I have loads waiting to be done)
DW
wipe down cupboards and worktops in kitchen
shine sink
make DH sandwiches (see below)
s&s
bed on time (DH getting up around 4.30am - work by 6)

Back later

Evening everyone,

Well despite being a little unmotivated this morning I have:-

Quick whiz round downstairs done
DW unloaded/reloaded done
WM on done
Dinner prepped cookedeatenclearedaway
Schoolwork to do notyet

Am a little peeved because I have done loads of washing this weekend in an effort to not let the mountain grow again during term time and it has been really good 'drying' weather. I left DH's work clothes until the last wash (heavy duty gear) and it started raining....they won't even tumble..grrrrrr. On a positive not, I have done loads of washing and there aren't piles of it everywhere, it is all in folded and put away (I don't do ironing unless reaaaaaallly necessary). Almost unheard of for me!

Going to bathe DC's now before sitting down to do some school work. It is the last history exam on Tuesday so am hoping workload will calm a little (at least until I start the exam marking!). This also means extra spare time at school

Back later for round-up.

Evening!
Have got shepherd's pie in the oven and home made ice cream in the freezer. Feel like domestic godess Shame the house does not really go with such a feeling

But I have done a load of washing, cleaned the bathroom, done the grocery shopping and coffee after church - oh and general ferrying of DD1. She seems a bit more cheery today - and sang a solo at church which was beautiful
DD2 is back from Guides weekend - tired but seems to have had fun.

I have failed to find her EU medical card so am going to give up and request a replacement - presume this will be possible?

ellie hope the sun shines tomorrow and the history exam brings a calmer period.
DWM good luck with your challenge!
Waves apron to everyone else - off to eat now

hoo hum on plus side...dh can't slope off to work at moments notice! There is a lovely hot tub and no washing machine!!!!