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.

Aww Chairmum the little babe will be here soon enough - good luck this week. Hope he/she comes sooner rather than later!!

Just a quick flyby by me. I am too in awe of PAs parenting laidbackness!! All I can offer is that a very smelly and hoarse GF turned up tonight having been to IOW at 7.30, jumped straight into my shower and was then full of wonder for a full roast dinner!! Obviously I can't compete with you PA but felt I did my bit for the festival goers of the nation.
I had a wonder moment today when watching my DD talk animatedly and intelligently to a Y9 boy and parents she had never met about CFS/ME (which she recovered from 14 months ago using something called Lightning Process). She has almost definitely helped another teenager start on the road to recovery!

No flying really today as far too busy with Y3/4. How excited were they to be designing a homemade healthy drink? The propsect of tasting some tomorrow was almost too much! Bless!

Hope to get on at some point tomorrow.

Night allx

Evening Ladies

It is the end of a very long day, hurrah!

Chairmum oh gosh I remember 40+3 well! Sending clary sage and raspberry leaf tea vibes your way!

MrsD best to be tannoyed and find that said DC has already been found IYSWIM! I have daily moments of panic - why are young children so small and manage to disappear behind things so often?!

I had a funny sort of day. Needed to go to the GP this morning (oh joyful ailments of pregnancy) before going to a client company for an all-day meeting. I took my urine sample with me as I was hoping he would do the normal mw checks so I didn't have to have a separate mw appointment tomorrow. But, oh no, it was all beneath him. I then hastily dashed off, urine sample in handbag to the client company. Nothing untoward happened thankfully (so, sorry, a slightly more boring story than you might have been hoping for) but I was having visions all day of accidentally retrieving it from my handbag when looking for a pen!

Late getting home as meeting overran and bad traffic and arrived to a lovely dinner cooked by DH but he seemed to have used every single pot and wooden spoon we own...cue an hours worth of kitchen cleaning!

Waffle waffle...I think I should go to bed!

Just saw your post and wonder moment about DD OM, that's wonderful, you must be feeling very proud right now

PA - "open house" sounds even nicer with the explanation. Definitely the way I'd like things to be (and hopefully I'm laidback enough most of the time to enjoy it) I'm sure you are doing your mum proud and it sounds as though your DD is following in your footsteps

MissB - what flavour ice-cream? I need a few more to add to the repertoire.

MrsD - wildlife centre was College Lake, near Tring. Its an old (now flooded) quarry that has been taken over by the Woodland Trust - nothing fancy but good walking, lots of flowers, butterflies, birds, etc. We all loved it.

Linzer - haven't managed to get DD to actually part with anything yet though have instigated the 'one in, one out' rule again!

ellie - if they paid rent I'd be RICH and might be happier with the house being taken over

Welcome Gentleness, I love your name too.

Still busy this afternoon:

• Shop - done
• Pick ups - done
• Roast dinner - done
• DS to swimming lesson - done
• Boy cat to vet - DH's job - done
• Evening routine - nearly done
• Bed at sensible time - nearly 11pm now so better move myself

Night night

Feetheart - i know that feeling wrt fluffy toys. for a child who is not supposed to have many due to allergies ds seems to have a horrific number. I would gladly evict a large number and do send a bagfull to ex's house to live there. The buggers always seem to find the way home again

Everyone seems to be doing so well and i still feel like a fraud to be here.

Chairmum : take it easy, lo will arrive in own time not matter how fed up you are. Wont be long now though so take care of yourself!

Right important business of discovering house.

1. Discover kitchen
2. shine neglected sink
3. Ring school
4. Ring hospital x3 departments
5. fold and put away washing
6. empty laundry basket
7. Pot up pepper plants, minimosa plants, courgette/french beans (after id which is which)
8. Move potatoe plants
9. general health check and water/fed of plants

10. find PE kit and lunch box which were needed for 1st day of term today. 11. Pass out in the corner.

Self inflicted headache has finally gone so feeling tired but better. Not travelling hundreds of miles this week (drove over 2000miles last week) so wil have a chance to just be.

Oh and muckyducky has been retired for a bit. back to being DEM.

I'm an off-duty Flylady fairy today as I'm still knee-deep in work. Worked flat out yesterday and when DH arrived home from work at 6.45 asked him to cook for the DC (who, luckily, hadn't noticed that I had forgotten to feed them). Lovely DH cooked and took the food outside so they wouldn't disturb me.

DH also opened a bottle of Cava , which was a very bad idea as I drank two glasses on an empty stomach and was instantly sozzled. Managed to get the kids to bed, then went to bed myself. I did make sure the washing up was done before bed though, as I'm used to a shiny sink now and it cheers me up in the morning.

Today, I tackled the binbags. DISGUSTING! We had things breeding in there! Asked DH to help me, but he managed to need a shower at that very moment and didn't appear until I'd finished . I won't go into details, but the bin-bag situation wasn't pretty and involved gloves, bleach and boiling water....

Took boys to school/nursery. DS2 is being picked up by his lovely childminder after lunch and she's taking him swimming; DS1 is being taken to his much-hated Kumon maths by a friend after school. This gives me an unbelievable seven child-free hours to work!

Muckyducky - we are not all doing so well, as you can see. Now I remember why my house got into a state in the first place - babies, exhaustion, no sleep, work, busy lives etc etc. I need staff, not bloody Flylady!

Chairmum - thinking of you!

OK, back to the commas and colons....

I feel the need to update. its not going well.

1. Discover kitchen
2. shine neglected sink
3. Ring school done
4. Ring hospital x3 departments
5. fold and put away washing
6. empty laundry basket one load done
7. Pot up pepper plants done, minimosa plants toosmall, courgette/french beans (after id which is which) done
8. Move potatoe plants done
9. general health check and water/fed of plants done 9B major sort out of rhubarb bed done that was in a right state - now have a very large pile of rhubarb that needs jamming and crumblings

9C make rhubarb jam and crumble 10. find PE kit and lunch box which were needed for 1st day of term today. 11. Pass out in the corner.

DidEinstein - It was going well! You should congratulate yourself on all your gardening jobs etc. And you made jam and crumble FFS! That would be a day's work for me.

Sorry about the PE kit and lunchbox though. We've all done it. Swapped lunchboxes by mistake the other day, so DC had each other's. Neither of them would eat any lunch as one likes turkey sandwiches and the other likes ham and they hate each other's snacks. Sigh.

You need a break.

Might want to re-read that Need to make jam and crumble, havent done so yet. have been reading the liveewb chat and not done anything else. donig school run and will see if can bribe ds into helping with some jobs, though expect him to be knackered and what to do nothing.

I guess i am forgetting the key fly lady rule. "Small steps in the right direction NOT perfection immediately"

This is why i fail as i am impatient and want final results immediately

Afternoon all,

I've just finished work for the day - had an extra few hours this afternoon as all the DC are at friends' houses. I don't think I can concentrate for any longer though; I'm not used to working for this long at a stretch!

DEM You've done far more than I have today - I haven't even shined my sink yet. I also get frustrated with myself as I'm a bit of a perfectionist and sometimes end up thinking that if the house isn't going to look perfect, I may as well not bother... I need to cure myself of this attitude!

Toffee How's the proofreading going? You must be nearly there now - I have some wine in the fridge ready and waiting. I've just finished my job and feel like a large glass and/or collapsing in a heap, but I can't as I have too many other things to do still!

DD1 was supposed to be going to a friend's house after school and then on to ballet, but she has just phoned to ask if she can skip ballet today and carry on playing at her friend's house. As the class had already started by that point (not to mention the fact that she and DD2 have their piano concert this evening, if DD2 can be persuaded to play...), I didn't have much choice but to agree.

List:
Shine sink
Tidy up/room rescues
Decide on dinner
Find piano music
Pick up DC
DDs to rehearsal
Piano concert
Wine

greetings all! i survived cub camp... [shadow of former self emoticon]

i am in awe of both how much flying you lot get done, and how much typing .

i confess to skim-reading to find out if cm had any news - (relaxing birthing vibes sent), and deliberately skipped the babysteps and missions .

dh had cooked a lovely roast beef and yorkshire pudding dinner for when we got back (you can take the boy of England, but you can't take England out of the boy...) but also had done a fairly good destruction job on the kitchen (and no grocery shopping lol) so i spent yesterday trying to find the house and unpacking the camping stuff (ta daaaa)!

today:
dw
wm
flipping badge sewing (forth road bridge round here)
into town for birthday present shopping and groceries
help dd1 cook international potluck dish for tomorrow (moroccan chicken tagine anyone?)
and.... visit my lovely friend and her newborn (sorry cm) - she had a little girl on friday morning by emergency cs. ella joy. i'm very excited. after dd2's disastrous entry to the world i get very nervous during everyone else's labour, and am always totally over-the-top and burst into tears when everything happens safely , so i'll be an emotional wreck lol.

going to just do babysteps this week, and finish emptying the spare room for mil.

kudos for dh though - he may have neglected the shopping and the rest of the house, but he did get a lot of stuff shifted from the spare room. (haven't found out where he's put it yet, which is slightly troubling) i can see the bed, and the floor! yay!

oh, and just worked out who mucky duck is. [late to the party emoticon]

Linzer - Congratulations on finishing your job! Afraid there is no end in sight for me yet. Emailed some completed stuff back today, but there's more to do and they have just told me they are sending more next week (my mum is coming to stay to help with DC). It's great to have work, but it is a bit overwhelming at the moment.

You definitely deserve a large glass of wine now.

Have done bugger all in the house today. Emailed DH to ask him to buy warm-up meals for us all tonight. This morning's washing up is still in the kitchen and I haven't even looked at today's mission. But at least I'm earning some money for a change.

OK, no more work. Better pay some attention to my poor neglected DC. Feeding them might be a good idea.

Afternoon all..

Nick - well done for surviving cub camp - you need a gold star!
DEM - stop being so hard on yourself -that's an order. BTW I was wondering who muckyducky was
Linzer enjoy DD2s piano concert! I'm sure she'll rise to the occasion with great aplomb!
Toffee - bins sound truly horrendous - where's a DH when you need one??

Not much done here as teaching today but I did do:
morning routine
s and s
think about supper!

I will try to do mission later but usually save it all up for my days off!!

See you all later.x

today my list seems to be growing rather then shrinking.

1. Discover kitchen
2. shine neglected sink
3. Ring school
4. Ring hospital x3 departments
5. fold and put away washing
6. empty laundry basket Two loads done
7. Pot up plants done
8. Move potatoe plants
9. general health check and water/fed of plants done9B major sort out of rhubarb bed done* that was in a right state - now have a very large pile of rhubarb that needs jamming and crumblings

9C make rhubarb jam simmering and crumble cooking 9D water up plants and rescue thoes in need post ds playing out 10. find PE kit done and lunch box which were needed for 1st day of term today. 10A Remove mud from carpet 10B convince ds to have bath and hair wash 10C Reading 10D Spellings 10E clean bath after the mucky ds has been in it. 10F Sort out school uniform (clean) and lunch for tomo. 10H wash kitchen floor to remove the mud. 11. Pass out in the corner.

Welcome back DEM and, yes, stop being so hard on yourself. I have done nothing today other than go to work and 'cook' jacket potatoes!

Well done on finishing your job linzer

Tonight I need to:

• put out hotspots in all rooms
• clean kitchen post dinner
• manage the washing situation (pretty much all clean but now needs to be folded and put away)
• sort out clothes for tomorrow

How are you Chairmum?

Waves to Ellie, SC, SR, MissB, MrsD, toffee, PA, Feetheart, OM, PA, Nettie, Nick, Desire, Gormers and Gentle - wow, numbers have gone up again!

Oh, DEM I meant welcome back as DEM IYSWIM!

Just dropping in before I collapse into bed - have shined my sink, but just remembered that I'm supposed to be adding more baby steps every day. Must check what the next one is after lace-up shoes (which I will ignore as usual).

The concert went really well - DD2 needed quite a bit of encouragement to get up on the stage but played v. well in the end, as did DD1. Some of the teacher's teenage/older students played amazingly well; it would almost inspire me to start playing again if only I had the time... Also bumped into an old friend (also originally from Wales ) who I hadn't seen for five or six years, so it was lovely to catch up with her and we're hoping to meet up again soon.

Toffee Sorry to hear you're feeling a bit overwhelmed; I haven't opened the wine yet out of solidarity! (I wasn't actually in the mood for alcohol this evening for some reason - very unusual...) It's great that your mum is coming to help out; I wish mine lived a bit closer.

Nick I think I spend more time typing on here than actually flying. Glad to hear your friend's little girl has arrived safely; I had an emergency c-section with DS and it was all quite nerve-wracking (more so for DH than me I think, though). Postcards ready to send tomorrow btw!

Hope to actually post a list tomorrow - I've still got a lot of work on, but at least it's just the one job now. Night all!

Hope you get a good night's sleep Linzer!

Toffee - hope you start to feel less overwhelmed soon.

Nick - impressed at surviving the cub camp

Mini- but you work at the moment it is me, the house and the to do list.

Hello to everyone else!!!!!

so today i have achieved a lot but not some basics like discovering the kitchen or shining my sink tomo is another day.

1. Discover kitchen
2. shine neglected sink
3. Ring school
4. Ring hospital x3 departments
5. fold and put away washing
6. empty laundry basket Ifour loads done
7. Pot up plants
8. Move potatoe plants
9. general health check and water/feed of plants

9B rhubarb bed 9C make rhubarb jam half done and crumble *9D waterup and rescue plants 10. find PE kit and lunch box 10A Remove mud from carpet 10B ds bath and hairwash 10C Reading 10D Spellings 10E clean bath after the mucky ds has been in it. 10F Sort out school uniform (clean) and lunch for tomo. 10H wash kitchen floor to remove the mud. 11. Pass out in the corner. 11n-1. Prime ds old childrens' table top done

So know i am going to work on number 11: Pass out in the corner. Another fly lady principle and an early night. A good day today then

Hope you are all ok!
Night

Evening all,

DEM - 2000 miles in a week, no wonder you need an early night.

Chairmum ???

Linzer - glad concert went well

Waves vaguely at everyone else, brain has gone blank.

Not much flying today, bit of gardening, bit of tidying. One of DD's friends came round to play today, so it took us about an hour to put all the millions of bits of toys back in their correct boxes.

Evening all,

Everyone seems to have been busy today, but not easy days, I see.

Right, for the people that said they wanted to be me yesterday.... today I wish you were!!

Today has all gone terribly wrong.

Job no1: went badly, ended up rowing with letting agency who have been useless, tenant owes the organisation over £2000 and the agency are doing nothing and just fob me off. Then got the blame for something a colleague had messed up (blamed by him GRRRR!!), then he took the credit for my work (always does this double Grrrr!)

Had phone call from school re DS science exam tomorrow. They have messed up, recorded last exam result wrongly, moved him down a set, and told him he was doing lower paper, revised for lower paper, when I questioned it they said that is right, til I pointed out that he had actually got a much higher grade for last exam than they had recorded. No apology, just "oh yes" so now doing higher paper.

Job No2: Went expecting quiet, easy afternoon. No chance. Everything went wrong. Took ages to reconcile accounts and left 30 mins later than normal.

Home to messy house. DD2 dead tired from a couple of hours sleep each night for the past 4 nights. DD3 dead knacked from trying to do too much this weekend, DS stressed out about science exam tomorrow, especially now hes been moved back to where he should be, DD4 being a stroppy teenager with attitude enough for any soap opera! Put that all together and mix in a mum who's just about had enough for the next week and its a recipe for fireworks!!!

School governors meeting planned for early evening, - never made it!!
Trustee meeting later evening - made that one, but sat yawning all the way through.

Home to find the locusts darlings have had the nibbles this evening and have practically cleared out fridge/freezer and every cupboard of anything remotely yummy!

Most definitely wine o'clock!

No flying, just limping along with battened down hatches today.

Must try harder tomorrow!

limp waves to everyone!

Oh rats, was it tonight I volunteered to post the steps???
Well, just in case it was, I would not like to be responsible for any of you crash landing tomorrow, so here's the babystep
And here's the
mission.

Ellie, if I've stepped on your toes, I'm really sorry.

Now feel even worse for lack of personal messages in last post. I will try and return in a better temper in the morning. (and without a glass of white in my hand. )

Evening everyone!

Just sat down after manic evening doing exam marking and prepping for going away tomorrow night for my meeting. Suffice to say I am knackered, was up till half 11 last night which is unheard of for me on a school night so am going for a very brief round-up tonight

mrsd bits and bobs .

muckyducky retired but dem went back to work . BABYSTEPS

linzer lovely concert - proud mum

mm jacket potatoes and work!

om teaching = busy (do I know that feeling!)

toffeefudge busy working still fed dc's . Well Done for sticking with us, a lot would have dropped by the wayside with so much work in their first month!

nick back from camp...DH did not entirely destroy house...result!

feetheart lovely time with nature .

chairmum fed up but must remind herself she only has a finite time to go (induce at 10 days here so 6?). We love her .

Big waves to everyone else .

Tomorrow night is the night when I am unable to post so I do believe pa was the first in line for the flyer of the day reward . Assuming she reads this, pa could you please do the honours tomorrow, if not linzer could you be second in charge please.

Back with steps in a mo...

Oh no, even did that wrong!! Give up on today, go to bed and try again tomorrow, I say!!!

Sorry Ellie yes I will do it tomorrow!!!