flylady – Mum In The Madhouse

Frequent Flyer

Jen Walshaw — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:11:00 +0000

As you may know I live by the Fly principal for all my cleaning and lots of other things. You may have fell into the trap of thinking that I enjoy cleaning or have a sparkling clean house and I felt the need to put you right.

I HATE cleaning and use this system to be able to get by and ensure that the house is in some semblance of order. After having two children in less than 15 months you can understand that cleaning was not anywhere near the top of my priority list, but then we moved house and I decided that I needed to do something out this.

So I stumbled along Fly and have found it works for me. I need to look past a lot of the schmaltz and self-loving stuff, but once I did it was a revelation. I did the baby-steps initially and that helped me clear a lot of my clutter and also develop a morning and evening routine, which works for me and my family.

What I love about it is there is minimal effort for maximum return. I am never hopping about trying to find something in the morning and guess what – It has made this first week of DS1 going to school so much easier.

We get out his uniform the night before and lay it out downstairs, so that he can pop it on after breakfast.

My clothes are always laid out too.

Anything I need first thing is sorted.

Things are much calmer for us all.

The wonder of the Internet

Jen Walshaw — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:51:00 +0000

Today I met a friend, a friend I have know for nearly three year, but never met. A friend I made on an Internet on a website for mums. It was like we had known each other forever.

Before I had children I would never have dreamed of stepping foot in such a place, but I needed support and this place offered me it in spades and never in shades of grey, always black and white. I didn’t have to meet the people who offered their advise, it didn’t matter whether I agreed with them or not, they were not swayed by knowing the “real” me.

Since then I have gone on to regularly frequent two such sites and both are every different, but satisfy different needs in me.

Well As you will have guessed from the blog, I love, love, love FlyLady, even if I can not stand all the “loving yourself” bits. I truly live by the main rules of anything in small amounts, 15 mins timer, the routines and habits. I came across a thread on one of the sites where some people in the UK followed her routine and joined in. It is a wonderful group of ladies, who have seen me threw thick and thin. They were there for me when I had my mastectomy, with a food parcel of tea and cakes from the very Yorkshire institution of Bettys. They sent treats for the minimads, Easter things for everyone, inspirational notebooks, I could go on, but the main thing is they all listened to me.

We often try to meet if we are ever in the area of one and another and have made some firm real life friends this way too.

Well today I met “Grouchy”, her husband and her wonderful, energetic son as they were holidaying nearby. I have been excited all week about this and it definitely didn’t disappoint. The mini’s all got on really well and had a fantastic time playing with each other. I had a wonderful time with my friend and didn’t want to leave.

Without the Internet I wouldn’t have made this amazing friend, without the Internet I would never had learned about Flying, without the Internet I would have been stuck at home with a 15 month old and a seriously ill newborn and no support. The Internet has been there for me in my darkest nights and my brightest days. MadDad no longer calls these people my imaginary friends. They are some of the wisest and wonderful people I have the honour to have met.

Evening Routines and plans for the week ahead

Jen Walshaw — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:47:00 +0000

As you must know by now I am an avid follower of Fly and need to make sure that I do my evening routine to ensure that I start the week the correct way.

So tonight being Sunday, it feels much more important to start the week on the right foot so to speak, so I have

Got all our clothes out for tomorrow (after checking the weather forecast)

Menu planned the rest of the week

Checked calender for the rest of the week

Confirmed any appointments etc with MadDad and got Mum to cover anything

DW loaded and on

Washing machine loaded and time set

Cat fed

15 mins in any room that required it

Wrote down what has really worked this week.

I find that this lets me go of to sleep much better knowing that I have finished the week the right way and also started the new week on a positive note

Menu Planning also makes a vast difference to our busy days. This week we have had a roast chicken and that will make three days worth of meals if I plan it right, so I have:

Cooked carcass and added veg to make a stock

Will make pastry for chicken and veg pie tomorrow night

lasagna is also made for Tuesday (after swimming)

Chicken curry for Wednesday night

Easting round the table as a family is really important to us as a family, it gives us time to review our news, discuss our plans and also reminds MadDad and me of how we grew up. I have breakfast and lunch with the boys everyday and we eat our evening meal together whenever possible, this means that the boys need a healthy snack around 3.30pm to get them to 5.30 ish when MadDad arrives home, but it is worth the wait for everyone involved.

Mondays are home bluring days and an update on the bed

Jen Walshaw — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:07:00 +0000

Mondays for us in TheMadHouse are home blessing or bluring day as I call it.

This means that we go round and polish all rooms, vacuum, sweep and tidy and I do me we. Each of the mini mads has their own pinny and feather duster, they also have a sweeping brush and can use the hand help vacuum too.

This way the house is all prepared (as much as possible) for the rest of the week.

This weeks intensive clean is the master bedroom, so I will concentrate on cleaning in there, doing the skirting, cobwebs, windows etc.

I try and instill the boys not to have all their toys out at once and also to put things away when we have finished with them, everything has a place.

Whilst I have hoovered etc the boys have been doing some colouring and plating on the swings in the garden.

We have also made a decision to cancel the bed and asked them to come and take the damaged one back.

The eldest MiniMad has bunks in his room and they have been sharing, youngest in the bottom and it has worked well, so much so they asked if they could share. To which we said a resounding yes and spent much of yesterday afternoon re-arranging furniture.

So now the minimads share a room and we have a spare room with a sofabed, wardrobes and some of the larger toys in.

This means we also now have a study/ironing room with much more space in, so I plan to move all my scrapbook stuff upstairs so that I can do it when they are on the PC. We are also putting back my nursing chair from the garage.

Learning to FLY

Jen Walshaw — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:57:00 +0000

I am an avid follower of Flylady – it is a great routine, which means that the housework should never pile up and that spring cleaning should never need to be done.

It lets you build up new habits and also develope routines that suit you and your family. Over the last two years flylady has been a godsend. It helped me come out of my PND and also meant that when I was in hospital MadDad and other family knew what needed doing and when it needed doing.

It also means that I have time to concentrate on being with the MiniMads and that they understand that the house needs cleaning and help out. Both have their own feather dusters and pinny’s and help with the polishing, wiping, tiding etc. They put their clothes in the wash basket, they get the next days clothes out and put them in their designated place too.

We felt that it was important that the boys understood how the house run and take responsibility to help out. I want them to grow up being able to look after them self and a house, to be able to load a washing machine and iron. I want them to be able to be an equal partner to the person they fall in love with.

MadDad and myself have a nice division of labour, both concentrating on the things we do best – he does all the nasty jobs, the cat litter, the bins and dishwasher on a morning!!!

He understands that I like things to have a place and that I NEED to have the bedclothes all nice and tidy and the duvet right upto the edges of the duvet cover and when I came out of hospital he made sure that they were perfect for me.

I think that what makes our relationship work, concentrating on the things that we can do for each other that take no doing, understanding our little peculiarities and in fact loving each other because of them.