Let the nightmare commence.....

Morning all

Well I woke up Tuesday with a dental abscess hence the lack of posting - thankfully it has given me no pain as apparently its draining (I bet you really wanted to know that)  and still hasn't but they have told me I will need the tooth removing and a dose of antibiotics. 

Now for any normal person this is fine, but when you are straight edge, medication phobic and have severe anxiety this can be an absolute nightmare of immense proportions! I have been psyching myself up for the last few days to take them and was all ready to yesterday when my partner got delayed at work so I couldn't and as a result I ended up making myself sick with worry and dread.

So this morning after reading horror stories of dental abscess' I had to do it. I broke out in a hot flushes, dry mouth, shakes and this was before I even had the pill out of the packet - and yes it is one 250mg pill I have to take - hardly a horse tranquilliser. As soon as I took it I promptly burst into tears and had to remove myself to the garden for fear of the kids seeing me in such a state. 

I bizarrely too have this weird thing about 5 minutes....... so I'll tell you the story. My mum (should reiterate the reason I never mention her is we haven't spoken in 9 months) anyway.........she is exactly the same as me - hates taking pills or medication in any form and I clearly remember my dad when they were together having to force her to take medication, to the point of having to pin her down - it was obviously something she absolutely needed to take because my dad isn't a bully or a forceful person etc. - but I think mentally that has scarred me and worsened my own phobia.

Anyway I remember her telling me that if anything was going to happen, like a severe allergic reaction - you'd know within 5 minutes.....or there would be tell tale signs something wasn't right. So I take myself away for 5 minutes.....strange but it works for me.....I sit and focus on my breathing to bring myself out of a panic attack etc too.

Although in fairness I have been put on Amoxycillin, and it really doesn't help that my younger sister is allergic to penicillin and amoxycillin so my worry isn't completely unacceptable!

Anyway so since I seem to be ok - I took it at 9.33 and here I still am at 11.27 - my time before work today will mostly be taken up with reading this fab new blog that I have found 

http://frugalincornwall.blogspot.co.uk

It has already given me loads of ideas and is exactly the type of blog I like to read so I hope some of you will stop in and have a read too. 

                                                                                 x

An Olympian In The Midst....

I am so proud of my friend Helen. 

I have known her since school and the last few years I have done nothing but support her efforts in the Triathlon and now I sit proudly here writing this as she is about to compete in the Olympics as part of Team GB. 

Good Luck Helen! I will be watching for you on August 4th

x x x 

SUMMER HOLIDAYS! .................. Oh No!

Hi guys

As anyone else in the UK knows summer holidays are upon us and the welsh schools have mostly all broken up so I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas of things to do with small children, I have a considerable age gap between my two children - my son Benjamin is 8 years old and my daughter Holly is 2. Most of the holidays will be me with them by myself so I am looking for ideas to keep them amused.

If anyone has any then please feel free to add them in the messages below, there are no stupid suggestions.......

many thanks in advance and I will make sure to keep you up to date with anything we have planned as well as including pictures

x

Fly Lady ~ Day Four

Right,

so far this morning I have 

• gotten up at 5.30am (I suffer from insomnia I am not Sunday morning sadistic!) 
• Washed
• Wiped over bathroom 
• Wiped over the kitchen
• Read Emails
• Had Breakfast
• Made A plan of action for Ben's bedroom tomorrow
• Listed 5 things on Ebay (one already has a watcher! yey!)
• updated my blog

So now that Owen is awake I will be able to go and get on with the rest of the morning. Its currently 9.20 as I write that line so I can go and make all the beds soon and then finish Holly's Bedroom which I got distracted from yesterday (by cleaning my own)

This is what awaits me...............................yey  :-S

although in fairness her room is only small so it shouldn't take me too long to sort through.

 I'm also going to put a load of washing in before I make a start on this which I think will be all of Owen's work shirts so I can hang them outside on the airers to dry being that its such a nice day today

I also want to get all the bags of rubbish outside too so that they are not in the house or likely to be reopened whilst me or anyone else goes looking for things in the,

I have also set myself the time limit today of finishing at 12, because I work today (yes I know on a Sunday - someone has to I guess!) from 3 - 10pm so I think if I finish at 12, then it gives me plenty of time to chill out and get showered etc before I have to leave at 2.30 to go and start my shift. 

Right better crack on otherwise I will never get started............

Enjoy your day

x

FlyLady ~ Day Three

So yesterday I basically spent the day going through this lot ^^^

This is a pile of clothes that had been put in my daughters bedroom in kind of a stop gap but were never put away, ironed etc so I needed to get them sorted 

I spent most of yesterday sorting clothes into piles with the following names

- Bee's pile

- Washing Lights

- Washing Darks

- Donates

- Ben

- Holly

- Owen

- Me

- Other

Now I think Ben, Holly, Owen, Me and Other are pretty explanatory as well as the washing piles, but my sister Bee (her name is actually Abigail and none of us know how she came to be called Bee) is currently 7 months pregnant with a baby girl so anything that was for the first year went into a pile of things to rewash or pass on to her. 

Also I have ended up with three bags of clothes to donate and I still have my sons bedroom to go through and I know for a fact he has a pile to go through as well - although nowhere near as bad as this!

The other room to get sorted yesterday was my bedroom which now looks a million times better and I have found several things to ebay, freecycle, gumtree, donate or give away. 

So I have been listing today on Ebay being that it is a free listing day...................

unfortunately I didn't take any photos of the before and after shot in my bedroom though but I may post a photo of all the bagged up stuff later

Take Care 

x 

Flying ~ Day Two

Apologies but I was getting so into this cleaning lark that I completely forgot to update my blog yesterday.......so this was um.........Friday 20th's efforts. This is my bathroom and yes we have a walk in shower cubicle which is a bit awkward with an 8 year old who doesn't like water on his head and a 2 year old little girl, hence me still having the baby bath!

So here goes, These are the before pictures.......

(notice I couldnt open the door fully?     ^^^) 

~~~~~

and these are the after pictures..............

vastly improved and  I am happy to say still clean :-) 

I am finding it very therapeutic, also the kitchen is still as tidy as it was in the previous pictures which is nice and I'm finding now that I've done it once and am keeping it maintained it is much easier to stay on top of. 

Unlike my insomnia which saw me awake at 5.40 this morning which is a lay in for me! 

If anyone is interested in FlyLady and taking the first baby steps then please feel free to stop in and look over on 

www.flylady.net

Fly Lady Day One Results

Well as promised, here are pictures of my first day on the FlyLady regime! Bare with me! 

 Above: Underneath the kitchen sink before I had even started yesterday

~~~~~

Above: Under the sink afterwards

~~~~~

Above : Sink area before

Below : Sink area after

~~~~~

 Above: Shine your sink.

~~~~~

 Above: Cereal Corner before I started

 Below : Cereal Corner afterwards

 ~~~~~

Below : Owens side with all his protein powders etc

~~~~~

Above : Toaster side before

Below : Toaster side after

 ~~~~~

 Above: Microwave Side Before

 Below: Microwave Side After

~~~~~

 Below : Windowsill before

 Below : Windowsill after

~~~~~

Below : HOTSPOT! To be tackled next.......

So as you can see I had a nice productive today - hopefully today will be as productive.

The kitchen was cleaned, I briefly spent my 5 minutes in the bathroom cleaning and I did the 27 things throw out so in total had about 3 black bags full of rubbish to get rid of.

Have also noticed that another hotspot of mine that tends to collect rubbish and junk is the stairs so this will be tackled soon too.

My sink is still shining and Im seemed to have gotten some overnight OCD about my sink staying clean!. the kitchen is still clean so today I am hoping to move to the bedrooms in 15 minute bursts today.

Note to self, must buy a binder. 

xxxx 

Fly lady - Day 1

So I have just joined Fly Lady, and the first two jobs I have been set are

#1 ~ shine my sink

#2 ~ dressed to the shoes (in the morning) 

I think that seems pretty manageable for day 1. I will make sure to send you a picture of the sink before and after. 

x

Time To Fly......

I literally am getting bogged down and there seems to be cr*p everywhere

Whether it is the mountain of washing that seems to be resembling Ben Nevis that seems to follow me from room to room, the sink that always looks dirty, forever sweeping the floors, de cluttering the stairs every five minutes, the piece of lego that I have inevitably missed for the last 3 weeks that I find at 11pm when I check my son before going to bed or that one funny smell that I can smell but cant find the cause of! 

I've had enough!

So I have decided to join Fly Lady. 

Now I was always a bit auntie fly lady in the beginning as I dint quite get it and part of me thought well I can do that myself if I get in a routine but yes you guessed it, the routine started on day one and by day two I gave up.....and the house remained the same, me and my partner had the same old argument and things never got anywhere so I'm hoping the organisational skills of fly lady will help

I mean I brought a kitchen table and chairs last year and I think we ate Christmas dinner on it and that was it - it is now buried under a mountain of junk and by junk I mean junk so it is time for a change.

Tomorrow I will indeed take photos of the devastation that is my house and post them as my starting point - shocking I know and I promise to not clean before hand! 

Another of my main issues is I don't seem to have many cleaning things - although in fairness with two small kids and not much cupboard space I tend to keep the minimum but I realise I need things to help with this.

Another thing for me is drying clothes. I don't have much space on this front either but have been shown a nifty invention that hangs in the airing cupboard so might try that as well as buying a new airer. I have two at present and whilst they do get the job done I am really snowed under with washing being that high speed winds not so long ago broke and I mean clean snapped in half my wirrlygig airer so I have had no washing line for the last 6 months and my boyfriend has two speeds ~ slow and stop, unless its motorbike related and then hes full speed.

(Case and point the curtain pole in the living room ~ bearing in mind we have been here over a year ~ was never put up so three months ago I had had enough and decided to put the bleeding thing up myself - which I managed successfully and it hasn't fallen down yet - the same day he came home with wraul plugs and said he was going to do it - TYPICAL!)

so needless to say if I want something done in my house I'm better off doing it myself, by myself, for myself.

My friends always refer to me as a single mum anyway so it makes sense to have that mind set and if you want something doing then your better off doing it yourself. 

Besides as far as cleaning is concerned me and my boyfriend have the same cycle every month as regularly as the other month cycle and it ALWAYS goes the same way

and it goes on,...and on,....and on,....and on.....,and on.........and its been doing that the last 8 years and I think he has ever helped me..............um................twice maybe....................other times he whinges complains and bitches until I do it. So I'm not giving him an excuse now and if he insists on being the dirty messy pig then I will show him this blog and prove to him it is not me!

Right Im off to sign up to fly lady! Wish me luck!