September Flying, Fledglings are trying; holiday steps were slow, back to work we go ...

[Stillcounting]

Welcome to the September 2010 Fledgling Flying thread!

This is where from the 1st of the month, we attempt to declutter and follow the 30-step wisdom of the Fat Fairy, with lots of chat and support and mutual motivation along the way. (More info available here! )

Many thanks to our previous splendiforous thread leader Ellie for guiding us through July and August and to her dynamic deputy, the one and only PA. You've both made it a lot of fun!

As usual we will be following a three-pronged approach (and don't worry - we are all at different stages):

• 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.

Together we can do it! All newcomers welcome!

Just signing off before bed

PA I agree with Nick!

What a lovely post Kitpuss - as MrsDinky has said - you are always welcome - just post as much or as little as you like! Glad it's working for you

Huge waves to MrsDinky and little Dinkies. Thanks for the kind words and for round-up. I'm very impressed by all of you Fledglings who are taking time out to exercise [SC falls silent and looks slightly askance] (How do you spell askance btw - can't spell after drinking red wine...) Lots of 'dones' on your list tonight too - v. good going!!

Hope your boss is impressed by yr office declutter and reorganisation tomorrow Dart

Elliepac no doubt I shall x posts with you in a mo!

Forgot to mention proliferation of 'dones' by your list today Linzer too - top marks!

Waves to everyone I've missed ...Pluto Feetheart MissBennett Tigger et al

I can't in all honesty say that I have done marvellously today. I spent all afternoon nattering with a friend and compounded it by watching too much wallpaper tv this eve and I'm now behind. Can't understand why the house falls back in to disarray (sp?)so quickly tbh

Heigh, ho, tomorrow is another day and all that. G'night all - you are doing brilliantly!

Banana sandwiches always send me off to sleep Ouch - sweet dreams!

Have just caught up with latest threads. PA - so sorry about the difficult time you're having . I agree with Nick re having time off for stress. Does your boss know about the MRI? If he knows what you are going through maybe he'll be more a bit more sensitive in future. At least time off would give you a break and allow you to spend some time with DD3. (Glad to hear she's feeling a bit more cheerful now).

Hope it all gets sorted out soon. In the meantime, it looks as if you have your very own support group right here .

Hello Kitpuss - it's good to hear that Flylady is working for you. That gives me hope for the future. Maybe one day I really will live in a tidy, uncluttered house .

Waves to Darts, MrsD, Nick, Still, Ellie, Linzer, Nettie, Bob and Ouch . Good night.

Good morning

Todays's baby-step, no. 15, is about making your bed every morning

We are still in Zone 3 here

Today's mission (let see if I can get it right today!!) is about chucking stuff from medicine cabinet and doing a 5-min stash and dash in other room

Wednesday is anti-procrastination day [looks at self sternly] and we must try and include a room rescue in one of our routines today

Here are all the reminders

Let's go to it Fledglings! Back later ...

PA hope you have a better day today - glad to hear that both dd1 & dd3 are on better form. Try and rest x

Waves to Toffee who I missed last night

Ouch - still pestering you about your bedroom as requested - how about just doing one element today - floor or bed?
With timer - 15 mins. Good luck with it!

Today (morning):
morning routine inc. s&s, dishwasher on, wm on and master swipe
dash and stash in home office
laundry
put away clean washing
paid work
lunch & school/ballet run

(afternoon)
personal grooming
visit to stationery shop
quick supermarket shop
make 2 important calls
quick dust and hoover 3rd floor
more paid work
admin (home)
supper

Right, better get on with it!

Morning all,

I was slightly behind this morning and woke the DC 5-10 minutes later, so we had quite a stressful start to the day with far too much shouting involved. On top of that, DD2 was complaining of a stomach ache so DH told her (before disappearing off to work) that she shouldn't have any milk for breakfast - which I'm sure is just another Austrian old wives' tale - but I managed to convince her to have her usual cereals plus milk in the end (no time to get bread out of the freezer for toast).

Now have a few hours to recover before the lunchtime/afternoon stress starts. I've volunteered to help out with DD1's English lessons again, and will have to rush back home afterwards with the DDs for lunch and teeth cleaning before we pick DS up and go to the dentist's.

Time to make a start on my list, anyway:

Morning routine
Put washing away
15 min decluttering in bathroom
5 min decluttering in playroom
Bathroom mission
Stash and dash mission
Finish letter
Pay ballet fees delegated to DH (as his office is above a bank)
Order present for friend who has just had twins
Write invoice
English lesson
Dentist's
Pick up DD2's friend
Afternoon routine
Ballet lesson
DD1 and DS to hairdresser's
Evening routine

Morning all

I hate stressed mornings LinzerTorte hope things are a bit easier now

I'm very jealous of your trip to the stationery shop, I'm getting withdrawl symptoms, I'm supposed to be cutting back

-Just morning routine
-dd to school
-a couple of hours at work first time in 4 years
-My bathroom is fully decluttered not that there was much in there anyway so 15 minute room rescue in our bedroom
-Dinner
-Evening routine

Have a nice day everyone :)

Thank you all once again. You had me sat reading with tears in my eyes because of your kindness.

Yes, the boss who was an absolute idiot yesterday is one of the few people who does know whats going on. When I pointed out to him that I felt he was being a little hard on me he went on to tell me how his wife has something wrong with her and is waiting for a scan "to prove its in her head, not her abdomen"!!! (wife has been having investigations for 12 years because she wont believe there's nothing wrong!!) I felt he was saying that women are all imagining that we are ill when really there is nothing wrong. I showed him my lump and he said "well, I didnt see it" Errrr, no because I keep my hair over it to hide it!!! The same man who has only worked with me for 5 months, has had 1 month holiday and one month off sick with back ache!!

Dont tell Nick (but thanks for coming out of hiding for me!!) but I am going into work this morning, just to prepare it for someone else to be able take over next week if necessary. Its a job that only i do and I need to produce something every week. I am going to produce an idiots guide so that someone else can come along and do it without too much of a problem. My worry is also that the wife of boss is looking for a job, she would be the obvious one to take over from me and if this is all sorted out quickly I dont want her to have it.......or do I???? I dont know, I cant think straight.

Anyway enough waffle, I am feeling not too bad at the moment. I was going to be meeting a friend today for coffee, but have just received a text to say she cant . So I may have a wander around town after work and spend some birthday money on some clothes and accessories for ME!!!!!

Thank you ALL once again. I love you ALL.

I hope you all have a good day!

Linzer Have to whisper that it not an old Austrian wifes tale!! (Ex-nurse hat on here) If there is any tummy upset milk is going to exacebate it and could very easily result in throwing up!! If DCs have a tummy bug, too, milk should be one of the last things re-introduced into the diet.
I hope the milk stays in place and you are not called to collect from the school!!

Oh bother - I tend to take most health advice that Austrians give me with a pinch of salt, but I suppose I should listen to DH occasionally. Actually, I wouldn't have persuaded her to eat anything at all if she had really seemed ill but she (and DS) often complain of tummy aches that disappear at a drop of a hat (usually when they're told they can't have any sweets/ice cream/will have to stay at home). I am quite careful after tummy upsets too and am always quite to see my parents indulging in things like tea and coffee, orange juice and in fact their usual diet when they've had a bug (caught my dad sneaking downstairs for some roast potatoes when he had a stomach upset one Christmas!).

While you've got your nurse's hat on PA, maybe you could help me out with the following Austrian old wives' tales beliefs:

1. You will catch a cold if you aren't dressed warmly enough
2. You will catch a cold if you sit in a draught
3. You shouldn't eat ice cream if you have a cold
4. You shouldn't drink water while eating cherries
5. It is currently too cold for the DC to be running around with bare feet (I was told this several times at the weekend by SIL and her DD; it was about 20 degrees)

I try to argue my case by pointing out that the DC are rarely ill despite me ignoring all the above advice (DDs hardly ever, although DS has had a few coughs and colds this year) but am usually met with the counter-argument, "Ah, but your children are hardened/used to it."

Sorry for the hijack; just needed to get that off my chest!

Ok, well I am not wanting to add fuel to an in-law arguement!!

If your DCs seemed fine this morning, then I am sure they will be fine and the tummy ache was probably just a passing thing that DCs have!!!

No1: It is not actually the cold that is a problem, but being wet and cold is a good environment for germs to linger and the body cannot easily shrug them off is its using its energy to maintain body heat. So, wet is more of a problem, IYSWIM.

No2: No, just tell them to stop moaning!!

No3: Tosh!!!!!

No4: Errrr why?????? Sorry, this is laughable!!!!

No 5: No, do as you want. If their feet are not too cold and uncomfortable, then there's not a problem.

Tell them to get a life!!

You could always make some up yourself and say that the English believe some totally bizarre things - racking my brain for something even more bizarre than the cherries and water!!!! ....... failed, sorry!

Linzer agree with PA re milk, DD becomes slightly lactose intoerant for a few days whenever she has a stomach upset, used to be a good couple of weeks as a baby and toddler.

Got to dash, friend due round in an hour and house looks like a tip.

Morning.

right not going to stay to chat as in the mood to be productive did sleep some. ds was up a couple of times in the night and it was about 11:30pm before i could crash but it is better then it was. training tonight which will knock me out, but collecting dsis from airport afterwards so it will be a late night

today's list
WM running
Morning routine done
sort wardrobe out so clothes can go away
tidy floor so bed can be moved
move bed to find ds' book bag.
coffee with friend
training
airport
sleep

happy flying all :)

Coffee break time; thanks so much for the coffee and cake Bob - much appreciated, particularly this morning!

PA Sorry, not trying to drag you into an IL argument (not just my ILs though - it's more or less all Austrians, although I have managed to get DH to come round to my way of thinking ), especially when you have more important things on your mind. Your boss sounds awful; it's hard to imagine how he could be so unsympathetic but some people are just idiots.

Ouch Glad to hear you got some sleep.

Have just finished my morning routine and bathroom mission (which must have taken me a good half an hour, but we live in Austria so a fully stocked medicine cabinet is a necessity ) so must plod on with my list...

Come on Linzer, give me a laugh, what do Austrian's think will happen if you eat cherries and drink water?

And yes, he is a total idiot!!! - my boss, not you IL's!!

I think you get stomach ache (so no milk for a while afterwards ) - must experiment sometime!

DD's best friend's mum is convinced there is a strong draught in their classroom and is worried that her DD will get ill. Mind you, she is also the one who is sure that all the non-Austrian children have been put in that class because the teacher apparently has a reputation for not getting through the syllabus. She's generally a lovely person but I do think she's a bit mad sometimes.

MIL is lovely too but has some equally strange ideas, e.g. DS must have got laryngitis because he ate something cold (we told her that the doctor had in fact prescribed ice cream - DS was over the moon). And don't get me started on what causes mastitis.

I will stop now before I get carried away (DH's eyes tend to glaze over when I start on Austrian ideas about how you get ill) but am happy to provide more entertainment any time you need your mind taking off your idiot boss, PA.

linzer ideal present for someone with twins! Food Food Food , preferably ready meals, or those lovely german wool baby blankets (we still have ours - but no-one gave to us, I had to order them myself

PA hope you buy lots of things for YOU - what a dolt that boss is, particularily hard if you are not telling anyone else in RL and he doesn't seem to get it.

Ouch hope things settle down, or rev up not sure what you would rather

SC I'm still thinking about your playmobil horses; I dooo wish dd liked playing with playmobil. She likes pretending to BE a pony with her friends. I did the wallpaper last night, but nothng on except King Kong, really couldn't face the brooding hamminess it so was reduced to shining sink.

Bob the more stationery/ary(?)the more muddled I get. I just need one envelope, one piece of paper, one rubber, one pencil, one pen to be IN THE RIGHT PLACE.

today have done plenty of housework, now procrastinating about other things as usual
bb when done them!

Idiot boss has just arrived in work, so I have told him I feel unwell and I am going home!!!

Ooh yes, to add to germanic ailment thread, Dh believes that freshly baked bread is v. v. bad for the stomach, it needs to be cool before you can eat it, or your stomach will be filled with dangerous gases Not that he gets much freshly baked anything.

Ah yes, I'd forgotten that one swan - you must always wait for freshly baked cakes to cool down too, otherwise you will get stomach ache (too cold and you will no doubt catch a cold, I suppose).

I'd also forgotten you have twins - I could have asked you about the present otherwise. Food is an excellent idea as I'm sure you have even less time for cooking with twice as many babies. I remember receiving chocolate and/or tea bags from a few friends after the DC were born, and it was so nice to have something just for me. I've actually just ordered the present - a Neal's Yard baby box (from a MN friend who coincidentally also has twins).

PA Well done you; you're fully justified in taking time off to go shopping (and after your awful day yesterday, I'm sure it's a must for your psychological health in any case ).

Despite spending too much time on MN, have managed to do:

Morning routine
Put washing away
15 min decluttering in bathroom
5 min decluttering in playroom
Bathroom mission
Pay ballet fees
Order present for friend who has just had twins

Off to English lesson now - have just realised I need to be there in less than 10 minutes!

Hello all,

I was so busy yesterday that I didn't get chance to check in, I did check the mission quickly but didn't do it! I did however spend 10 minutes putting away washing that has been sat in my bedroom for at least 2 weeks.

So back to it today and my 1st list

Up, dressed x4 done
lunch boxes x 2 done
breakfast x4 *done
Ds1 to school done
Ds2 to swimming done
Eyebrow wax done
Shopping done
Yesterdays mission
Today's mission
Put away remaining basket of clothes
Collect ds1 from school
Ds1 homework
What's for tea
Ds1 to beavers
Me to weight Challenge
Baby steps 3 and 15
Hoover dining room

So, better get going, will pop back later to chat.

Ooooh i can explaihn why you have to let things cool down first. Its to do with the raising agent that gets used. when we bake our traditional norwegian recipies they use a very specialist raising agent (hornsalt) that will do exactly what you have siad the myth. And it truely truely does. i only ever made that mistake once. My goodness was i poorly. I expect it is something similar that traditionally was used before baking powder and bicarb became more standard use.

Update.
WM 2nd load on
Morning routine done
sort wardrobe out done so clothes can go away as much as folded and ironed
tidy floor so bed can be moved in progress
move bed to find ds' book bag.
coffee with friend
Pick up meds
training
airport
sleep

Swan tbh honest either would settle me. Just clearly one of other. i dont like middle grounds. of course one might be better then the other

Ouch didn't realise you were of Norwegian origin- lovely place

spent morning trying to practice bumblebee music, keep failing miserably to have the effortless hum required
going to tidy playroom now just to make piano seem preferable

Ooh, are you Norwegian Ouch? I have forgotten most of my Norwegian, but live in hope that I will be able to use jeg vil gjerne ha en stor kopp svart kaffe one day.

The English lesson was, um... interesting. It looks like the teacher is expecting me to take over the teaching completely rather than just be a kind of classroom assistant like I was with DD1's old teacher. So I suddenly found myself standing in front of the class with absolutely nothing prepared while the teacher got on with some paperwork. I managed to get through it OK by getting the children to introduce themselves etc. but am almost wishing that I hadn't volunteered.

I suspect that you have forgotten more then i ever knew. mum tried the bilingual stuff when i was little but i refused to talk. She didnt know it was normal for bilingual children to be slower in talking and gave up. my understanding is ok. Will rescue some proper norsk kaffe for the occasion linzer.

Goodness i have too much bounce for being so tired. These steroids are playing havoke. going to try to channel it some more.