December's Fledgling Flyers: Christmas time, swish and swipe and wine, flyers sing to the fat fairy rhyme.

[elliepac]

Welcome to the December Fledgling Flying thread.

From the 1st of the month we shall be decluttering and taming the chaos using baby steps, missions and zones. A great big thank you to DEM/DID who looked after us last month and did a fantabulous job

We are not strict followers of the fat fairy and take some of the babysteps wearing shoes indoors with a pinch of salt. Also advise against signing up for the fairy's emails.

All are welcome, jump on board for one of our three methods of chaos attack:

1. Baby steps
2. Baby steps and 15mins decluttering in current zone
3. Re-inforce the baby steps and daily mission

This month the fat fairy is gearing up for the feastive period. So I shall also post the christmas mission for those who wish are brave enough to look.

In here the motto is:

*"No perfection! Do what you can, but be realistic about what you can do."

Happy flying.

I need to renew my efforts again after being away loads over Christmas. All the space made by pre-Christmas decluttering has been filled again by presents etc!

Toffee, will you let me know what you think of the fly budgeting book?

Happy New Year everyone

I'll let you know, Arabella. It's this, from the company, 'Organised Mum'. Inside, it is divided into the twelve months of the year, with pages for: income; bills and direct debits; daily outgoings; total income and outgoings; balance; and savings and future planning. Also has a little folder for each month's receipts and bills (which I usually pile up in the kitchen hotspot).

To be honest, you could just buy a notebook for the same or do something on Word, but I liked the idea of a structured book for money stuff and am hoping it will give me the incentive to keep on top of our budget. I used to use Microsoft Money, but lost touch with it after children and have never been able to pick it up again. I'm hoping jotting stuff down in a book will be easier.

Spent the morning with DS1 whilst DS2 was with a friend. DS1 not a happy boy . His anxieties have been getting worse again and he has been having nightmares about going back to school next week. He asked me, again, to home educate him. I promised him I will do something to make things better, though did not say I would home ed. My instinct, when I see him as broken as he was today, is to keep him at home and look after him, but I'm not sure that is the solution.

Not much flying done today. Delegated washing of MIL's sheets to DH, who is not at work today. Still can't hoover sitting room because of the Playmobil Christmas world. Hmm...think I'll just have to stay on MN for a bit.

Good to see more old faces around here again

Toffee, that book sounds way too scary for me!!! mega organiised, makes me shudder...
Your poor DS. How old is he? Is it at all possible to HE? Is it something you would look into?

Waves back to SC, PMPY, MissB, MrsD etc.....

Well, I must be feeling ill better, I have managed to sort out a cupboard today to give me a shelf for all the "bits" for my plethora of kitchen gadgets. Like the attachments for my mixer, my icecream maker etc.
This was done to make room for yet another gadget...last one, I promise we got a coffee machine. For someone who had never drunk coffee in my life, I am quite excited and every guest now is offered copious amounts of coffee, so that I can play.

House is not looking too bad after 5 months of not being able to do much at all (3 months of doing big fat NOTHING!). I think Dh and his OCD tendencies have done very well. The DCs all now have jobs to do and I have absolutely no intention of taking the reins back fully!! Now I will just need to keep on top of it all. Washing is still my bug bear!!

Darts tonight, so be back to find the next months link tomorrow.

Quick dip in before prepping mountain of veg for supper ...

Hey PA good strategy about not fully taking reins back like your style!

Great to see you back MissB although sorry you have have had such a rough time. Well done for battling through x

Great to see you too oracle Dreamteam and PushmePullyou (hope you are taking it as easy as poss)

Toffee horror scenario here - we have Playmobil and Hama Bead join-up [fschock] Playmbol has made it to top of Christmas cake this year as well (I was truly desperate by that stage!!)

Ellie and Toffee thanks for volunteering to run thread. I am v. happy to do Feb (if no-one else wants to of course) if someone else can do Jan.

Have a great trip Optimistle I love the Suffolk coast

Sorry for mentioning 'd' word DID!! Dh is cooking far too much delicious food atm (I am sous chef and he does skilful bits) and my waistline is suffering ...

Speaking of which ... better get back to visitors soup prep ...

Waves to MrsD Arabella Ihate Darts and everyone else I've missed

And Bob if you are out there - thinking of you and yours - hope you are all OK x

Toffee rushing and forgot to say sorry to hear about your ds1. Can really sympathise - dd's behaviour consistently and absolutely angelic now she is not at school or doing any other activities ...We've got breather until 10th when it all starts up again. Hope he is OK and that you can work something out. Must be so stressful for both of you x

Thanks for your words of support re DS. I have just posted a thread about it, asking for advice, if any of you have any ideas. It's here.

There are always ups and downs with DS1. Things may be fine in a few weeks' or days - I just never know. But when it's like this, I really worry about him and want to do the right thing for him. It doesn't seem fair for him to suffer like this when he's only 11. I want him to have a happy childhood, FFS!

Evening everyone. Had a lovely day today. Pottered around this morning, went to the park to blow out some cobwebs and then did a bit of tidying, some playing and tv watching! Dh gone to the cinema with his brother, dc's in bed, dinner on and wine open. Perfect!

toffee I will take you up on that offer of leading next month and I will be back up if that's ok. Poor ds sounds like he has had a terrible time. There's some really good advice over on your other thread .

Better go and check on dinner

Ellie - ooer! Do I get a special uniform? Or a badge or something?

Thanks for checking out my other thread. MN is very comforting at times like this, I must say.

You will have to contain your excitement until tomorrow toffee for your special thread leader present . I agree re mn being comforting. Just the fact that other people have taken the time to read and respond means a lot . I would have responded but, for a change, I had nothing useful to say though I thought what pixie said was interesting and she gave some useful strategies though I think in your shoes I would be tempted to home ed for a while.

Hello, quick one from me as it is late.

Thank you Toffee for volunteering to take over next month, and thank you to Ellie for leading us so well thie month.

Not much to report here, house is gradually getting back to normal, which means far from perfect, but never mind. DH and DS did a good bit of tidying while I took DD to a friend's house this afternoon.

Night, night.

Anyone inspired with a January thread title?

Ellie - thanks for looking at my other thread. I re-read the advice after the children were in bed last night (though DS1 came down for another talk at about 10 and didn't settle till after 11). There is lots of good advice there. Wish I had known about MN through earlier crises with DS1 (many!).

MrsDing - delegating tidying. An excellent idea!

Sociable day today. DS2 has a friend coming round to play this morning and then we are meant to be meeting up with friends this afternoon. Am going to throw some sausages into the slow cooker with a packet mix for dinner tonight and maybe bung some washing on, but that's it for today.

Hello Toffee I just saw your message from yesterday re your son feeling anxious about school. Am going to have a look at the other thread you mentioned. Have you sought or been offered any help for him? Sounds so difficult for him.

The thread has been busy since I've been away - I was hoping to catch up last night when we got back, but couldn't get onto it for some reason. Not much time for individual messages now I'm afraid, but just wanted to say it's lovely to see a few old faces back - although I'm sorry to hear you've been having such a difficult time MissB - and thanks for offering to take over the reins of next month's thread, Toffee. So sorry to hear about your DS's problems at school; I'll have a look at your thread when I have a little more time.

We had a lovely time in London; afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason was definitely the highlight. Otherwise, spent too much money at John Lewis, M&S and various bookshops and realised I have been in Austria far too long as I just can't cope with the size of British shops any more. DH and I both agreed it's fortunate that we no longer live in the UK as we would constantly be tempted to spend far too much.

Hello Toffe, I've read your other thread and sorry your son has been having a hard time. I have nothing against home education generally, however if your son wants it to escape from school and his anxieties re being in that situation then I would hesitate to rush into it. Because I would worry that he would learn avoidance as a means of managing his anxiety and in the longer term that could become an unhelpful and socially isolating habit which is very difficult to break. You know, a tendency to hide in the house where he feels safe? And after schools he'll have to be able to face the workplace.

He deserves lots of help from CAMHS asap. I would explain the level of distress his anxiety is causing him and request urgent input so that he can begin to enjoy being in school again. Can you speak to his GP or psychiatrist?

Definitely explain the situation to the Head at school and seek their practical input to make sure things are made as easy as possible for him in school. If the teacher is a problem perhaps he could consider change class. Although if he has a good friend in his class that's a factor against changing classes as he would make things easier for him.

Best of luck.

Thanks for reading, Arabella. I agree with you about the importance of him not learning avoidance as a way of managing anxiety. Not sure he or I can face CAMHS again, but I will explore other options. Thank you so much for your thoughts.

Thanks for the welcome back everyone

Looking forward to seeing if I can get posting properly again

Looking forward to the new thread.

Have you seen the Flylady motto for 2011?

Its all about doing 7 in 2011 and is BRILLIANT

7 things is so inherently manageable isnt it?

Looking forward to Toffee's leadership

Afternoon all! Busy day here today. Have spent all morning shopping and have now got to get ready for small gathering here this afternoon. No stress really as we just have our bf's and their dc's coming round and they have seen our house at its worst but still want to make sure it's presentable and have a buffet to do.

dtg 7 in 11 sounds eminently manageable. Fingers crossed .

toffee I hereby hand over the ceremonial feather duster in the hope that it will give some inspiration for thread title. You need nettle, she's good at those. I will have a ponder.

Back mater!

Blardy predictive text. Back later.

Ellie - thank you for the ceremonial feather duster. I shall treasure it. Apologies all for not having a new thread up and running yet. Trying to control some small people here (they look so sweet, but keep shouting, "Kill! Kill!"), so am going to take them out now. Hope the fresh air will inspire me (and calm them down ).

Does anybody know how to clean the surface of an ipad? Mine is covered with fingerprints.

BTW Toffee, I was typing in a hurry when I posted in reply to the thread re your DS, and as a result I have just noticed it sounds somewhere between bossy and terse . Its because I had just read your thread and was typing furiously to fit in a reply before the baby woke up from her (all-too-brief nap) so didn't have time to word things properly. Anyway, sorry!

MissBennett - Hello and congratulations on such a successful declutter, and good luck for the New Year after what you've been through.

My Ipad gets filthy, I splash a tiny bit of water onto a microfibre cloth and polish it with the damp bit followed by a dry section.

Thanks Mrs DingDong, will try that!

In fact the answer to most questions on this thread seems to be a damp microfibre cloth

Yes, I remember reading about them. I bought one. But haven't reached the vital stage of actually opening the packet yet

January thread titles

Out with the old, in with the new...

For Auld Langs GRIME ...

A microfibre a day keeps the fat fairy away...

nah, I am getting worse arent I?