Back to Fly school for September Fledglings

[substantiallycompromised]

Welcome to the September 2011 Fledgling Flying thread! Hang up your microfibre cloths and park your buckets here!!

[Sorry - I've namechanged again - but remain SC]

This is where from the 1st of the month, we attempt to declutter and follow the 30-step wisdom of Flylady (minus cutesy language and a surfeit of e-mails) with lots of chat and support and mutual motivation along the way. (More info available here )

Humungous thanks to our previous thread leader Blue for navigating us all through the August school holidays...and for doing it so consistently and well!!

As usual we will be following a three-pronged approach - and don't worry - we are all at different stages. Some of us (SC stares at feet) -are even embarrassingly stuck at decluttering stage after two years

• 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.

All newcomers welcome!

I think our definitions of 'scary' are a bit outdated! When I let DD watch the later Harry Potter films I thought she'd be scared, but nooo, she was stuffing Smarties into her mouth and cheering on the good guys. Just look at today's Doctor Who - even I was creeped out by some of the latest episodes. My friend's sons (11 and 14) both love the Resident Evil films, and they are rated 18. I guess you just have to know your own children.

Today's list:
Put all clean washing away done
Dust living room done
Mop kitchen floor done
Sort budget for the month done
Tidy laundry room done
Hit hallway Hotspot done
Update calendar with school/volunteer dates done
Catch up with last week's Torchwood -- for later tonight!
Weed the driveway -- on hold till I get some Roundup (thanks SC)

Had a lovely surprise this afternoon - Mum arrived with scones and clotted cream, so DH and I had a real cream tea when he got in from work! DD is disgusted that she has homework on her first week back at school. And I have spent a productive afternoon mumsnetting listing things on eBay.

have a good weekend everyone!

Oops - Resident Evil? No way would I let DS watch that! I'm even scared by the posters for it. And I agree with you about Dr Who. I can't even bear to look at some of the monsters when they're on the Dr Who magazine. I think I'm a bit wimpy, but I just can't think it's good for children to have those images in their heads.

The scones and clotted cream sound yummy. What a nice end-of-week treat.

Ha, date night for me is going to consist of having a takeaway with DH and his best mate and then getting the telly to myself for a couple of hours while they go to the pub.

Well done everything on my list apart from the housework, gardening club ended up taking 2 hours rather than one but we harvested everything, the children were so happy pulling up beetroots and delving through all the sacks to find potatoes, and made about £20 for the PTA.

I'm whacked, it has been quite a week. Think the whole country is probably full of mums heaving a collective sigh of relief and reaching for the wine .

Builders left about 3.30. Kitchen is clean (although cluttered!) again, and dinner is mostly sorted. The boys are in the bath, and we might get half an hour between them getting to bed and our guests arriving.

There'll be plenty of tonight!

Tomorrow's "family fun" is a trip for the 4 of us to the dentist. DS1 needs considerable psyching up to even get there, and it'll be the first time DS2 has seen him... Eek!

WhoKnows - the gardening club sounds great. DS1's school has an allotment - I think it's such a good idea.

Oops - mm, scones! My mum brought scones when I was in labour with DS2 - she makes wonderful scones.

Well, I am one of those mums, WhoKnows, and am on the wine already. Enjoy your time in front of the telly (am quite of your time to yourself).

Blue - what a day. I'm impressed that you can cope with guests after having the builders in all day. Good luck at the dentist tomorrow. I had my last filling for a while (I hope) yesterday. It's such a relief when it's all over (although it didn't hurt at all, it must be said).

Thank you for Blue - just what the doctor ordered!

Feel tired but relatively happy this evening as managed to be fairly productive today and pull things back from the brink, although home office looks like a bomb has gone off in it again!

Just pausing between late supper and dd bed:

Laundry, laundry, laundry (partic. school uniform) - done x 3 loads
Tidy kitchen done and cleaned
Clear dining room table hot-spots hurray! done and cleaned
Tidy hall and landings done hall and cleaned
Tidy play room done and cleaned
Tidy boudoir done and cleaned
Tidy bathroom done and cleaned
Doc appt with dd done all OK
Supermarket shop if dh can baby-sit - NESBIT! although did get to butcher, bank, newsagent and wine shop!
Two important phone calls done
Internet shopping - about to do

Thanks for wicker tips Swan - they are baskets not chairs - but good idea to scrub! Will buy suitable scrubbing brush tomorrow and choose a sunny day ... at Humphrey and Marcus!!

Blue I admire the fact that you can cope with builders and guests on the same day! Good luck at the dentist tomorrow! Family fun indeed ....

Whoknows you definitely deserve a glass of or three. Congratulations on your wonderful harvest!

Oops/Toffee/Swan I lost the battle with dh over dd watching Dr Who. I leave them to it now. She doesn't seem scared tbh but if she ever wakes up on a Saturday night feeling anxious, I know who is going to be "'volunteered" for warm milk duty ...

Oops save us a scone!

Toffee your ds did so well to continue the journey to school (and if it's any consolation, my dd had the colly wobbles and didn't make it in today). I think the first week is very tiring and stressful for everyone. Agree with Swan about trips too! I can't stand going on a trip organised by someone else [control freak emoticon])

I hope no-one minds but I am really tired this evening and think I am going to go to bed at the same time as dd (so much for date night!). Fairly well caught up with thread so will leave round-up for tomorrow if that's OK.

*

Baby-step number 10 for Saturday 10th September is:

here a useful one about "the power of 15 minutes"

No zones or missions because it's the weekend.

But for those of you who are working during the week and want to get ahead with zone cleaning, next week, we will be in Zone 3: The Bathroom and One Extra Room, September 12 - 16.

Saturday is "family fun day"

Well done for getting through this difficult week everyone!! Enjoy the weekend!!

*

Evening all,

Apologies for my absence recently - a combination of a long weekend in the UK, the DC going back to school (it's taken them almost a week to build up to the full four-hour "day"), a nasty stomach bug and being snowed under with work means that the house is still a mess. I have plans to deal with it in between finishing work and my ILs' visit on Sunday, and hope I have time to actually do so!

I've read through the thread but if I start on personals - much as I'd love to - I'd be here all night, and I have work to do... Just wanted to say to Toffee that you must be so proud of your DS for having coped so well in his first week (and that the odd setback is inevitable, especially when he makes such rapid progress) and to WhoKnows that although the initial diagnosis can be a shock and you do need to leave time for it to sink in, in the long run I've found it helpful to know what we're dealing with and that there's a reason behind DD1's behaviour (dyslexia and also about a year behind her peers emotionally). Lots of in order for both of you - and everyone else on the thread who's doing so much better than me - tonight.

Our date night is so far consisting of me working and DH having a bath, although we may make time for a quick bite to eat later (haven't really eaten since Wed evening, so am not sure if would be a good idea, although I am very tempted to have a small sip). Waves to all - will try to get back on track (both with FLYing and the thread) next week.

Sorry to hear you've been sick, Linzer. You've had a frantic few weeks, what with the holidays, travel and now trying to settle the DC into school. I hope you feel better soon.

SC - I hope you get to catch up on sleep tonight. It is reassuring to me to hear that other people's children have also had to have time off. To be honest, I think the first 'week' should be about three days' long: five days is just too much. DS1 is so much better now that he's been at home for a few hours.

You should come to Austria, Toffee. One hour at school on the first day, two on the second... and it's not even as if they're in their first year of school. Am also quite annoyed that the girls only finish at the same time one day a week, although I'm making that two days by signing DD2 up for an after-school English class on Wednesdays. Quite ironic that I'm teaching the DDs' classes for free but then paying someone else to teach DD2 English. Am I mad or just desperate for an extra hour to mysefl?

SC Hope you get a good night's sleep tonight. Sounds like you deserve (need?) an early night after your productive day!

Good Evening

End of my first half week as school run mu, Went well think ds enjoyed it. Attending a friends of the school meeting and on top of the bulging diary of dates i have entered into my calendar I now have some more! swan you were right, inundated with bits of paper.

my list

sweep and mop floor- swept
tidy dc rooms and hoover-nope
change dc beds-nope
tidy up some hotspots throughout-nope
buy a card to replace the one i wasted.-done
Work lots of it-some brought tons home but cant be bothered.
nursery and school drop.-done

also cleaned kitchen, s/s bathroom, cleaned out and defrosted freezer. Every year it decides it not longer want to be a freezer and becomes and oven , meal planning and shopping done for next two weeks, caught up with a friend, made dinner for tomorrow, tidied hall shoe rack.

Tomorrow have dentist for sedation and extraction [nervous wreck] Planning nothing else for the day!

ouch hope ds gets used to it. especially as he loves training.
messy chocolate sauce incident
sc hope dd is feeling better. wow at your weed advise Wicker i would dunk it in water myself and sod the consequences
hatti welcome
mc hope your school visits went well
toffee your ds really has done brill. So have you. No idea about film watching but will take note for future. No date night here. DH is working tonight and staying at work tomorrow night too. Might see him sunday night.
oops yum scones and clotted cream
blue enjoy your visitors and wine

Right better go and find something other than crisps to eat for dinner and some because everyone keeps talking about it. Then hit the bank recons

Good night all. Have great Saturdays

Linzer - do many Austrian mums of primary school aged children work? It's bad enough trying to manage work vs childcare with British school hours, but 4 hour days and 9 week summer holidays?!

My DCs are shattered too, especially DS, who has been a bit fragile emotionally this afternoon, about an hour ago he was sat on the sofa saying he didn't want to go to bed and you could see he was struggling to keep his eyes open. Needless to say they both revived as soon as they went upstairs and are now busy using sheets to build dens in their bunk beds.

I'm also shattered, unprecedented levels of exercise might be catching up with me. I have been getting up 45 mins earlier for the last 4 days to do the Shred before everyone else gets up, I think my willpower on that one is going to be strongly tested over the weekend.

I don't know anyone who works f/t - and those that work p/t often work very few hours (our neighbour, for example, works Monday afternoons and Tuesday mornings - she has a babysitter for the afternoons). Our school does have an after-school club but very few children go to it - only one or two per class - but it does vary from area to area; a friend of mine lives about half an hour away and apparently most children go to the after-school club there. My SIL works p/t (9 hrs a week) as a teacher even now that her DC are at secondary school; then again, the hours at secondary school aren't always that much longer than at primary. She also has my ILs living in the same house to help out, which isn't all that uncommon here - it's fairly uncommon to move away from the area where your parents live, in fact.

Someone mentioned at the parents' evening a few days ago that schools may introduce an autumn half-term (we normally go straight through until Christmas) and reduce the length of the summer holidays, but I've also heard that the teachers' lobby is too strong to allow the summer holidays to be cut. Must ask my SIL what she thinks about it!

Evening all

whoknows how have you found the shred hard. I have it and look at it frequently but its still sitting on my shelf still wrapped in its cellophane.
Toffee I think your DS did brilliantly to get to Friday and I think that its lovely that you told him that. I'm sure its just what he needed to hear.
Linzer I could not cope with 4 hour school days. You must be disciplined to get anything done in that time. I remember when DD was at nursery for just afternoons, many times I go to pick her up after hardly having done anything.
Nettie Good luck at the dentist tomorrow. At least its not a school/work day. Hope you can have some time to relax afterwards.

Well went to the schools. One was great but not in a great area. Other one I'm not too sure about but great for NQTs. I think both would be great experiences but in different ways. Also managed washing, tidied kitchen hotspot and bought dd friends present. Hoovering will have to wait for tomorrow.

Tomorrow dd has a birthday party and I have to prepare for my interview on Tuesday as well as hoover and put some stuff on ebay. I'm sure there is plenty more jobs I'll have thought of by morning. DD is full of cold and can't sleep so looks likea fun night here. usually she ends up getting worked up and being sick so I'm praying not or else all plans for tomorrow will go by the wayside.

Hope you are all enjoying date night. Back tomorrow

Ds has so much homework to do/get ahead with this weekend, and I thought we would be relaxing [help!]
The nice thing is that it is all quite finite pieces of work rather than the dreaded open-ended project which was Ds's bete noire. Homework is things like draw a "Romans" title page, or cover your Spanish exercise books with funky Spanish things . The worst is write the life of a composer, but luckily only one page. About 4 more things to give in as well by Wednesday I think Ds likes ticking things off the list
Tried to get ds1 to watch a 1961 Disney life of Beethoven on Youtube (all set in Vienna as far as I could see, slightly hazy as youtube clips are wont to be) but that was not a success..Will have to check if Dr Who met Beethoven at any point from my various Dr Who reference works. Or was that only Van Gogh.
Took kids to play football in park (only football with his brother is safe enough
Dh back late from York business trip and in grumpy mood again at demise of the prawns. "All I've had all day is a KitKat, and now you tell me the prawns are past their sell by date" (rejects goulash, steak, lamb casserole - luckily accepts substitute of ratatouille and fried egg

SC I wish I could add a list of tidying like yours.

Very excited it's the weekend. Feel in excellent mood! Let's see how long that lasts...

Linzer my SIL and BIL work fulltime, and my niece is looked after by someone all afternoon till 6pm, despite school ending at 1pm. It seems possible to organise, certainly I don't think they complain that the school day is too short, I think they are just used to things being structured like that, whereas I suppose in UK we don't expect it. They would probably think after 1pm was very unfair on niece, too stressful etc. But as you have pointed out, school is meant to be much less free flowing in Germany/Austria.
It's odd isn't it all these cultural norms?

Nettie Hope you have scheduled DVDs and sympathy for after extraction, very important to take it easy so gum heals. Have now had three extractions. Not too bad as long as I didn't rush around afterwards.

Hi all,
Hooray made it through the first week back (or third week in my case).

Just wanted to pop in to reassure myself that I have done some flying. Sorry have only read the last few posts, but big wave to you all.

Swan what is draw a Roman title page about? He could just write Romans and his own name underneath and call it a day , but I suppose that isn't the point of the exercise.

done
kitchen S&S evening and morning
bathroom S&S morning
shopping big shop
work
DS lunch/playing football in garden
dinner done
tumble drying clothes 3 loads 1 done so far
check emails done
put out hotspot - only 1 at the moment
did babystep
that's it really, phew
bak sun

Oh and the rubbish boss apologised for the 'mix-up' so feeling a bit less frazzled.

just swept floors

Builders and guests on the same day wasn't intentional! Still, dinner was nice, was taken, and so was gin and whisky... See you tomorrow...

Plan for today.

Wash already on done
TIDY MY BEDROOM (dh is still asleep though)

milk bottles in
breakfast make
shower everyone
persuade dd to go to Beginner Strings instead of Ds1
Go to library with ds1 get books on Germany and Beethoven for homework
Send ds2 to football with dh, and dd to violin (must sit in for once
Entrance to music exam form
Pay music school invoice
prepare shepherd's pie as Dh is clearly not going to touch other stews [harumph] (no problem as children will eat them anon)

sort out rubbish in back yard
take ds1 for a run
take all children for a swim

Persuade ds1 to get ahead with loads of homework
cover his books for him, as he won't be able to manage that sort of fiddly stuff in a million years

Morning all,

DH has taken the DC out so that I can work; I can't wait to get it finished so that I can start dealing with the chaos. Have emptied the dishwasher and swished & swiped, but am trying to ignore the rest for the time being.

swan You're right, people here are generally quite shocked when I tell them that school lasts until 3/3.30 pm in the UK and even more so by the fact that they start school at 4 (the poor children, however do they cope?). (Quite a few people are against the comprehensive system too, which may or may not be introduced at some point in the future - we still have grammar schools etc. here.) But I don't think the two school systems can be compared; on the whole, I remember the British school day as being far less taxing than what I've experienced of the Austrian one. Children seem to be under more pressure here too. We're about to get the schedule for DD1's Schularbeiten (tests/exams) - two per semester in German and maths, plus a few extra general studies ones - and DH is already dreading it; he thinks that most weekends are going to be taken up with revision (we're given the topic a week beforehand). I can't remember ever having to do more than five minutes' revision for a spelling test when I was at primary school, although I'm aware that's a long time ago and the system may well have changed since then.

Oh, and yes - it's perfectly possible for children to go to an after-school club/childminder until 5 or 6 pm; it's just that hardly any do (the few who go are usually picked up mid-afternoon). However, as I said before, that only really applies to the area where we live; I'm sure the situation in Vienna, for example, which seems to be more geared up for working mothers/parents, is quite different.

Morning all!

Have just about survived the first week back but today i need to deal with the fall out from it of messy house. So far I have managed to sit around in my pj's and drink coffee .

List looks like this:-
Tidy whole house
Clean whole house
Do all washing
Do all food shopping

Easy .

Already shattered.

done
ds2 to football with dh with right kit
dd to Elementary Strings, but she was v. reluctant to go again as she unaccountably forgot her bow and could only do the pinging bits.
dd to Choir
ds1 refuses to go to choir and is doing Maths homework

now I have to shower, get properly dressed, and intercept Dd with music, bow to take to her 11.30 violin lesson

I forsee no cleaning happening today whatsoever, Dh had a nasty glint in his eye