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!

Swan - grape juice sounds lovely. Eating way through lots of lovely Cox's apples from our tree at moment, much smaller harvest than last year but SO tasty. If you do get a jelly bag at any point its well worth spending more money to get a sturdy one (voice of cheap experience :))

Need lists today so Ta Da:

• Finish poster for Autumn Fayre, copy at school and start to put up
• Make icing and ice buns
• All up and out
• 'Tea and Tissues' event for new Reception parents whose DC start full-time today
• Find home for Fayre donations
• S&S

To Do:

• Rest of morning routine - washing up, washing on, cat litter, kitchen floor swept, 2 mins hotspot
• Make Quince jelly
• Fish out of freezer for dinner
• Laminate Fayre posters and put up later
• Update calendar

Will do that and update/add stuff later.

Well, I'm tackling what's enraging me: the clouds of dust eminating from ds1's bedroom and all the sheer distracting stuff in there, not to mention the overwhelming and Dickensian smell of SOOT: how is the poor child expected to tidy his room, when the world and his wife have piled dusty tomes everywhere.

Feel a bit overwhelmed by the scale of the problem (I think that's why I get so cross with poor dh (who is a bookseller ), and keeps putting books back on shelves when I declutter them.

Anyway I done an Ouch, and am now floundering in heaps of rubble.

MC it was only from 4-8 unfortunately. And he rather pointedly wiped worktops which he never usually does! I think if I can show DH how nice and fresh ds's room is without the 2 year olds picture books and the deeply unsuitable thrillers, and the piles of distracting DVDs maybe he'll feel better too.

okay, I've done ds1 room, including sheets

(not includign puttig cds in their cases

now ds2's room, which is far worse because it's a box room, but easier ina way because it's a box room

dd's room is insoluble - the cat has taken to sitting in the wardrobe now [bleugh]
but will change sheets and pile stuff in corner of the room and hoover

[determined]

Well I have spent all morning juggling furniture about. Its very frustrating. And in the end I have sacrificed wardrobe doors for warmth and illusion of space. I have floor and everything that is going back is being cleaned. Have decluttered a bag full of rubbish and a bag full of baby clothes. I have another box of stuff to ebay but will wait until the weather turns a tad more and people start thinking about sleeping bags and snow suits.

Just finished lunch and going to head off to finish putting room back together and to clear the landing and bathroom of the stuff that was evicted this morning.

Fresh pot of coffee if anyone is in need >> help yourself!

I'll definitely have some of that coffee Ouch! Going to be hitting the soon I think.

The kitchen, so far, is a disaster. The fitter hates the units, says they're badly designed and will be a nightmare to fit. And they haven't sent enough feet. DH phoned Ikea who said they could send some out (at a cost) in "3-5 working days". When told that wasn't soon enough, apparently they said "Well, can't you drive to your nearest store and buy some?". This was AFTER having established that our nearest store is 100 miles away... about sums it up at the moment.

ah coffee!
v impressed by your resilience and determination, ouch. might borrow some of that later - have been pondering layout of dd1's basement room (it also has the laundry ) and i know i need to move/ ditch some furniture so that i can get more storage in. i know it sounds completely backwards, but she's got a beautiful old wardrobe and dressing table in there that belonged to my grandparents, but they are, well, impractical for an 11yo wo accumulates stuff. i think they are going to have to go into the garage pending a bigger house, in favour of massive ikea pax wardobes. (but am slightly fecked off because we were in ikea looking for ideas on saturday and pretty much decided on wardrobes - planned to go back next weekend to purchase, and then last night at 10pm noticed the 15% back in gift vouchers expired yesterday. should have done it this weekend, gah)

well, today started badly. during breakfast two out of 3 dcs casually announced it's photo day at school. cue half an hour of me throwing clothes around trying to work out if they even own anything i want recorded for posterity. (oh, they don't wear uniform. today is the first day i've missed that!) so all the ironing dh and i did yesterday (jeans, t-shorts, hoodies, more jeans, t-shirts, hoodies) was completely useless. dd2's photo day is tomorrow.

so that's top of the list!

dd2 photo day outfit
wm done (with bells on. three times already since 6am)
dw
brownie craft for tonight
parent newsletter for tonight
mop kitchen floors
drop bags at thrift shop (the ones i filled last week - will be chuffed when they are gone!)
two job applications
one reference
early dinner
dd1 ballet
dd1 pathfinders
dd2 and i brownies

despite the initial paragraphs, i'm actually feeling quite positive today! happy flying!

To Do Before Bed:

General Tidy (I'm actually liking this whole ILs watching DS thing, my house is much cleaner than usual) done last night
Sweep Everything done last night
Lay out clothes for everyone (DS is asleep in the shirt he's going to wear tomorrow, so that's one less thing I have to do!) done last night
Clear off Hot Spot done last night
Dishes mostly done last night
Shine sink no
Make spice rub for chicken done last night
Swish and swipe so I don't have to in the morning done last night

Tomorrow Morning

Dressed done
Breakfast done
Hair/Makeup lick and a promise :o
Chicken in slow cooker no, luckily I could do it when I got home and just put it on high
Dog out and walked if I have time no walk for the poor thing, I'll fit it in tonight
Get DS up and teeth brushed, etc. done
Bring snack to preschool done

Next Few Days:

**Finish library books!!!!!
**Vacuum
**Rake and bag leaves
**Try to keep up with FlyLady missions
**DS's homework for preschool
**Clean bedroom

New additions:

**get back to friend who called me ages ago
**clean fridge
**bring money to school for the Boy Scouts who sold me popcorn
**scrub floors
**convince DH that we need to do a light tidy together every night and this will save time in the long run

Oh this is new to all!!!

Evening all!

To make up for being so effortlessly crap for most of the month, today I have been a good flybaby.

Ta da list in chronological order:-

Washing on
DH out to work
DC's up and breakfast
Washing on line
S/S bathroom
Washing on line/tumble drier
Tidy breakfast pots away
Wash breakfast pots

Work

Washing in, folded and put away (don't do ironing me )
Dinner made (lasagne)
CLothes out for morning
Bags packed for morning
DS to Cubs
Eat dinner
Wash-up from dinner
Pick DS up from cubs
Collapse

I know why I don't fly properly all the time. It is fecking exhausting .

IN addition I have a confession to make.

Forgive me Fat Fairy for I have sinned. I have gone and hired a cleaner. . It is only for 2 hours a week and it is a good friend of mine who needed the extra cash and is a whiz with a duster. She has been twice now and concentrated on the living room. I didn't know my living room could look this good . Conversely it is also making sure we keep the house a little tidier because I know she's coming and want to make sure the house is tidy so she doesn't have to tidy iyswim.

Back in a mo with round-up and steps!

Evening, yes, you guys were the first people that sprang to mind when I saw we had a symbol.

Keeping to the routines and reading all your posts, but feeling a bit down about DS and his Aspergers at the moment, it is really starting to sink in now. Have spent a lot of time talking to other mums with autistic children today and although it has been very helpful, I feel a bit weepy and exhausted, so taking myself off to watch Doc Martin and dial out for the evening. Although I suspect Doc Martin may also be Aspergers....

Ellie - that is not sinning - that is using your brain and allocating your time correctly. It deserves

it is still disaster here.

But in addition to moving furniture, creating hell and trying to resolve hell I have done laundry - multiple loads (think on about 6 - joys of bedding washing ) done ds' homework and general evening type stuff. Am losing will to live and the mess is still there :( At least nothing is coming back in the room unless it is tidy but access to the main bathroom would be beneficial. Thank god for the on-suite we can borrow the use of this week.

Other occupants of the house are back end of the week so need to get the house tidy and cleaned for that. Mind you I am looking forward to actually being able to put my clothes away. it has been a while since access was easily gained.

Best advice I ever got was that Ds didn't change with the diagnosis. He was still the amazing little boy he ever was. It's just now the rest of the world have to stop making him be a square peg in a round hole and given him a square hole in which to thrive. Ie ds lost nothing with the diagnosis and gained everything. These kids are amazing but they need a different view on the world. But life would be boring if we all looked at life the same way. There would be no Da'vinci, no Einstein, no Issac Newton. And look how much positive impact they had on the world and our lives.

I have to remind myself of this when i want to kill ds for trashing his room because of a meltdown. But it is true these kids are amazing. They look at the world so differently and we have so much to learn from them. We just have to stop expecting them to see life like society expects them to.

hang in the Whoknows. It does get better.

Sorry i appear to be in full waffle mode tonight.

Ouch - are you my friend that I had coffee with this morning? Wouldn't that be weird. She said so many of the same things to me today and it is all true. Also, it is not altogether a surprise, he is 7 now and I have suspected Aspergers since he was about 3. Just some days it seems more overwhelming than others.

Round-up time. Tis a while since I have done one of these buggers so excuse me if I am out of practice and it is crap .

CheerfulYank has licked and promised her hair and make-up and made poor old DS go to sleep in his clothes to save her effort . She also spicily rubbed a chicken....intriguing. . Despite these stange shenanigans she has completed an impressive list and should be congratulated...well done .

madwoman was generally just being mad with fecking ikea...how very inconsiderate of them to date their gift vouchers...bastards . SHe washed her clothes with bells on and then decided that, actually, all was right with the world...as I said...mad

blue definitely needs some . She is having a nightmare with her kitchen and feet. And fecking ikea....think she should have a chat with the madwoman.

ouch appears to have been drinking coffee all day and juggling furniture. She said that the furniture juggling was frustrating, I would have thought it would have been a bit painful...I could maybe juggle a couple of bedside cabinets but a wardrobe...all that skating must give her muscles like the hulk .

sr has done a fab job tackling DIckensian bedrooms . I am with you re cd's in cases. Pain in the arse job if there ever was one. I think I might give you gold star of the day .

Makingchanges has lifted gloom caused by a contrary DD by charging round Morrisons. Round my neck of the woods, Morrisons just enlarges gloom because they never have enough fecking tills open therefore there are not more reasons to shop at MOrrisons. CLearly I need some tips from mc and have been doing it all wrong .

feetheart is ridiculously busy with Autumn Fayre stuff. However, her post left one major unanswered question....what the feck is quince? I suspect I may be a food neanderthal .

oops was planning on getting bogged down in muddy laundry.

ihate needs to change her name to ihatemondays. No need to say anymore. The feeling is universal to all mankind .

haunted had the day from hell ahead of her and revealed she is training to be a secondary science teacher. whoknows was pleased about the presence of a scientist on the thread. So am I? Am thinking there must be a scientific explanation for my shithole of a house and am expecting haunted to be able to give me an answer .

Phew. I am done. I am going to eat cake and watch Britain and Itreland's Next Top Model because I, despite being a highly educated individual, like crap TV .

Have a good evening everyone. I shall post the steps in a sec. Tomorrow, I will also create a new thread seeing as this one is nearly up!

*

The babystep for today is Meal Planning. I will openly admit to ignoring some of the babysteps but I do genuinely do this one every week before I go shopping. Fat Fairy at her best .

The mission for today is here.

Happy flying!

Thanks for the round up ellie You really like this babystep don't you? try this mission

I meant to do that ouch. Just to check if you guys were paying attention .

Tbh i think is needed tonight. I don't care that 1. it is monday or 2. it is a school night or 3. I still have a whole heap of chaos to sort. is deinfetly needed! Want to join me Ellie or are you being sensible? Anyone else?

Well it would be rude to leave you to drink on your own and the mothe always taught me not to be rude .

Oh, I'll have some too, Ouch, and thanks for the , Ellie.

BIL has promised to buy us some feet and post them special delivery. Just as long as he remembers, it'll be fine.

I posted, but it disconnected at last minute.
Whoknows It is hard dealing with it all, there's no doubt about it. It seems a long road ahead, when one's already quite footsore with one thing and another I was at Scouts tonight where there were two ASD children aged 11/12, and I thought how easy/"normal" they seemed compared to ds2 (who has actually quit Cubs because he doesn't like it), but I think that it is just that one becomes more and more sensitive. Ds2 has been saying such sensible intelligent things recently, I'm continually struck by how thoughtful he is; it is more that his whole social manner outside the family circle is very overwhelming. Every ASD child is different, although there are some predictable themes.

done
ballet
scouts
homework (not too much, hurrah, although I did have to draw a violin for ds1)
cooked
washed up
washed washed washed clothes
sneaked some books out the house
dh still in grumpyish mood, but may be that he is just old and tired...[sigh]

Blue our fitter struggled with the Ikea instructions, especially the drawers, but in the end it all looked good, and more importantly was TOUGH.
They are really do get things wrong though when they deliver. They managed to send us TWO identical kitchens, and pulled a long face when I tried to return one (I'd only paid for one so it was terribly difficult for them to process the second one as a return I suspect they put it in the bin as that was easier than putting it back on the computer system...

TA-DA:
-cooked a chicken, now have quite a lot of shredded chicken in the freezer and some stock simmering in the slow cooker. Yay!
-laundry
-raked some leaves...it's an entire season's worth of work
-packed DS' backpack for tomorrow
-clothes laid out
-coffeepot on the ready
-survived Monday
-plan to be sleeping by 10:30 pm (a major accomplishment)

TO DO:
-homework with DS
-scrub floors
-Finish library books!!!!!
-Vacuum
-Get leaf bags
-Try to keep up with FlyLady missions
-Clean bedroo
-get back to friend who called me ages ago
-clean fridge
-bring money to school for the Boy Scouts who sold me popcorn
-scrub floors
-convince DH that we need to do a light tidy together every night and this will save time in the long run