October's Fledgling Fliers: Seasons of Mists and Mellow Flyfulness

[elliepac]

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.

rowing Yes, a 5 minute room rescue would be a good idea. You could also do a 27 fling boogie if your living room is very cluttered or work on your hot spots.

SC Instead of Keats' romantic poetry, we got Chaucer's bawdiness; there was one particularly lewd line in the Merchant's Tale that 99% of the class would quote in every essay.
Well done on all the baby stuff decluttering; it can't have been easy, but you just have to remind yourself that it's gone to a good home.

Blue Sympathies on the tile hunting; we ordered some recently for our bathroom (which were supposed to arrive on my birthday, but no sign of them yet) as they only had 6 of the ones we wanted.

swan Alone and palely loitering definitely sounds familiar, but can't remember where I've heard it. Definitely one to slip into conversation, at any rate.

ellie Don't you dare apologise; you're doing well to post at all, considering all the pain you must have been in/are still in.

DD1 has had the results of her maths test back and got a 3 (equivalent to a C, but really not a great mark). DH isn't going to be happy after the hours and hours of work he put in with her, although I did point out to him that it's not the maths as such she has problems with, it's concentrating on reading the questions properly. He really wanted her to get a good grade in this test as a) it will put her under less pressure during the rest of the year (she has eight tests altogether, which means we have to go through this another seven times...), and b) maths is about the only (important) subject that she's capable of getting a good grade in. She apologised when she showed the test to me; I hate the amount of pressure that the system puts children under.

SC I was watching a documentary about the Archers not long ago and the editor (?) said that it was designed to be dipped in and out of, so that it didn't really matter if you missed a few episodes.

Thought for the day (am getting into this poetry thing now, despite lack of Keats knowledge):

The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heav'n of hell, a hell of heav'n.

I like that thought Linzer. Bugger about the test. COuld it be a case of burn out? too much studying? I know I always performed better with least studying/revision just before the test. Don't expect your DH will agree with this even being a possibility though. Poor DD1. :(

I think you're right on both counts, Darkness. There's no way of knowing how she'd have done without any revision, but I suspect no worse - the maths itself really wasn't all that difficult, it was just that she hadn't read two questions properly and made one small calculation mistake. The other thing is that they have to work out the sum and then write the answer as a sentence, so if they make a mistake when calculating the sum, they lose the marks twice.

Anyway, onwards and upwards.

Linzer believe it or not, we had various copies of Shakespeare's plays at school (run by Loreto nuns) which had lines of asterisks in them instead of what were (I assume) the 'racier' lines!! That anecdote shows how old I am!! Mind you, the bks were already ancient when I got there!

at eight tests throughout the year! Your poor dd! That is a lot of pressure. C isn't at all bad for a first shot (partic considering the pressure she has been under)! I hope she isn't feeling too down x

We've had a bit of a shock today because dd received the first of her three reports for this term! Three in one term? The world has gone mad! It's all suddenly got very serious in 3ieme primaire and we weren't at all prepared for it. She did OK in general (lang, grammar, history, geog. but only got a D in maths) It's not her best subject anyway and she is struggling because it is taught in French (which she only started to study seriously this year) and so like your dd, it's mainly a question of comprehension. (Shall we both bundle up our dc and make a quick dash back to UK??? )

Ah! (re: the Archers) That explains it! And also the rather tortuous, explanatory lines accompanying most bits of conversation!!

It cheers me up when I realise how racy Shakespeare and Chaucer were, shows that there is no such thing as old-fashioned (in a bad sense) And as for the Bible...the unsuitable bits in the OT are....just...very unsuitable....

done
RE
bit of York budgeting. Ds1 was screaming by this stage, no I don't want to see what another hotel might cost, I only want to go to the Novotel...(they were meant to compare prices in different hotels) I like it there. Who cares how much it costs...
I hope he's still ill, and its not just hysteria..

Now Linzer I would have assumed that was Hamlet, but when I google I find it is Milton, and it's the fallen Angel speaking

and he's copying Mephistophilis from Dr Faustus...

I'm getting distracted..
I think I've worked out Freecycle everyone created a Yahoo id, which is i think what was required.

Oh yes to unsuitable bits - t'was ever thus and all that ...

Like RowingBoat and her trochees, PL always gives me the heebie jeebies owing to a particularly clueless unprepared (on my part) tutorial with a particularly vindictive rigorous professor week one, term one, year one at university. Still brings me out in a cold sweat when I think about it!

swan Ah yes, had completely forgotten about the Dr Faustus connection. The full horror of my A levels is coming back to me now - the realisation that leaving it until the night before the exam to read Paradise Lost for the first time was not the best of ideas and giving up on it altogether... Also decided to totally ignore Burnt Norton and concentrate on the Waste Land, only to be confronted with a "compare and contrast" question, so had to write about Ash Wednesday instead. A friend of mine wrote a very funny spoof of the Waste Land for our English teacher, but I can only remember the start: "June is the cruellest month, breeding quotes out of the dead text" - must ask her if she still has a copy.

SC Yes, and the overuse of names in the Archers, just so that you know exactly who's talking to whom.
I'm on for a dead-of-night flit back to the UK btw; anything to escape the hell of Schularbeiten!

Have just been sent a ridiculous amount of work - good for my bank account, but not so good for my sanity, sleep, etc. I may as well write off the rest of October FLYing-wise.

Sounds like we have had very similar experiences with PL, SC - the stuff that nightmares are made of.

Have just been chuckling over Wendy Cope's Waste Land Limericks, but won't hijack the thread any more.

Went to a Wendy Cope reading at university years ago, Linzer: she was just beginning to become well known. She was so funny and eloquent. I particularly remember her reading a spoof of the 'Peter and Jane' books that was hilarious.

I seem to have missed a lot of literary discussion on this thread today

Just a quick post as DS2 is hovering nearby, waiting for me to play a game with him before bathtime...

The children went to school . Oh, the house was so peaceful . DH and I shared our chores, then drove over to his new 'office', which is badly in need of a Flylady crisis clean. Then I persuaded him that we needed to have a business lunch at the local pub. I'm sure I made some very serious points in between eating burger and chips and drinking two glasses of white wine.

Oh dear, all this poetry is making me feel horribly uncultured - despite being a literary translator I don't get poetry, and have studied very little lit!

of your lots of work, Linzer - I'm still in the doldrums.

The boys quite liked stir-fry last week so I made it again. What was I thinking??!

Still, ta da!
Strip beds
Wash sheets
Remake beds
Tidy bedroom
Filing
Dusting
Go to buy tiles
Hotspots x lots
Reply to weird email hmm
Attempt not to get distracted by MN/Twitter... moderately successful

Come join me at the naughty corner bar Blue. I am a scientist and have got a friggin clue what this lot are whittering on about. Mind you if I stared talking about microarrays, electrophresis gel and PCR techniques they would all look like this -->

fly fail. cba. busy with training and life. It happens and then flying doesn't. whatever. Will deal with it when i get back in a week and half.

lol at you lot. i have a first in eng lit, i'll have you know.

I wouldn't though Darkness, much more at home with a bit of electrophoresis here too. We didn't have to do English Lit O level at my school, so I never really did any after about the age of 14. .

of the Wendy Cope reading, Toffee - some of her poems really make me laugh out loud (the Peter and Jane one sounds familiar, although I think I may have decluttered the collection that it's in).

Blue No need to be envious - I'm already feeling stressed! After weeks of very little work, why do I suddenly have to be snowed under? It's always the way. I am quite of you getting to do literary translations, though; I haven't really done any since my masters.

Darkness I'm not put off by technical talk - have done my fair share of technical translations and live with a scientist/engineer although I tend to switch off when he starts talking about work.

Well, the house is just about tidy enough for the cleaner to clean tomorrow, but only because I've been stuffing things in drawers and cupboards. Oh to have time to declutter. I shall just have to make time (although not until November, I fear).

Oh, and DH has reacted much better than I was expecting to the results of DD1's test. He thinks the teacher has been quite harsh in her grading and that DD1 actually did quite well (she got 20 out of 26, and full marks on over half the questions). The problem with getting a 3 (in her overall grade) is that it means she'll have to go to the middle school, not an option we'd ruled out by any means, but it would have been nice to have had a choice of secondary schools.

Can I come and have a and a cry?

DD failed another hearing test today- it's not looking good. I'm so upset, she's so little and vunerable. :( In her favour it's just one ear which means her perfect hearing in the other is making up for it, but it's aways upsetting to hear your baby has a problem. Have to go back in three months for another but i won't be getting my hopes up like i did today.

Anyway....

Todays list (wandered off course after the appt so will try harder tomorrow)

Empty DW done
Wednesdays wash done
Declutter under sink (pots/pans and tupperware cupboard)
Bath DD done
Hosp appt with DD done
Drop box of toys at charity shop
Return library books
Bins out done
Mission
Write list for Ikea done
Dinner- Chicken, spicy wedges done
Wipe out fridge

Tomorrows list

Empty DW
Thursdays wash
Toddler group
Return library books
Bins in
Declutter under sink cupboard
Wipe out fridge
Write food shop list for DH
Mission
S & S

Feeling very thick lost with all this poetry flying about. English lit was not my best subject, I'm more of a maths/science brain!

Have a good evening everyone.

Hugs from one science brain to another NickNack, sorry today didn't go well. How old is DD? I suppose it's good that the problem has been detected and is being monitored, but still very hard for you.

Swan well done on the Frerecycle, yes you would need a yahoo account.

I'm slinking off to the naught corner tonight, feeling a bit CBA. Have done basic routines, but no missions or decluttering today. Got the boiler serviced and booked the chimney sweep. Oh and actually managed to cook something new that the DCs liked for dinner, it was minestrone soup, howeve once I put the pasta in it went so thick it really was essentially pasta in tomato sauce.

Have some and ((hugs)), NickNacks. Like WhoKnows said, it's good that the problem has been detected at an early stage, but it must have been a bit of a shock for you.

Btw, the only reason I'm waffling on about poetry is to detract from my lack of FLYing. And I've already admitted to being a philistine myself, having attributed Keats' poetry to SC!

Am feeling utterly exhausted now, despite not having done a great deal of work this evening, so am off to bed now. Night all.

Thanks guys. She's only 13 months and that's another thing in her favour. She has a damaged ear drum and so in children this usually repairs itself and hopefully her hearing will improve with that. I think it hit me harder today because i was so sure she would do better this time and even as we were there and she was being assessed, I felt she'd passed but sadly not. She only heard the very loud noises and didn't respond to any of the quieter sounds in the bad ear.

Hey ho- will arrange to see the HV and get some support as suggested by the Audiologist.

Still it was lovely coming back to a nice tidy house :)

A friends DD has recovered most of her lost hearing in one ear at the age of 5, don't know any details though.

That's really positive to hear Whoknows. How fab for that little girl!