Fledglings Fly in Flaming June; C.H.A.O.S. will be banished soon!

[sanguinechompa]

Welcome to the June 2012 Fledgling Flyers thread. Park your mops, buckets and microfibre cloths here!!

A huge "thank you" to Toffee for leading us throughout May!! Hope you have a fabulous holiday in Spain!!

If you're house is a mess and you are strugging with C.H.A.O.S. (can't have anyone over syndrome) and S.T.U.F.F. (something that undermines family fun) then this is the thread where we (loosely) follow the step-by-step Flylady housekeeping system (in our own, unique, relaxed style) with lots of chat, support and along the way.

We advise not signing up to receive the Flylady e-mails as you will be inundated! All the information you need will be linked here on a daily basis.

From the first of the month, we will be following Flylady's tips on restoring order to our homes, and as we are all at different stages we will be using one of the following methods:

• repeat or start baby steps

• repeat baby steps + do 15 mins a day decluttering in the current zone

• reinforce babysteps and do daily missions if you have finished decluttering.

More info here, here and here

All welcome!!

Swan - congratulations on getting your DS2 to school without either of you having a meltdown! You must have been very, very patient. My MIL does what your DH does, ie. assumes we don't have something when we do. She'll turn up with teabags and when I say, "But we have teabags", she will say, "Oh, but I couldn't see them in the cupboard". "That's because they are in the pot marked 'tea' next to the kettle". What really annoys me is the assumption that I would have run out and not noticed.

Linzer - at people boasting about their children. So thoughtless.

Bitchy - glad the meeting went well .

SC - I didn't notice anything wrong with the links, don't worry (just shows how much of the Flylady routines I'm following ).

kiwi - at the last item of your 'to do' list.

lauren - sorry about the bad news .

feet - hope DH sticks to his word re decluttering.

foad - we love Round Robin letters for that reason. Am always amazed at what people will write. Wish we got more!

WhoKnows - hope you enjoyed your unexpected free time

Waves to all I've missed.

Big achievement today: DS1 has had a haircut! It has only taken six months (and doubling the Prozac) to persuade him.

Friend has just texted me to tell me that we have Mrs BitchySourpussBattleAxe as our children's teacher next year. She taught DS1 and was absolutely appalling to him. She made him so miserable. He was disruptive thanks to his then undiagnosed SNs, but she saw it all as stemming from poor discipline at home. After trying to work with her on the issues, I gave up when she told me she had nothing good to say about him . She reduced me to tears on more than one occasion. Now I'm supposed to send DS2 to her... . He is perfectly well behaved in class, not having DS1's issues, but I still don't want to inflict her on him for a whole year, even if it will demonstrate to her that my mothering skills aren't that bad after all.

Going to make the most of some free time now (DS2 has gone to his CM) to have a nap...

Just literally dashing in and out to say "phew". DD scored 16/20 for WERO and 10/10 for poetry so she lives to fight another day!

So thanks for all the support everyone!!

Unfortunately though, we still have re-sits in religion, conjugaision (French) and grandeurs (maths) to come on Monday, plus a Flemish comprehension test. Another girl in her class has invited her to her birthday party this Saturday - everyone else is going, even the teachers - but because of the revision, we've had to say no . Would have been ok if just one exam but four doesn't leave much time to study. DD now in tears . It's really horrible having to lay down the law.

Well done, MiniSC! But that is horrible that she has to miss the party,SC . And I suppose it wouldn't look good to the teachers if she went.

Helloooo!!!

TOffee - Could you go to the school and ask for DS2 to be moved to a different teacher? You don't want to risk the teacher knocking his confidence and if you cannot relate to here it is going to be a loooooooong year. I would go and say something, but then maybe I am just a nightmare parent!!

SC That sounds so harsh!!! Sorry, I know you are having pressure put on you from the school, but I am a softy and feel so sorry for DD and the pressure she is under. UK schools wouldn't do that, but then that is probably why our children are less well educated. SOrry if I am talking out of turn!! Hi, by the way!!

Oh bum now scrolling function has buggered stopped working and laptop is all jolty, so that's all my personals for now. Sorry!!! Massive waves to everyone else!!

Weekend has got off to an awful start here with terrible problems on the roads yesterday. People were taking 5 hours to get 1 mile up the road! The boats had to be stopped so that more people were not coming onto the island roads because there was literally no place for them to go to. Dh nearly ended up staying at work last night, but fianlly managed to get home and has cycled today. Camp site for the festival is a mud pool. That was what caused the problem as all the thousands of cars that had arrived on the island for the festival couldn't go onsite as they were getting stuck in the mud. Cars have now been towed onto the site just to clear the roads again, but I cannot understand how on earht they are going to be able to move off again on Monday morning. Hundreds of cars were stuck overnight on the side of roads with people having to sleep in them and the local football centre was opened as a "disaster relief" for food/drink/toilets etc for thousands of people!! DOn't you just love it when a tiny island is invaded by 50,000 people and we just can't cope!!!

I had a great big sort out yesterday of my massive dump area and am really chuffed to get that done. It is now sorted into stuff to take; stuff to keep; car boot stuff ; and stuff to chuck. Wahoooo go me!!!

Right, not sure this is going to post. If it doesn't then I will be mega annoyed, but then you wont know anything about it, will you, so no-one will care!!

Hey ho, lets give it a go...........

YAY!!

swan I have a plastic envelope file (pretty one with popper) for each child. Everything goes in it and then I sort it each holiday and chuck out the stuff I no longer need. It's not perfect, but it is all in the one place and quick to find anything if I need it.
I've also got those A4 flat (again pretty) boxes and have one each for cars, house, children, etc Again not perfect, but works pretty well. My brother has a filing cabinet and files everything from A to Z - it works for him!

PA Wow to your massive sort out. You've inspired me!

SC Your DD deserves a treat after all this. She sounds amazing, bless her.

Toffee Am keeping fingers crossed that your friend has it wrong and that really Mrs BitchySourpussBattleAxe has resigned to be relaced by Miss LovelyHoneySweetie who will appreciate you and your DC's!

Right. Off to start this years Christmas Round Robin letter 'DS has been perfecting his puke face this year and achieved top marks in the finger-up-nose exam...'

SC I am a bit more phlegmatic about parties, as I think little girls these days go to far too many. She will survive, and I bet she will thank you for passing the tests/revision time. And it's the holidays soon.
I just insisted ds1 did his trombone practice, and as he had been dossing around for two hours since school, so did Dh. He did it and enjoyed it!

Drama today due to bus strike. No buses, but as we don't watch the news we didn't twig. Ds1 set off, heavily laden as usual, found there were no buses, and decided to walk to school 50 mins. There is a no phone policy at his school, so he just set off, and arrived in good time! Then he rang up from school office at 3.30, asking me to pick him up. But I had for once been organised and given him a charged up Oyster card for emergencies in a secret compartment, so he was able to take the tube home, which he was rather chuffed about.. (Oysters are free on buses so he has never been on tube route before)

So for some reason we all felt rather proud of ourselves, ds for walking and me for not having to pick him up!

Dd had a swimming lesson, and ds2 and I played tennis again
also met a friend and talked to her in cafe - someone who is usually a bit stressed so it was nice to catch up when she wasn't rushing...

Chinese takeaway for supper, as we all felt a bit tired out - and alas two small glasses of beer but nothing passed my lips between lunch and supper, honest, not even a cappuccino...
They are watching football now!

done
remade ds2's wet bed
wash on
dw loaded
paperwork
exercise
dc exercise
cat litter tray

didn't cook ds breakfast today though, or do any tidying really

Toffee oh what can you do? It is possible that she will get on fine with ds2 who as you say is a different character, but maybe it is worth asking head if there is a chance to swop round because of the history. She may of course have improved, and be feeling quite rightly guilty that she didn't " get" ds.

I wish I knew who the dcs teachers were next year. Year 6 is when they throw all the best teachers into the breach to try and get the best SATs they can.

not very grammatical sorry, I wish I knew who the dcs' teachers will be not were...

Evening all

Men, eh? Having to record my weekly dose of Monty Don straddling a viburnum plicatum wall-paper telly as dh has swooped in, taken command of the remote and is now watching .... football [harrumph]

Linzer/Whoknows/Feetheart/PA/Toffee/Foad thanks for your kind words about dd - much appreciated. It is tough on her. (And no, you're not speaking out of turn at all PA - I have waves of going through horrible doubts about it all.) But then I think about the reality of living here, which is quite tough (linguistically speaking) too: three/four/even five languages being the norm - so we've got to ride with it if she is going to truly integrate (the alternative - ie no fluency in either native lang - = like living with one hand tied behind your back) . I guess you never quite know if are doing the right thing. I hope we are. (I'll let you know in a decade or so, by which time, if this thread is still going, I hope to have decluttered our boudoir !!!!)

And they do have fun at school too I promise. Once resits over on Monday, (and hopefully gone well - fingers crossed) she has sports day on Tuesday, and then three days of fun and games till the end of term!! Then nine weeks of visitors, friends, horses, travel, + a small bit of hwk once I get my bum in gear and start organising it.

That's the philosophy over here actually. They work like the clappers when in office/during term time (no kidding - can hear a pin drop in office most of time- no chatting around drinks machine etc) but then have mahoosive long hols in between!

Linzer I know we've 'talked' about this before but Austria v. similar to Belgium. I'm not sure but I don't think they are very enlightened with regards to dyslexia and other special needs although I know of two very good schools for profoundly physically disabled dc. Generally, it's very conformist/ "one size fits all" and v. difficult if you don't fit the mould. So I have the greatest of sympathies for you and your dd1. Hope exam season hasn't been too stressful in your house nonetheless and hope English lesson went well.

at odious facebook comment btw. [grabs sick bucket]

Swan well done for managing temporary school rebellion so calmly this morning (and boy do I know that urge to reach for something sweet following a crisis! - top marks for resisting). Your breakfasts sound extremely continental and healthy btw! And top Fat Fairy marks for paper decluttering!

Whoknows sounds tough on your ds too bless him. It's so difficult to get the balance right between encouragement/friendly coercion and just letting them have fun and "be a child"! Hope you were able to make the most of your unexpected free time!

Top Fat Fairy marks to Carpe for finishing Flying and work - all before 10 am!

Feetheart hope you managed to put the house to rights after your resident tornado passed through! [Sympathies - my dh 'looks' but never 'sees' ifyswim] Tbh, I am finding MFP a bit of a pain with regard to filling in home-cooked meals which is why I am two days behind. Sometimes I just try and find the nearest brand equivalent although I'm sure that inflates the calorie total.

Bitchy hope your headache cleared in the end and you caught up on zzzzzzs

Sorry to hear you've had bad news Lauren hope you and your family OK x

Kiwi arf at straw clutching in your list! [nearly wrote craw slutching then ]

Foad hope your logistically-challenging evening went well

Toffee Thanks for much needed and yay - very well done re: d1's shorn locks!! Good on him! But oh dear, what a bummer about the teaching situation for your ds2. Agree with PA that you can but ask - definitely worth a shot anyway.

PA [waves back] I was thinking about you this morning when I heard on R4 about the weather conditions (They interviewed some poor soul who had been stuck in their car for hours on their way to the Festival.) Thank heavens your dh got home OK. Congrats on massive sort btw!

Foad double arf at "puke face" and "finger up nose exam"

Am very impressed by your paperwork system.

Huge wing flaps to everyone else I've missed.

I definitely need alcohol tonight. in naughty corner for all!

Just dropping by a minute again while DD's happy to be out down for once!

Not much done here again, DD cutting teeth now (she's growing up too fast - not even four months yet ) and was up every two hours last night so I feel like a zombie. She wants to be cuddled constantly and I can't say no when she's so upset

Will try to get on top of things next week, DP's mother got rushed to hospital today so we are trying to help her too.

Hope you all have a lovely evening, again, sorry for the lack of personals. DD's just woke up, must dash.

x posts

Swan thanks for 'party' solidarity! She will (hopefully) forgive me - one day!

"didn't cook ds breakfast today though, or do any tidying really"

BUT you DID: handle a stressful morning very patiently, play tennis, take your dc swimming, chuck out loads of paper, talk to a friend, supervise trombone practice, do washing, change cat litter and bed sheets, and resist snacking!! Not half bad in my book!!!

And well done to your ds1 for handling the bus crisis and travelling on the tube all by himself!

Likelucklove oh dear, sorry to hear about your dp's mother. I hope she is OK. That must be tough to handle on so little sleep. Hope you all have a better night tonight x

[issues official Flying waiver]

Well done for surviving another week everyone!

Tomorrow's baby-step, number twenty-three, for 23rd June is here Continuing previous steps, plus adding afternoon/evening routine to your other routines (and to your cj).

Newcomers: more info on routines here

No zones or missions because it is the weekend.

Saturday's focus is family fun time here

Hope you all have as relaxing a weekend as humanly possible given poorly relatives/teething babies/demanding toddlers & dc/migraines/pouring rain/family probs/health issues/sleep deprivation/bus strikes et al ...

**

Evening all!

Party/exams stress sounds very tough, SC

Toffee - so glad your DS1 managed to make it to the barbers!

swan - well done all round on the bus strike/tube/Oyster card situation. Oysters are new since I lived in London, but fun to play with when visiting my brother!

Re filing - we do have a filing cabinet which is part of the home office, but it's bursting at the seams... Officially filing happens on Weds (ie anti-procrastination day) but it seldom actually gets done.

Anyway, today was quite productive - ta da!
School/CM run
Walked to library with DH's books to renew to find it shut. Grr!
Bought cards for FIL and SFIL
Work finished and sent off
Hoovering and dusting
30 mins exercise on Wii
Back to library
CM/school pick up
Collapse with
Cook and eat tea
Manage bedtime cos DH not feeling well
Collapse in heap!

Today has been a revelation - had a much lardier day than yesterday (and a ) but did tons of exercise so was well within calorie limit!

I've also got a teeny job to do over the weekend, but with a good agency, so hopefully it'll remind them of my existence when it comes to bigger projects and a promise of more work for this week's new client. Lovely after such a long lean spell.

Engelsmeijse meant to say before - hope your dh wasn't given bad news today

Hope your dh recovers soon Blue

And well done re: v. your productive day AND the exercising! Drats I had a feeling it would all boil- down to exercising in the end, there's no avoiding it

Good luck with job and hope it leads to good things ...

Hi all! Just to say I am lurking still but will just post my weight tomorrow and be back to normal Monday. RL is interfering again!

Morning all.

Not really a flying weekend. Got some washing to do, and then ironing, then tonight is a girls night out - so weight loss will go out of the window!

Oh, and a trip to the library too! The fun just never stops

I keep wondering who the new boy is in our house - oh, DS1 with shorn locks! Watched the video of our hol in Spain last night and actually felt a pang for his longer hair. But at least the grandmothers will stop muttering about it now.

Thanks for everyone's sympathies about the new teacher for DS2. I made a complaint about her to the Head after her year with DS1, which I assume she knows about. I suppose it's possible she will be more careful this time and yes, she may have improved over the years, but I am still hearing stories about her that are not very encouraging.

I did request a particular teacher when DS2 started in Reception (knowing the other one on offer would put him off school for life) and the Head sympathised, but said she couldn't guarantee anything. As it turned out, he got the better teacher, so he was off to a great start. However, he is now in a class of children that he's familiar and happy with, so - even if the Head agreed to it, which I don't think she would - it would be horrible for him to be moved away from his friends.

Worse, I have looked at our school newsletter and the year after next, he has no choice of a good teacher at all! After that it improves, but that's two long years to get through. We seem to have three options: put up with it and hope DS2 will be fine; change schools; home educate. DH is vehemently opposed to the latter for DS2, so that leaves the first or second choice.

Must go and get ready now, as we are travelling to a family do today. We are leaving DS1 with his best friend for the day, as the whole thing would be a nightmare for him, but he is still in a state that we will be so far away.

Swan - your DS1 is showing a lot of initiative!

PA - at the clogged-up IOW! Am so glad it wasn't like that when we visited! Well done on sorting your clutter. And thanks for advice re DS2.

foad - at your Round Robin letter (not boasting or anything, but my DC can manage the finger-up-each-nostril trick ).

Eek - look at the time! Got to go and wash hair and slap face paint on, etc.

Hope you all have a lovely day.

just swooping in quickly to say that DH's news yesterday wasn't bad for us (no redundancies) though not great for him (they're splitting up his department so he'll have to work with new people and a new office which he's not crazy about).

Went 750 calories over yesterday due to daytime snacking. But it's a new day today!

Going to kids bday party today. In the meantime, plenty of flying to be done (not much so far).

sorry for lack of personals. off to get my arse in gear now

Thats a relief Engels, although not so great about the reorganisation.

Toffee - that's a big worry about the teachers. At least he is settled with his classmates. I suppose you need to have a good look at alternative schools, whilst supporting him in this one and see how it goes. If he can get through this year things may change by the time he gets to the following year perhaps? Our school shuffles the teachers around fairly regularly to different years, but it is single form, so once it's decided for the year you are out of options. We don't get told who will teach which class till the last minute so we can't do anything about it

PA - hope the island has unclogged now, been watching it all on South Today. Nightmare for everyone involved.

Morning all
Hum, flew a little over daily calorie target lyesterday, by drinking champagne mixed with elderflower cordial, yummy. No hangover, which is fortuitous as we are off to a wedding later!

To do
Tidy house, before mil comes to collect dd.
Take deep breaths to cope with the above
Try not get irritated with mil at the above event
Squeeze into dress and apply slap

Ta da
Have had a shower and breakfast

Ds is sulking as he woke me up demandning time on the wii. I told him he haad been warned last night no wii until homework done today. Am just waking up, but as friday always ends so late, sleeping in til 10/ 10:30am helps keep overtiredness at bay. And the rule is once mum is up it is homework time. It helps with getting a lie in

PLan for today:
Showered and up
ring sheffield
sort out training cut.
recut a piece which came out squewiffy
finish up the two bags
take ds out to shops to spend his poket money and drop bags off
training

I have overtiredness headache today which is a problem. hopefully with enough coffee can work around it.

sort out training kit* i meant. see not awake. need coffee

Lauren thinking of you - hope all OK x

[dons pince-nez and scrutinises forged Flying waiver - shakes head sorrowfully]

Carpe have a great night out tonight!!

(If it's any consolation - I have just blown all my MFP allowance on a pizza lunch. Stupid mistake - not organised - got too late - got too hungry - ate too much of wrong thing.) So furious with myself - going to have to pound the streets this evening.

Toffee hope you are enjoying a good day out en famille and that your ds1 is not too distressed at being elsewhere. It may be good for him to be slightly uncomfortable about this (don't mean this in a horrible way) but in the sense that he sees you have to go out as a family occasionally and it isn't always fun being left behind etc etc but that he can survive etc. Hope he has fun with his friend anyway. And hope you can find an option for ds2 that you are all happy with.

Engelsmeijse glad to hear news wasn't too catastrophic - but sorry your dh is having to put up with being 'reorganised'. Hope it's not too unsettling for him.

Kiwi enjoy the wedding! (Hope the rain stays away!)

Bitchy [hands over double espresso]

Big wing flaps to Whoknows and everyrone else!

Yesterday's ta da:
morning routine, inc wm, dw, s&s, hotspots done
general tidy up done
clean out rabbits done
quick supermarket shop done
start teacher present shopping looked but nothing inspiring
finish deliveries nearly
rabbit supplies done
walk NOPE
blue wash NOPE
white wash x 2 done one
prep supper (fish of some sort) done
BOUDOIR NOPE
evening routine done

Today's to do:
morning routine inc wm, dw, s&s, hotspots done
pack up shoes to send back
ballet money done
ballet run done
bed-making done
buy birthday present and more rabbit supplies done
supervise revision work in progress
e-mail
quick supermarket shop
white wash x 2
school uniform wash
sort second-hand uniform for sale on Monday and unpick name tapes
gym kit for Monday
make apple compote
do something with excess cherries
make a start on teachers' thank you cards
evening routine

Hope you are all enjoying a bright and breezy Saturday!