It's September so the Fledgings Fly, as we wave our clutter bye bye

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Welcome to the ongoing Fledgling Flyers thread for September, thanks to Bitchy who kept us posted through August.

Right, most of you should know how this works. It's a three pronged attack.
Phase one: The babysteps master these and you will be working like clockwork.
Phase two: Adding in Decluttering this will help you keep on top of the amount of stuff contributing to CHAOS.
Phase three: Missions Targeted activities to keep the chaos at bay and starting the deep cleaning.

The golden duster of Flying is stage 4: deep cleaning. This is for most me anyway, somewhat unrealistic and in theory you don't need to worry about it until you have finished decluttering that's never then. Just do it if you want to.

Now for those of you who are completely lost, lets rewind a bit.
CHAOS: Can't have anyone over syndrome. We've all been there

The fly lady approach works by breaking the house down into tiny activities which you do repeatedly until they become habit and don't feel like chores any more. The house is split into zones, each zone is tackled for a week before moving on and comes round again at the start of the next month.

There are lots of experienced Fledglings on here, hence lots of advice and support and chat about anything except housework some days. the main thing is that you can post any time you like even if you haven't lifted a finger around the house that day because with Flylady you just pick up again the next day and off you go again.

We advise against signing up for Flylady emails as they can lead to a great deal of clutter in the Inbox, each days steps will be posted on this thread to save you having to find them yourself.

In the meantime here is a link to the Flylady website for anyone who would like a browse.

Getting started Remember - don't subscribe to the emails!

Lauren - I use loo roll to swish the loo and I keep a stack of clean hand towels on the heated towel rail. Every morning I get the used hand towel off it's holder and use it to wipe over the bath and basin, replace it with a clean one and stick it in the wash. So I don't have swish cloths as such.

Oh that's a good idea whoknows! Thanks

SC glad you are feeling more positive.

Today
Ds1 has an Inset day, which means he is at home, which makes the morning so much less stressful as I don't have to get up early, and worry about him packing his bag the night before He is relaxing on the Wii prior to doing his comic strip on Babylonian creationism stick men I fear.

However, I am now feeling mild panic at thought of dealing with all these SENCOS at various schools. From what I can gather, all the Sencos are frantically busy dealing with all the problem children in this year's intake, and have very little time to talk to next year's intake parents Which could of course have been remedied by knowing what next year's intake consisted of
Coupled with my failure to understand how to use a computer and email attachments do scanning, it is not looking good First I must talk to our school Senco, who so far has not been helpful except to tell me that Ds1's school is not known for its pastoral care in SN Now if all schools are required to have provision for SN, how can that be allowed by the powers that be?

Hello, Just wondering if I would be able to join you all?

I was running the steppers thread but for various reasons things have gone quiet. I wouldn't say that I was very good at "flying" but some of the babysteps habits have stuck.
Things have fallen by the wayside a little due to a family bereavement --and a few other reasons but I will try to get my house in some sort of order if you can give me a boot now and again--

At present things are fairly chaotic so although I want to put family first I still want to get some order into my house.

Hi Cats - welcome! I've seen you on your other thread when looking for this group again awhile back. What a shame the other one has gone quiet.

I'm feeling really flat at the moment, and could really do with some TLC but DH is still away and won't be back until next week.

Had to do a nit treatment on the DSs, and neither of them is keen on having their hair washed, but DS2 is an absolute pain with it, cue lots and lots of screaming and crying. I've been lucky up until now, the DSs have never had them before. Their hair still looks all greasy - children's shampoo is really crap at getting the treatment residue out, isn't it?!

A former friend of mine has ramped up the spite another notch, and its really starting to piss me off. (You can guess which face I picture during kickboxing!!!) It's bad enough that I have to deal with her on the school run, but she's now attending church more regularly (muggins here encouraged her to come when we were friends!!) and has now got the hump at my extra duties in church as I'm not an 'appropriate' person and she's going to have a 'word with the vicar'. Auughhh!!! (For those of you who might remember, she's the one whose DS was hurting DS1 at school). This is where being in a village really, really stinks.

Have a committee meeting tonight, and had to hire a babysitter as DH is away so need to finish tidying the downstairs and DSs' room to get it presentable. Lounge is half done, worked on it yesterday evening and this morning.

How do you get motivated when it all just feels too much?

Oh and Cats - - Tell Scout we're not scary, we're luurrvly

When it gets too much I break it down. A list of very specific things. And I keep the computer open on this thread and check every little thing off. You can always tell when things are too much as I have productive fly lists of little substance. Plus i drink shit loads of coffee and eat my own body weight in sugar. Wouldn't recommend the sugar bit in the long term but short term feels fine till I think about it.

Cats - I second it. We are no scary, we welcome all. i am not gd at personals head too full of rl atm but we will always try to answer questions and you are welcome to decamp here if you need the support. there is always chat and support.

A very warm welcome to the thread Catsinchaos. So very sorry to hear about your recent loss x Of course you can join!! Jump right in! Don't worry - we follow a very "loose" version of Flying on here - don't think any of us would claim to be perfect Flyers (although our esteemed leader Whoknows has recently reached total declutter point - whey hey!! - which is v. inspiring) Good luck with getting the house back in shape.

Swan a project on Babylonian creationism doesn't sound exactly relaxing to me; but am v. impressed by comic strip teaching method!! R.E. teaching utterly uninspiring here. Spent 40 mins with dd on Tuesday night as she copied out word for word very boring text on the difference between monotheistic and polytheistic religions (death by work sheet). However, school so blinkeredly strictly Catholic that I suppose we should be grateful for small mercies that dc are actually learning about other religions at all

Good luck with all your Senco appts. It all sounds terribly hard and exactly the opposite of what you need.

Lauren re: s&s, use dettol wipes or equiv for lav (not v. environmentally friendly I know ) and a combination of diluted clear vinegar squirter thing to swish and (like Whoknows) a clean corner of yesterday's hand towel to swipe sink/bath/shower - v. quickly though - matter of moments rather than minutes.

Thanks for the welcome,
I feel a little bad for abandoning the other thread but if it's so quiet I can't see much point in trying to keep it going. I am a SAHM so the mornings can seem quite lonely. DD is at nursery in the mornings, DH at work and DS at school.
Maybe some of the steppers might join here too.

Ta da's so far:
made beds
get dressed
breakfast
school/nursery run
phone plumber to fix heating (cold here lately and it's quite rainy too)
MNetted

Must get on and do some housework now. Catch you all later.

Thanks for the swish tips sc and whoknows it makes sense to use the hand towel rather than having another swish cloth to wash as well!

Warm welcome to cats! Tell scout we are friendly and all are welcome I had a peek too and saw lots of exercise too! Some of us are working on body clutter here too so feel free to join in with that if you like! We post how much we've lost on a Sunday, but not everyone does so don't worry if you don't want to!

Must get my butt into gear!

BBL!

x posts

Wise words from Bitchy there as ever [scribbles in notebook]

Us? scary? Surely not!! This is friendliest thread ever ...what with all the doggie talk and Toffee's constant knob-polishing

Sorry you are finding it tough going on a number of fronts Chatchat It can't be easy with your dh away. How outrageous of your former friend to take it upon herself to have "a word" with the vicar. Very Christian of her I'm sure Who the %!>* is she anyway to judge who is "appropriate" and who isn't. I'd post a copy of Matthew 7:1 (or is it Luke 6:3) through her letterbox highlighted in red if I were you.

waves hello

Sorry for being AWOL - Monday and Tuesday were manic, ill all day yesterday (and Tuesday evening but didn't realise it) and back to work today.

I'm so so sorry, I'm gonna be rude and run in and out! Got a friend coming just before 1 and have a few things I wanna get done before she comes.

Though for the first time EVER, the house is already tidy and I don't need to do a crisis cleaning before she gets here.

I made DS (nearly 4) a routine check list in pictures with smiley faces he could stick beside each chore once completed. He gets a sticker in his notebook if he has completed each chore at the end of the day and a treat on Sat if he has a full house of stickers. Also different sticker for good behaviour! He loves it, I am so chuffed :o

List dump:
Finish DSs checklist - done
Phone Vodafone - done
Fill in warm home discount form - done
Get DS to draw picture in his half bros birthday card - done
Put load washing on - done
Hang washing up
put another load on
Hang second washing up
Mop floors
Clean fridge top
Iron dry clothes
Study one hour

Hello! and a warm welcome to cats. Thanks for all your nice messages about the ridiculous labyrinthitis - can't believe it's so common as I'd never heard of it before! But fortunately it went quite quickly once I was on the drugs .

DS is in nursery today and I have just dropped DD off for a settling in session so I have 1 hour (and counting!) to achieve today:

Order shopping online
Plan de-clutter for next 3 weeks before my return to work and while DCs are in nursery (I have 9 days in which to achieve EVERYTHING including getting the car MOT'd, a haircut and new work wardrobe as well as decluttering and reorganising our entire downstairs. Not much then, eh?!)
Wash up and shine sink
Laundry re-boot

Right, I'm off!!!!!!!!!

PS. Well done MsOn I dream of not having to crisis clean. Jealous!

Oh, and tonight I'm joining the WI!!!!! Quite nervous. But it looks like they have cake and cocktails, so I'll have to find a way to enjoy myself somehow

I simply can?t afford to do laundry daily, so that one?s out of the window.

Hi, CatsInChaos welcome. My home is in a terrible state, thanks to building disasters, so definitely a very loose flyer here, but the attempt and the company means in time I hope to no longer be able to say that. Lots of supportive people here no matter what stage or situation you?re in.

SC I really couldn?t ask anyone to come into this place in the state it?s in. Reading about your DD, I?d look at how visual she is. It was only when we started using visual and audial props, that DS even vaguely grasped the idea that he could actually influence how early or late things ran, or how dis/organised he was. (is on going battle)

Swan I found the best time to approach Senco?s a year in advance, was at the start of second term. Define ?provision.? We found plenty of ?provision? that technically ticked boxes, but in no way provided for SEN children. If you?re up for the fight, it?s the SEN Governor you go for, but it's hard to make real change and support your own child, and many rely on that.

Chitchat What a truly silly woman, you?ve had a lucky escape from that ?friendship!?
I hate spite, but it tends to care of itself. Old country saying translated: ?Acid corrodes its own container.?

When it all feels too much I prioritise what really matters, and let the rest go. (Mind you that?s how I got into this mess!)

Takes notes from Bitchy too. Thank you.

Lauren I use worlds cheapest rubbish loo roll for cleaning loo, and use Asda microfibre cloths (£1 for 3) for the rest as they wash out easily.

Well done Mrs O on lack of need of crisis clean.

Trazzle and Eyes Glad you're better.

Waves to everyone else as must get back to it.

The washing turned out to take longer than expected, so combined yesterday?s remainders with today's:

Take hoover apart and de clog and clean all filters.
Five loads of washing to launderette.. (Desperate measures for desperate daughter!)
drying
Ironing
Shopping
Call storage company (see if putting insurance claim stuff in storage might be an option, as I?m struggling to work around so much of it)
Call more storage companies, see if they?re all that expensive!
Prep English
Check psychology
Catch up H/e file
Still to do Additions:
Measure up and draw up plans for basement access hatch in floor.
Our washing.
Check English
Prep Physics
Somehow make over chillied curry edible!

Thanks for your support everyone. The thing is, these extra duties required vetting, approval from the Bishop, etc, etc. The Vicar approached ME, not the other way around! Anyway I have asked to meet with him, he does know some of the background fortunately. I am willing to put up with/ignore this in relation to DS's school, but I WILL NOT put up with it at church.

So I'm doing as you've said Just - I've pulled out of tonight's committee meeting, and I'm focusing on what is important to me right now (and given that the vicar is coming here tomorrow morning you all know what that is!)

Tada:
Bedding 1/4 done (stupid nits/lice)
ironing 3/4 done
lounge floor *swept and mopped)
toys 1/2 away

To do:
Lots more!!!!

Don't forget to treat the hair brushes too Chitchat!

Ta da
washed - 2 duvets, 1 load of blankets, 1 load of clothes
get changed out of wet clothes
hang out clothes that were in machine from last night
hand washing in to soak
ds' training kit made up
my bed stripped ready for washing.
30mins of mission get loungs working again
collect recycling together
collect the laundry mountain next to the washing machine
flame jumper
hang thermal lined curtains
30 mins room rescue in ds' room *not quite finished
take recycling out and empty bathroom bin
cancel membership to something not used in far too long to justify keeping it.
Return some of the stuff evicted during major furniture move back to their homes.
tackle my bedroom floor on going
wash hair brushes - needs doing ever so often due to hairspray/glitter spray build up.
sort crb check paperwork
30mins trying to rescue lounge Still not finished
find ds' missing homework and permission slip for activity

Right Lunch time. And more coffee.

Chitchat I'm really sorry that you have to go through all this. I really hate all the backbiting that accompanies volunteer posts, but I suspect your vicar will be really skilled at dealing with this and manage to sort out the mess, so you mustn't be frightened of this woman, she probably just needs someone to listen to her point of view before she will change it. I'm in the position of needing to be CRB checked for Scouts, but absolutely dreading asking the headteacher for a reference that I am fit to help with children, when the headteacher knows the Senco, who knows I've requested family therapy - I mean someone who needs family therapy isn't going to be very good at dealing with children are they Kind scout leader suggested I ask priest for a reference instead as he has seen EVERYTHING...[I hasn't to add I have passed two CRB checks already elsewhere, but suddenly I just can't face the whole process yet again]

just watched Hunger Games with ds1 (inset treat) v good but not nearly as good as the books, which I have pored over to point of obsession.

just I need to know now, because otherwise I don't know which school to put first choice!!!!![we have a choice of four schools for ds2]

Why do you need a reference for the CRB swan? I don't need one for mine.

Ta da
washed - 2 duvets, 1 load of blankets, 4th load of clothes
get changed out of wet clothes
hang out clothes that were in machine from last night
hand washing in to soak
ds' training kit made up
my bed stripped ready for washing.
30mins of mission get loungs working again
collect recycling together
collect the laundry mountain next to the washing machine
flame jumper
hang thermal lined curtains
30 mins room rescue in ds' room *not quite finished
take recycling out and empty bathroom bin
cancel membership to something not used in far too long to justify keeping it.
Return some of the stuff evicted during major furniture move back to their homes.
tackle my bedroom floor on going
wash hair brushes - needs doing ever so often due to hairspray/glitter spray build up.
sort crb check paperwork
30mins trying to rescue lounge Still not finished
find ds' missing homework and permission slip for activity
30mins more work on lounge
put away spare duvets/sleeping bag/bedding
Deal with and empty the contents of the needs to be upstairs box. half done
Go through hand me downs bag and take out what fits.
Wash handme down stuff (bit hesian/animal hairy)
Speak to ex to sort list of bits and bobs
Finish off washing hand washing.
15mins crochet (break from clearing up)
Locate unlooked at and unloved control journal
Ironing and folding up to date (ie what is dry enough to do)
Another 30 mins work on lounge
Hoover front door mat and hall and lounge.
DW loaded and running
Hotwater in risoto pan to soak
Sneeze until I know longer know or care what day it is
Clear windowsil hotspot in lounge
Remake ds' bed
make up ds' football kit

Right I think that apart from sorting out crb, putting some bits through the dryer and remaking my bed, I am now done for the day. Might be back later for personals but no promises. Sorry.

Swan -I'm not scared of her, I'm absolutely furious that she is putting me through this. I have enough to deal with without having this on my plate as well. Two DSs, a DH who will be travelling a great deal for the foreseeable future and is undergoing medical tests, a house that needs decorating.

I know what her viewpoint is, she made it very clear when she told me at great volume for over 30 minutes when I dared to be upset at the fact that DS1 had been deliberately hurt by her DS in school, the injury being severe enough for me to get a written injury notification.