August Birthdays and the Fledglings are a nattering

[DarkEvilMoon]

Ok so here is the August thread.

Another chat thread.

Going to be completely half arsed with this.

launch pad from here is all the linky poos which few of us look at anyway
But we are following Fly lady principles. sort of 15 mins decluttering, babysteps and all that.

Oh we are a long running thread, we may seem clicky but we have been around the wrong side of half a decade. We do welcome newbies, and some of the flock joined us only recently.

If you have any questions on the fly lady system do ask and we will try to answer them. Hopefully back to normal service and regular linkies in September after the hols.

So nerh...

what a horrid day (outside)

I'm taking comfort in the fact that today is a Bank Holiday so surely no-one expects efficiency or motivation.

goal is...make diary of Sixth form open days for ds1
hang out yesterday's washing
and still..sweep kitchen floor

tomorrow I am having a tooth extracted and ds2 has a swimming assessment (in order to put him the right class for lessons) so that will keep me busy.

brooding about possibility of ds1's A level choices, or BTec. If ever there was a case for sending a child off on a Grand Tour with personal tutor this is one, alas. Or boarding school. Although I don't believe in Boarding.

better go.

Flippin' horrible here too. I'm busy making myself feel better by planning a holiday (to the very exotic land of...

Birmingham :o
Very excited as we haven't been anywhere for ages, there's a board game convention and lots of other stuff that will certainly count as educational.

Seriously need to get my butt in gear (first step probably being to turn off the laptop!) as family visiting today and I've got a new piano pupil visiting tomorrow and this place is a shit tip!

nettles that is a very good idea, should probably do the same re highschools for ds

Sorry about the random far too soon santa ds and I were playing with the hidden smilies.

Can'tsee and everyone else

OK will set up new Sept thread during today!!

You have already taken loads of turns Can'tSee and more than done your fair share of late. I don't mind doing Oct as well if others can do Nov and Dec.

New September thread here

Sorry for such a boring title and op. Boiling hot and humid here and originality has totally eluded me.

***

Can'tsee activities/travel/visitors have been far from exciting this summer. Spent virtually entire nine weeks cooking and cleaning in three different countries. Am totally hacked off.

Feel much better now though for having had my first whinge of the new season

And I don't want any more visitors here for a very very very long time [harrumph]

Right i suppose a ta da list might shock me into doing something:

ta da
get ds to eat breakfast
get ds to do some exercise to burn off some energy
boil pan with salt to remove burnt stuff
teach ds to make a cheats pasta sauce [lazy]
get ds to try on the uniform that fit 2 weeks ago and discover he has grown out of it
collect all uniform that was iron so that labels can be ripped out

Am about to head off out to run a few errands before tackling the hellishness that is a porch full of building rubble and assorted pairs of shoes

SC yes it does pall doesn't it, the holiday cooking and cleaning..Maybe the answer is to having boring food in term time and exciting creative food on holiday. I really reached an all time low this holidays when in Eire..I think I cooked one interesting meal, a very Irish vegetable curry otherwise I think it was fryups, roasts and broccoli most of the time. Oh and cherry tomatoes. We had a Tesco round the corner which helped.

Today we have had more fishfingers Dh has made supper.

I have swept the floor
bagged up recycling
I have loaded the dw
hung out the clothes
screamed at the children to work harder
and researched the cheapest ikea sofa I can find for the new shed - pink and green bubbles on the cover look good
and found a possible local sixth form for ds1 with less exacting gsce requirements that still do all the same A levels.

I feel ashamed. I let dd do the Ocado order and didn't even check it. As a result I received today, I packet of bacon, a packet of chicken breasts, 10 packets of Richmond sausages (her favourite) 10 packets of microwave popcorn, some conditioner, a packet of sandwich wraps, aero bars, crunchie bars, food colouring, a tin of lentils and 10 rolls of kitchen roll/loo paper. These were obviously the essentials - I asked for the lentils and the chicken assuming she would order larger quantities! Okay we also had some tinned tomatoes and cereal and one measly bottle of white wine. Not a good list there..

Welcome back, SC.

That order is very funny, knitting. DD might need her orders checked from now on.

that sounds like it could be an interesting week of meals there knitting

ta da school uniform shopping
not kill ds
petrol in car
pick up bits needed for finishing homework

to do
clothes away
ironing
early night

should probably get started on the fun job of school uniform labelling

How did you guess? We are firmly back on the fish fingers again tonight KnittingwithNettles

And think it is a truly inspired idea to leave your dd to get on with the Ocado order!! There's nothing like hands on experience is there? Arf at the 10 pkts of sausages

Wouldn't have minded all the choring and all the visitors (and I know I sound v petulant saying this but going to say it anyway ) but not one person (other than my lovely sister and mother of one teen) has bothered to write an e-mail or put a card in the post and say 'thank you'. Hosted three lovely teens, hosted elderly aunt and friend, hosted two more sets of friends on two separate weekends, travelled a long way and back to help clean out relative's flat (in 35° heat), helped another relative clean up after they had builders in, looked after smallish and largish children and various pets, took people out on lots (and lots!!) of day trips, provided full catering, sorted endless beds and laundry, arranged lang lessons, provided transport to and from railway stations and airports and travelled ourselves to and fro and not one postcard or e-mail... . Hey ho!

I know I sound horrible because I really do enjoy seeing people and its lovely when the family all gets together (and my lovely sister helped me out a lot) but house is trashed and I just feel totally drained now. Even dh was a bit surprised and put out by the behaviour of various visitors who one would expect to behave better and he is one of the most tolerant and kindly people you can meet! He was particularly perturbed by the set of guests (very close relatives) who had showers at 5.45 am and baths at 12.45 am when our bedroom is right next to the only bathroom in the house and then delivered their rather exuberant dc to us to look after all day while they scarpered and turned up with (I kid you not) a pkt of Werthers originals for our troubles!!

On the positive side, dd has been a delight this summer, no arguments, no stressing, and she has been a real help when things got a bit difficult (such as the formal birthday meal for 9 when the oven broke down and the fridge went on the blink in the heat).

[Rant over for now!!]

As you were

Haven'(t started the labels yet either Can'tsee!! Must get on with it [yawn]

Yay! Waves back to Toffee!!

oh dear I've killed the thread

nah you haven't it has been quiet of late and end of month the old thread always gets quiet in favour of the new thread...

thanks can'tsee thought it was my whinging

off to post first set of links on new thread!

SC my theory is that there comes a plateau point. We've been essentially doing the same type of holiday for years, self catering, family members, familiar countryside. For the once time it didn't really work, perhaps some people were too old for it (the children I mean) perhaps I had got disenchanted with Little House on the Prairie existence - it is a bit insidious the way you assume that the perfect way to spend the holidays is x, when as you get older it might change to y.

So, where previously you might have thought having lots of people to stay suited very well, visiting other people and house sitting, looking after their children (for dd company etc) might suit very well, suddenly you grow out of it. Sounds as if it did suit dd down the ground though, she is obviously a people person, and you must have disguised your exhaustion well.

For us the holidays didn't work because there were no "leaders" - no person who was committed to organising the day and taking kids on trips or expedition (my sister and I were equally knackered) We needed a testosterone fuelled 25 year old to lead people up mountains or a bossy matron to coordinate social life and host cups of tea. My sister was due to go on holiday elsewhere and at one point she said to me rather pointedly, you do understand this is NOT MY HOLIDAY, this is my daily life (she lives there)

Oh yes, and I don't want to sound sexist but there were no Dads on our holiday and we missed them! BIL was at work in London and DH couldn't travel because of his thrombosis leg.

Ironically the holiday we had might have been some else's perfect holiday because it was new and fresh and a beautiful landscape with lots of places to explore. So sometimes it can be just that one needs a change.

knittingwithnettles yes, despite loving all the big family gatherings, I think it definitely does get more difficult with dc of teenage years (and, although I shouldn't say it, nephews just past teenage yrs) but the main bugbear with us is some family members dig in and help, and others just don't. Same with financial side of it (which none of us like to mention of course) but everything adds up (rentals, food, wine, transport) and some of us always end up subsidising the others and no one has said anything for years, but this year I did (in what I thought was a very mild and diplomatic way) but managed to have fall out with close family member who reacted unexpectedly viciously (these particular people never host and so do not remotely understand how much hard work or how costly it can be sometimes). And then I got blamed for causing family disquiet by the very people who had been complaining about it for years and years but hadn't said anything!! And even all of that would not have mattered (even though we did majority of hosting) if some of them had just bothered to say or write two important words ie "thank you"!! Heigh ho!! Definitely going for different 'model' next year!! Sorry your holiday was less than what you had hoped for too x

[Sorry will stop ranting on about it now]

another tooth pulled out! Lying here trying to recover. Dh has taken dd to Billy Elliott, and given others supper.

Feeling really lacking in any ability or inclination to organise anything especially with the rain coming down incessantly.

Ds2 has done some more of his sticking in photo album; looking back at Vienna pictures from 2014 he looks so small and sweet compared to now. Pictures do have the ability to reinvent the past don't they, all our holidays look perfectly lovely; perhaps they were blue skies, tanned children, exotic scenery...