September 2015 fledglings shine their sink and their lace up shoes and prepare for the new academic year ahead

[standclear]

Welcome to the September 2015 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 (and of course) along the way. (More info available here and here ) and here.

Humungous thanks to our previous thread leaders (nns relating to a planet and to a colour) for guiding us through the summer and keeping us sane throughout the holidays!

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 stuck at the decluttering stage after an embarrassingly long number of 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.

And those of you who have decluttered and are really enthusiastic can throw some detailed cleaning in to the mix as well!

This is a very long-running thread so we may appear cliquey but we really aren't! All newcomers, long-termers, lurkers and intermittent returnees not only welcome to join in but positively encouraged to do so!

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Good luck!

I think I need a to do list today.

Laundry
Panic tidy living room
1hr typing job
Occ Health phonecall (eeeep)
Order Tesco
Reserve library books
Gather returnable library books

I'm sure there's more...

Hope you all have good days

**

New October thread here!

**

Thanks SC. I'll keep posting here today if you don't mind [stickler for the rules emoticon] :o

So I've found a load of library books for DH to take back, reserved some new ones for him to pick up for me, I've got some soup defrosting for DD's pre-Brownies dinner, and I'm going to put some laundry on now. Trying to resist the temptation to just sit and do sod all, though. Feeling rather demotivated after my occ health appt. The phrase 'do you see yourself going back to work at all' came up :( :( :(

Anyway. On to more positive, practical things.

Hmm. Really, really hoped we were going to exchange today, but it's looking like tomorrow or Friday now. :( Just want to get on with things!

How about a motivational fuzz ? - feel like I could do with one too.

Oooh frustrating Blue :( hope it happens ASAP! Thanks, here's a for you as well (or perhaps to ease the stress!)

I kind of wasted my day really, after last post I was just faffing online and watching DVDs! Knackered now after picking up DCs from childminder. It's too sunny which gives me a headache. Although at least it means my non-tumbledryable stuff is dry quicker! Silver linings and all that.

I've got almost 2hrs to try and get a bit more done before Brownies run, and I can leave the panic tidy til I get home from that. Need to plan tomorrow properly as we have heaps of stuff going on. I doubt we will get any home ed learning done tomorrow, which is a shame as our air-drying clay arrived and we are planning to make canopic jars and models of blood cells :o

ta da
fuck all flying
lunch at 3pm
work
over sleep and have to rush about first thing.

Ds has cooked tea tonight. I am more grateful than he realises. He currently has unlimited computer time and is a happy child. I am curled up and refusing to move until I have to. Today has been busier than it should have been and I am still trying to get back to full strength from that blooming evil virus. I could sleep a week if the week would allow

Help! DS1 is in a dreadful state over an English coursework essay which he thinks is due in tomorrow (final deadline). It's Edexcel. Does anyone know if coursework is submitted so early in the course? Have emailed his teacher because DS is clearly not getting the support he needs to get the work done.

Also, he has lost the text that the teacher typed up (complete with typos, such as 'Fouks' instead of 'Faulks' ) and refuses to use the same text from the original book ('Charlotte Grey') because he insists it's not the same. Argh! Am beyond frustrated. And DS1 is now curled up on the kitchen floor saying he's never going to college and wants to die.

(sorry for unFly-related question)

And I'm meant to be revising for my interview tomorrow .

Phew, someone on another thread has told me there is no deadline tomorrow.

Evening! Sounds as if everyone needs a

Phew Toffee!

Oh no Blue so near and yet so far!! Fingers and toes x'd for tomorrow!

[Googles canopic jars]

Sorry you are feeling so wretched Can'tsee

feeling a bit better now that ds has told me that in terms of being an embarrassing parent I have it nailed not that i have been practising or anything

WOW at the typo. Depressing.

I'm glad it isn't a real deadline. Probably a deadline for the teacher to check it etc, they seem to do that a lot where they have internal deadlines well in advance of official ones and it's easy to misinterpret that kind of thing.

DD is a bit miffed after Brownies. They're doing a badge where they had to learn a little of a foreign language so DD learnt the required words in Japanese, because that's what she has wanted to learn for ages so we've done a little (we are all anime mad). She was told today that it has to be... French or Spanish or German. Sigh. She does know all the words in Spanish (only because of Dora, mind you) but hasn't got her badge yet.

DS1 finally calmed down and said he appreciated all the effort I was making to help him. He's now sent me away, so he can work on the essay by himself.

Have been through a mock job interview with DH. I swear he remembers more about my previous jobs than I do. Am going to spend the rest of this evening going over my CV and practising answers to possible questions. Oh, and researching the company.

The house was looking fantastic by Monday because I worked on it so hard at the weekend - now it's chaos again. And my mum is arriving tomorrow. Am intending to have a crisis clean tomorrow to get it shipshape again.

This morning I was ultra efficient and put the washing on first thing. I've just found it still in the washing machine . Will have to do it all over again tomorrow now.

DS1 started learning Japanese when he was into anime, fuzz. It didn't last long!

Sorry you're feeling so rough, Cant. Hope you get restorative sleep tonight.

SC - you have gone beyond the course of duty. Thanks for the new thread.

Blue

Anime seems quite popular among home edders here. It's nice that DCs' new friends know what they're on about which didn't happen when they were at school! We're inviting some round soon for a Ghibli-fest :o

It's a really hard language though. I wish they did it on Duolingo

Did a panic tidy and then found an email cancelling lesson. D'oh. Have exchanged phone numbers for the future. Had some nice time playing piano myself instead. Now doing Tesco order, and I hung out the wet clothes earlier too.

(I totally wouldn't rewash the laundry though. It can't be that bad after one day, can it? Or am I more slatternly than I thought?!)

Toffee ds1's assessments seem to drag out interminably. I know NOTHING about what is going on. Since the red dress incident I have backed off in despair. Certainly I don't think they have had to give in the literature ones yet? I think the teachers decide when as they usually internally assessed, and then only moderated by spot checks. I cannot imagine it is the very last day except a sort of artificial deadline created by the teacher to motivate the pupils. Oh and we get that sort of thing all the time..no that's not the right text (it's the same you numpty)because the cover is different I don't think Ds1 would ever have understood Charlotte Grey although it would have made him terribly upset. I bet they set FAULKS on purpose to catch out the phonetic spellers (mean)

Just had another interminable set of forms to fill in from LA Sets my teeth on edge because I myself need explicit instructions to decipher the wretched questions. So open ended and sort of wide eyed those questions Anyway will deal with that anon and try and be v specific in my answers.

I didn't leave mine at that age when ill SC volunteering always made me very tense, letting them down was one thing but knowing you had let your family member down too for "volunteering" was a whole moral issue of its own. Stopped volunteering this year as I just couldn't bear the frustration of it.

Worryingly, knitting, the author's name caught out the English teacher instead: she spelled it 'Faults'. Is it DS2 who won't accept texts are the same in different format? I wondered if it was my DS1 being Aspergery.

I have just had my final run in with him. He came down to tell me proudly that he'd finished. For one mad moment, I imagined that he'd written 1000 words in half an hour. Followed him back upstairs to admire his prose and discovered that he'd written... ONE LINE!

I tried to help him carry on writing, but he refused to write anything I suggested, even if putting it into his own words. So in the end, I gave up and said he was on his own. (I may have flounced). The stupid thing, as I pointed out to him as I left, was that I could easily help him with the essay if he just let me. But no, according to DS1 I don't know anything about writing an English essay.

Hi, have read right through but am too tired for personals, it has been a knackering day, with quite a few frustrations (mainly due to lost property and DS), but have managed a very quick coffee with some of the other mums from his year before work and my latest hobby a tap-dancing class. In between ferrying the DCs between two counties for various after school activities. So about to shower and hit the sack, I wanted to watch Bake-off but I've been sending emails etc for the last hour or so and it's too late now.

See you all in October

Just falling in to tie up this thread!

Thanks Toffee [stands up straighter, polishes spangly bits on epaulettes and wields feather duster in military manner ] Sorry about the hwk stress! Us parents don't know how to do a thing properly don't you know, not even write an essay!

Congratulations Can'tsee (It's the ultimate parenting accolade!)

[Googles 'anime' and 'Ghibli']

Knitting hope the LA papers weren't too onerous in the end (although they probably were). I think you were doing brilliantly well to volunteer with three dc in the first place btw. Even with just one dd and one dh, my time seems so, not exactly limited, but let's say, 'apportioned'.

Brilliant about the tap-dancing Astimegoesby! It's good you are doing something for yourself (in addition to dc extra-curricular ferrying!).

Big wing flaps to everyone else!

We are now [[http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/2477646-Autumn-leaves-flutter-as-October-Fledglings-Fly? here!!]

Ahem, will just re-post that link:

here

Ha ha ha Toffee. It comforts me to think that the GSCE result will truly be ds1's very own work..as he has absolutely vetoed any help from me. No, it was the elder one (who admittedly is dyspraxic so quite hot on "rules") who insisted that only "his" school text was the right version of the TEXT.

very chaotic morning with too many places to be at once, ending up in a cancelled visit to the tuition centre...grrr. Dd needed a lot of TLC as it was too early and she had lots of remember to take with her, ds1 also, of course, needed tlc, and then ds2 is still there ALSO needing tlc..let alone the appointments for his benefit..

Time I do my own version of tap dancing to Singing in the Rain. My mum said she never felt the same about tap dancers in films when she found the sound technicians added in extra tapping noises because you couldn't hear the tapping loud enough otherwise!!
A tip..re: clubs, secondary is often the time that some primary clubs fall by the wayside. Many scouts seemed to drop out at that point round here, too much homework, too late etc. Dd gave up ALL her primary clubs, netball, violin, choir, ballet. (they were separate from school I mean)

SC do you mean you have never seen Howl's Moving Castle, Laputa or best of all Spirited Away by studio Ghibli. Amazing stuff. Especially recommend the last, cold shivers down the spine and very greek mythy.

Never seen any of them Knitting - am completely clueless about the genre - but will definitely investigate now though!

[We are over in October now btw - see link below!]