Fledglings Fly back to school & work, September 2017, decluttering along the way ...

[Sandycarrots]

Hello, it's time to brush the sand off our feet, empty out the suitcases, sharpen our pencils, polish our lace-up shoes, and get stuck in to the September 2017 fledgling Fly thread!

This is where we attempt to declutter our homes and follow the 30-step wisdom of Flylady (minus cutesy barftastic language and a surfeit of e-mails) with lots of chat and support and mutual motivation (and of course) along the way.

Fly stands for Finally Loving Yourself (cheesy but there is merit to it). The general idea is that short bursts of tidying / organisation are more achievable than marathon efforts. Flylady advises 15 minute bursts of effort but you can tweak this to fit your own circumstances.

As usual we will be following a three-pronged approach - and don't worry - we are all at different stages. (Some of us are still stuck at the decluttering stage after quite a few years ):

1 - repeat or start baby steps (again!)

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

or

3 - reinforce babysteps and/or do daily missions

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

More info available here, here and here.

Your choice whether or not you sign up to the Flylady e-mails, but we advise caution as there are lots of them!

Helpful pointers: No perfectionism allowed! If it took a while to create the current C.H.A.O.S. (can't have anyone over syndrome) in your home, then it will probably take a while to reverse the situation (you can't clean clutter!). Small steps are the key! And you are never behind: just jump in where you are at!

Any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Good luck!

Hello all, first day of school went ok . DD2 had a bit of a wobble going in but the teachers are so lovely and she skipped out happily. Of course neither child remotely tired after school but both seem to be asleep now.

Didn't get much done to say I had 4.5 hours child free time today so am annoyed with myself. Ta da:-
Eyebrows shaped
Eye test
Hearing test
Picked up prescription

Had hoped for more especially as I didn't really feel I had a long break either . Oh well, was always going to be a bit 'errandy' on the first morning. Onwards and upwards for tomorrow.

Music loud, dancing in the kitchen to the disgust of ds, pizza for tea. And I solved some of the frustrations of the other days by getting the 1 essential thing (alarm clock)

Also ta da
1 load washing in the dryer
banking errands
put my clothes away
prescription picked up and meds collected
Rejigged this weeks to do list - batch cooking moved as just not practical this week
Make bread

Stressy I don't think that's bad for the first day back at school, you achieved more in those hours than I did all day

Newchick I am so jealous of your empty bedroom space, ours is far and away the worst room of our house and it makes me sad to even look in there let alone sleep there!

SC I love a lionhead. Casper actually moved in with us to live with our lionhead/Netherland dwarf mix but she died suddenly before they were introduced. We tried for a year or so to bond him with a bunch of different girls and he just didn't get it and seems more than happy just having human cuddles I think some rabbits just don't mind!

Today wasn't massively productive as we spent the morning in to avoid the rain and DS trashed the house, then we met a friend and braved our first ever soft play which was an experience!
My tiny to do list:

Laundry done, not put away yet
Food shop done
Soft play survived
Casserole cooked for dinner
Kitchen tidied
DS bathed and asleep on the sofa

And our victory of the day: DS ate a yoghurt! he's a crap eater and refuses to feed off a spoon so I'm dead chuffed.

Thanks Rosie. for your DS. Have abandoned tonight m, going into naughty corner to watch Dr Foster and will be back on it tomorrow.

I'll watch Dr Foster tomorrow! Excited.

SC I love your description of hotspots :o :o you paint quite a picture!

Lasagne was well received, second wash finally in and will get dry in the morning. Then wash towels from hair dying. Haven't done any tidying this evening, Caglets have been really stroppy with each other all day, and DD was pretty anxious this evening (I guess that explains the stroppiness earlier - it's been brewing).

Rosie thank you - my bedroom is not my 'worst' room and it still has lots of stuff to do in it - huge BRC (boxes of random crap) stacked at the end of the bed. Even just clearing that 1.5ft x 2ft square space made me feel as if I was achieving something - which means I can go on to do more - little steps yes?! Hope you have a good and yoghurt filled day today!

Bedroom is tooootally our worst room! Too often have we panic tidied downstairs and ended up shoving yet more BRCs in here. We also store pretty much all the Caglets' toys in here because there is no room in their bedroom for more furniture. Can't actually see much floor ATM. Seriously got our work cut out if we want to fit a Moses basket in here... .

Broken night's sleep here thank you, bladder-kicking baby but thankfully DD managed to sleep despite her anxiety. DS isn't awake yet. Have reminded DD to do her morning list as soon as she's had breakfast.

Mum visiting in a few hours so want to get the living room, hallway, landing and bathroom a bit nicer. DH is on kitchen duty.

Meant to say though well done for clearing that space! It really does make a huge difference psychologically.

Good luck to all those back-to-schooling today!

**

The summary for Thurs 7th September is available on the Flylady website here under "Today" and via the flight plan which should update itself automatically on a daily basis.

Baby-step no. 7 for Thurs 7th is here. Lay out your clothes for the next day, the evening before! Highly recommended!

We are in Zone 2 this week: The Kitchen.

Spend 15 mins decluttering the current zone.

When you have finished decluttering, the detailed cleaning list for Zone 2 (if you are at that stage) is here.

Thursday's mission is: here. Declutter cling-film, foil and/or the drawer that contains it.

The daily focus for Thursday is running errands. Doc & dentist appts, school shopping, groceries etc. It can be quite helpful and a more efficient use of time, when possible, to confine appts and major errands to the day of the week that suits you best.

The monthly habit for September is: [[

Flykid's challenge: which (hopefully!) updates itself!

Daily reminders (which should also update automatically) :www.flylady.net/d/launch-pad/tuesdays-reminders/.

“We do what we can today and then we do a little more tomorrow” ~ FlyLady

**

**

The summary for Thurs 7th September is available on the Flylady website here under "Today" and via the flight plan which should update itself automatically on a daily basis.

Baby-step no. 7 for Thurs 7th is here. Lay out your clothes for the next day, the evening before! Highly recommended!

We are in Zone 2 this week: The Kitchen.

Spend 15 mins decluttering the current zone.

When you have finished decluttering, the detailed cleaning list for Zone 2 (if you are at that stage) is here.

Thursday's mission is: here. Declutter cling-film, foil and/or the drawer that contains it.

The daily focus for Thursday is running errands. Doc & dentist appts, school shopping, groceries etc. It can be quite helpful and a more efficient use of time, when possible, to confine appts and major errands to the day of the week that suits you best.

The monthly habit for September is: [[

Flykid's challenge: which (hopefully!) updates itself!

Daily reminders (which should also update automatically) :www.flylady.net/d/launch-pad/tuesdays-reminders/.

“We do what we can today and then we do a little more tomorrow” ~ FlyLady

**

Oh bum, I'm so sorry everyone, I was preparing the links for tonight during my coffee break, and lost them. Looked on here just now, and they they are, unfinished ... they seemed to have posted themselves (twice) on to the thread without my knowledge

I'm slowly losing my marbles I think! Please ignore as they are not complete!

Morning everyone! DD first day back at preschool today so just me and ds at home, he has had a nap and I've eaten some of his birthday cake but other than that all I've done is a very quick daily routine stuff and my phone has broken so I've been getting increasingly frustrated trying to fix it. Have given up now and accepted it is totally broken and I need a new one. Still feeling exhausted, I think this week is going to be a write off flying wise and I'll need to lower my expectations. I am just not feeling myself but hopefully I'll be back to normal soon. DS still snotty and grumpy as well which doesn't help. This morning I couldn't get the lid off one of his cups and the milk has turned to cheese in it, I got so fed up with it that I have thrown it in the garden - that's the kind of mood swings I'm having!!

While I'm on here though, hope all the mini-Fledglings who started or returned to school yesterday got on ok. And that those starting, or starting back today have a good day too!

Enjoy your mum's visit Cag!

Newchick whey hey @ empty bedroom corner!! Agree with Cag that these small but significant triumphs really help with the psychological battle against clutter. Must follow your good example and get cracking in the boudoir today!

Rosie sorry to hear that Caspar's "intended" died suddenly. But glad, like mine, that he is thriving in "sole control". Yay to your ds's yoghurt eating triumph!

Glad your Tues ended better than it started Einstein

Toostressy agree with Rosie that you achieved lots yesterday!

Encouraging wing flaps to everyone else!

I think I need more coffee ... just trying to plough through some "work" work admin this morning (why don't client pay their bills on time? [sob]) and then going to draft my weekly timetable. Now that it is clear how the term's work and activities are panning out, I find it really helpful (as someone who only works 15 hrs on average a week) to construct myself a proper "school" type timetable to stop myself frittering away too much time.

x post Foxes

Oh dear that sounds really stressful

Sounds like a good tactic though to be kind to yourself this week and take it very steady and maybe visit gp if the fatigue hasn't lifted over the weekend?

Morning

Ah

Well the day looked set to be a bit of a disaster! Dad phoned to say he'd had a phone call from our local station saying mum had lost her bag en route to us. Had literally nothing - phone money bus pass etc. So we were going to rescue her and bring her to ours, replace ticket home for later etc.

On bus to station get another call and some kind person has handed her bag in at Brighton, so they gave her a ticket down there, and we thought oh sod it let's go meet her there and make a day of it! On a train now and dad said he's going to get a train down there too. :)

Oops sorry I was supposed to say, ah foxes sorry you are feeling so crap. Definitely take it easy as you can

Foxes . Don't worry re. links SC, I certainly make enough mistakes with mine . Lovely to hear about kind person Cag, even though that kind of thing is always very stressful.

Hope any little fledglings are doing ok at school / new term today.

Ta da (childfree morning):-
Took some time for myself and had a cup of tea with another mum! She is very organised and we were chatting about stuff and it sounds as if my systems are ok but I don't follow them through and try to do too much at once. Someone actually called me organised yesterday too so there is some hope for me. Not so organised today as was standing in the wrong line for DD2 school pick up so it looked as if I was late - no excuse as DD1 has been at the school for 2 years!
Online food shop to come tonight
Bills paid
Phoned about contact lenses - bigger than it sounds as it took a while as I knew it would.

To do (DD2 back from school now):-
Plan tea
Plan after school snack
Put dishwasher on
If time do a little bit more in DD2's room

Have installed her in front of the telly for half an hour as we will soon need to go back and get DD1.

Thanks everyone. DH home now and has hopefully found me a spare phone to use and has sorted out ds cup (and retrieved it from the garden for me) . Still feel totally wiped out so we're having a quick pizza dinner tonight. I think it's just my hormones going haywire because of stopping bf but will definitely go to the GP if it continues too long.

Ta das
Just a few but if I list them I feel a little better!
Got dd new shoes
Got a few groceries
DH sorted dd car seat out

Just be aware there are some feverish type viruses lurking around atm foxes look after yourself and hope you feel better soon.

Today's word of the day is 'meh'
I have an insane 4 days coming up, motivation and energy are lacking. Lack of sleep has caught up with me and I am ready to sleep already. Only another 2 hours til bedtime.

Evening everyone,
Hope you are feeling better foxes
Today has been an emotionally exhausting day. All kids are now back at school,but youngest ds is really struggling. I had a call from the Senco today that after trying his best to ignore the bullies he finally snapped and hit back. I've got a meeting at the school on Friday to discuss what's going to happen. I don't think mainstream is for him.

Ive just had a bit of an anxiety attack today worrying about my both my boys future and that they are always going to need so much care, and I'm so scared of messing up and letting them down.

Ta da
Gingerbread cookies baked
Apple and black currant crumble made
Kids fed and bathed
Dishwasher on
Laundry done

Hope you have all had a good day

Phew what a day. Was lovely but DS really struggled with the sudden change of plan - super stimmy and walking into people and even a bit stroppy (which is not his usual demeanour - he's very cheerful and skippy).

Managed a few tasks while in brighton though, got fitted at Bravissimo and now have two nursing bras, so that's a big task done (nowhere to buy in my town), got a few other bits that we need including the cutest little baby socks 😍

Totally wiped out now.

Oh mum :( that's so tough I'm sorry. Poor DS, it's awful that he was put in that position where the only option was to snap. Mine did that a couple of times.

I totally hear you on the worry for the future. I've known my two were autistic for a few years really but since getting it diagnosed (in fact DS' ADOS report arrived today so that was interesting reading) it's really hit home that this is forever.

What would your options be if you don't stick with mainstream?

Thank you cag we tried homeschooling when he struggled at primary school but it didn't work out as he just shut down when he found work difficult. We thought high school would be better for him as my eldest son thrives there, obviously no two kids with autism are the same though. And now my youngest ds is really not coping. I haven't got a clue what to do, so tomorrow I'm going to call his psychologist and see what he says.

Sorry to hear that too Mum. Hope you can get some useful suggestions soon.

Working non stop today and have just 'treated' myself to a quick declutter of bedside chest of drawers - found lots of homemade cards etc from when the kids were little - so sweet - now they are all enormous teenagers. Otherwise literally no Flying today - no laundry, no cleaning, no cooking other than BBOT for my lunch - DH made supper as he often does thankfully.