September fledgling roll call: Ready, Set, FLY....

[HillsBesideTheSea]

Yes this is the bonkers back to school thread. We welcome you to jump aboard for the ride. We are following the Fly lady system for taming the chaos (can't have anyone over syndrome). We are at various levels and there is NO obligation to follow it to the letter (we've installed a bar in the naughty corner for hanging out and relaxing when needed)

4 levels for flying:
Baby steps - good for finding a routine in the tasks and getting over the perfection crippling effect
Baby steps and missions - yep basic routine and more in depth tasks
Baby steps, missions, and deep cleaning - can't clean clutter so don't consider this one if you need the next level
Flying combined with a decluttering system (kondo/unfuck etc etc) lets be honest fly lady is good for routine but not so quick with the decluttering results sometimes.

So ground rules, yes ground rules it is September:

1. Newbies - we are a long running but friendly bunch. We try not to seem clicky but it doesn't always come across as some of us have known each other on here for a long time, just join the chatter and you'll soon be a fledgling
2. There is NO wrong or right way of doing this, it is about adapting the system to suit your life circumstances, which will be different from someone else's.

Linkies will be posted daily and will appear shortly. Until then, jump on board, enjoy the ride and there are still hammocks, sand, comfy seats, cushions, blankies and a full English on the naughty corner bar it is a Saturday morning, breakfast is earnt

It’s thankfully not going to cost much. It’s a disabled pass so I will have to pay for a replacement, think it’s a tenner. But much better than losing a paper pass or something.

Actually I’d best make those phone calls now. See if it’s been handed in.

Look at my naughty baby destroying the nice tidy living room

He may be naughty but he is very cute cag

she :o :o

She also got the DVDs down. I can’t even.

And thank you she is rather scrummy when she’s not trashing the place or screaming :o

I should send mine round to visit. He is about the same age I should think and currently loves tidying up more than anything apart from climbing. They'd be perfect companions. Hope your bus pass turns up.

Sorry cag she is gorgeous.

I could positively gobble her up cag she's delicious looking in not a cannot Al honest

Zoolets went yesterday camping
I manage iron and label all uniform etc

Dp came round and we had from 4 pm- lunchtime today just the two of us.weve not had that since the zoolets were born and was lovely to just chat,laugh and remember why we got together in first place prob Wont last,but still

oilers had fab time
Tada
Orthodontist with dd2 pm.shes curled up in pain now
Wash towels
Wash stuff took camping with dd1
Sweep living room
Cook dinner(vehicle sausages,pasta and sauce)
Make dd2 soup

We are just go eat now
My girls are back to school wed,D's Thurs

Glad you had a good time with dp zoo you bloody well deserve it!

ta da
work
take a long nap

to do
get up
print a thing
go pick up a parcel -click&collect
linkies
sleeeeeeep

She’s pulled the plastic plate off the table. And the fork. Thankfully DD had licked it clean. So no tomatoey mess.

The playpen arrives tomorrow 😂

I may ask DH to take the Caglets out in the morning so they get some air/exercise. But otherwise I should try and get stuff done.

ta da continued
✅took DD to meet the charity rep and hand over the cheque, have a photo etc #proudmummoment :o
✅dinner using the sauce from yesterday. Still managed to trash the kitchen FFS.
✅bought a printer
✅phoned restaurant but no bus pass has been handed in. Shit I just remembered I meant to get the Caglets to walk back (5 mins) and look along the paths but of course it is too dark.
✅tried phoning bus people, no answer
✅hung out dressing up clothes
✅had a really good chat about school/learning etc with DD, feeling quite positive that she is really ready to try the more structured approach
✅iPad learning... last minute again

Oh fuck I’ve not done the Tesco order

Just not even going to try doing the Tesco order now. I am a zombie.

Cine how old is your little one? Cagletini (10 months) has recently discovered the joy of putting things into other things, but pulling stuff off shelves is definitely the bigger hobby.

Now where are my Maltesers. I’m watching king of the hill and forgetting about everything I could be doing. Head killing today.

ta da
✅did the Tesco order :o Just a small one.
✅sent email about a home ed thing

Bed. Headache from hell.

launch pad

babystep this one is a bit twee, we won't tell if you skip it.

missions

zoness

Tuesday is planning day...

What a lovely time for you and DP, Zoo. Fingers crossed they get a taste for camping! Sorry to hear your DD2 is in so much pain with her teeth. I don't know if braces pain is anything like teething pain or if it would be suitable but my two find Nurofen helps more for teeth and ear pains. Calpol never seems to help them with those things even though it's great for their colds with temperatures.

DS2 is 11 months, Cag, he will be one on the first of October. This year has flown by. He can be messy too though. His worst thing is that since he could crawl, he would go somewhere just after a feed, have a quick stealth vomit and play with it and then come back. After I'd cleaned and changed the little piggy, it would take me ages to track down where all the mess was and clean that up too, by which time he might have done the same again! His reflux has been much better recently but he threw up on a climbing frame at the park today and I had to clean it all off while the children playing on it waited so they didn't end up climbing through it! Them he had a full on back-arching temper tantrum when I tried to get him back in the pushchair. He is so much more like a little boy now rather than a baby. My older one seemed like a baby until well after he was two.

I had a fairly good day domestically today. I think I got all of the Fly Lady stuff done and was glad of the repeat of Friday's zone one task as I had done the hallway and the dining room then but had forgotten the little storm porch. I may only have cleaned that a couple of times since we bought the house four years ago ! Also, I'm not sure I had ever wiped down the doors here, so they look a lot better too and DH commented on how nice it is to see so much of the living room floor again when he got home, so I think getting the boys to tidy it before their nap in exchange for some television is working well.

cine ds2 shares my birthday!!😍

Back to school tom,so (as always) we have been reducing bedtimes earlier and get up earlier.today is "dummy run" everyone has get up at normal school day time and be dressed and ready leave house by 745 as if we're off to school.this reminds them of the routine,what's expected and that I'm not having where's this/can't find that first day back well,it works in theory,and was fab with all primary kids when I KNEW where everything was...as dd2 if deffo in teen angst/strop mode full on now it may be interesting to put it mildly

Tada
Wash on
Swept living room floor
Clear living room surfaces of crap
Tidy hall way
Sweep kitchen floor
Clean surfaces
Clean hob
Littertray and bins
Wash on airer,more in
Wash up new biscuit tin and cereal containers I've not got round to and dry,load up
Time wake the motley rabble...

Ah she gets more gorgeous every day. I love seeing pics of her. Little Imp.
You do well to get them out and about Cags. I remember how hard it was with older ones and baby and I had a car. When I had 1&2 I couldn't drive but there was just one bus in and one out of our village in Scotland as we were the end of the line. Where I live now there is only one minibus once a week. I do use it sometimes when I am off as it is important to keep it going. It is run by volunteers.

I feel tired this morning.Lots of info to take in, quiz night and a couple of glasses of plonk. Hope everyone has a good day. I'm not planning to do much today as intense training day today. If I get my tea, washed up and a load of washing on it will do.

zoo I had two days on east coast when DH behaved himself and i thought the same.Those times are few and far between.We don't argue much he just seems fairly indifferent towards me. No affection. Goes away for three to four weeks without so much as a peck on the cheek. I just let it go now.

cineraria that's interesting, my ds is older he's 2 (tomorrow in fact!) but I always see him as much younger at this age than dd was. He talks a lot like his sister does so it isn't that but things like with dd we were talking about potty training at this age and I can't imagine potty training ds now . I think it may well be me babying him

Sorry to be quiet this week, DD is just on the bus for her first day of secondary school. I'll be better once I hear how it went tonight! I just can't concentrate - I'm off out in an hour for a bit, hopefully the distraction will help.

Cag she has a look of determination there to get the job done! I assume all the shelves were cleared

Good to hear the iPad turned up Bower

Must clear up the main living area, scene of total devastation ATM!

Waves to newbies and returners like myself

Oddly sass there’s only a few specific shelves she goes for every time - she can access 40 different kallax ‘holes’ (the others being too high for a little bit longer) but only goes for about six specific ones. Every. Damn. Day.

Best of luck to your DD! You may be more nervous than her :o hope she has a great day.

I feel a bit glum about it really. As although I know continuing HE is the right thing for now, better for her learning style and great socially etc, it still makes me sad knowing that she’s missing a rite of passage, and knowing how much she struggles with things that most kids her age can cope with. But she’s being very mature about it, she made the decision herself after lots of discussion (at various points over the last year) but is now able to recognise that it is ok to still feel sad about what she is missing, while also knowing that she has made the right choice for her at this time. I’ve told her how brave she is, it is a huge thing to go against the grain like that at any age, but at 11 (when all her school friends are on at her all the time about it) it takes a lot of courage to say nope that’s not right for me.

So the plan is, to work more like a secondary school student (while allowing for her LDs, this is a main reason she’s not going yet) so that if she does decide to go then she is more ready. We have been very unstructured until now. She has learnt loads and is passionate about various subjects, it’s just getting it written down that is the struggle. So that is the focus. She will even be getting homework :o

ta da so far
✅got caglets to do laundry
✅set up printer without throwing it out the window in frustration
✅tested printer from laptop and iPad
✅ate veggies as chicken not cooked yet
✅made headway on reorganising books on Kallax. They were all just shoved on but I’ve been gathering all the school books etc to vaguely collect things together. Need to get more baskets though as the kallax shelves aren’t great for small books, going to shove all of DH’s read-a-million-times fantasy/sci-fi in a Drona basket so they all fit on and don’t look messy :o

Must start planning the first couple of weeks home ed stuff

Aww Cag, Cagletini is so cute. And your DD is so right, it is true that it is absolutely ok to feel sad while understanding that you still made the right choice.

Best of luck to your DD today Sass and to any other school starters. We go back tomorrow.

Ta da:-
All (although no doubt I will still find some things) school uniform labelling DONE
Bags packed for tomorrow (DH doing school run)

To do:-
Change DD1’s earrings for the first time. Eeeek.

Aw thanks :) and good luck with the earring change! DD hasn’t had hers pierced yet. She’d like them done but isn’t sufficiently desperate for it to put up with the pain which she is scared about. Fair enough!

I’ve done some washing up. Yay. Caglets a bit hyper so would like to send them to the park and maybe get some lesson planning (if I can call it that) done - now that I’ve gathered the textbooks etc together I’m realising how much I have. For example a few different books on grammar. So I can use each of them in parallel doing the same topic in each.

I actually can’t believe I am home educating a secondary age kid. OMG

Good luck sass
Stressy hope the change passes uneventfully
Cag aw

Tada
Checked timings of D's coming out school to walk towards me and lil zoo
Opticians app for all of them
Pick up bits for school lunches
Clear dining table
Make lunch(rice,spinach and chickpeas/cheesy polenta and broccoli for dd2 who in agony today.if she has to cheese can't eat it☹️)
Clear up,wipe table
Help dd2 reorganise her wardrobe

Now watching junior dvd and go play some games/have family time as girls are back at school tomorrow!