The only thing I'd even consider throwing out would be meat if you had it. Egg salad I'd throw. Even if the door was wide open all night, the food could surely not possibly be room temperature with cold air blowing over it?

No, because if there was a text he didn't want you to see he'd just delete it, surely? On the other hand, I'm in the '13 year olds don't need phones' camp, so if I knew of a way to see deleted texts, yes I would look. Dd got a phone at 15. She's nearly 16 and has a password on it now. Still thinking about how I feel about that!

How long after school finishes can you collect him? You've had some good advice about after care programmes. There may be homework clubs at school, or a school library? Sometimes my dd walks to the local mall or recreation centre and buys a soft drink and sits and does homework until I can fetch her. If there aren't school buses, is there other public transport?

I tend to conceptualise it as the OP does although I recognise both. I can't say I've run into a problem because of that, nor have my kids (both now at school).

Spray deodorant also works.

Acetone works well. It should NOT be used to remove whiteboard pen from your IKEA kitchen cupboards, this has been established through experimentation...

I know there were some stats out of India showing it to have 'adverse reactions' which were debunked with minimal research. The issue there was that any death following the vaccine was counted as an adverse effect, including car accident and accidental death. Dd had it a few years ago but they weren't offering it to boys in Australia at that stage. But yes, if it is offered when ds reaches that age he will have it.

What we are doing is looking for houses on bus routes: get bus maps and keep them close. It does make it harder... I can't see how old your kids are, but you may be able to pay an older child to shepherd your child onto and off a bus. Is there after school care? Although that adds to expenses. The reasons are different, but we're facing similar moving issues in the sense of B can't happen until A happens but we can't get A to happen, yet B has to happen (and by a certain date) because C has already happened, making B inevitable. I just go round and round in circles. It's hideous...

Anywhere we are is home. We've lived in 3 very different countries and in houses I loved and houses where I was miserable in, but every house and every country was home when we were there. We make our life in the present. That said, we've always lived in a coastal city and it would feel very odd not to be near water of some kind (ocean or big river). On a lighter note, an immigrant friend said she only felt happy in Australia after her first visit home to Sourh Africa. I've made the same move so I sympathetically asked if it made her realise how safe and easy life in Australia is by comparison. "Oh no," she replied, "my husband had to do his own cleaning and ironing while I was away, so he hired a cleaning lady." 😄 What makes a place feel like home is different for everyone!

For us it wasn't as much about a specific book as about getting good at reading. Ds had no interest so I always chose a book for him, on a topic he'd enjoy (knights, dragons, magic, animals) and just insisted on 1 chapter or 30 min a day. Skill and exposure to enjoyable content eventually let to him wanting to read by choice. I probably chose books for him for 3 years before he started to choose. This was actually a huge advantage, as he read less than some of his peers, but much better quality. Alexander McCall Smith has a few simple chapter books for children which have his characteristic gentle humour and wisdom - both series I'm thinking of are set in Africa. At a slightly higher level, ds loved Pippi Longstocking. A big thing at first was not to choose books that were too long, and even more than that, to choose books where the lines were widely spaced for easy reading. This was an issue for a long time - he was ready for complex reading material but that tends not to be spaced for early readers, which he needed to make tracking easier. Watching him learn to read and fall in love with reading was so exciting.

I'm sorry. Take furniture you love. Take sentimental stuff like photo albums and favourite books. Don't take more than you need. Timing... We have a timing issue right now with a move and we're probably going to pack the house into a storage pod / container for a month. It's not insanely expensive. That is helpful if you have to be out the house by a certain date but can stay with family until you find an apartment you love.

I'm slowly ticking things off my never ending list of things to do before December 7th. Some things are sorting themselves out: - Today is dd's 16th birthday party, she's meeting friends at the beach and the weather is great. - In a fit of madness I booked an apartment for my birthday night at the end of the month. It's on the beach. Only 25 min from our house but I don't care, I just have to step outside my life for a night - I'm so far behind in university studies that I'm not trying to catch up any more, I'm just doing what I can. - My work placement has been fully scheduled for 3 weeks, which helps a lot in taking the anxiety about the unknown out of things. On the bad side: - It looks like our house is not going to sell for what we paid for it. I'm not sure what to do about that. - I still don't have everything fully booked for our month away in December. - I still haven't figured out transport for the kids home from school for the 3 weeks I'm working. - I have an essay and an exam to write in the next 3 weeks and I really don't care much anymore.

Just keep it in cold water (not ice) water for as long as possible. Take a pain killer. Treat with a topical cream with lidocaine / lignocaine. You can also get special burn dressing which are very soothing. Burns hurt. There's no escaping it. My mom once picked up the hot iron with her hand (no, no clue why, lapse in thought process). She had blisters along the length of three fingers. She didn't seek medical treatment for that. You might pop into a pharmacy for advice on treatment.

The mice are dinner. No longer your problem. Dh saw ours attack a couple of mice. It was kind of hard to think of the chooks in quite the same way after that.

I don't think it means anything like that. I think it's basic common sense advice. I would generally expect it to be used to remind someone to keep things in perspective. If a friend complained she's over indulged in some way I might say philosophically "Oh well, one day won't kill you. Cut back tomorrow. Everything in moderation." As a previous poster said, I'd also use it to counter an extreme position, with a response of "I'm more of an everything-in-moderation person." Again, it's about perspective, the big picture, a reality check.

I've broken other bad speech habits, running two words together into a sort of 'made up' word (I can't even remember what it was now) and mispronouncing something. Dd called me on both and I became very self conscious. I started correcting myself (repeating correctly) whenever I said those words. I don't think I do it any more. I don't correct myself and she doesn't correct me any more either... We certainly can break those habits but because it involves becoming hyper-aware of something 'embarrassing' about oneself it is not at all a pleasant process. There's a lot of discomfort. But I guess that's true of any personal growth.

Different elections, but this year I'm pretty sure dh and I voted differently. Generally we vote for a party that best represents our overall economic and social philosophy. This year there was one issue that I felt made it important to vote for the other party, plus the politician from the party I usually vote for made some pretty dumb statements and his opponent was very impressive. There's no single politician we admire or party that really represents our values. So there's not much to disagree on. We may discuss individual politicians or issues, but not party politics. I don't ask who he votes for or volunteer who I vote for.

I shall test that our next time I hurt myself! I don't think Betadine does hurt. We have the ointment and liquid. And also the gargle for sore throats. I don't think I've had complaints. Apart from about the taste of the gargle!

Peroxide stings, I'd yell too! We definitely disinfect. Usually Betadine (iodine) or something you can mix with water and soak the wound in. We're not phased by germs or diet, but we don't mess around with infections. We've seen a couple of small things start to get nasty wben not properly disinfected. I guess if you live s 'big city' life it's maybe ok, but not if you're talking garden or outdoors in general. ETA: For small things and any splinters that need removing, I use a cream that disinfects and numbs. The toe would probably have got that treatment if it wasn't obviously dirty. And it would get it after cleaning, definitely. That stuff is fabulous for kids that are pain averse.

That was fun! I speak Afrikaans (second language) and find I'm competent enough to cook using a child's recipe book. Although I'm not sure where those eggs would have ended up - "kom" doesn't translate. I think Afrikaans would use "bak" for dish or bowl but I'm not sure. Also "even" and "er het" aren't phrases I recognise or need to translate the text word for word into Afrikaans. To get back to the original question, I checked a few recipes online, and Afrikaans uses the imperative.

Apricot jam and cheese sandwiches Pineapple or banana on bacon and cheese toasted sandwiches Bacon and syrup sandwiches Sour cream on toast I actually don't eat much bread, despite the list of weird sandwiches!

Give it an Asian 'pho' like twist with fish sauce, lime and mint and chilli to garnish? Add fragrant spices to the broth - ginger, cinnamon, cloves, star anise. Those would be simple for me as they're standard ingredients I have on hand, not sure how it would work for you. http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/19014/beef+and+noodle+soup+pho+bo

Oh no! I would have to leave home too! Do you have another door you can return through? I'm sort of impressed you screamed. I've twice seen a (deadly Australian) snake in my path while walking and both times was reduced to clutching at my walking partner and pointing wildly. I can only assume the snakes were equally appalled at what they saw, as both slithered off rapidly.

I'm so sorry...

I really used to enjoy Faye Kellerman's books. But at some point the writing just got bad. It became really clunky with long-winded descriptions. I keep reading them, of course, but it's now an overnight loan from the library type of read. Actually the last one wasn't too bad. I wonder though if it's her writing getting worse or my taste improving?