No it should be fine, book depository should automatically give you the correct price for the shipping address. You get import taxes if it's over $1000 worth of goods (unless that's changed). I've ordered a lot from book depository and never paid extra taxes.

I love this idea Farrar and would love to hear more/see pics if you're so inclined! 🙂

Siobhan is an actual name with a rich history. Not a gimmick. What If I wanted to name my kid qrstuv and pronounce it christoff because hehe look it's a string of consecutive letters isn't that clever?! It's immature and arrogant. Yep I'm owning that. I'm allowed to have an opinion. A lot of high horses riding around here.

I knew an Emerald. Her sisters were named Olive and Gold. I liked it a lot. I do love nature names and if I'd had a gaggle of daughters they'd all sound like hippies. 😄 My great grandmother Pearl had two daughters named Zoe and Star.

Unusual, creative spelling or made-up-but-phonetically-decipherable is a whole 'nother world from a gimmicky, joke name. A child is a person, not a joke. Some of my kids have uncommon for this time/place names. Dh is one of 3 men in his family with his name. I have an unusual spelling of a very common name. I love my name, always have. My maiden name was welsh, I got used to spelling all of it all the time.

I'm really sorry quill. I do agree with the previous posters to be careful. You can't do the work for him, you can't love him into choosing to better himself. You can love him despite himself, being careful to love yourself with good boundaries and not 'helping' in a way that is not actually helpful for anyone. The care packages sound nice.

For us, it's kind of a smorgasbord of food and people will graze all day long. We'll have people here Christmas day literally all day - sleeping over the night before and after. So lunch will be placed out and people will take a normal serve plate with a little of everything. Come back again a later to grab seconds of their favourite thing to have with a 3rd glass of wine! Everyone gathers again mid afternoon for the same routine wirh dessert. To be fair, we work it off with nerf and/or water fights! We'll also have golf and badminton. 😁

See, my relationship with food is so different that what you describe sounds sad to me. I would feel like I was withholding love from my family if that was all I served for Christmas. I get totally that that's my issue and no reflection on how you or anyone else loves their loved ones! Incidentally, we are hosting Christmas this year. Probably 20+ people. We're doing a whole pig on a spit (amongst other things). Now, that is conjuring up whole nostalgic feelings for my dh and his family, nostalgia for his parents/grandparents and remembered feasts in their village in the old country. They are looking forward to turning the meat together and spending the time making sure it's cooked right. My father in law has already spent weeks building the perfect enclosed rotisserie oven. My dh (baker) is already planning his contributions, he feels proud to be able to serve his parents this way. Serving something special shows how special family is to us, I could serve up a big pot of spaghetti and some store bought ice cream- everyone would be fuelled and we'd still enjoy the time together, but I would feel like I hadn't made an effort to make them feel loved. And dh would feel it even more keenly. It's not because they like the taste of roast pork so much. It's the whole experience. Food is a way to gather the clan, a way to spend time together.

I'm having a sordid, extra marital relationship with snickers right now... because I'm stressed and sick and a little hit of sugar/fat/peanuts makes the world seem a bit sweeter. I can't take a bubble bath right now, I can't ignore the world and read, I can't fly off on a holiday, but I can quickly skarf down a chocolate bar.

Here is an article I read on the younger kids internalizing sex based hierarchy Article

😔 That is one big reason we decided to homeschool in the first place.

I'm sure I've read studies that show girls internalizing subordination from about age 5... Also, around puberty is when boys start looking at porn nowadays.

She is super cute! I had one child like that. A switched flipped when he was 4 months old and he was exhausting until about 5 years old. We wondered about asd, adhd etc but nothing seemed quite right. Spd was closest, as he hated swings and was very particular about clothes and stuff. He would do the same thing with books lol, my sister would get stuck every single time she visited! He did outgrow the more extreme behaviour, though he's still him iykwim. He's actually a really lovely kid, people who knew him at 2 and 3 can't believe it. Hugs mama, parenting ain't for the faint hearted!

Awww that's really lovely!

That sounds so frustrating! I'm really sorry that this is your work environment retiredHSmom

Thanks Stella. The crisis is manageable, no one's fault, expensive and immediate but not a big deal in the scheme of things. It just means we have to spend hundreds of dollars and hours of time fixing this, rather than hundreds of dollars and hours of time in the car going to the wedding (again, why do people have weddings 3hrs drive away?! If it was one or two we could probably have still managed it...) I'm just, really feeling quite sad about broken family relationships and projecting that fear onto this and being probably too emotional. Probably pms. Lol, my phone corrected 'pms' to 'old' - yeah that too. My daughter is very disappointed. Okay, vent over, big girl pants on.

Thanks everyone. Crisis was averted. New crisis cropped up, we won't make the wedding now anyway and I'm trying very hard not to be a sulky, petulant wife. Don't worry, we weren't staying for the meal so no-one has paid for us.

Haha thanks! Would have been handy! *muses about converting something battery operated with a motor*

Basically, I have all my recurring bills on my phone calendar with alarms, and in my bullet journal calendar. Bullet journal works for my very forgetful/scattered brain because everything is in one notebook and it's not confined to perfect boxes like planners. I tend to freeze and postpone/procrastinate if I'm unsure what to do. So I need clear, repeating routine. Every single payday, x amount (rounded figures) goes here, y amount there, z amount here, rest is for living budget (groceries, petrol, bits and pieces). X is straight onto the mortgage, y is into the bills account, z into the project funds (building our house). The rest is our debit card account for day to day use. I see all the accounts through my electronic banking. Compartmentalising helps my brain.

I did consider it, but it's at least an hour round trip and I really don't want to! The brushing seems to have done the trick. It's wearable and saved. We may have another crisis happening with our water pump this time so that's fun. (Can't wash laundry without water!)

Can you only have in class assessments? Basically, they're not trustworthy enough to do it unsupervised. Wasn't there a reverse classroom thing a while ago, where students had to study the materials at home and then complete work/assessments in class with the teacher...

Thanks everyone! Brushing is working pretty well so far. Sherry, I have plenty of tape ready if necessary. 🙂

Thanks! Will try it! Ouch, velvet and Kleenex! I've had a tissue or receipt issue before, but the sheer volume of 3 disintegrated books is new for me!

Thank you! I'm wondering if static cling plays a part, and if so how to recreate it... probably more effort than just anger-brushing!

Seconding benzoyl peroxide. It's the only thing that works even a little. I usually wash with a tee tree wash at night, put the benzoyl on just before bed and moisturise (when I remember to) with a tee tree moisturizer in the morning.