I hear you about the day to day pain. after many years of it you sort of get use to it We are debt free, but it was because of many years of living very frugally. 1 whole year without electricity while we saved up cash to pay upfront for the underground cable and connection ( I only had 2 children then) having no kitchen for 6 months and having to cook on a campfire ( I hate camping and have to say I had a bit of an attitude problem about that situation) just got tiles behind the sink and kitchen benchtop (after 25 years of waiting). I am fortunate that I live in a country with universal healthcare and have never had to run up huge debts for medical. that would make the situation extremely challenging. However I am terrified of loosing 27 years of work by bushfire as I think we are under-insured but Dh disagrees.

huge hugs teaching3bears I really feel for you wish there was something I could do to help. I would be more concerned about the pencil as well.

Every spare money we used to pay down any Debt. We now are completely debt free. It is marvellous

Muppets treasure island is our favourite as well.🙃 my twins think that pirates mostly sing. Whenever they play pirates they sing the whole time

Congratulations on your beautiful daughter

hugs

crying for you 😢 I am so sorry Huge hugs

it has been a while since I have had a grade 7. we didn't do time , but amount of schoolwork. they had to do a lesson per day of math, spelling, grammar, writing, read for 30 minutes or a chapter. A section of science, 15 minutes of logic, a chapter of history once a week. We also did Rosetta Stone German for approx 20 minutes a day. I read aloud for approx 1 hour a day a novel. mostly I read right at tea time. I eat fast and got very bored sitting there while every one else eats slowly. it fitted in nicely. it took them anywhere from 3 to 5 hours a day, depending if they wanted to sit there doodling or get on with their work. mostly they were done their main subjects in 3 hours and spent another hour in the afternoon doing either science or history. they could do their reading in the evening if they wanted to .

We did basketball and swimming for PE. The swimming was mostly at the beach. About 5 hours a week cooking about 3 hours a week music. We dropped music at around grade 7, before that we did 30 minutes practice a day

I counted music , PE and cooking , Schools count them all I don't have to record time

so sorry sending positive thoughts

Midshipman Quin series were my boys favourite read aloud of all time when they were early teens

One of our neighbours told dh they have put in 100metre bulldozed firebreak. To try and stop the westerly spread of the https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=2ahUKEwjG7ueN2MjnAhWJXCsKHYFRBJgQwqsBMAF6BAgKEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FDELWPGippsland%2Fvideos%2F227363048260974%2F&usg=AOvVaw1PR72z5JFBSSXk3kqY6k7D if this link works it shows the devastation at Cape Conran.

We got 8 ml rain. Not enough to put fires out. But apparently the fire behaviour is suppressed. There are 4 peat fires in dry swampy heathland. So they have set up carbon monoxide monitors. It stinks

We didn’t get any rain on the weekend, but it is meant to rain today. Hoping it is heavy. About 100 mm would be great. Fingers crossed

We haven’t had any rain. The fire is just very slowly creeping, which is amazing as we have gale force winds today. They have a lot of resources on it (we hope), helicopters, bulldozers, firefighters, the Fiji army with rakehoes . There are lots of dry swampy heathlands that are within the fire area and are burning as well. we are completely frustrated by the lack of information and have turned into crazy people checking wind speed, satellite maps, radar weather maps, hotspots, tuning into scanners etc multiple times a day. I think DH and I can recite what the wind is going to be doing every 2 hours until Tuesday next week. All we really know is the fire ground is still burning and is slowly creeping.

Over $500 per twin for swimming, but we have a grant that pays some of it as it is part of their therapy ( cross brain activity)

One adult ( me) did the University stuff with the child who was applying for uni, and no siblings came at all. There were thousands of other potential students at the Universites , mostly accompanied by one parent and NO young children at all, not a single one.

Huge hugs seizures are scary

Forgot to add, if you have time, you are to block gutters and fill with water, remove everything away from the outside of the house and hose house and verandah down. because we have had time we have also pulled down fences, opened inspection panels on top of water tanks for hopefully fire trucks, cleared more than 100 tea tree , melaleuca and other shrubs, mowed flower gardens, raked, raked and raked. DH has also put gravel along the bottom of exterior shed doors and put. Rock wool around the sides of shed doors to stop embers getting in, plowed a circle in our cow paddock and put tractors and machinery within the plowed area.

Here we are told to take medication 2 days of clothes all important papers including birth certificates, insurance papers etc mobile phone and charger pets carry a wool blanket in car in case you get caught to help protect from radiant heat

I am living in a emergency right now. (Declared disaster zone with ongoing bushfires coming closer all the time) for us food is not needed in the plan, it is what to pack for a fast getaway, what you want to save and what you can let go. we have evacuated 4 times in the last 4 weeks. Every time I have taken absolutely ridiculous stuff. One time I had packed my old gardening clothes, the next time I took all the saucepans..... why I took saucepans I have no idea. When you are reacting to an emergency you think you are calm, but you are not. we have Now shifted valuables etc. into a town to keep them safe. It is very stressful. Very stressful indeed. I am now very jittery. I have always thought of myself as a calm, organised, down to earth person... not at the moment...... each time I am getting worse...I guess because the fire is so much closer.... now I am a shaking, anxious and scared person.

When I was younger I had soft, fly-away hair. The type that wouldn’t stay in a pony, and little bits came out of whatever all day long. Now over 60% of my hair is grey, it is thicker and states in place much better. I have hip length hair that I have worn French braided every day since I was 12

So glad to hear he was able to sleep well will keep sending positive thoughts hugs