I dont understand where the unsocialised thing comes from- but is there a whole bunch of badly socalised homeschoolers out there giving everyone a bad name? On the whole I haven't even come across it. There were shy kids and not so shy kids, for sure. Perhaps I didnt come across badly socialised kids because they didn't come out to homeschool activities- the ones who were there seemed within the normal range to me. SO, is it people's experience they are talking about- they know someone who was homeschooled who is painfully shy or lacking reasonably social skills- or is it just the old presumption of the ignorant that homeschooled kids must be socially deprived? I dont know- seems strange to me. I think it IS important for homeschooled kids to have plenty of social contact and that IS a lot of work for the mother- but I have 2 ridiculously socially confident teenagers so that might just be my perspective. I imagine there ARE some kids who might need a little gentle pushing to get them to interact. Overall..its not the homeschooling. This is life, normal every day life. Are the kids getting a social life? Are they learning social skills? That is all thats important- school is irrelevant and has crushed many a shy soul.

It was pretty bad but not as bad as feared. Many roofs lost etc, but on the whole the main towns of Cairns and Townsville weren't too badly damaged- at first news, anyway. Of course, all the banana plantations and farms will be devastated. I have been watching the footage so far and its incredible- banana plantations just flattened. There will be lots more flooding. Also, the tropical trees are just stripped of their leaves and that looks awful. No news of any human injury or death at this stage. But many are still inside their homes- not safe to come out yet.

I wouldn't read an abridged version - to me that spoils the real thing. My son LOVED Swiss Family when he was about 11/12 (as a read aloud). Its not an easy book. But if we had read an abridged version I don't think he would have wanted to read the original because he would already have known the storyline. I would just switch to something more age appropriate. You do have to build those classic muscles up- I never read anything they didn't like. If it wasn't successful we would start another book. But if you havent read classic versions of fairy tales yet, that is a great way to expose them to classics without having to read a long book. Peter Pan was the first "official" school book I read to my son when he first started homeschooling at age 7- he loved it- and i loved it. Dont presume a classic book suitable for a 7yo would be too young for a 10yo. Classics for kids tend to have an ageless charm about them.

Copywork and handwriting practice books right into highschool. Only a few minutes a day, but every day. Eventually- around age 13-14- his handwriting became legible and he started taking pride in it. It's still not brilliant unless he really concentrates- which he cant do most of the time. For many kids, thinking of content while trying to write is too hard to do at the same time, for a long time. So I tried not to make too much of a fuss if the assignment was content driven and I could at least read the writing, but I would be more demanding if it was meant to be neat on purpose (such as a single paragraph of writing, when he was older). I dont believe everyone is going to have super neat handwriting- I would focus on legibility if its a big issue- well, thats what I did. Otherwise its too big a hill to die on.

Its happening now- and yes its still a Category 5 according to the news reports here. It has wiped out a research station on an island in its path, so far, apparently.

Losing weight is a bit of a chore for me but I did do it recently - 5kgs or so- using Weight Watchers- and can I jsut say I feel it was worth it? Feeling not so happy in my slightly chubby body was not something I could just will myself to ignore. I kept telling myself it didnt matter. That it was just middle age and inevitable. BUt I knew...I wanted to lose the weight. I didnt want to give up the battle and just let myself go, so to speak. ANd...I feel great. I love not being self conscious about my weight, and knowing I look good for my age. So there you go...vanity is my motivation, but it works for me :) After I got tired of WW (ANd it took me something like 4 months to lose those 5 kgs, which is very slow!), someone here mentioned the No S diet and I am doing that now and I love it- for me, its a great maintenance diet that I can do for the rest of my life- but for many they do it to lose weight. I can eat whatever I like at each meal- just nothing between meals. And on weekends i can eat whatever I like whenever I like. Its so doable! THe thing I like about the No S diet is that it is an antidote to food obsessiveness, which is really the problem in the first place. ANd any diet that makes you think too much about what and how much you are eating makes you think about food all the more. I didnt realise that WW was making me OBSESS about food! About my next snack, about fruit for goodness sakes! The No S diet heals that obsessiveness while bringing back the enjoyment of mealtimes. In the end...you have to find what works for you and what motivates you. If your desire to lose weight is not stronger than your desire to indulge yourself completely, well, accept that and be at peace :)

I agree, altohugh it took me more than 2 years to get to that point! I learned that I could *not* cover everything I wanted to. I learned to simplify, to prioritise, and to let go.

There is another thread about it. Not so many people homeschool in QLD because the rules are much harder there- so we are not aware of any WTM people there. However, we are all watching with bated breath as our fellow Australians deal with this rather more serious than usual cyclone.

I too can relate and my life is not stressful right now. Perimenopause- women in their 40s- is a time when we need to take care of ourselves on all levels- physically eat well, get enough exercise- emotionally, deal with unresolved issues- spiritually...whatever that means for you, becoming aligned with living your values. Physically..if you don't take care of yourself now, the stakes seem to get much higher, particularly if you have not taken good care of your body in your 30s. It all comes back to bite you. Its time to focus on your own needs rather than just everyone else's. Do whatever you need to do- because if you don't, everyone around you suffers anyway. Chaste tree, dong quai, various other herbs, bioidentical hormones (I suggest looking into these- it is not the same as taking HRT). I recommend you buy or borrow this book- What your doctor may not tell you about premenopause and read it. Or if you are close to menopause, get the one of menopause by the same author. For diet, I suggest you get Food Rules by Michael Pollan. But my main suggestion is that you see what may be out of balance in your life and deal with that. Are you too hard on yourself? Work on forgiveness and gentleness. Are you too busy? See where you can cut back. Do you eat on the run? Look at meal planning or whatever would help there. Its a time to really honour and take care and food/supplements is only one aspect of that. WOmen tend to sacrifice their 20s and 30s to other people and by the 40s, you cant do that without a cost to yourself. Thats not to say that menopause wont be difficult anyway- but my understanding is that it needs to be dealt with on many levels. FOr myself, at 43, I use chaste tree and i have progesterone cream as back up. As I get closer to 50 I will probably add in some other herbs. I eat well. I am lucky right now- not homeschooling, not working. I am about to go back to yoga classes. One dentist visit and I was a blubbering mess and my mouth is still numb 5 days later. Things just affect me more- they dont roll off as much.

Many people do mono diets, as they are called, for health reasons. Or spiritual reasons. Yogis in the Himalayas are known to have lived for years on just fresh milk. (not pasteurised and homogenised though:) ) And many people go on mono diets of oranges, or grapes, or juices. It gives the digestive system a real break from its job and basically has similar benefits to fasting, and is generally considered a type of fast. Generally one chooses a raw food, and often its a fruit, or perhaps a vegetable juice (many people have fasted on carrot juice). It is not meant to be done forever (except perhaps for a yogi). It is a short term thing and many people find they feel great on it. Of course in the long term one needs more nutrition, but in the short term, the break from all that digesting of various foods is good for the system and can be a kick start for weight loss too. If you google monodiet or mono diet you will find a lot of good information.

Amber did you sustain any damage from the cyclone over here on the weekend?

I am not aware of any. It's more than media coverage here in Australia- this is a string of extreme weather. And this one coming into QLD look devastatingly huge. People who have lived through many bad cyclones and are "cyclone hardened", are scared. The Cyclone Bianca that was due to hit Perth on Sunday however fizzled out to barely even any rain and just a bit of wind. You have no idea how many events were cancelled because of it- and it never really happened- an anti climax here- although inland there was quite a storm that did severe damage in some areas- including the town where we have 2 investment properties, which did suffer some damage- although not as much as many.

If you want inspiration, read The China Study. That has influenced me much more towards veganism lately. I have stopped most dairy and I am seeing how I go with no meat, and just fish sometimes if I am really craving "meat" in this transition phase. I have just joined up to plantoeat.com and I am so glad someone linked to it here yesterday. It's a meal plan website where you can import recipes from over 100 websites- I have already meal planned many vegan recipes just by looking for "polenta" or "quinoa". For me the key is really getting organised to have the right ingredients in the house, and thinking/planning ahead. I have never been good at meal planning but I think that website will work for me.

We would still want to live in a fairly decent sized home because dh and I both need a lot of space from each other regularly :) When we were first living together, we spent 6 months in a tiny house with hot pink walls. It was awful and ever since then we knew we needed lots of space. Even before kids. For example, he watches TV into the early morning wheras I go to bed by 10pm. I do NOT want to hear the television every night. But..we have a LOT of space right now, even with kids and him working from home...we wouldn't need THIS much space. Yes, I would want a spare bedroom or 2, and right now I have my own bedroom plus an office which is another bedroom. I feel spoilt. ON my own, I could live in a small place, but with dh..we need more than usual. I guess thats going to be different for everyone.

Spot on , Rosie, thanks for putting that so well. And I think I made that same peanut soup- was it from the Enchanted Broccoli Forest vegan cookbook? Only I made it for 15 people without trying it first. Disaster- it looks so good in the recipe, but tasted awful. It has turned me off making any more recipes from that book.

I intend to. My friend who has several APples tends to get them replaced when the tiniest thing goes wrong,and he was upgraded recently to the latest Iphone because of issues. SO although Apples tend *not* to go wrong, I intend to buy Applcare before my 1 year warrantee is up.

I loved that book!

That was the age I said "enough" to my then 2.5 yo son- I put him in bed with his older sister (she is only 17 months older) and I cant remember if he tried to come back or not, but I know they slept together for the next few years (they had a double bed mattress on the floor. Does your 2.5yo have an older sibling they can bed with to help them feel secure? When my oldest was little she slept in my bed, then next to my bed, then in a cot in the same room. But the time her brother was born, she was in an adjoining room. But she wasn't much of a problem. I think yo have 2 choices- one is to allow the behaviour and very gently transition her to independence. I think it is very natural for a 2yo to want the comfort of sleeping with her parents. But I do remember getting tired of being kicked and really needing sleep. The other choice is to be really firm and give her as much security as possible but be really firm about not letting her back into your bed. If you waffle between the two...you will continue to have her come back. SHe may not outgrow her desire to sleep with you for another year or 2.

Ds makes his own smoothies with protein powder. I buy the best quality protein powder I can, which is this one : sunwarrior.com Cottage cheese is another thing that is very high in protein and can be added to foods to raise their protein levels.

I read For Women Only and enjoyed it a lot. I am now reading Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach.

I have a completely unproven theory that the reason people are "carb sensitive" and do better with little or none (many people nowadays just dont eat any grains at all, let alone potatoes) is because we have all been brought up with such a high unhealthy carb diet- most of us would have been eaten large amounts of sugar and white flour in our younger years- that our bodies are exhausted. Type 2 diabetes is the end result of when the body kind of exhausts itself from dealing with producing so much insulin all the time. So I think that a lot of the positive results people are getting from eating such low carb is because their body was heading towards exhaustion- pre- diabetic whether or not it was shown on blood tests yet- and so not eating even brown rice or potatoes is important for some...but not because brown rice and potatoes are so bad for a healthy body. But because their body was not working optimally in the first place and taking all the stress of carbs off it helps it heal back into a more optimal state. I am not sure I am explaining it very well. I just dont agree that whole grains or starchy vegetables in moderation "should" cause so many problems for people. But they do seem to- for many people. I suspect that that is not a sign that they are generally bad foods, but more a signal that their own body was dangerously close to not being able to continue producing so much insulin. We have a tendency to demonise foods. But most foods - particularly natural foods in an unprocessed state- are not bad in and of themselves. That doesn't account for the gluten issues people have, but that is another story, another theory :) My own take on a low carb diet is....if you hate it, if it makes you feel bad..then even if it makes you lose weight, you will put it back on because you will not be able to sustain the diet as a lifestyle. And I do not believe that a low carb diet is the only way for anyone to lose weight. It is one way.

My understanding is that it "spread" from Tunisia and may spread to other middle eastern countries soon. And yes, many are trying to protest peacefully and they have very legitimate reasons. I also read that it is linked possibly to the fires in Russia that caused Russia to completely ban exports of its wheat in order to stave off starvation within its own country, and Russia provided 20% of the world's wheat exports. That means in a country like Egypt with a very large population, growing by almost a million people a year, and with such a small amount of arable land- the impact of world food prices going up is immense. That is only one factor among many.

They are beautiful! I have knitted about 1/5 of my short sleeved top from the home spun mum sent me for Christmas. I just haven't been watching TV much and thats when I tend to knit.

Dh apologised and really articulated his realisations of why I was upset. I am grateful that i could articulate it to him, because we hadn't really isolated what it was that upset me before. thanks everyone

Thanks everyone. This is by no means an isolated issue and he has got better with it over the years. He does try to compliment me more and express appreciation- but still, when he criticises the food, rather than taking responsiblity for his own extreme fussiness, I do seem to have unusually thin skin. He often talls me teh food tastes awful and tasteless because it has no salt- evne though I add plenty of salt for a normal person andhe jsut wants excessive amounts. And yes, it probably is a love language for me. It is difficult because he is vegetarian, cant/wont eat beans or lentils, and doesnt actualyl like vegetables. And lately, he's decided all the cheese he was eating isn't so good either. Then I have 2 non vegetarian kids, one with texture issues and also very fussy. I try to give them the healthiest food I can- and that they will eat. ANd then- I want to eat healthy. ANd I dont want to cook 4 separate meals, thankyou! So, an underlying issue is that dh has an expectation that I cater to his fussiness and his complaints feel manipulative- as in, this is awful dont you know I dont like ... or .....- rather than polite. I do not expect anyone to eat anything they genuinely dont like. But dh wants me to make him green smoothies- but somehow to know also what he will and wont like- this one in no way had any off ingredients in it. He doesnt want to make his own and will sulk if I leave him out in future. So there are issues. I frequently get tough and dont make him the food I make everyone else and leave him to fend for himself- but then, I LOVE to make him food too, so when I am feeling that love expecially I will go back to trying my darndest to pleasing him. Thanks Melanie- yes, I am familiar with The Work and have used it many times. I do get that it is my feelings, my hurt, my responsilibity but I do not always live up to my highest understanding. Yes- that would be simple and ideal. But he wont. And he will sulk if he sees me making them for everyone else and not him. I will probably stop making them for him, though. I do not like the waste that he will like this one but not that one and I cant tell which ones he will like. Yes, I have done that too for periods of time and it usually helps him to become much more appreciative. He used to be much worse. Lol, thanks for sharing that. I really don't want to be a martyr here, making food and feeling unappreciated. I am a reasonably good cook. Nowadays though, people really have so many food issues, its so hard to please everyone. Yes, thankyou, I do :) My dh will also insist someone put the bins out if I put something in them he does like the smell of. He used to get very upset when I cooked meat the in house but has got over that, fortunately. I woldnt mind if he didnt like smoothies- its the way he communicates. Thanks, they are good lines. I have used similar ones- sometimes i am thicker skinned and can let him know without feeling so hurt. This time I was caught by surprise at how hurt I felt. Yes, exactly. By making the smoothie "off" rather than just that he didnt like it, it felt far more personal than otherwise. Ultimately, I do know it isn't personal- its just him- but my hurt is still my hurt and I don't choose to be hurt, so I am looking at why. I do relate, thankyou! I have been thinking lately- its like me criticising his work and being ungrateful. Yes, and I am ok if he doesn't want them in general. But he wouldn't answer that- in fact he does want them- he just wants me to be able to read his mind and taste buds and make them so he likes them. I have no idea what was actually wrong with this one, so how can I do that anyway? Thanks everyone. YOu have helped me process this and see what was more specifically getting to me, and hopefully I can deal with it better without getting resentful.