If the shelves are able to slide out, then defrosting won't be a problem, but if they're built in, then defrosting might be easier with wire shelves. If it has drawers, then the wire is sturdier than plastic.

Thank you for this article! My 16yo daughter was diagnosed yesterday. I'm on a very steep learning curve and this does explain a lot.

If my girls do choose to homeschool their future children, they'll make their own decisions on what to use. I expect that we'll downsize long before that happens, so there won't be much storage space for stuff. I've kept one smallish container of favourite picture books and two of early readers and children's books - for sentiment's sake. All of our curriculum have been donated or sold, but I do still have two containers of South African children's fiction that I just can't get myself to get rid of yet. Many are out of print and I scoured 2nd hand shops for years. They're not in our way yet, so I'm hanging on to them.

Congratulations! May you have many happy years in the new house.

When I'm organised I make frittata ahead of time - usually with onion, spinach, tomatoe, mushrooms I sometimes add bacon or leftover meat or chicken. I sprinkle cheese on top. When I'm not so organised I have Greek yoghurt with frozen berries and mixed seeds, Seed crackers with cheese, or keto bread and cheese or cold meat.

A cleaning service?

The groom is from the USA and the wedding was in South Africa, the bride's country. The couple will be moving to the US. Because of Covid his family and friends from the US could not attend and the majority of the guests were close friends of many years of the bride's family. We wanted to know what we could give them and the mother of the bride did the asking. It worked like this. They printed the experiences to choose from on a card. The guests ticked the box for the experience they were contributing towards, wrote a message (if they wanted) and signed their name/s on the card. This went into the 'donation' box separately from the envelopes with money, so that it wasn't an embarrassing thing about how much money anyone chose to contribute. Obviously, more than one guest could choose the same experience, then they'd both receive a photograph of the couple doing that thing (they had ziplining, a trip up the cable car, dinner at a nice restaurant, a visit to a wildlife sanctuary, and a few more).

My friend's daughter got married a month ago. The couple will be flying out to live overseas in a few week's time and planning to take only their suitcases with clothes. It was a Covid wedding, so less than 50 people that the family knows well. We were all asked to put cash into an anonymous envelope and into a box to donate towards their honeymoon. They had cards with a list of the activities they were planning and the guest was asked to choose one that they were donating towards - the couple sent a photograph of themselves doing the activity to the guest.

Absolutely support Spy Car - get a three-legged South African potjie (pronounced "poy-key"). My father's #3 is more than 50 years old and still going strong. Our favourite was french fries while camping! It needs to be oiled before putting it away.

I don't know what you're dealing with, but that might just be what your family needs right now. My view is always that maths, reading and writing are skills that build year on year, so do need consistent practice - the rest is jam - especially in primary school. So, streamline your schooling to focus on those basics only - and then spend the family time together. Also think of how you are folding learning into the day. Especially for your younger children, reading stories together is part of language practice, discussing a movie is narration, etc.

As far as the dirt track racing. I can imagine it being a very time consuming thing. I have a friend who's son did quad-bike racing. I'm not sure how he got into it as she's a single mom. She supported him, financially and by transporting him to the race venues, but found it impossible to watch - mainly because of the anxiety of him getting hurt. She overcame that by getting involved with the race administration. She could sit at a table in the race tent and be away from the action. She also started a photography hobby. Really focusing on the details. The camera gave her the distance from the action that she required and she was eventually taking pictures for a race magazine. So, what I'm trying to say is if your daughter does go with him to show support, is to not expect to actually enjoy watching the action, but maybe she can find something else to do and still enjoy the experience.

This ^^ I'm a big fan of psychotherapist Esther Perel. She often speaks about finding 'the One' as in this video https://estherperel.com/blog/finding-the-one. The expectations for one person to fill our emotional, physical, and spiritual needs is a tall order. Television and film has a lot to do with these raised expectations. We see the perfect love-story, perfectly scripted, where the characters say just the right things to each other (in soft lighting and to a beautiful sound-track) and live happily ever-after. And we completely forget to be cynical. We forget that the writers sat for days getting that script just right. What she says is that instead of looking for a person who checks all the boxes, focus on a person with whom you can imagine yourself writing a story with. And there are no perfect stories. We edit and re-write and perfect. That is what life and marriage is about. Everybody has issues and imperfections, you just have to decide if they're the kind of issues and imperfections you are willing to live with. So yes, focus on character and how he treats you. Is he kind? Is he considerate? How does he react to frustration? Those are the things that are not going to change easily.

We live in an eco-estate with natural bush around our house. We've had prolonged summer rains and the snakes have been above ground more often - where our cat can find them and bring them into the house!! Its happened three times this summer! However small and non-venomous they may be, its NO fun!

Our local night market finally started up again last Friday. Met a friend and we sat outside for a coffee. It was great! I am meeting a dear friend for a walk in the botanical garden next weekend.

My sister in the UK is a midwife and worked for an agency that did home births, but unfortunately they had to close due to insurance issues. The scenarios I like best is where she would sit outside the door or around the corner from the birthing mom. She'd be listening for the mom's breathing and movements and respond when she thought it was appropriate, but mostly keep herself out of the way. That seems like a good compromise to me.

I collected out of print South African children's books for many years and I can't get myself to sell those. We used only a fraction of what we own in our homeschool. I've kept small bins of beloved picture books and early reading books, but the rest of the children's books and curriculum have all been sold now. Dh has Lego and other construction sets that his mom kept from his childhood. As long as they're in his closet I'm OK with that. We don't have a garage, basement or attic, so storage space is limited to what can fit into closets and shelves. They do get overly stuffed at times, but it has limited what we can keep. There's a small under-stairs outside room for gardening stuff and the kids have a small shed for their horse-riding bins.

This was my thought too when I saw the thread title - even before knowing their ages.

My mother was born in 1943 in Rotterdam. She had just turned a year old during the hunger winter of 1944-45. My grandfather used to tell us how he road for km's on his rope-tyre bicycle to find 'brown beans', the only food he could consistently source for her to eat. She disliked anything with beans in it as an adult!

I did not know the term 'toxic positivity' and had to google. Something to be mindful of and avoid definitely. Yes, it sometimes does just suck. You are not alone Jenny.

There might be something in this letter by Esther Perel that resonates? https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-grief-summit-tickets-139778915499 She has a list of book recommendations too.

I don't have any recommendations, but just wanted to say that I'm sorry that you have to deal with this.

Thank you for voicing the concerns with this particular game. I wasn't able to articulate why it was making me feel uncomfortable.

I would imagine the slides visible when the veil is up, as she will only really be wearing it down while walking down the aisle.

It wasn't really forced. Some people chose not to fill it in. I like the idea of a recipe. .

We attended a beautiful garden wedding yesterday. The men wore chino pants and white shirts, so no flowers or hankies. The bride did not wear a veil. She had simple flowers in her hair. The skirt of her dress was long and flowing at the back though. If the bride does want a veil, she will typically wear it throughout the service, but remove it for the reception.