It might be possible to persuade management of that over time, once you're established in the job and know your colleagues and also when they've assessed your work ethic and commitment. My team started working from home during Covid and we will continue to work from home 80% of the time going forward, but I have a new start beginning next month and I and another team member will be going into the office every day for at least a month to guide her and make sure she is settled. It is much easier face-to-face than trying to do on the job training over Teams.

Great news Dawn!!

It sounds like a fun opportunity! All the best.

They're lovely! Congratulations!

There are many elderly in my country (South Africa) who's children have emigrated, so they don't have their day to day help. They rely on their friends and the community and then go into assisted living facilities.

Congratulations!! You're an inspiration and absolutely deserve to celebrate as much as you possibly can!!!

I know of only one other South African boardie over the years - maybe there are more lurking?

Thank you Susan for making these boards possible! They have enriched my life in so many ways, not just for our children's homeschooling journey, which is also now finished, but also through the wonderful discussions and different points of view I've been able to read over the years.

I joined the old boards in about 2003 - before we started homeschooling. I even managed to be the first on the board flip once or twice! A major achievement at the time LOL! My oldest daughter was homeschooled all the way and is 21 now and in her third year at university. I was always more of a lurker than an active participant, but have been reading a few times a week for all these years! ETA: We would not have successfully homeschooled without the WTM and these boards. There was so little information available in South Africa 15+ years ago and I new one other homeschooler in our area. All of the insight and information and confidence that it was possible came from these boards. Thank you!!

So sorry to hear that Kidshappen. Would it help writing this down for the doctor to read instead of just telling her?

It is a beautiful dress!

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.