I don’t have any advice but really hope you’re able to find what you need. Sunshine helps me some. It won’t fix things but if you’re not getting any and you can it can’t hurt while you’re working on the other more critical stuff.

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/1-5-us-retail-milk-samples-test-positive-h5n1-avian-flu-fragments 1 in 5 US milk samples is testing positive for h5n1 fragments. I feel like this is not a huge issue and won’t be infectious, but it does indicate how widespread the disease is. If I had someone in my life who was super dependent on a milk based product (e.g. baby formula) I think I would try to have some extra stock in hand in case of supply disruptions, after seeing how Covid impacted things.

Wow that’s not so good!

https://www.mamamia.com.au/how-to-wear-double-denim/ it’s a thing!

My DS injured his thumb when we were away on holidays and it got quite swollen. If we’d been home I would have taken him to get it looked at but it was complicated at the time and the swelling seemed to go down so we did nothing. Fast forward six months and we realised he couldn’t give a thumbs up properly on that side because thumb won’t fully straighten. Eventually it did with a kind of popping sound every time - so it’s possible it’s trigger thumb not injury related but I feel horribly guilty for not checking it at the time.

Is it? Double denim seems to be a fashion trend semi-regularly. And you look great in it.

This makes me think of the Lumosity game

I don’t really limit screen time but she seems to be in a hole as far as having any games or movies she wants to do. Thankfully she’s got into painting so yay!

That’s funny because that’s exactly what we did! Thanks for reminding me that it’s ok to be bored. He has Lego, snap circuits, nerf. He had a friend over for two days, went to a friend’s yesterday, had one tennis lesson, church, and we did an art class. But yeah… I do feel like I’ve never quite figured out any teen friendly outdoor stuff for here. Most farm kids get into motor bikes etc but mine don’t seem that interested. (Oldest has outgrown it and youngest is scared of it which is fine).

Dd went to school for the first time this year. It’s now holidays and she’s had three days of friend catch ups, a couple of shopping trips etc and today is pretty much the first day we’ve totally stayed home. She wanted to go out and shop and drop some resumes but I asked if we could delay it until Friday because I just want one day at home to clean and catch up on jobs. We don’t have public transport so if I don’t take my kids places they are stuck at home. We do have a farm and pets but it feels like they’ve really outgrown that stuff. Ds has been on Minecraft too much and is now taking an enforced screen break. He’s also bored (he’s still homeschooling). Oldest is still working as he’s in the last year of school and needs to. I feel like everyone here is in a kind of holding pattern… just passing time. I need some ideas for keeping teens busy and engaged with life and need to figure out what I’m doing with myself next. DD does have stuff on every day of the rest of the holidays. She doesn’t really want to play any sports except horse riding which is out of the budget or football which doesn’t work because training is on my work night and matches are on during church. I find it hard to figure out what to do with her. When I was her age I just read books or played with the dog if I was bored. My mom died early in my teens. I think because of that those years were kind of a blur. Plus we didn’t do typical stuff anyway due to religion etc. so I feel kind of clueless about what to do or how to get the kids engaged with something meaningful.

It sounds trite but sometimes yoga helps me turn off the tap for a bit… Do you think you’re dealing with intrusive thoughts or just an overly busy brain?

I think this kind of thing is quite common at this age… kids see other kids do stuff that’s a bit out there or unexpected and get positive attention and laughs for it, so then they want to try it themselves but don’t understand what behaviour is a little bit funny or quirky and what’s a solid boundary. And context matters a lot. One of my tutor kids got in trouble for something like this recently. She did get a couple of days of reflection but because it was atypical behaviour for her and they were able to discuss and she understood why it was wrong and apologised it didn’t go further than that. She does have a diagnosis though which helps.

Thanks for sharing, much love to her and her family

😞 praying

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-16/nsw-sydney-church-stabbing-police-and-paramedics/103729960

ABC is reporting that he was very outspoken about anti lockdown, anti vaccination, anti Covid measures. It makes more sense that his supporters were willing to attack police and seek vigilante style justice. (Not saying all of his followers are like that but if there were enough in the crowd it makes sense) Paramedics were trapped in the building unable to leave for several hours. I’m tired of every kind of extremism right now!!

I’m not familiar either just seen a few random comments about different stuff he’s said that may not even be correct! They don’t line up consistently. Maybe he’s just a really outspoken person 🙂 Im just trying to understand where the whole mob mentality thing came from last night. The only other time we’ve had that kind of riot with police recently that I remember was during Covid

Police are calling it a possible terrorist attack A lot of people were very keyed up over the previous stabbing believing it was terrorism related and blaming immigration etc. when it turned out that was a no they were kind of deflated - I wonder if that’s why so much anger/riot today?

The whole thing seems pretty weird. It seems like this preacher was somewhat controversial/political? The mob behaviour is worrying and police officers cars have been injured/trashed. I can’t really make sense of the information coming out about it.

So I did do a bit of reading and it does look like that for merino wool it is still a very common practice. I’m surprised because no one in our area does it. However they are mostly smaller scale farms, perhaps it’s more common on the larger stations where the risk of a sheep not being found for several days is higher. (And death of fly strike is horrible… tail docking is like vaccination to my mind - short term pain for long term prevention). It looks like 85pc of farms do use some kind of pain relief. CSIRO are working on a vaccination option and farmers are opting for sheep bred to minimise the issues as much as possible. (Even farmers who don’t care about their animals well being will adopt stuff like this just due to cost savings etc).

I don’t know who edits but I literally know no one who does this

Yes. But I don’t think she posts here anymore 😞 I did think of her…

Also just a heads up for anyone still on X or with kids who use it it’s probably best avoided for now 😞

Feeling horrified about this… stabbing in a shopping centre at Bondi Junction, five people dead. I don’t think any of our current Australian boardies are in Sydney… but feeling for all those involved.

I don’t know if it’s exactly horror but maybe Flannery O’Connor?