Gah hope you feel better soon. The “worst I’ve ever felt” thing makes me suspect food poisoning as this was DHs experience with it.

Spoke to a friend who is on second time round. She’s surprised and angry that it’s just as bad as the first time. (They have various life circumstances that make avoidance pretty much impossible so I really sympathise… and feel pretty crabby with the people who knowingly took sick kids out and gave it to them)

@mommyoffive it’s great that your kids are getting so many diy skills early! My oldest two have learned a lot, but somehow my youngest is really clueless. @SKL that does sound like a lot of stress. Hope your kids cope ok with their various stuff. It’s the third day of a heatwave here and the last day of our long weekend. It’s a pity because I hoped to do a lot but the heat has made it impossible. I have mountains of quinces but the thought of standing over a hot stove is not good. We have a split system air con in half the house but it’s hot enough you almost have to sit under it to be comfortable! DH powers through pretty well. If I do much I end up with kankles and just generally feeling awful. Tomorrow is supposed to be slightly cooler thankfully. We did manage one beach evening which was lovely. I also got pulled into helping DD a tonne with homework ugh. @ScoutTN I did watch the 1992 Howards End last night which was nice. I didn’t mean to watch the whole thing because of the time but I did! Oops. Now looking forward to the podcast chat on the movie. I got sidetracked from reading the last chapters because I wanted to look up something similar in North and South and next thing found myself doing a full reread! So realistically today, I need to - do multiple checks on all animal waterers - tidy up my clothes pile mess and make sure laundry is up to date before work - get ds to watch the catchup video for his science class - try to do some vacuuming/mopping/ bathroom although I need to not overheat in the process - finish prepping resources for my volunteer Sunday school thing - if cool enough sweep the back verandas where the chickens invaded - brush the border collie

I think the thing is a certain amount of stupidity is probably what got us here to this point in history. Steam engines blew up regularly, power generation historically was horribly unsafe. At some point in history someone decided to sit on the back of a wild animal and take their chances I guess. It seems equally nuts to me that two drivers are willing to hurtle towards each other at 100kph separated by a tiny white line and trust the other driver isn’t going to plough into them. But we do it daily. If everyone was like me and only did the safe and known things progress wouldn’t happen. That said, DH’s pulled someone out the ditch last night with an open beer in the drink holder. They’re lucky to be ok but their dog is missing. So frustrating.

Hmm maybe? I watched the mini series when I had flu last year and loved it, but I haven’t watched the movie before.

Yeah, that’s why I’m doing a reread. I’m getting so much more this second time through especially with the podcast discussion

Hi 👋 I’m here today, Saturday, in Aus. Hoping it’s ok if I join intermittently. I don’t have time often in work days. @HomeAgain sorry you’re sick! I hate gastro stuff. @mom31257 that sounds like a miracle do you mind me asking what product took the dye out? We washed DHs swim shirt with DDs school uniform and the red colour ran from her uniform onto his shirt recently. We’re in autumn here but sadly the weather hasn’t realised it. We’re having the worst heatwave of the year with today being the hottest day. So goals aren’t high but hoping to get something done. We were meant to be at a tennis tournament but it was cancelled due to heat so this is bonus time. To Do Sort and catch up on laundry check chooks water and make sure they aren’t overheating Spend 20 minutes sorting my desk chaos Puree, reduce and freeze tomato sauce. Take kids to beach outing after 4pm Read next five ch of Howards End

It’s interesting. Is the right to buy as much property as you can afford with your money a basic human right? I’m not sure. There’s been many different approaches to land ownership through history. The current versions of capitalism and communism are relatively new. I sometimes wonder if communism burned out faster but capitalism is also burning out. What will we be left with? A return to some kind of feudal system? Something totally new? I know a family who are up close and personal with this right now. They have 3 weeks left on their lease and after that will be in a short term periodical basis. They have money to buy a home but houses are selling so quickly for far above asking price so they keep missing out and what’s left in their range is almost uninhabitable.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-27/apollo-bay-locals-leave-due-to-housing-shortage-childcare-crisis/103190466 This was an interesting article on a holiday town here, basically locals can no longer get housing in town during holiday periods so they’re leaving. But the holiday makers need the locals to provide services for their holidays so having them leave isn’t great for tourism.

I think maybe it’s more specifically the modern version of business with shareholders etc I mean people had houses and jobs before that, right.

It’s crazy. However oats are stil only like $3.00 a kg so we can just switch to them, or figure out how to toast our own. I don’t understand why the price has hiked so insanely lately.

From a Christian perspective I do think hoarding living space is specifically condemned ”Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land.“ ‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭5‬:‭8‬ ‭ESV‬‬ https://bible.com/bible/59/isa.5.8.ESV The OT law had the jubilee protections built in that prevented inter generational accumulation of assets beyond a certain point. Obviously that failed, as you have many people in poverty and condemnations of that in later years. But I don’t get how people who claim to have Christian values justify accumulation of endless land and property at the expense of others. On a separate note, In Australia, we actually have a tonne of empty land in rural areas. Our issue is really one distribution if people and employment not space. Then there’s tonnes of FIFO workers where the workers families continue to live in cities while the FIFO partner occupies temporary housing. Increased government investment in rural area infrastructure including decent healthcare, education and communication systems might help overcome this. Democracy doesn’t really encourage this though because you want to invest in denser living areas because there’s more votes to buy there than in rural towns.

I actually think this problem may self resolve here to some extent. I’m increasingly hearing people say they’ve had negative experiences with air BNBs and they’re going back to hotels. Mostly related to owners invading privacy etc. The cost of private long term rentals may also have increased enough that landlords will move back to that model due to being able to make a more consistent income. The housing shortage is more than just AirBNB here though. There’s definitely not enough new construction and there seems to be a shortage of quality trades to do work to keep older homes in good repair. As for the bigger picture, I have kind of given up. I feel like societies basically seem to always revert to some people aggregating all the wealth, others getting poor, then some kind of violent event resetting the balance for a while and then return to status quo. It doesn’t seem like any system entirely prevents that scenario, or at least none of the ones humans have tried so far.

I’ll be boycotting cereal in general out of a necessity soon. $19.90 for a 1kg bag of toasted muesli today! There is one store nearby that has a nice own brand version but they are constantly sold out (no wonder!) Muesli used to be a cheaper option than boxed junky cereals but it’s become more expensive for some reason.

Oh yes interesting point. DH used to get back problems with our older Subaru. Luckily it seems to be a perfect shape for me.

I’ve had two Foresters and I don’t want to drive anything else. The main issue with older ones is they’re prone to head gasket leaks, which I had with my last car and my current car has also had but was repaired by the previous owner. Oh and I had to have O2 sensors changed.

I wouldn’t cook a tonne. I’d possibly buy boxed salads or make a bulk lot of grainy salad and work my way through it. Honestly the thing that makes me feel most feminist is having been responsible for the family meals for like 20 years. Having to do all the cooking and then not even being able to make foods I like without getting complaints sucks.

Sharing is normal. It can go wrong in two ways - 1 - it’s being expressed with a tone of judgment and comparison, 2. - it’s being received with a sense of envy and comparison. In the first case the sharer ideally needs to look for the good in both parties and if not the sharee needs to get good at redirecting and deflecting the conversation. In the second, the sharer can be mindful and try not to focus too much on the sharing of all the good things and the sharee may need to identify why they’re feeling envy and if there’s any way to take some small steps toward filling unmet needs the improve their sense of personal contentment. Ie can’t take a trip but can do some day outings, can’t renovate but can buy a new decorative item, can’t study a full degree but can engage in some kind of microcredential learning or something.

This is exactly what happened in our family as well 😆

It’s so stressful I nearly collided during a lane change recently, I did a quick blind spot check but either missed them or they were going faster than the traffic flow or pulled out from somewhere.

I would be slightly nervous that he wants you to be a “mum” in helping him control his spending. I am bringing a bit of personal baggage to this discussion though so only you can know if that’s potentially applicable to your situation.

When I had mine my child health nurse gave dire warnings about the hazards of babies losing fingers by getting wrapped in handknitted blankets. I realise in hindsight that risk was somewhat exaggerated. 😂 I think try to choose patterns that are relatively close weave and I would do thread not button eyes, because no matter how secure a chewing toddler will eventually get through. Otherwise yes. I think there’s quite a trend back to hand knitted items these days and they will be loved. Neutrals and muted colours are very in.

Feeling so tired this morning. Today I need to… Drop DD to bus Refill chicken feeders Maths, grammar, spelling and history with DS Go watch DDs swimming carnival for a couple of hours. possibly drop into a book sale Buy birdseed and a plant for a friend gift put some kind of dinner together Take oldest DS to tennis possible drinks and nibbles after tennis I really just want to sleep instead

Hoping it’s nowhere near any of the Texas boardies