I thought it might be time for this "Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."... Seriously though I'd probably just grab a needle and thread and tackle it myself...

We are setting up a schoolroom this year too. I'm excited. We had one during my couple of homeschooling years but I didn't use it much because it felt cold and shut off from everything. I suspect we will still work on the main part of the house often but I'm trying to make it cozy and nice so we want to be there. Plus just having all the stuff in one room will help keep things tidier I think.

My just turned 11 year old is like this. I am not always with him as I have two younger kids but I stay at the table the whole time. If I don't mayhem breaks out or someone gets stucksðŸ˜

No I think cake smash usually references giving baby the whole massive cake and photographing the results and I don't get it either. Just yuck... I also don't get into messy face photos. Maybe that's because clean faces seemed to be such a rare event when mine were babies!

Another water flavour option is to add a slice of lemon or a couple of mint leaves to a jug of water at the beginning of the day.

It's been a while since I read war and peace but I feel like Andre and Pierre provide such a powerful contrast to each other - one is so driven by ambition and intellect and the other is so unambitious and so driven by feeling. Ultimately Andre learns a level of calm and compassion and Pierre to be a little more stable and balanced. I often wonder with Tolstoy how he gets into the head of so many different types of people so effectively. Even quite unpleasant people's emotions and reactions are well described and understood.

In light of the sappy theme iBooks has a number of first in series romances and fiction free for the next week.

Yeah I'm the same ... I have stuff I've been meant to sell for about 5 years ...

Can you resell the booties for more than $17?

I hear you on the organisation thing. And the anxiety thing... I think doing everything when you homeschool really isn't possible. I flip between allocated timeslots and do the next thing mode. Overall timeslots works best but leaves me stressed and do the next thing helps me complete tasks but leaves me not getting to everything. I have to bake today for our church camp on the weekend. I don't have much time for it but I'll have to squish it in somewhere.

I tell the story of the boy who cried wolf to one of mine on a regular basis... In other words no answers but I feel your pain.

For those interested on the saturated fat and cholesterol thing https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2943062/ It's not real clear cut and this summarises recent advice

Combination ... The genetic and chemical makeup make the predisposition to overeat stronger and then it requires and almost impossible level of willpower to not overeat. Most scientific studies I've seen reviewed recently support this view. I know at least one person who is morbidly obese but has a great level of self control and self discipline in all other areas of life. The book "Why diets make us fat" I referenced earlier does a good job of examining the way this works.

Our local news said the winds were at 297kph! I have no idea about hurricanes thankfully but that sounds super scary. Stay safe everyone.

There are some tips on the beginning of the well educated mind on reading more efficiently I think. Isn't there an app out there that flashes the words up that is supposed to increase reading speed? We're not there yet but I worry that this will be an issue for my late reader. On the other hand I am a fast reader but tend to miss stuff. If I have to read non fiction where every word counts I tend to slow down.

Also it may be worth using a basic safety gear type mask for a couple of days. Annoying but better than ER visits.

I'm assuming they are following the usual advice of stay indoors, close windows and vents etc.? Just stating the obvious in case with all the stress it's been overlooked.

That would be hard. I think when I was in the office all day I used public transport and discovered that walking instead of using one the connecting buses worked, however I didn't have kids at the time to drain any excess energy. I did have one of those fitness balls instead of an office chair for a while.

This is my ideal but I seem to be in a bit of a slump. Yoga in the morning then some outdoor activity with the kids. Maybe Spring will help.

That's pretty motivated.

Exercising with the kids (playing backyard cricket or basketball or just bushwalking is exercise I actually enjoy). The two hours of housework is basically vacuuming mopping, grocery shopping and library and outdoor maintenance/ pet care etc. plus admin stuff for running a household. Realistically more often than I like it's catching up because I dawdled over breakfast and morning chores and didn't get that stuff done.

We did 2-3 hour days last year too and it was so much better. The house stayed sane and I felt healthier and calmer etc. this year I increased our workload academically (and we needed to) but the other stuff has messed up more. It is good to know I'm not alone I guess though I hope it gets better for you.

Believe me the two hours of housework sounds way more excessive than it is. I seriously can't reduce that. I say housework but actually it's like paying the bills, making appointments for the kids, cleaning out the chicken coop and going grocery shopping. Plus a bit of vacuuming. Realistically it is less than two hours a day because most weeks we have other stuff we are out at (appointments, gradings outings etc...) much as I'd love to cut the housework you might see us on hoarders if I do! Far too often it also includes catching up on chores I didn't get done before school because we dawdled over breakfast! I think hiit or something is what I need though as yoga is awesome but just not enough...

Apart from getting up at 5am how do you fit in fitness for yourself? This is something I really really want to sort out this year. Hypothetically I can do yoga before breakfast but realistically I don't... Because I'm not good with mornings. Ideally I'd like to do something with the kids but realistically it doesn't seem to happen. Kids are 5, 8, and 11 and school takes around four hours a day sometimes slightly longer. There is no downtime in there for me as I have three on the go so if anyone is doing independent work I'm working with someone else. I definitely can't reduce this, if anything I'd like to be doing slightly more as we aren't getting through everything. Before school in the morning we do farm and pet chores, we generally break around 11-11.30, I cook lunch and by the time I do lunch, clean up and reset washing or whatever needs doing we get back into it by 1 or 1.30 and go to 3.30. I do around 2 hours of housework most afternoons (including, groceries, cleaning, paperwork, outdoor works etc) then cook dinner, clean up from dinner, do the night time pet chores and get kids to bed and by then it's 9.30 or so. I don't want to exercise at that time of night because it wakes my brain up too much and I can't sleep. I really want to fit in some exercise and literally the only time that seems to work is really early pre 7am but I am so slow on the mornings. Sorry the post is a bit long winded but I figure adding the details of how the day goes might help a bit. I do have my time here most days which I could give up but really don't want to. Many days it's the only adult contact I have.. Edited to add that we are semi rural and I have one walking trail close to the house that we can do in about 20 minutes. It's better than nothing but not enough. Anything that involves other people is around 20 minutes drive away so not great for an already over scheduled week. I don't mind using YouTube etc for workouts, or running if I can get the time but options away from home are hard.

I wonder if the plate had been attached to another bike and they thought they found yours then realised the description didn't match.