That's funny. I'm not a good tidier. But under all that stuff, the floors, tables, doors, bathroom, switches, skirtings etc etc are cleaned regularly. Friends who have helped me tidy up at various times have always been suprised at how clean my house is. I just hide it well. I've been cleaning another house recently. Major, major clean. The comment after the first day was that they didn't need the light on in the kitchen in the mornings now as it was so bright. I think they were suprised this week when I went back over the areas I had already done before continuing the slow progression through the house. Yep mad notion isn't it, bothering to 'keep' clean rather than just wait and do a major clean up. Sure would save time, even if we did need the lights on more.

It's OK, once the kids have had their Vintage Valium Cordial, they sit quietly. :laugh:

Don't forget the Belladonna, Opium and Arsenic.

I'd have to say...Those in someone else's hands.

I'd actually prefer that Doctor Johnson had NEVER written his dang DICTIONARY. Before that words did not have such fixed spellings. Shakespeare apparently signed his name with as many different spellings as I have inadvertantly used for him.

I've been both sides of this fence. I'd say give it to her, not anonymous with the letter and maybe follow up with a phone call. I was able to help out a sister who was struggling single parent before me. I received a windfall (government vote bribe/large, unexpected family payment) and got her to accept it as I did not need it and she did. Two years later she returned it, to the dollar, partly in small change as she had been saving it up. It had been given as a gift, but she insisted on returning it. By that time I was in a similar situation. I still wish she had kept it. Then at my daughter's funeral I received a couple of cards with money or a large prepaid card with notes of love. One was from a family I had not even known their names. They were given with love by people who knew a little of the situation we were in. It can be really hard learning to receive with love when we are only taught to give with love. ETA: I was posting at the same time as Julie, so..."what she said". Tell your sister she should gift you the opportunity to help.

I agree sewingmama, for some of us it is coming up to summer. My dds and neighbour kids follow their mothers' childhood histories of strippy down to saggy-arsed muddy undies in waterholes, rivers, dams and every other conceivable swimming place, however they wear long sleeved swim-shirts in outside pools or for longer swimming sessions, (lots of skin cancers around here). Her older sister occasionally wore my old bikini and looked and felt fantastic in it. Really, how can this ^ be wrong?

I'll second the Mary Anning books and add that my dd loved and learned well from the St Aiden's Homeschool, Learning about Fossils. I've linked to the currclick store where this is selling for less than $6. It says from K-7, but my dd at the upper end of that still found it good and meaty with lots of resources. http://www.currclick.com/product/29618/Im-Learning-About-Fossils?it=1 Good luck.

....

Hey Jean, coming here asking about culling books, is about like going to a pub near closing time and asking for advice on becoming tea-totaller.

'Books as Insulation', ie walls, boxes and flat surfaces. Yeah it can get a bit excessive.

I was just about to say the same. The church IS her people. (Big families can need some structure to thrive. Or any family really.)

Roasted peanuts with their papery shells, still mostly on, harder shells off and lots of salt. So with the paper skins, peanuts and lots of salt....you need to keep drinking beer. (It's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.) Actually we generally go with chips for beer-o'clock. But not bar-beer-nuts, which carry the additional flavouring of patron's unwashed 'toilet' hands.

Yep, I also had a melt-down kid. You learn to deal with them under the cone-of-invisibility. You just deal with them and cut out the others around you, because trying to take in to account your embarrassment or trying not to offend others just does not work. Thankfully we had exceptional people around us as support very often (if we were out of the house). (I guess in retrospect, if they were not exceptional they would not have coped with us as friends. We've been very lucky.) I remember one of her first public biggies as a pre-schooler/ toddler, one of our playgroup friends said afterwards that they were just interested in seeing when her head would start spinning around. They continued all her life. We learned to either stand back and let it burn out, or push her outside and lock the door until she burned out. Any form of negotiation or interaction was futile. However bratty, "Give me what I want or I'll throw a tanty", behaviour I have no patience with and my kids are fine with that and learned early that it does not work. As if I would want to reward and encourage tantrums!

Not just boys. Just saying. My youngest will never be as bad as her sister was, but... We were staying with my sister and when I asked her (dd, not my sister) to shower her response was "But I had one recently!" Not yesterday, or even the day before, mind you, but 'recently' just the same. My sister cracked up.

OK, another great one-sided conversation, so I'll be a resurrectionist and add it to this thread. Dd's just brought in a red back spider in a small specimen pot and by the look of it wants to engage in 'Spider Wars'. "Mum, who will kill who if I put this fellow in with that one?" (The Hunt's Man in his jar; one of those big, hairy, scary looking, but fairly harmless Aussie spiders). I'm hoping the referee won't take a hit. I'd better intervene soon I guess. "Mum how do you spell venom?" DD "Oh....Where has it gone this time?" While she hunts on the floor Me: "What?" DD: "Oh, nothing deadly."

Generally under and amongst other books, particularly ex-library books we've bought. Sometimes under or behind the bed and/or under clothes. I really would not recommend this. ETA: This is why we try to avoid libraries, we were spening too much in fines while we were trying to locate the wayward items.

I'm fairly slack with read a louds as both dds are/were avid and rapid readers, but we've done a couple more recently. Chocky, John Wyndham and now A Wrinkle in Time. We need a new battery for lights so as we are resticted to a shared torch, we climb into my bed and read to each other in the evenings. DD is proud that she's learning to s l o w d o w n a bit and not race and is increasing her verbal vocab with words she normal just sees written. I'm also loving being read to but find myself dozing off, much to dd's annoyance. I'll replace the battery today but will try to keep this shared reading as we are loving it.

I don't know if this will help you at all, but I sent my defiant, non-compliant, sick 16 yo dd to live with her dad for a couple/few months. She was on borrowed time and wanted to help her dad come to terms with it too. She realised it had to be then or not. I still saw her regularly but had to stand back and watch him NOT take care of her and organise hospital admissions etc. She needed steady, strong encouragement to come home again as she got really unwell, but in her own time was happy to. She later told me that she had been offered $3000 by her interstate, paternal grandfather to not come home. He couldn't understand that she would refuse all that money to come home and have her mum and look after her in her last months. She came home much less cranky and I expected much less of her, so for us, emotionally, her time with her dad was good. But bloody, bloody hard and long. Another thing is to expect a major meltdown once he is back and SAFE and doesn't need to keep on guard. Sort of a welcome home gift for you. Eldest dd would hold it together during the day during her first year of school (Grade 5) and meltdown as soon as she set her foot outside the school gate. Yes I am presuming he will come home. Your family is home, but this other family is his too and he needs to feel a part of them.

It's following a great tradition. Didn't Setonious repeat the saying of Julius Ceasar being " Every woman's husband and every man's wife." Young Julius had also been teased about being the 'wife' of another man. Not an exact quote I know. It's a while since I read it. Love Setonious,, he does not mince his words.

Wow, you thew me Jean. I had to check the date, yes it IS still Thursday. Thanks for that. Today dd and I managed to lift a 3m x 3 m shed onto a little trailer (via long poles). then a friend came over and helped me reposition it outside our shed/shack and then we turned and moved the caravan. (Lots of back fro-ing around trees, rocks and sheds.) Then we had a couple of beers and enjoyed the absolutely STUNNING sunset. Computer battery went flat so it is now over 12 hours later... So I still missed posting on Thursday. So be it. It was a good one. Today is another good one. Another stunning sunrise during my coffee, fire lit, light frost observed, sheep redirected and school work already begun.

If you are brave, come and look.

From Wiki...red is mine..." Alternative positions Column shifter in a Ford Crown Victoria. Also known as "On the Tree" and if an old three geared car, this would be Three-on-the-tree. Gear sticks are most commonly found between the front seats of the vehicle, either on the center console (sometimes even quite far up on the dashboard), the transmission tunnel, or directly on the floor. Some vehicles have a column shift where the lever is mounted on the steering column—this arrangement was once almost standard practice in the United States until relatively recently, which had the added benefit of allowing for a full width bench-type front seat (though some models with bucket seating as an option include it). It has since fallen out of favor, although it can still be found widely on US-market pick-up trucks, vans, emergency vehicles..." If the stick change is on the floor, and a four geared car, then this would be Four-on-the-floor. Makes perfect sense. Sort of. In an Australian way. Clear as mud?

Then of course your manual is either "on the floor" or "on the tree" (steering column). As in old holden utes being "three on the tree" (from memory) or others being "four on the floor".

Thanks. I knew you guys would get it.