Recently dh and I received a Christian-authored book. It is so good. I belong to a women's group and thought I'd purchase a book for each of the women. Knowing that sometimes there is a bulk discount (although 12 is a mini bulk lol), I asked and our church said they are complimentary, or I can make a donation. They don't care. The book retails for $14.99, I think. Knowing the above, what price would you recommend I purchase the book at x 12? Thanks!

Ceylon Cinnamon is a small, evergreen tree native to Sri Lanka. I have used Cassia cinnamon for years and do not know how I just learned about Ceylon cinnamon in 2022 or 2023! I've ditched the cassia (except to maybe put the stick in tea). Will not buy cassia again. Started buying Ceylon and it's so much better because it's considered to be the "true" cinnamon. I bought a grinder for whole coffee beans and spices. I've been happily grinding the ceylon quills into powder! I use it now in my baked goods, yogurt, cereal and so much more! Question- 1. How on earth do you wash ceylon? The back of the package says to wash before use and I never have. Have you seen how the quills are harvested? You Tube it. Interesting. But, once when I wiped the quills with water only, they disintegrate. It's like baking with parchment paper and if heated to a certain point, the paper just crumbles as you ball it up to throw away.

Rigidity isn't necessarily around "having to be there". I pay for the time slot whether I use it or not. I'm paying for their availability. So, maybe we "miss" a week because dd had a medical appointment---but that instructor had scheduled their life to be there, and still has all of their prep and administrative stuff to do regardless of whether my kid could be there or not. I respect their time and expertise, and I pay for it. We just aren't always there to take advantage of that. Life happens. If they offered me a makeup, great, but I don't expect that (and I don't receive it, fwiw). Speech therapy is a bit different because it's billed to a third party, generally. You physically have to be there. We did years of therapy---and the policy your speech therapist had seems absolutely ridiculous. It's no wonder people left. FWIW, as far as medical versus activities go---I generally have a policy that I try to schedule all medical for certain days and leave at least two days a week open for "life". The only times we haven't been able to do that have been during radiation and daily chemo, which, understandably, you've got to be there every dang day. Even then, we picked a time slot where we could fit in a bit of life around it. Medical is what keeps life going....but a few "life" activities have always been prioritized over medical in terms of time slots.

Ever since covid, I have a strict don't-come-if-you-are-sick policy. And guess what, I quit getting sick all the time. If a kid is sick, I make up the lessons online at the same time slot (either with them at school or at home but both online away from me). If they show up sick, or with 'allergies', I make a stink about it, and then we both wear masks and I open all the windows and we put jackets on. They don't usually do it a second time. I make space for 1 very sick, cancels-all-the-time student each year (migraines, leukemia, etc), but I only can do this for 1 student because it is just too hard to have constant moving around kids. I know you are in music, so clearly not as easy as for me in math, but my older boy does online music lessons, so I know it can work, just not as good. The goal is to say you canNOT come sick (no exceptions), but then to make the make-up option not great, so they only use it if they are actually sick. If a kid is *really* sick, I will organize with the kid directly to make-up when they are better. In contrast, I have flexible policy for school trips/sports/work/medical appointments. If you give me 3 days notice, I will switch you into an open slot. The kids work directly with me by text to do this. Some kids move a lot, others never. But if they all give me 3 days notice, then I know about open slots.

@Eos My country of origin legal drinking age is 18. I’m not even pretty but people (including acquaintances) would still buy me drinks when I was in college. Makes me wonder if your daughter’s roommate is so drunk because she is very social and people are plying her with drinks. I do know people who sent their kids to college just to get that paper qualification. I also know people who sent their kids to college to see if their kids want to migrate/relocate there.

My 2 kids are 7 yrs apart. They are not close bu5 it has way more to do with their individual personalities that it does age difference. Also, being close in age does not mean that they will be close emotionally either as kids or adults,and I could give you more personal examples of this, so I would not think having another kids just for that reason is a good reason. If you want another kid, then that is great, but I wouldn’t do it with any expectations on future relationships.

Bible/Character: Bible Study Guide for All Ages, Foundations Worldview, Manners Made Easy, learn a new hymn once a month Language Arts: Hake Grammar, IEW, All About Spelling, Vocabulary Virtuoso, lots of reading Math: Saxon 6/5 History: Heritage Studies 5 Science: The Good & The Beautiful - Health/Physical Body, Health/Human Mind, and Safety courses PE: swimming, speed walks on the treadmill for 15 minutes a day, some days she's willing to join me in my workouts Other: Keyboarding without Tears, weekly craft projects with her little siblings, baking

WHO is attempting to redefine terminology for pathogens that transmit through the air: getting rid of the old "droplet" vs "airborne" IPAC categories, and replacing them with new terminology based on how infectious particles actually behave, rather than based on particle size. Also an attempt to standardize terminology across academic disciplines. This is long overdue. WHO Global Technical Consultation Report on Proposed Terminology for Pathogens that Transmit Through the Air CBC News summary, with some context.

It’s interesting to me how many of you are or have instructors with draconian policies who make exceptions. We were late to start music lessons because I took all the posted draconian rules and gospel and figured we’d hate the experience. ETA: “as gospel” We are exactly the people that need some flexibility but do not abuse it, but it would never occur to me to bother calling a studio that posted strict rules, so that colors my earlier feedback. Eventually we found the right teacher, but it was via friendship. My kids NEEDED music lessons but rigid policies wouldn’t have worked. And side note…we did speech therapy with a provider that had fairly predatory practices, but it was the only place offering this kind of therapy; it was rigid beyond rigidity, and she did a lot of unethical stuff with employees. Many finally left. We were not allowed to have holidays and vacations at all. We were expected to be there 52 weeks per year for years at a time (multiple kids for multiple appointments per week). We had to build in ways to flake for sanity’s sake (and we still hardly ever missed). We liberally took snow days because this was really the only excuse they found acceptable other than illness, and we didn’t get sick (and we only used snow days a couple of times—liberal means I could drive safely in the weather but I knew many local people could not, so I played the safety card). So, rigidity can bite both ways. If they had allowed a week off now and then, they could’ve filled some of those slots instead of having last minute cancellations—they ALWAYS had people wanting to get extra sessions in.

I think a stricter no-show/cancellation policy with virtual lessons for sick kids would be a great option if you were able to offer that. Every now and then a kid might be so sick they can't even do their lesson virtually, but I feel like a lot of the time when I've had to skip a lesson for a sick kid it was more for a runny nose or a low-grade fever that was mostly under control (i.e. the kid could still do stuff, it just hadn't been 24 hrs since it was higher) or even a kid who threw up a couple hours ago but is feeling better now. It is easier though, I have to say, to feel like I can send my guitar student to a lesson mildly sick b/c he can wear a mask. Not so much for my flute student. 😄 Make-up lessons are great but at least for my family they are so hard to schedule...we are packed with different things on different days, and I would much rather just get it over with virtually. But I'd even be fine skipping a lesson and still paying for it every now and then, which maybe most families wouldn't be ok with. I have a certain amount budgeted per month for lessons, and if I have a sick kid and we miss a lesson...the money is already allocated, it's just to me "one of those things" that happens. But I am probably in the minority - the teachers seem to usually encourage finding a make up time.

Seconding @freesia. Curriculum is a tool. It should not control what you do. Kids change. They accelerate. They stall. They develop interests. There is no such thing as a great option all the way through graduation bc pre-packaged curriculum is designed for the mythological avg student with avg criteria defined by the designer or the state. Homeschooling CAN be so much more. (Unfortunately, the current trend amg homeschoolers is not to take advantage of homeschooling but instead simply turn it into school at home checking off the exact same boxes as every other classroom educator.) In terms of MP, they are brick and mortar education packaged for the home. I personally do not believe that public schools represent a quality education, so I wouldn't want to replicate that at home. (My kids graduate from high school having never filled out a single worksheet. 🙂 ) Sonlight's approach is a good one for "teaching" one how to create courses as a teacher. Reading lots of great books, teaching writing across subject matter....that approach is easy to adjust to individual reading levels and interests. It opens up a world of opportunities for learning just about anything they want to learn and there is no ceiling to content. (Textbooks are limiting. The information is preselected by a textbook committee, taught in completely synthesized snippets, and then typically regurgitated in workbook form.) Sonlight is step up from a workbook approach.

This was a thing for me. As long as I was in charge of what was offered to them, there was a reasonable balance between them eating what I chose, and me cooking what they liked. But with various outside influences, they discovered that they could reject what was cooked and still get fed - so they did this more and more often. It impacted the dance for sure. Rather than try to be perfect about nutrition, I focused more on food variety and physical activity. I also started giving them vitamins, but they started refusing those at some point too. I always knew they'd come back to eating healthily on their own, eventually, just like I did as a young adult. 😛 Now, my teens are choosing on their own to make improvements in their diets. It's a bit clumsy, but they'll figure it out.

We loved Sonlight, but always did Rod & Staff grammar and IEW writing. But the books were wonderful and my kids are still readers!!

One thing I would consider is how is the McChicken and fries being eaten? Is it eaten in the car (along with a soda to drink)? This is a very different experience than sitting at a table for a meal. If a family is accustomed to the taste of fast food and intimidated (or overwhelmed) by cooking, a transition can be stopping at the fast food establishment and getting a large nugget order (and perhaps fries)--you have to look at the menu and determine whether this is cheaper than getting kids meals but often it will be. Then, take that home and put it on the table for everyone to share family style. Supplement this with a jar of applesauce, a can of peas, carrot sticks, or whatever is available. Drink water or milk with the meal. You can even have ice cream or some other "treat" for dessert. But, this is getting people in the habit of sitting at a table, talking to each other, and trying a variety of foods. After a while, it becomes more and more obvious how much time the "quick stop at the drive-through" is taking and how much that is costing.

We don't have a large age gap, but I sometimes have wished we had one more kid, because DS12 has virtually nothing in common with DS15 - they have the worst time finding anything to do together. DS15 would be so happy to spend all his free time alone, reading, drawing, or doing other individual pursuits. DS12 wants to be with other people all the time! He and DS17 are really close (it's a 4.5 year gap), and DS12 will be so sad when DS17 leaves for college. As it is, DS17 is super busy and doesn't have much time to hang out with DS12 any more. 😞 DS12 really treasures the time they do have together. DS15 would have been happy to be an only, or a younger kid with a large age gap to older siblings... So I think you really never know how the sibling relationships will play out or how well a particular kid will do without close siblings. The way it has worked out is that DS12 and I end up doing more things together - playing board games, going places. He is also my only one homeschooled right now, which makes a difference. But I think even if he weren't homeschool or the others were still at home, he and I would still on the weekends be doing things together while older siblings and DH are busy.

LOL if this person knew you in college and you've stayed on visiting terms ever since then I expect the person can roll with it.

Yeah, nobody said it wasn't dementia, I just said autism was another possibility, which could explain why she decided to walk away shortly after a move to a new facility, and why it might be a temporary problem rather than her needing to be in permanent lockup as suggessted by another poster. You felt it necessary to tell me you know more about autism than I do and autistic people can talk (based on the ASD people you know). I would not have posted again if you didn't feel the need to respond that way. And now I'm back because you felt the need to complain about my factual posts. Bye now.

I honestly don't want a side-gig as a kitten foster mom. I'm too busy and stressed out as it is. But...here we are.

She's not a bobcat. 🤣 She's small, but not as small as Screech. We're trying to teach her to drink from a bottle, but she misses her mom.

Nope! Of my kids, the ones with the 10 year gap between them get along personality wise much better than the kids with a much smaller age gap. My youngest kid has not been lonely much. There have been a couple of times a few years ago when she wanted someone to play dolls with her, but mostly she's become an expert at video games and often convinces her siblings to play with her when they are around. She's gotten a lot of extra time from me compared to the Middles, and is living the sweet life of Youngest where her parents are well broken in and have realistic expectations about behaviors and capabilities. In a few years you are about to hit tween moodiness, kids needing braces and wisdom teeth removal, much higher social demands, etc. You are about to be very, very busy and money is going to start flying out the window pretty steadily for the next 20 years (based on your spacing + college expenses). Tweens and toddlers are much the same, but I had no desire to sign up for another round of it.

For me, when I was transitioning to cooking more at home, it was a lot easier to start with junky foods I knew my kids would eat, and that helped me get into the routine of buying groceries and cooking and cleaning the kitchen. Once I had those things as a habit or at least something where I knew how long things would take and how hard (or easy) it would be, I did start to branch out. I always had a few things like oatmeal, eggs, and a goulash I knew how to make in a crock pot. But for everything outside of my comfort zone, it helped to have a lot of the kitchen stuff going and then transition to making different foods. Edit: shopping, having the kitchen be clean, and doing dishes were really hurdles to me, on top of wanting to know my kids would eat what I made. Adding on a vegetable or a main with a side option, so there were starting to be healthy things too, but not like “here it’s all healthy, deal with it,” was better for me also. Also adding things like apple slices with peanut butter, or a vegetable with ranch dressing, were fairly easy to add and likely to be low stakes.

If you go this route, document it because if she responds, there will be fewer symptoms to report to the doctor. For most people with heavy duty histamine or MCAS issues, Allegra is the drug of choice, and it can take multiple doses per day—don’t do multiple doses without a doctor, but don’t assume it’s not helping with one dose, if that makes sense. With GI issues, Pepcid is definitely a good place to start. GI issues can be very weird to describe also. Does she have a migraine history? Not everyone gets headaches, and some people have more pronounced prodrome and postdrome—I used to not have significant symptoms except during the headache, but I sure do now. Taking magnesium even when I don’t think I need it has helped a ton with all kinds of things that I didn’t know were related, including muscle pain (I already took some mag, so if I wasn’t having twitching, I assumed it was as good as it gets. Nope!).

Well, I am the baby of my FOO by 2 years. And I have never, ever gotten along well with my sister who is 2 years older than me. In fact, we are now estranged and have been for years. Really, I am convinced that age gaps between siblings play very little role in whether or not they will get along. IMO, personality and family dynamics play a much larger role.

This. Not having strict boundaries = a notable subsection of the populace will not respect you or your time.

We eat eggs a lot here. It's quick, low carb, and it can be switched up flavor-wise by a lot of different things. Even at $4/dozen, I can usually feed my family of 6 for under $6 if I toss in leftover meats and veg into it and add some clementines or something as a side.