You have to be above the 90th percentile of earners before the credits start to phase out--about $200,000 per year for singles and $400,000 for a married couple. This means that the overwhelming majority of parents do benefit from child tax credits.

Another aspect of the change is the reduced percentage of individuals in the younger age groups. There should be good aspects to this. For example: Criminal behaviors tend to decrease with age. More mature people seem to buy fewer frivolous things and switch to more sensible purchases. People retiring while still needing goods and services should mean a better job market for younger folks.

big hugs and prayers for both of you. You are an amazing advocate for your family. Hang in there!

Mary Kay has a product https://www.marykay.com/en-us/products/skincare/product/targeted-solutions/mary-kay-extra-emollient-night-cream-100407 My mom used to use it on us when we got badly chapped. However I think it might be noticeable if you were wearing it out in public. I have no idea what it is made of

Praying for you, Mercy! I wish you wouldn't keep getting those horrible things!!! 😞

People who make more money get less or zero child tax credits. People whose income (after deductions and exemptions) results in less tax than the child tax credit will get a check from Uncle Sam. (How much of the credit is "refundable" is apparently changing lately, but at least some of it still is.) There are LOTS of other ways that the government subsidizes low income families. To the extent that some part-time employees refuse to work full-time because they'd end up with less money after losing their low-income benefits.

I just settled in to read the latest edition of the Economist that came with today's mail. If anyone else subscribes, there's an article called "Emptying and fuming" p. 15-17 on how America is shrinking in places. Notably: *between 2010-2020, half of the country's counties lost population (p. 15)--this appears to be a rural emptying population shift to metros *In 2008, we fell below natural replacement rate for our population, the current reproduction rate is 1.67 (p. 15) *net immigration has been falling since the 1990s (p. 15) *community shrink creates cascading problems--housing values fall, tax base falls (affects schools and local infrastructure funding), and the tax base in the shrinking community must rise to continue to provide services (costs remain, they are just more per capita), and businesses leave as people supporting those businesses leave (p. 16)

I agree that you should apply and then decide later. I can see positives and negatives from either choice. I know the frustration of having an opposite schedule from DH, but I also know the frustration of trying to take care of elderly parents while working as a public school teacher.

@mindinggaps I'm so pleased to hear that you are at a place of stability. I agree with others that this is a marathon, and there will have bumps and turns and adjustments. I may have mentioned this in previous posts, so apologies if I'm repeating myself, but for my daughter, understanding the basics of the physiology of the condition (and the action of the SSRI) was really helpful for med acceptance. I wish all of you all the best. It's such a journey. Please feel free to PM anytime if you want to chat/vent/brainstorm/debrief etc. 🌻

home - tutored my Friday kids - 1 session left, and we are done! before I went, I was able to sort the pantry party stuff and make a shopping list, *and* go through my "end of year goodie bags" stuff and make that list; while out, I stopped and got everything on the list except 2 items I couldn't find, so will order bought the bday gift - a fun looking craft kit that will make both kid & grown-ups happy had the lunch w/the mom friend about how to wrap up the year w/her 8th grader - she already had 1 of the books I was going to suggest, and had another that wasn't on my radar, but is a good choice, so she's halfway there and feeling more confident; lunch was nice, too Have most of the stacks of stuff put where they belong for school, minus the ones that need paper cutting, bc while I was doing that earlier, DH was on a meeting on Teams, so need to finish that up and *that* will be done which leaves, I think, just ironing the letters onto the quilt.....

I don't know if this link will come through, but this is very recent (calvin klein ad using very popular trendsetter in his 20s). Though this is a guy, young females will buy up all the clothes these guys model, and the styles are pretty much unisex.

I assume you’re drinking ridiculous amounts of water? I hope it passes any time now!

Is it just me, or did the color of the ribbon at the top of the forum change?

You're so helpful, thank you. This sounds dumb, but how does a person go about finding someone appropriate if they don't really know what they need? I've zero idea where to start, or what I'd say. Um....I'm depressed like most people?

Thank you very much for the feedback! I thought it was interesting as well, but I didn't want to be looking at it only through "mom eyes." He's worked on varied sentence structure and interesting writing on a sentence level quite a bit, and I do think that is being incorporated into this report, so that's a big positive. However, it was like pulling teeth to get a report of 5 paragraphs completed. He required a lot of scaffolding and assistance, both in encouraging him to come up with ideas and organizing his ideas into a outline. The entire process took quite a bit longer than planned for in the book. The planning, researching, and writing time all included a great deal of complaining and saying that he didn't know what to do and just hates writing. Ugh! I have never looked into Writing With Skill, but I will take a look. Thank you for the recommendation!

Then my work is done here.

EMDR? I'm not anti medication--starting Lexapro literally saved me from the edge. But a year later I'm still drowning, so I'm willing to do uncomfortable things to get to the other side. This is untenable.

I continued rereading the Trader's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series and have now finished Half Share, Full Share, Double Share, and Captain's Share. I enjoyed revisiting them all. /// Regards, Kareni

Something about this job is pulling at your heartstrings. I firmly believe things that are meant for us come together. There is no downside to applying.

I think they are saying hers is migraine, but she had so many problematic and quirky things, and I think she’s too busy/stressed to pursue it. I would not be surprised if anxiety is in their back pocket though.

This seems like an important question. Also, how would your dh feel about the move? In general, I agree with applying now and seeing what happens. There aren’t any guarantees that a job will be open in another year.

I was going to say that when my lips are horribly dry, this takes care of it. They make a lip balm, but I've just used the stuff they make for nursing moms. Otherwise, EOS lip balm.

Same!

Hope it’s gone quickly, and your trip is comfortable.

To be honest, I have never found a lot of real help from therapy. I’ve had real help from a close friend who is a pastor, who has walked beside me in crisis. But drugs were life changing. And honestly, EMDR was life changing. Despite hating the therapist and never having to talk about the issues and only having like five sessions.