My favorite: Badger sunscreen lip balm

I hope you get rid of it quickly!

What a terrible doctor! This reminds me of a time when I chaperoned my dd's class for a field trip. Dd was fine when I left her at school after the field trip, but an hour later she spiked a fever and had terrible pain. I took her right to the doctor because the pain was so severe and it was an ear infection. She was 100% fine until she was miserable.

I thought it was a fairly widespread approach, so I'm not surprised that the USA has found some way to reduce the expense of parenthood. It's interesting that the USA does it as tax credits -- Does that mean lower deductions off every paycheck (more per month) or a bigger tax refund (once per year)? Are the credits 'worth more' to people in higher tax brackets than lower ones? I suppose that parents who don't make enough money to pay significant taxes get other low-income targeted benefits of some kind? I wonder what the pros and cons are for making it a tax-reduction strategy over a direct benefit strategy. (Just general curiosity -- no need to answer if you don't know off the top of your head.)

I hope it passes soon and easily!

I loved this when we were in Canada. However, practically speaking, there were tax credits when we moved to the states that weren’t there in Canada that ended up amounting to the same amount of money. I had been concerned about the loss of the supplements and that we’d have less money, but it really was quite equal.

Oh, ouch. So sorry you’re going through that right now. Hoping it passes easily and soon!

I've had lots (and lots) of kidney stones over my lifetime, but I really need to get rid of the current one quickly. DH and I are taking a mini-road trip tomorrow and I have to go; it isn't optional. I'm really not looking forward to a long drive with this thing still inside. I have hope that the end is in sight (worsening discomfort and blood in my pee). Please pray / send good thoughts that it will come out soon. My last one was massive so I am a bit nervous. Thank you, friends.❤️

All packed. Grabbing a nice salad at Chopt before I head out. It’s hot outside!

What must be done will be done. All of a sudden, certain news outlets will shut up about "invasions" and start running stories about how immigrants have revitalized X area or X industry. We could fix the problem pretty much instantaneously if we attached criminal penalties to employers who fail to use E-verify, and yet we don't. There's a reason business likes unfettered illegal immigration and the wage suppression it brings. If it becomes too politically volatile a topic, we'll see a "solution" and it will drop out of the news. I'm really cynical about this particular issue. I think a lot of ethnic groups are going to be subsumed into "whiteness" just like the Irish and Italians and Jews and Poles were. Isabel Wilkerson's book, Caste, is a thoughtful reflection on this tendency. I wish that we could just include everyone and maybe the Zoomers and Alphas will do better than we did. This remains to be seen. I think it's important to distinguish between overall growth and per capita growth. I don't think we're necessarily headed to a drop in per capita growth. Realistically, we have to reduce human population. We're stressing the planet's ability to carry us. We can do this the easy way with a drop in birth rates or we can do this the hard way with a new Black Death. I'm actually impressed with our innate ability to regulate our birth rate in accordance with our environment. Malthus really was wrong!

Don’t beat yourself up over it. I took my three year old to pediatrician the day she complained about her ear and woke up with fever. She had had a mild cold, but seemed normal and energetic in days prior to ear issue discovery. She ran, climbed and did normal tot activities. The pediatrician we saw that day jumped onto me and said there was no way she had just came down with the infection and was quite intimidating , just stopping short of accusing me of neglect. Never returned to their practice again. That ear infection was only one she ever had.

No, I like Julia Marie. https://www.juliamarielopez.com. She is so sweet and encouraging.

I never asked for or wanted a stuffed animal as a child (or adult) because they were not realistic enough in appearance for me. That was probably an early indicator of my neurodivergence. As a parent, I did buy my children nice resin models of animals from museum shops, but if the various species were not in proportion to each other, I would do an internal eye roll. Of course, I bought them all the stuffed animals they wanted as both children and adults.

My go-to… Burt’s Bees Overnight Intensive Lip Treatment I use it during the day when I’m super dry. It obviously won’t last well through eating and drinking, but stays on for hours if not. DD’s favorite: Dr. Dan’s Cortibalm (oops, does have petroleum jelly)

I got you: https://okeeffescompany.com/products/lip-repair-unscented Edited to add: some of those ingredients are clearly petroleum-related, but it's not a straight petroleum jelly product.

DYS is going to Mathpath in July. That leaves us not much room to do anything else. One item on the agenda is to work towards qualifying for USAJMO until the AMCs. As a middle schooler, missed AIME last 2 years by a couple of points. We are not Math majors so can't help much. I know there are experienced members so looking for some advice on 2 questions - 1. What topics/courses in MathPath will help prepare for USAJMO? It seems the courses are not yet decided but I was thinking there must be some courses offered every year. 2. Since we have only half of June and half of August in summer and a couple of months until the AMCs, what steps/courses to take to qualify for USAJMO? We have heard of WOOT, EGMO, alphastar but have no experience personally.

In Canada (my country) the parents of children have been entitled (since the 2nd world war) to a program of monthly payments to help offset the cost of being parents. The amount of these payments (from token to significant) and their ties to various things (such as parents' incomes, the ages of the children) and who qualifies has varied widely based on who was in charge of the country and what their priorities are. This is a pretty standard governmental response to declining birth rates in cases where a declining birth rate is deemed detrimental to the country, and when the optics of such an offer look good politically. Shockingly "throw cash at the problem" has been a very effective solution historically! The chances of Canada increasing child payments as children become increasingly unaffordable (and potential parents become increasingly unwilling) is really quite high. They are likely to just bump the numbers until the birth rate lands where they want it. What are the chances of a program like that in the USA? They also quietly tweak immigration numbers -- but I doubt that would fly right now for you guys.

Yep. Aquaphor, especially at bedtime, is my solution. I think it works best at night because you're not talking, eating/drinking, licking your lips, or otherwise doing things that remove it quickly. That's also why I don't think anything used during the day will last for hours.

I like Palmer's Cocoa Butter. But I agree that it's not going to last for hours. How is the air in your house? Dry air will dry your lips and skin.

I agree! My first thought was Vaseline, too, but she said "no petrolatum." Honestly, I don't think anything else will work as well for her in terms of both effectiveness and longevity.

She's definitely at the age where she is aware of the fact that most people don't take medication for mental health related issues, so it's something we're trying to manage. I've been in therapy since she was first diagnosed just to help learn coping skills and manage the ups and downs. It's been extremely helpful and medication has also been presented as an option with no strong recommendation for it. For the most part, I've managed fairly well so it hasn't felt like a necessity. But it is something which I have considered and haven't ruled out. At points I've felt mild depression and anxiety resulting from the stress of the last years.

I use my face moisturizer at bed time and cover it with Vaseline and my lips are fine by morning and air lasts all day. I’ll often just cover my whole face in the Vaseline after putting my moisturizer on. I think it’s called slugging now but I’ve been doing it longer than the kids have had a name for it.

Demographics in the US will change for sure. Gen Alpha is the first generation in which white children are not in the majority. Of the new the many millenials and Gen Z folks that I know, very very few intend on having children. Some of the GenZ males in this group have already had that taken care of permanently. It is hard to tell how GenAlpha will think about child rearing, but given they are a very traumatized generation from pandemic schooling to constant school shootings and bomb threats, my guess is they may be rather against having children to put through more of the same. It seems like leadership only lives in the here and now, and that is definitely the way big business behaves so I don't think any true, long-term planning has occurred. We still have a school district in my county whose high school student body is 52. The graduating class this year is 8. How are they even keeping the doors open and still offering the full Michigan Merit Curriculum. I don't get it. That district borders 3 other districts all of whom have much better educational outcomes. Why hasn't the state divided these students among those districts, and closed up, and saved the huge cost of running the district? Michigan has to give them a startlingly huge amount of money above the per head funding and property taxes in order to keep it going. These are the types of issues that must be addressed going forward.

After much agonizing about the pros and cons of Clemson vs UA-Huntsville, kid decided on Clemson this week. While we are excited to see kid go to our alma mater, I get the hesitancy - we felt really good about UAH after our visit and it can be hard to make a decision when you are choosing between 2 good options. But, 2 of my college roommates stayed in the Clemson area and are excited that we'll maybe be down a bit more often. So, now for the mad rush to get signed up for housing and find a roommate. Housing should be no problem - there is apparently plenty of space in honors housing - but they encourage students to sign up with a roommate. And we have to figure out a quick advising appt to see if it makes sense for kid to take an online class this summer. But, it's nice to have a decision made. Our co--op had a grad ceremony last night and I was happy that kid could finally answer the Where are you going? question.

@marbel just google Wrangler jackets or Levi’s jackets and lots of denim on denim photos would appear including same color denims 🙂 e.g. https://www.wrangler.com/shop/womens-wrangler-retro-sherpa-lined-western-denim-jacket-LWJ320.html https://www.wrangler.com/shop/womens-girlfriend-denim-jacket-in-nashville-112343568.html?merchCategory=WRG_WOMEN_OUTERWEAR https://www.wrangler.com/shop/womens-wrangler-memory-maker-jacket-in-carbon-112324957.html https://www.levi.com/US/en_US/clothing/women/outerwear/original-trucker-jacket/p/299450070 https://www.levi.com/US/en_US/clothing/women/outerwear/sherpa/original-sherpa-trucker-jacket/p/361360000