Last time D told me to pick up whatever I wanted, I sent him a picture of whole char grilled fish from the filipino market where I was shopping. He clarified that he would like a hamburger. Thank you. It;s good to be back

Yes. I adopted a cat for my cat when I was a single girl working a million hours and he was just all alone after living with my parnets and thier cat. I felt like he needed the company. If you go through Petfinder, you can search for a cat who gets along with both other cats and dogs. Many rescue organizations use foster families who really get to know the pets well and will be able to advise you on the right pet for your situation.

Aw thank you! we're doing well. I updated my signature with what the kiddos are doing now. I'm taking the summer off in AZ while my kids do theater camp. Then we'll go back to Vegas where I work at an indoor dog park and doggie daycare/boarding. I have a few projects I'm launching including a homeschool podcast. I'll add a link when I get the first few episodes out.

I don't wear it in braids very much anymore. It's thinner, curlier, and layered now. I generally wear it up. When/if it grows to my waist again, I might start braiding it again.

A zombie thread brought me back to WTM. I got an email that someone had given me their opinion on whether I should stop braiding my hair 7 years ago. I scrolled this one to see what my answer was. No one asks me this anymore because the kids have been cooking while I worked full time. Today I'm preparing to start actually schooling my kiddos again. They have been working on thier own. So this zombie awakening is timely for me. These days my kids are just glad I'm here and cooking for them again.

We left Sagg here and moved away. He apologized for the state of the house. He's so happy to have us back. His housekeeping has not improved since we've been back.

I hope so. I'm trying not to invest too much in running this house, as we're all moving and it will just be standing empty for at least 6 months. It needs to be fully replumbed and refloored before we can move back in or rent it out. But it feels like every day there are more things we need here. I am SO glad we did it. It took 18 months, and we will be paying it off for a few more years-our only debt- but we easily save $100 a month and we can use as much AC as we like. A huge bonus here. The house we're renting in NV is larger, vaulted ceilings, gas fire place, not wood, no solar. The utilities are nightmarish.

Hey yall! I hope you don't mind me joining in. We are currently maintaining two households and it is $$$$. I'm cutting back our spending starting today. We're only here in AZ until end of July and then we're all moving back to Vegas with D. I'll go back to work part time and we'll continue trying to make ends meet there. Luckily, we have lots of free/cheap resources here. Free activities for kids, cheaper food options, free lunch for kids.

This is such a good explanation of this phrase. It does bother me when people claim god's favor based on their own successes and luck. It feels arrogant. But this description ( and you r following posts) bring it much closer to my own ideas of destiny and karma. Karma doesn't care. It doesn't love or hate. it just is. No matter how you feel about it.

I use that phrase as a Buddhist, because I'm not aware of nonchristian equivalent of receiving fate's favor ( this one time) when it could have just as easily been me. I especially like to whip this out when it feels like the conversation leans in the direction of victim blaming. There unfortunately are people (Christian or not) who believe that we get *exactly* what we deserve and that if tragedy befalls you or yours it because of some error on your part. This leads to a lot of blame and suspicion that no matter how good and perfect a victim of tragedy appears, they must surely have some ugly, dark secret sins that earned them this outcome. It's a horrible view of the world.

There is always, always at least one pair of underwear on the floor. Probably in the living room. Could belong to anyone. Usually clean (thank goodness).

I'm thinking I'll go to JBs this afternoon and pick up a pie. Or, if I don't make it that far, I'll see if the little grocery in town has one. My middle three are at day camp this week and next. D is down with a sinus infection and bronchitis. Luna is destroying everything she can get close to. I'm getting over a stomach bug. We brought germs back from our trip to Cali this weekend. We're generally in survival mode around here. No family friends growing up. My parents were really close with my dad's family. We are furnishing our house. We will probably not do it again for a lot of years, if ever. I'm getting into subscription boxes. I've tried a few already. Maybe today I'll be signing up for groceries, snacks, bath products, tea, and maybe some things for my kids. What camp are you going to?

You can be private about it, but still take necessary measures. Buying condoms, talking to your partner and speaking to your medical provider are all necessary to a safe and healthy sex life.

I thought so, but I wasn't sure. How confident are you in the diagnosis? Have you had a full physical with your primary care recently?

I knew someone with this problem. It was polyps. She suffered with it for a long time. A minor surgery took care of it.

Are you seeing an ophthalmologist? I agree with PPs that it is time to look at other possible causes.

I used it with my first two. Yes. it is 100% no prep, open and go. Super easy. It is intended for very young children. k-2. We don't do original writing at such a young age and I didn't realize that it was a bit too young for them. But I did love the method for new writers. There is a similar book for older children, but I didn't get it and made No More! I'm done work for us.

Three of mine have had long hair off and on. All three are growing it out again now. One has thin, straight hair and will probably keep bangs shorter in the front. He is gelling the bangs to the side. We use Gorilla Snot. It really sticky and flexible, made for children. If he wants to grow out the front, he will continue gelling it like this as long as he needs. He generally wears it in a long bowl/surfer style. Next one has medium thick, straight hair. His is shaved on the sides, long on top. We use the same gel and style it either to the side or straight back. The third has thin, curly hair. It has gone pretty flat on top and we can't get it to curl much. We had it cut short, but we are growing to let it all grow, just trimming the bangs. It should grow into a curly surfer style.

We just got home from vacation, so it's a short week for us. Tonight we brought home 5 kinds of Tijuana-style street tacos Tortellini in tomato cream sauce Linguine with mussels Lentil shepherds pie ( I see someone else is making this too. Mine is much more plain) spaghetti with sausage and tomato

I didn't care when we bought our last house. We had no friends, undesirable neighbors, and extremely limited opportunities for our children. This time we chose much more carefully. This town is extremely modest, even run down. But people are kind and welcoming, children are plentiful, and opportunities abound.

All righty. Taking the day off?

For our small house, to produce 125% of our power usage, using no battery and receiving credits for power, we are paying approximately $20k. Our monthly payments are about half of our current usage. The panels are installed, but not working yet. It has been over a year and a huge pitb. We did get a free panel upgrade out of it. The price depends on the number of panels, and I'm sure other factors. We pretty much maxed out our house. We have a small foot print,a nearly flat roof, and our house faces a funny angle so we get direct sun all day. The solar guys were excited when they saw the house because it's ideal ? Most of the houses around us are similar and have panels. We just had a new roof put on the house, so that was done. Whether it's worthwhile depends on how much production you can get and how much you are currently paying. The winter residents might have one or 2 panels, while we have a BUNCH. We're in Arizona, where the one thing we have plenty of is sun. Panels are super profitable here.

White sheer curtains, and a white-multicolor fleece blanket on the bed. They are washable. I put white paper blinds in the little kids room. I don't know how, but they are doing great.

Celery, I was called a troll in my first couple of posts, too. I had to get used to the style of posting ( LOTS of background info is required) and I started with some controversial posts about religion because I was having negative experiences being a religious minority. I jumped right in to see if I would be scolded, banned, or deleted again. So maybe I was trolling a little, but that wasn't my intention. Trolling is intentionally stirring up trouble, often through deception. Posing as something you aren't to get people fired up. IMO this board is quick to distrust newcomers. I agree with above poster that a teen night is a good start to pull people together. We live in a tiny town. (actually outside of town). My teen has tried a lot of different social events in our town, other towns, and the city an hour away. He has decided that the town teen night is the one thing he wants to stick with. All of the other kids go to school together. He doesn't mind being the outsider. Once you build a bit of a community wither among other home schoolers or in your geographic area, you can find the other things you are looking for. You might into clubs offered at the local high schools, or the public libraries if your homeschool community is small.

Ooh. That does look nice. Especially the bulk teas. There is a place down here that is similar. I haven't been in a while. I might pop by this weekend.