I understood what you meant about 5 AP classes each year. The kids are basically taking a college course load starting at 14, plus volunteering, plus sports, plus scouts, plus this, plus that. I don't think my kid will end up taking any AP exams. The local district doesn't offer a lot of choices and it's a haul to the nearest private that will allow him to sit. Between cost and hoops to jump through, we're better off with DE or CLEP when he's ready. He's working through some college level texts now, but at his own pace without the stress of a big, expensive exam hanging over him.

Hmm, doesn't look like Novavax is available anywhere near me. Is Novavax that much better than Moderna or Pfizer to warrant an hour+ trip to a bigger city for it? I've had all Moderna previously. The guys in my house have all done Pfizer.

Interesting. My teen still does not have his own phone, so we haven't had to deal with this.

Do you think this is pandemic related or did it start before the pandemic?

You'll have to let me know if you're available for a meetup in April 🙂

The only thing we made the sellers of our house remove was a hot tub on the back patio. We weren't going to use it and didn't want to deal with having it hauled away.

You're not a jerk. Your niece needs supportive family around her. Your family simply isn't able to give the kind of support she needs. That's not mean or jerky; it's just how it is.

I hate QR codes. If I have to scan a QR code to interact with your business, then I'm just not going to interact with your business at all.

Not junk! That stuff sounds cool!

Oh, I'm all about the Good Enough. There was a podcast called The Good Enough Homeschool that I really liked, lol! My own kid is HIGHLY unlikely to attend any top 100 school because we're not interested in the hoop-jumping it takes to get into those places. Kiddo and I had long talks about what life would look like if we tried for tippy-top schools vs state schools vs cc vs trade schools. He immediately ruled out anything hyper-competitive and we all breathed a sigh of relief. The "nothing in particular" bunch I mentioned has no plans for local college, community college, trade school. nothing. There are 3 families I'm thinking of specifically where the kids were educated until about 6th/8th-ish grade, and that was that. The parents felt that their own high school experience was pointless and don't think that learning, say, biology or chemistry or art has any relevance to "real life". The kids can read decently, navigate social media very well, and know enough math to make change quickly. I'm sure their parents love them. I am not sure this is a sufficient education, but I'm also not sure these families would necessarily be more engaged if the kids were in school, either.

Aw, I wish you had flown here, too! You could have watched from my house.

Yeah, we know some of these families, too. Everyone seems stressed and exhausted. Our local district let's some 9th graders take AP classes. They don't offer enough for everyone to do 5 APs every year, but they do have on campus DE. It just seems like a lot at a young age. And before anyone jumps on me, I KNOW there are highly motivated kids and this is their normal and don't hold them back blah blah blah. I just more aware of the gap between extremes.

Anecdotally, this matches what I see in fb homeschool groups. There are the people doing nothing in particular with their kids on one side, and the people pushing their kids through tons of AP and DE on the other side. I've been wondering where all the "average" high school kids went.

The only thing our sellers left behind were some paint cans and some notes from a fly-by-night "How to Make Millions in Real Estate" course. They grudgingly left the water softer behind after trying to sell it to us separately for cash. They wanted to do the same with the appliances, sell them separately for cash but keep using them until the day they moved out. We told them no; either they convey and are covered under warranty, or they don't convey and you can haul them out before closing. I don't know whether they were super cheap or having money problems, (see: notes on making money in real estate). They had to have one last propane delivery before the house sold and raised the asking price by $100 to reflect the cost of the propane. Seriously? As long as trash wasn't left behind, I would be kind of excited to look through any "treasures". I would love to buy a house with an attic full of old junk!

Woohoo! Saw the ring of fire! I wish I had the right filter for a camera to take a pic!

Yep, watching right now. My house is right on the border for 100%.

nm

Yeah, I was thinking about that area. There's a holocaust museum in Skokie, too.

Those little disposable Keurig coffee pods and all the products they've spawned to store them, (little drawers, racks, organizers) Lunchables Shopper loyalty cards. Just charge me whatever the price of the thing is without making me sign up with my email, phone number, address, blood type, retinal scan, etc. Fees. Convenience fees, swipe fees, booking fees, processing fees, handling fees, fee fi fo fum fees. Again, just charge however much it costs and stop nickel and diming me. I think it makes businesses look petty and cheap when they slap on fees that could be rolled into the product cost. Middle aged women being called "Karen" for being firm, but still polite, when trying to resolve a problem with a business. Snobbery ETA: Oh, and those little faux-news boxes that are on formerly reputable news sites. I think they're called chumbox ads. They say things like "Top Gut Doctors Are Begging Americans To Throw Out This Vegetable!" with a picture of several peeled bananas or yams. The photos always look vaguely gross or suggestive. I hate them and think that journalism started going downhill when news outlets put them on their sites. I think a lot of people assume they must be valid, real "news" if it's on a major news website.

Yeah, that's probably where the price difference comes in. My DH definitely did at least $2000 worth of swearing removing the old water heater and putting in the new one!

Did you pay to have someone install it or do it yourself? DH installed ours. It was the cheapest model available because the other options were "smart" and had apps and all kinds of features we do not need.

This! There were eleventy-billion nail holes in our walls from all the little things the previous owner hung up. I would not have considered negotiating for what is $15 in supplies and an hour, at most, of my time. Unless this is a wall that has fist sized holes or has been gouged out by damage, I would slap some spackle on it and be done. Also, what kind of water heater y'all got that costs $2500?! We just replaced ours and thought $600 was outrageous.

One thing that stunned me during the pandemic was how quickly some people I knew fell apart. Like, 2-3 weeks into lockdown, they were in a mental health crisis. And this was when we were all still under the delusion that this was a temporary blip and life would return to "normal" relatively soon. I had my own low point where I completely fell apart; I don't remember how long it took to get there. A few months? A year? Time felt really squishy then, so I really don't know. But I know it wasn't only 2 weeks. I am not saying any of the above in a snarky, "Clearly, I am better than those weaklings!" kind of way. The last few years have pushed everyone to their breaking point. I wish I could have a do-over for so many interactions where I utterly lost my 💩. And if you're a person that felt like they were on the receiving end of my meltdown, I am very much sorry. Seeing people unravel in only a few weeks was very sobering.

How do you even begin to prep for something like that? There's no way. I'll die very slowly over a period of months without my meds. DH will die a bit faster, probably.

I'm not even going to try to optimize. I'm just going to keep doing what I do: grow and store what makes sense for my family without turning into a greedy jerk. I can't get caught up in whataboutism , (what about the poor? What about the elderly? What about people who depend on meds to live? What about wildfires? What about guns? What about contaminated water? What about contaminated soil? What about the power grid? Growing food is too hard, what about that? What about ciggies and booze? What about...), because then I become paralyzed from anxiety and do nothing. Do what makes sense for you. Share resources with friends, neighbors, family when you can.