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Why should they know that?

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Oh yikes. Yeah, none of my family would do well in an environment like that. I went to junior high school in an "open air" school, and it was really noisy all the time. The teachers did not teach as "teams" when I was there, but I think that might have been the original vision for the building. Like, "here's this big, hippy-dippy space for everyone to mingle and learn and be free". By the time I got to that school, that plan was abandoned, and cubicle walls were put in to try to give everyone separate space. It was still super noisy, though.

My parents did not talk about money. Any time I asked, they'd tell me it was none of my business, but they'd also get mad if I spent "too much money" on something or when the electric bill was "too high". It's hard to know what "too much" and "too high" are when you have no context of a budget or what a normal bill should look like. So yes, they did influence my financial life, but in a negative way. I had to learn how to budget the hard way; by getting in over my head and correcting the problem. I have no idea if my parents are good or bad with money, because they still refuse to discuss it and say it's "none of my business". They could be sitting on millions or near broke; I have no idea. I hope it all works out for them. 🤷‍♂️ I do talk to my son about money and show him what our bills are, so he's not blindsided by this stuff as a young adult. This is what our water bill costs, this is what we spend on groceries, this is what we spend on car insurance, etc. We talk about how we need to take care of our "needs" first, and then we can spend money on "wants". He knows I use coupons to save money, but we also talk about how sometimes buying the more expensive item is the better deal, because it will last longer than the cheap item.

The local religious schools are all charging around $5k a year. There are a few church-specific private schools that go through grade 12, but you have to be a member of the church to attend. There's a small Christian school here that charges about $3k a year, but I was really not impressed by anything they were offering academically. The Catholic school's program looked pretty solid when I looked into it, but they only go through grade 8. If you wanted Catholic high school, you'd have to drive into San Antonio and pay $10K+ a year. $10K a year isn't terrible for San Antonio, but $5k a year would be rough for the average family here.

Not enough desks for everyone by design? Can I ask why? 100 kids per room? Is that high school level? Or are you talking about university kids? I think the only time we ever had that many kids in a class (US public k-12) was band, choir, or orchestra. Academic classes were somewhere around 20-25 kids a class.

Oh gosh, I'd be happy to have my grandparents over for dinner. My son and my grandfather would have been SUCH good friends. Any combination of my great grandparents would be incredible, too. I wish I could meet the mother of the grandpa I mentioned above. She died she he was 16, and it hit him hard. He said she was a loving, kind, and sweet mother. I would also love to meet my great great grandfather. He was a motorman in Brooklyn in the early 1900s. I have read a few of the letters he sent back to family in Germany, and he sounds like the nicest guy and had a great sense of humor. He really loved his wife and kids, and after working so hard through a lot of financial troubles, they were finally on good footing when he suddenly died. 😞 I attached a picture of him with the family. It is one of my favorite pictures. The little girl standing up is my great grandma! Really, any combination of grandparents, great-grandparents, gr gr grandparents. I have so many questions for them.

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No wise words to solve this from me. I'm currently still irked because my husband breezed into the office last night and asked "Is there any particular reason you do irritating-but-inconsequential-thing? Because I've noticed that you always do irritating-but-inconsequential-thing". I was nice, and did not respond with my first thought, which was "Probably for the same reasons you do other-irritating-but-inconsequential-things". I am glad my husband is home, but also tired of how he sometimes adopts this King of the Castle attitude. Like, you do things that annoy me too, dude. I let a lot of it go, because it's not worth arguing about, but please stop acting like you have a birth-right entitlement to not be irritated by your housemates.

I have a whole closet full of stuff I need to list on ebay, and I just can't find the motivation to do it. My husband said something kind of selfish yesterday, and it REALLY made me mad. I can't find the words right now to calmly explain why he made me mad. I don't want to fight. So instead, I am ignoring the selfish thing he said. Or at least, trying to. 😕

I don't know if it helps, but *I* care that you are falling apart. ❤️ If you want an internet pen pal, I would be so glad to write and check in with you. No pressure if the answer is no! The offer is there if you want it. ❤️ Hang in there!

Yep. Our social network exploded in a pretty dramatic way. If I'm honest, I knew that was likely to happen when the first case of Covid hit our state. I went to an event in March, right before lockdown (I knew lockdown was likely coming within a few days. Instead, it happened within hours of arriving at the event), and thought "We probably won't ever see these people again". It's a long story, but I've realized that I view the world in a fundamentally different way than they do. I'm mostly sad for my kid, because he's lost friendships as a result of this. I feel like I failed him in a way. You aren't alone. ❤️

Do you have a link for the cardboard shredder? I didn't know such a thing existed. For the cardboard packaging you compost, does it have any kind of printing on it? Or is it just plain, brown cardboard? I didn't know that reusable coffee filters were a thing. I will try to find a brand that fits the iced tea maker. I have a reusable cup for my Keurig. We don't have a lot of veggie wastes to compost because it all goes to my chickens. We cut way down on paper towel use just by taking the kitchen towels and putting them in a basket next to the sink.

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Yes, you canget another shot. The shot from November is a different strain of flu. You're insurance won't care.

Wow, "someone" is a real piece of doo doo for doing that.

Oh, I forgot to add that I suspect we will become a one-car family in the future, (at least, we will if I have my way). DH is really resistant to this idea and insists that after we move, we'll "need" a truck. We don't "need" a truck. We're not hauling anything. We don't have livestock or giant dogs or farm supplies that need to be transported. If he's working remotely and I'm homeschooling, then why do we need 2 cars? We don't, and we certainly don't "need" a truck. Ugh.

A long time source of inspiration for me as been The Prudent Homemaker. Her blog is always positive and calm. I started getting back into couponing and built up a stockpile right before the pandemic hit. I've done my best to maintain it over the last few months, and streamlined my coupon system so that I shop fewer stores. I also started shopping for a few things at Dollar Tree, and buy a 6 month supply at a time, (dental floss, fluoride rinse, toothbrushes). I discovered that I do not like gardening in Texas (too many stinging, biting bugs, extreme weather), so we started growing things hydroponically indoors. I think it's working out pretty well. We had a few missteps in the beginning, but results have been encouraging. We actually have fresh things to eat! That's pretty exciting. There are only 3 in my family, so I've had to think carefully about what things make sense to DIY and what things are better left to buy at the store. Some things make sense for a large family to do, but not so much for a smaller family. We have gotten take-out three times since March, (sandwiches one time, and I got fries at McDonalds for kiddo 2 times). That's it. I have lost my taste for restaurant food. I've learned how to meal plan and streamline my shopping list. My husband has become less picky, which helps. Prior to the pandemic, cooking for him really stressed me out. I have been thinking more about how much packaging and plastic is coming into the house, and then going out. I'm trying to make more eco-friendly choices at the store without making myself crazy in the process.

When DS was a wee one, I'd say "I would, but you know, the baby....so...". Got me out of all kinds of things!

This has bothered me for years. I started noticing these shady, tabloid type ads on sites like CNN and the weather channel several years ago, and wondered why the heck they'd want to associate themselves with that sort of nonsense. Now it's everywhere. "America's Top GI Doctor Says 'I beg all Americans to throw out this vegetable now!'", and then there's a weird, unfocused picture of something that may or may not be a vegetable. Ugh. Apparently, this type of advertising is called a "chumbox".

You might like an Aerogarden. I decided that outdoor gardening was not for me, (at least not in this part of Texas, where it's either 105 or it's monsooning, and no in between). I got an Aerogarden for my birthday and it's about where my level of gardening is: I add water and nutrients and set a timer, and bam! I have more Thai and Genovese basil than I know what to do with. We've also done well growing microgreens and pea shoots inside. I'm trying some hydroponic lettuce now, too. I tried bell peppers, but didn't have luck getting them to produce fruit. I'll have to try again another time.

Sheets weekly. Blankets are washed a few times a year, or after anyone has been ill. I sometimes take the pillows and blankets and stuff them in the dryer for a while on the "sanitize" cycle, to kill off any dust mites between washes. We have 2 cats and a dog. The dog sleeps in a crate and has his own blankets that get washed whenever they are smelly. The cats sleep at the foot of the bed sometimes but seem to prefer other napping spots.

It's entirely more likely that the 12 year old is just a weird 12 year old, and not a cyber bully or partner in sex trafficking. I'm not sure I agree it's wrong for OP to ask where the kid lived. You can ask, but as I said before, the kid being dodgy in their answers doesn't mean he's up to no good. I have a kid that if you asked him where he lived, he'd probably start off with where we lived 2 moves ago and after a rather convoluted conversation path, he'd eventually get to "...and now I live at 1313 Mockingbird Lane". That's assuming he didn't finish with "...but where I live now is none of your business". Seriously, most 12 year old boys are not good conversationalists. Does no one remember how squirrely all the kids were in middle school, lol?

He might have been dodgy with answers because you are an authority figure asking him what he's doing, and he's trying to avoid getting into trouble. I would have been vague about details, too, if I was a kid in that situation. "Uh, I did a thing I'm not supposed to do and now there's an adult sternly asking me where I live and why am I here? Lie, lie, lie..." It was inappropriate for him to record, but not necessarily nefarious.