It's still a mess. The mess just seems to get redistributed to different sections of highway.

I interpreted the comment about "setting a precendent" to mean that grandpa has a tendency to take advantage of favors, so op wants to proceed with caution. I could be wrong.

I usually hang my pants back up, but sometimes fold them and put them on a shelf in my closet.

Not reasonable for the ages of these kids. If FIL is worried, he either needs to adjust his schedule or drop MIL off with you, a friend, etc. What is FIL needing to do out of town for 3 days that MIL can't come along? Medical stuff for FIL? Or is it hobby activities? Important appointments I am willing to work with, but "Have your kids babysit grandma while I toodle around with my friends" gets a hard no.

Respond with something general and small-talk-ish "Have a safe trip! Enjoy Boston!". It doesn't sound like she has actually invited you to see them, so I would ignore any hints of expectation that you should drive to Boston. What is the worst that happens if you don't take the bait and bring your family to Boston to be treated rudely by her? Don't build up the idea of "Grandma" to your son, because that will lead to disappointment. I have downplayed the role of Grandma with my son. My mother estranged herself from the family, but pops up once a year at Christmas. My son knows that my mother is alive, lives in Florida, and has a hard time being nice to people, so she decided to go be grumpy by herself in Florida. I told him it's a shame, because she is really smart and has a good sense of humor when she chooses to use it, but there isn't anything I can do until she decides to stop being grumpy. You control the narrative. Not your mother.

Yes, be prepared for this. Been there, done that with my father on Christmas Eve several years ago. It was a sucker punch.

We don't do co-ops. I am all for outside activities as long as they have nothing to do with academics. Co-ops almost always feel like some one else's idea of "The Perfect School". My son is an only child and we live out in the sticks, so if we didn't do outside activities, we would never talk to other kids. That being said... I won't drive all over the place, all day, everyday. I know of a lot of families that spend hours in the car every day, and I don't have the patience for that. I don't know how they get any schoolwork or housework done. Foreign language? Eh. We are fiddling around with Latin. If he wants to learn more than that, we will have to outsource it. I hope he opts for ASL.

I have a bruise & knot above my ankle from 2 years ago. I was excited because it started getting a tiny bit smaller a few months ago, but that seems to have stopped. Bodies are weird. 🤷‍♂️

Unfortunately, no. He's been talking with HR people and the manager of the team in NJ. So, at least there is conversation happening, rather than the silence he got before. He's told them the compensation he is expecting, and while it gave HR pause, it did not shut down the conversation, which is good. I've done COL comparisons, and I know the number that HR needs to meet or beat to make this move feasible. He's feeling upbeat, so it was a good time to tell him "Oh by the way, my car needs a new clutch". 🙄

Put every thing you don't want to move into the sale. If the priority is generating cash, advertise that the last X hours of the sale will be "Fill a bag for $5", (you provide the bags to buyers). People will happily buy all sorts of nonsense because "It's only $5! Just put it in the bag!".

Yes, it's a weird place to be, here in I-Have-No-Answers Land. I feel really stressed out right now. And DH keeps wanting to show me houses on zillow, and I do not want to look at houses at this point! It feels very cart-before-the-horse. We have to sell this house first and that will take about 5 or 6 months because we are rural. The house across the street just sold; 157 days on market). The house next door sold last year, almost 6 months exactly on the market. Just...ugh. We got McDonald's before Chess Club today because we got there 25 minutes early and I needed something to pass the time.

Thank you, @mommyoffive. It will all work out ok in the end. DH and I have very different ways of working through problems, so he's equally frustrated with me. But it will end up ok. Dinner was pretty good, too. I'm glad I didn't get take out!

So, the job interview was a bust. Sort of. I don't know. This was for a new position within DH's current company. He made it through multiple rounds of interviews and passed them all, but HR dragged their feet for so long that in the mean time, the company decided to reorganize the available positions and "move" them to a different division. This other division is in a different state, 1800 miles away. While I'd like living there, I'm not sure we can afford that move right now. We had talked about moving out of here before DS11 started "high school" (kiddo is in 5th grade), but I thought that was more like an 18-24month away plan, not a "So maybe we're putting the house on the market in a month" type plan. I'm really annoyed, and the details I'm getting from DH are fuzzy. He's breezily saying things like "It's just logistics", except that all those "logistics" will be left for me to sort out, because that's how the "logistics" of us buying this house went. Now DH is mad at me for not being excited about his "Maybe we're moving, maybe we're not" scenario and says I'm not being supportive of him. I am digging really, really deep to find some patience and positivity. I'm going to go rage-clean for awhile. On the plus side, I did not fall for the temptation to say "heck with it", and get take out tonight. So this is day 8 that we've eaten at home.

The waiting is killing me.

Try "woven leather button" or "domed woven button" or "domed wood woven button". An eBay search turned up many options.

We are doing a "No Eating Out" challenge for January. My goal is to not eat any meals or snacks out, period. I am also doing a less structured challenge of "Let's drive a whole lot less, m'kay?" I was changing some settings on my Gmail and saw that location tracking was turned on. Well, no wonder I am tired, frazzled, and eating take out. We are running around far more than I realized. So less driving means less spent in gas and fast food. I am hoping DH hears this week about a job he interviewed for. This process has taken forever. I swear it is the job interview that never ends. If he gets the job, he has the option of remote work, which means we can start looking into moving out of state. The reasons that brought us to Texas no longer apply, so we are thinking deeply about where we want to go next.

BACON! 😄 🥓

Oh wow! Your inlaws were...colorful people.

I have often lived in the past, and felt so sad and nostalgic because of it. I"m doing better with that, however. I look back on past years with the kiddo or times from my youth, and instead of feeling longing, I feel appreciation for those good times. I can't go back and experience them again, and that's ok. Trying to recreate some moment from the past only cheapens it somehow. For the first time ever, I'm completely ok with my past, present, and future.

I think that any activity or recreational item that requires use-reminders and cajoling from mom needs to go. Maybe tell everyone that you noticed the pool table isn't getting used much, so if by X date you don't notice an increase in usage, it will be put up for sale. Give it 6 months and see what happens.

We don't really have a tradition. We stay in and kind of noodle around all night. Snacks, puzzles, games. DH is cleaning a closet right now, lol!

Try not to fret. Your daughter will not be the same person at 13 that she is at 7. She'll have new interests that may or may not have anything to do with academics, and she will find friends there. I think it is very common for people to not emphasize academics for early elementary, (and there is a lot of research that says for many kids, it's better to wait).

Kiddo said to me today "What day is it? I have no idea what day it is anymore!"

Yes, I was able to choose as well. Maybe selection varies on area, but I often found that once I eliminated the produce we weren't likely to eat, there wasn't much left to bother with a delivery.

We tried it. It was fine, but it was more than what we could eat before it went bad (2 adults, 1 child). Sometimes the boxes incorporated produce we were not used to eating, (fennel, for example). I then had to come up with recipes that could use what was delivered. It's a nice concept, but it wasn't the right fit for us.