Ditto everything. Also, I have been doing some staining in our bedroom. I had thought we would need to sleep in the living room while I'm doing it, but we have air purifiers in the bedrooms and that has been enough to allow us to sleep there. Probably not optimal, but by bedtime I can't smell the stain at all.

Yeah, I've had that happen. It usually seems to happen in situations when I'm deliberately letting the kid do something by themselves, for a particular reason. Annoying. What I meant earlier was, it's annoying when it happens the other way too. It's not just about me supervising my kid, it's others having opinions about it and taking it on themselves to inform me I can let the kid do something. Being told by an acquaintance that it's really ok for your kid to do something and "you're just being overprotective" is annoying. No, I'm not being overprotective, I know I can't trust this kid in this circumstance, for reasons you (general you) know nothing about. Most times it's coming from a place of kindness, of course. Still annoying. 😁

Yes, or maybe they know things about their children that the people calling them overprotective don't. I think I'd prefer to give individual people the benefit of the doubt. My feelings are conflicted on this. I mean, I completely agree with the majority of comments here when it comes to kids in general. We are laid back about most things, although I've never lived walking distance to anything, so I can't speak directly to that. However, if I look to the future, I can see the possibility of restricting a particular kid from a few things that I would have no problem with normally. My reasons might not be that obvious, especially to casual acquaintances.

I don't know why, but fat really bothers me. Maybe it just sounds too personal. Obese sounds clinical, not personal. I think also because obese is a term with an actual definite meaning. Fat can be decided by anyone to mean anything. Totally agree with the cutesy stuff, though.

Wait. There are other chat boards?!?! 😁

Same here.

We'd throw them in (if we put them in the trash. We compost.) In your case, though, the person who always deals with the trash gets to say how it's done. I'd live with it and live with it, cleaning it up time after time, until one day I've had enough. I would then prohibit the use of the trash can by anyone who refuses to follow my rules. If they can't respect my wishes on this small matter, then they can take care of their own refuse. But I'm mean like that.

Same here. I'm actually glad so many people I know currently are doing the online public charter. If they weren't doing that, for many of them it would be nothing.

Yeah, K-12 is the other option here, but I don't hear about anyone who likes it. Everyone moved to Epic a few years back. It's completely separate from the local districts. It seems to be very popular. I have friends in different areas who use it, and a lot seems to depend on the teacher that is assigned to you. Some are extremely nitpicky and others are more flexible. There is nothing like Classical Conversations here. I've met irl one person who uses Abeka and one person who uses Ambleside Online. Everyone else is Epic. I'm the rando like you. 😁 It will be interesting to see what happens.

I've been wondering why more aren't using the online public charters. Don't most (all?) states have them? Here in OK, Epic is very popular, pre-pandemic. Almost all the "homeschoolers" I know irl use an online public charter. They don't want to do it independently.

I have 2nd edition. There are 11 review lessons at the beginning of B. It sounds like the review at the beginning of 1st edition is longer, but I'd still start with B with 2nd edition if I had it to start over. It's not that I think A is a waste of time exactly, it's that I don't think it's worth the cost of the manual. A thoughtful run through the review lessons with time spent on any areas of weakness, plus math in normal life, would have been enough. Ymmv, of course. 😊

Treated lumber. I tried to order fence pickets today, just ordinary 6 foor dog ears. The lumberyard said they haven't received any treated lumber in 2 weeks and had no idea when they would get any.

We recently did something similar. Our area has very few cases, it was a reasonable decision given local conditions and quarantine status of those there . . . even so, I was somewhat nervous during and for a couple weeks afterward. I've not been a worrier about it in general. Cautious and careful, but not extreme. This is the only recreation or gathering we've done at all since March. I was surprised at my reaction. So, I'd also consider the effect on your mental wellbeing afterward. It wasn't a *huge* deal for me, but I'd venture to say it would've been pretty hard if we were in an area with lots of cases. (I'm not sure what our cutoff would've been number-wise. We still have single digit total cases ever, or did at that time, so we haven't had to make that kind of decision.) Also, that experience proved to me that people have different comfort zones with closeness, food, etc., no matter what they *say*. I'd consider how you will handle it if something comes up.

Don't get A. If I had another child, I would skip A and start with B, even having the A book here already. Spend a bit of time on the review lessons at the beginning of the book, and it will be good. I will caution that sometimes RS can feel to leap ahead for a child who isn't thinking conceptually about a particular thing. I've had it happen more than once, and every time it works to simply let it marinate a bit and come back to it later. And if there are any challenges with processing speed or working memory, the mental math will need to be adjusted to accomodate for that (we jot down things as needed instead of holding in the student's head).

This is me, although my kids don't (yet) hate it. A couple of older ones I always cry during are Lonesome Dove (I usually need to excuse myself and have a real cry in private for this one) and Out of Africa. But, really, anything.

I know, it's crazy! The frozen ones always taste like they have freezer burn to me.

We replaced ours last year. I'm not sure exactly, but I believe the previous one lasted 8 years. We do about 10 - 12 loads per week.

I'm not sure if it was my comment that prompted this, but regardless, I agree. It's just that I have the best chance of actually enjoying veggies with fresh. 😂 Frozen in second best, although, oddly, I prefer canned to frozen green beans and green peas.

Not enough. I have three main excuses, errrr, reasons. One, it's hard enough to drag myself to the grocery store twice a week for produce in normal times, much less now. Two, we all like roasted veggies best, and it's too hot to use the oven much. I can (and do many weeks) grill up a bunch at a time. But they're not great warmed up. (Maybe I need an air fryer to reheat?) And, three, I don't really like veggies, for the most part. I can eat a ton more than I could in the past, but not very adventurous. I've branched out more in the last few years to try to set a good example for the kids, but it's hard. Let's see, I would guess that in the first few days after shopping, I eat 3-4 servings a day. It gradually dwindles down to 1-2, and toward the end much of that is canned/frozen. Lots of good ideas in this thread, thanks for asking the question.

I call my inlaws by first names. Dh calls my parents by their first names. We also use their grandparent names (grandma, etc) a lot. My parents did the same with their inlaws. Usually, when talking to us kids they use the grandparent names for them, and first names when talking to them or others. Same for us. It would really, really bother me if my children end up calling inlaws "mom" or "dad". I wouldn't say anything, but it would bother me a lot.

Exactly this. The one thing I did do post-kids is have their pictures done regularly and family pics yearly. (Have slacked off, though, the last couple years.) So I do have some nice ones. I just don't have a lot of day-to-day, regular photos.

lol I didn't see you had already posted about the ScanSnap! It is awesome. I think scanning double-sided is one of the best features. It really cuts down on time.

Wow, I just googled the ScanSnap and seems it is more expensive than they used to be. I've had mine several years, though, and if you scan a lot it might still be worth it for the ease.

I do. For a ton of papers, I use a Fujitsu (spelling?) ScanSnap scanner. Soooo nice! I bought it several years ago when I began converting everything to digital and it was so slow using flatbed and all-in-one. I still have a few boxes to go of older papers, but am almost caught up. For current things, as they come in, I scan with an app on my phone. If I let it pile up, I use the ScanSnap. Everything uploads to Dropbox. I had an external hard drive at one time, but it quit working. I would have lost everything had it not been in the cloud. I'd like something external, but don't see any good options right now. As far as medical, I have everything in Dropbox and also keep a binder. I don't take the binder to every appt, but can access on my phone if I need to.

These are wonderful. Thank you for posting them!