Life goals!

My ds12 had a friend over to play today. It was nice! My ds9 went to a classmate's birthday party and had a great time! I'm having supper tomorrow night with a friend.

I can admire this. 🤣. I'm pretty sure I had a "type," too, and dh was the first person I dated who actually fit the type. Here we are, 23.5 years later. 🥰🥰

If you're worried about water on your desk, if I were you I'd use another plastic pot for the new plant and just use the pretty pot as a cover pot.

@Kassia. @KrissiK I'm glad to know it's not just me!

I'm a teacher turned public librarian. My hours are quite fixed. Part of this is because I just moved into the position. However, my job is very public-facing, and someone has to be there to run the desk/run the program/etc. I would say it's slightly more flexible on a daily basis than teaching, but I won't have summers off and I work 8 hour shifts. (The main reason I finally got out of teaching is that I did all that and more at home--60 to 80 hour weeks were normal for me!--but the official day started and ended earlier, and that is taking some adjustment.)

I enjoyed Four Winds (and Esperanza Rising!) Admittedly, though, I have a penchant for sad stories.

I count my read-alouds! 📚✅. I finished a favorite Christmas book Maggie Rose: Her Birthday Christmas by Ruth Sawyer a few days ago with my nine year old. We got a late start, but who's counting? It was a joy to read it to him, and I doubt I'll have another opportunity to read it aloud. 😢. This was book number 3 of 2023. ETA: I also abandoned Lessons in Chemistry officially today. I tried, but it was just a little, I don't know, whimsical for my taste.

Fantastic!!!

I'm planning to listen to the audiobook. It's on my shortlist.

I just finished the audiobook of Dopesick by Beth Macy. 😮😭

Done

Sign me up for any or all of those! Lol

When I said I'd hope the kid would recognize the disparity and volunteer to pay, I was thinking about the fact that the kid "volunteered" to come along.

It really was a lot of fun. All of the kids enjoyed it, which is no small feat for our age span. We still talk about it.

My hope would be that adult child would recognize income disparity and voluntarily pay.

I've never been to the Florida Keys but have always wanted to go! After several Christmas trips to cold destinations, I decided our next winter trip would be somewhere warm. We went to the Crystal River area of FL and did a kayak with manatees excursion last December. This December we took a quick trip to Atlanta to take our younger kids to the aquarium because they didn't remember going years ago (& indeed it might've been before the youngest was born).

All of those sound wonderful! I've been to England but would love to visit elsewhere! And the cabin in a NP also sounds wonderful.

Do you make your own falafel? Care to share your receipt if so? I had one but I don't know where it is. (It's probably buried in screenshots on my phone.)

I have missed much of this monolith discussion. I need details. 🤣

That sounds amazing!

I have not! Thanks for putting it on my radar!

Question: favorite step counter? I have an old Apple Watch that is apparently past its technological lifespan. I quit wearing it because I didn't want to always be connected. What's a good, reliable tracker that doesn't necessarily have all the bells and whistles? What are the necessarily bells and whistles, in your opinions?

I'm 3/3 as of today for walking my approx. 2 mi neighborhood route. I've decided to look at it as a streak and try to keep it going. It got me up from a nap today to walk to try to beat the rain, so maybe this mindset shift will help. Little steps. ✅

That sounds lovely. Dh and I actually drove up the east coast to PEI on our honeymoon and enjoyed our trek through Maine. I'd love to go back there!