Can you limit her collection to one tub/bin? It took a few years, but dd now has one Kallax bin for Her Precious.

The Spokane, WA, USA hospital, one of 10 publically announced hospitals designed to deal with virulent disease like this one only has 10 beds. Contemplate that. Ten freaking beds. I get that that degree of isolation protocol is expensive to set up, but my mind has been blown about that all day. In San Antonio, they have been sending sick patients out into local hospitals instead of keeping them on base. The military has a hospital there for goodness sakes. (I have friends who work there.) Honestly, I am a bit frustrated today. It’s been validating that some of the things I was worried about weeks ago are finally being talked about in the media. But I see no real signs of preparation locally. As my Dh put it, “Honey, it’s just going to be a rough two years. We are all going to get this.”

I think this is a normal emotion—especially deeper into the downsizing process. I honestly think it’s a really important thing to feel and own...it helps when you are tempted to buy the bright and shiny new thing later on. We are five years into our journey. When I must buy something new to replace a worn out item, I often buy something “organic”—not plastic based—so that when that item is done it’s impact will be less where I can. It’s super frustrating that items do become worn out, though. Two of my kids had earbuds break again this week. We are going through them every 6 months. 😞

Ugh. I hate them. Really effective cars require power tools for cutting out and polishing the axels. They also require the addition of weights in key places. You also, if running competitive races, want a digital scale to get as close to max weight as possible at weigh in. I would not do this for a camp experience, IMO, unless you can do the above and devote at least 4 hours to the experience. IME of doing this for about ten years, about 1/4 of the boys have enough tool experience to do this on their own. Half will pick it up with guidance, but a good chunk never buy in to the process.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/20/business/amazon-coronavirus-supplies.html What if the Everything Store couldn’t sell everything because of disruptions from the coronavirus? That’s the situation that Amazon — which typically stocks more than 100 million items, from toilet paper to yoga pants — is working to avoid as the deadly outbreak continues to shut down and slow factories in China that produce the world’s goods. Over the past few weeks, Amazon has responded to the crisis by making larger and more frequent orders of Chinese-made products that had already been shipped to the United States, according to company emails and consultants who work with major brands. Some of its suppliers have cut back on advertising and promotions on the site so they don’t run out of products too quickly.

South China Morning Post COVID19 story recap link: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3051688/coronavirus-115-new-deaths-confirmed-hubei-officials-report-411 this bit stuck out to me: "Zhao told the magazine Southern People Weekly there were cases in China in which recovered patients continued to show traces of the virus through nucleic acid tests. There were similar results in Canada, where nose and throat swabs taken from a couple who had recovered from Covid-19 revealed they still had traces of the virus. “We also have such cases. This is dangerous. Where do you put these patients? You can't send them home because they might infect others, but you can't put them in hospital as resources are stretched,” he said."

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/nurses-concerned-over-growing-number-of-coronavirus-patients/2238162/ " A national survey of 3,000 nurses shows less than half say their employer has given them enough information on how to respond. Only 13% say there is a plan in place to isolate patients and just 31% say employer has sufficient protective equipment on hand."

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/20/cdc-coronavirus-116529 "Problems with a coronavirus test developed by the CDC have delayed the Trump administration's efforts to expand screening to state and local public health labs, more than two weeks after the FDA granted permission to distribute the CDC test nationwide. Only three of the more than 100 public health labs across the country have verified the CDC test for use, according to the Association of Public Health Laboratories." ------ Article goes on to say that obviously without being able to actually monitor where new cases in the US are appearing that it's difficult to "detect scattered cases before they snowball into larger outbreaks".

Fwiw, in your shoes, if you wanted to do more I would pay a tutor to step in and work him up through pre-calc semester one...because that is the equivalent math course that my local college requires everyone to get through for graduation. I would call it pre-calc. There is no way I could turn my dyscalcic kid over to self study. He will likely always need intensive tutoring. He’s currently getting an A in public school in math, but he is putting in serious work at home.

Can we pause and re-frame this for a minute? Getting a kid with dyscalculia through algebra is no small feat...even if it took 3 tries. Getting enough content in Algebra 2 in to feel confident putting it on a transcript is huge. It is a HUGE hurdle to graduation for so many with dyscalculia, one that many cannot overcome. I will be dang proud of my dyscalcic kid if he gets there. He literally is very gifted but math to his dyscalcic brain is challenging enough that he has to work at least 4x harder than my non-dyscalcic kids. It’s like learning how to do advanced chemistry in Russian while scuba diving hard. It’s no wonder he’s not super excited to tackle that every day. Figure out what you need for a transcript, figure out what he needs for life, and move on.

Good point. I buy two pairs of any shoes I like because even different factory runs on the same shoe can result in slight shoe fit issues.

You may be right on the Hibiclens point. I am digging for my chart on disinfectants from another study and can’t find the slide...

Or just abandon the luggage there until a subsequent trip, walk to a hotel as soon as he deplanes, get a room and shower with hibiclens, trash his clothes in a tied baggie in the dumpster on the way out, and wear fresh stuff home. This is our plan if Dh ever picked up bedbugs. He wasn’t getting in our vehicle, he isn’t crossing the threshold of our home...like with some things you just gotta burn it down, iykwim. Dh used to travel full time and this is one of those times I would ask him to hit the nuclear button....only because most of us are asthmatic at home. Your risk calculation may be different.

Totally material for a childhood album of shame to be pull out and laugh/cry over when your kids are adults and have perspective.

If you don’t have super high arches you might look at Taos. Usually about 1/20 of their flat styles work for me...but it’s because I have a high arch in one foot. The arch just hits in the wrong spot.