Library Thing has 2,466. We’re a bit behind entering newer books, so probably closer to 2,500 now. ETA: This doesn’t include our ebooks. For the life of me, I can’t get them imported into Library Thing & I’m not going to manually enter them. Between the two of us, we have 2000 books on kindle for a total of about 54,500.

Yes.

You're not weird. I entered a homebody phase several years ago & travel rarely. Usually, just for a long weekend. I expect I'll start traveling again when dh retires. Traveling has a lot of benefits, but it also has drawbacks. Right now, the drawbacks outweigh the benefits.

Congratulations @Scarlett. I hope the planning is full of joy, that the day itself goes smoothly and that they have a life of wonder and love.

Cows can be quite expensive, which needs to be taken into consideration.

I don’t have regrets about my wedding. I do wish I knew then what I know now about the value of honoring extended family. You see, I got married on my aunt & uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary. I didn’t realize it when we picked the date, and my parents didn’t say anything about it, I don’t think they remembered. My aunt called me about two weeks after we set the date and explained that they couldn’t attend because of the anniversary. She didn’t ask us to change the date, but I realized some years ago that we should have volunteered to do that and that she would have welcomed that. They ended up having a big anniversary party the following weekend & several family members went from our wedding in N. Georgia to their anniversary party in Chicago, IL. Other family members picked one or the other. Putting a few weeks between the dates, or even just a week, would have honored them, their marriage, and in turn would have honored our extended family, and at that point it would have cost us nothing but kindness extended. So, I’m all for adults planning their own weddings, and doing what is important to them. I am also in favor of adults speaking up and gently and kindly offering important things to consider, family history when relevant as well as tradition, especially if the adults would like to see a tradition carried on. It doesn’t mean the couple has to execute all of the suggestions made to them, but they should be encouraged to consider other ideas, especially when those ideas come from the perspective of someone who loves and cares deeply about them.

I have a PSA. Your options are for health care insurance, not health care. Your insurance may determine what care you get and where you get it, but they are an insurance company, not health care. Their goal is to spend the least amount of money possible on your care. Even HMOs that have their own providers are (like Kaiser) are primarily insurance companies. I think the fact that insurance companies have convinced us that health insurance = health care have excellent marketing departments, because people use them interchangeably quite frequently.

She still could have spent a lot of time on a farm with grandparents or other family.

This is a new family legend. In a couple of generations the story will be that she drove across the country, stopping at all the Cracker Barrel’s along the way.

Think of the cliché “Ignorance is bliss.” There’s no way the 8 yo understands what could have happened. Teens, however, do.

NM - misunderstood the op.

Normally I’d have a conversation with someone about likes/dislikes. In this case we’ve been told “anything is fine,” which I actually think is fairly accurate for this family of adults. Sadly, it isn’t a good time to probe further.

Thanks everyone. I’ll put pasta with artichoke hearts, olives, sun dried tomatoes and garlic & olive oil on the menu for later this week. Today I ended up doing veggie spaghetti sauce - marinara with mushrooms, basil and green pepper along with a Cranberry Salad sans cheese.

would you add sun dried tomatoes or no? I added that but im not sure you saw it

I am putting together a bereavement meal. One family member is vegan. I am picking off of a restaurant menu & am customizing from their offerings. Do these items go together as an entree? penné pasta garlic & oil artichoke hearts black olives red pepper I could also do green pepper. sun dried tomatoes are also an option

I eat more beef than my husband. We have different dietary needs.

Georgia is a different situation. There was a school shooting there, now almost two weeks ago. Since then hundreds of threats have been called or, in some cases, delivered face to face. Schools have been on lockdown or unable to meet at all because of it. The kids, teachers and families are terrified when this happens. The police & sheriff’s departments are being very aggressive in charging the kids who do it, as they should.

This is the second round of assistance from the governor’s office. Previous aid went to schools. See AP article linked previously. Note that this second round is nowhere near what the real cost will be. I don’t have any info on the $ value of the first round.

With schools it could be that the age breakdown of the population has changed. Maybe it skews younger now and there are more teachers & facilities needed than previously. I think having English language learners also drives a need for specific support in that area, as well as a need to have access to interpreters (which do not have to be in person, there are video services) for parents to communicate with the school. Im not sure about health facilities, other than maybe a need for different age related services (more pediatricians for example) and again interpreters. Back to school immunization clinics used to be common, but I haven’t seen one that isn’t Covid related in years. ETA regarding medical needs: There may have been a reduction in the number of hospital beds in close proximity. Need for medical facilities increases w/population. On the positive side, increasing population may mean the community can better sustain specialty providers like PT, OT, endocrinology, etc. than previously.

I don’t know specifics about Springfield. My statements are just based in the fact that the actual people are different in each location & therefore don’t follow a template, for lack of a better word. Cultural, religious, family differences play a part in setting priorities of individuals who, in turn, go on to contribute to the priorities of a community, in this case a city. There are as many different possibilities as there are combinations of beliefs & attitudes that lead to actions. The priorities have an impact on local economies to the extent that they affect policy decisions (through participation in public comment or in elections, for example). Policy decisions then impact the economy through many mechanisms- tax rates, routine budget funding, zoning regulations, etc. Economic decisions can help, hurt or be neutral with regard to accommodating growth. Whether or not it’s a popular idea on this particular thread, nation of origin and race do play part in creating culture and prejudice can stymie healthy change that would help communities adjust to new residents. People do “blame racism,” but most often it’s based in either personal experience or direct observation. Our country is littered with evidence of past and present prejudices against different people groups. Such prejudices are regularly featured as components of news stories. Geography plays a role in that it can affect development of different types of businesses. Distance to transport corridors (land, air, sea) affect business and quality of life for some people. Proximity to educational opportunities and medical care play a role in how a culture changes and grows. Then you have the underlying geological features in a particular geographical location - water, coal, oil, natural gas, soil quality, precious metals have all impacted the ability to build & sustain a flourishing community. Not only that, but people who live in different locations function as a group differently as far as pooling resources or providing personal support (or not as the case may be). But, I really digress from your question as I’m sure you’ve thought through a lot of this from your background. It seems there are endless possibilities on the way cultural formation and sustainability are impacted. But, in regard to specifics on Springfield, I’ve got nothing for you, sorry.

It’s actually a conversation where people have been exchanging information, sometime in an attempt to persuade, other times with the only purpose being just to exchange information. Disagreements, providing info, asking questions of one another, asking for source material, info, etc. are all part of this thread. No one has been told to “shut up.”

Quite aware. All resources go to something. A lot of us think taking care of immigrants is a good use of resources. Personally, I’d like to see more resources used in the effort.

This is some follow up info on previous posts about funding avenues for infrastructure. Ohio has already provided additional resources to Springfield to help with education and training for drivers, to pay for more vaccines and health screenings in schools, and to enhance translation services, explained DeWine. But he’s taking additional action. “These dramatic surges impact every citizen of the community, every citizen,” he said, noting additional influxes are occurring in Findlay and Lima, Ohio. “Moms who have to wait hours in a waiting room with a sick child, everyone who drives on the streets, and it affects children who go to school in more crowded classrooms.” On Wednesday, the Ohio State Highway Patrol will be dispatched to help local law enforcement with traffic issues that officials say have cropped up due to an increase in Haitians unfamiliar with U.S. traffic laws using the roads. DeWine said he is also earmarking $2.5 million over two years to provide more primary healthcare through the county health department and private healthcare institutions. https://apnews.com/article/springfield-ohio-haitian-influx-governor-dewine-f5a552d7ebc6e246882dca96a39a3aaa

I certainly didn’t have the entirety of the immigrant population in mind when I said that. The data set includes everyone alive, including naturalized citizens and those who have resided here for long periods of time. They also consider DACA, TPS and asylum seekers in the “unlawful” category. From my personal understanding, once someone has any of those designations, they are no longer undocumented /unlawful. They have both documents and are here under legal provisions in our immigration law. In any case, I do think my statement over generalized. The stat I had in my memory banks related to the number of undocumented people who are working, not the overall total, that is my error.

Differences include, for starters: people involved (local and migrant populations are different) geography Local economies This is why we can’t have a “one size fits all” approach, but we do need to share information and adapt expectations and processes.