My difficulty is compounded by a few things. One is that, to control the laundry monster, I have tended towards the minimalist side of things with kids’ clothes in the past so as to have less stuff to manage and to make myself stay on top of washing and folding frequently—so my kids tend to wear out most of their clothes each year, as they wear them a lot. One is that my foster girls’ previous foster mom really goes in for tight-fitting styles on little girls, so almost none of their stuff still fits. Also, my older girls are picky about their shorts length, and won’t wear shorts that don’t come down far enough. Another is that several of my kids have difficult-to-fit body types (looking at you, three-year-old! After much trying in the Fall I finally figured out that while she was the height measurement of a four-year-old and had the waist measurement for 5T pants, her thighs were 6T. I searched high and low for 6T girls capris with adjustable waistbands for her to wear as pants.) Okay, enough whining. You all are making some good suggestions, and I will look more online, but I wish it had occurred to me earlier that I might need to budget significantly more for our clothes this season.

The weather is changing, and it’s the time of year when we get out the summer clothes to see what still fits and buy what is needed for the kids’ warm weather wardrobes. Our go-to for clothes are the resale stores, which are closed right now. The Walmart in town is open, but they are not allowing returns of clothing and we aren’t supposed to send more than one household member to the store. I can’t buy clothes for six kids that I can’t return if they don’t fit or if the child doesn’t like it. There may likely be some stores over the state line open for business, but I don’t want to expose the kids to the germs. One option is buying online from sellers with free returns, but that would be so much more expensive than our normal clothing budget. So, how are you getting your kids’ clothes this spring?

We got ours this week, just in time to be able to use half of it on furniture and other necessary items to be able to accommodate our newest emergency foster placement who came to us on Wednesday, plus to help us keep things organized so our house doesn’t drown in all the stuff of so many people. I recognize that there was no way to both get the checks out quickly and also to effectively determine who needed/“deserved” them on an individual level, but it still rankles that my foster dds’s parents, who have few expenses that are not payed for by the government anyways, are receiving thousands of dollars for their children who they neglected/abused in 2018 and who they have not lived with for the better part of a year. It is likely that most of the money will go to marijuana and alcohol.

Have you seen this new feature they just added to the website? It has puzzles that are unlocked by learning experience points from doing lessons. We love it so much! And not just the kids. I caught my dh playing on ds's account after having helped ds with a puzzle.

We’ve saved some on gas and eating out, but a fair amount of that is countered by much higher grocery bills—dh has been doing all the grocery shopping for the family while I have been very sick (not corona), and he will buy whatever strikes his fancy, and the more expensive brands, and often go to the much more expensive store because it is a little closer.

No, we are not playing with anyone. However, I could imagine a situation where I would be okay with it. We have a large, unfenced yard that runs right into the neighbor's large unfenced yard. If, say, our old best friends from our old town lived next door, it would be nearly impossible for the littler ones to pay attention to the imaginary line between the yards. If they were also working from home, it would be only the germs from masked, distanced grocery trips coming in to the two families.

Incredible. The Middle East and China, both! I’m curious when the government of China decided to allow this (specifically whether it came before or after the church gifted them with all of that PPE before the virus went global).

Yay! You got your wish! It was so beautiful.

Much higher. I was doing fine and enjoying not needing to run around and get places on time for extracurriculars and generally not too worried, until my five-year-old started coughing. He had breathing issues from birth that gradually improved as he aged to the point that he has rarely needed medication for it in the past two years, but that cough keeps taking me back to all the nights I sat up over his basinet, listening to him struggling to breathe in his sleep while I prayed. Yesterday the cough was worse again, and he was complaining of his chest and throat feeling tighter and kept rubbing his chest. I felt all day like a giant hand was pressing down on my chest, like it was harder to breathe from the anxiety. But he is improved this morning, and I still feel that stronger today, so maybe it isn't anxiety.

Courtland Solamena Johann Nepomuckenus (apparently John of Nepomuk was a patron saint of the Czech Republic?) Redden and Reddick Allred (twins) Agnes and Angus (twins from dh's family)

Hang onto it for now in case we need it to help see us through. Dh started a new job just before this all happened, and we expected and planned for several lean months bringing in only his monthly base pay until he can build up a client base and get his billable hours up. We don’t know how much longer it will be now, with quarantine directly impeding that process and looming economic downturn possibly impeding it in the longer run.

It’s been over three weeks since we’ve stopped all our extracurriculars and church and over two since visitation and preschool for foster dd, and a week and a half since dh moved to working from home. Dh or I has also been out for animal feed once, the bank once, and groceries every two or three days. (For a couple of weeks our local grocery store was rationing staples, so unfortunately we had to go much more often than normal to keep basics in the house, as they did not allow a shopper with a family of seven to purchase more milk than a single person—but today they had lifted the rationing). The only other outing we have made was on Saturday we took a family drive to leave stacks of homeschooling supplies on a friend’s doorstep, then went for a short hike on a deserted stretch of the Oregon Trail (it still has visible wagon wheel ruts!), and got drivethrough dinner.

I’m not sure how shutting state borders would even be possible around here. We are right next to a state border that is a river, but there are four bridges crossing within ten miles of our house. Just posting a couple of police officers at each state border crossing in our rural county would completely overwhelm our county’s resources. They would have to send in state troopers or something, and that would take a lot of moving people from high-density, high-virus areas way out to rural areas lacking in the medical resources to deal with outbreaks, but also not in as much danger because of low population density and low population mobility.

Another possibility could be cancelling accounts to keep information spreading about how bad it really has been.

I sympathize with your feelings. However, I am very wary of giving that power to government. Giving government the ability to close religious institutions, not just as needed to protect public safety in a time of emergency, but permanently as a punishment for the constituents’ behavior—that sets a legal precedent that could have far-reaching effects.

So if, hypothetically, some members of your congregation chose to continue meeting in defiance of quarantine, you would support giving government the right to close your church permanently as a punishment?

That is not the meaning of the word permanently. While we might hope that he actually meant indefinitely, it makes no sense to assume he meant something other than the meaning of the words he actually said, unless he had actually offered some additional comments indicating this.

1. Bill of rights takes precedence over eminent domain. 2. Not arguing 3. So prosecute them under laws that apply (though generally those terrorism ones have to show the ‘willfully’ part. So, you can apply them to the person who intentionally coughs all over the produce to try to spread it, but not to the families who meet up at the park despite shelter-in-place). I don’t have a problem with a government-enforced shutdown during a state of emergency. It’s the threat to punitively shut down religious institutions permanently that I think is completely out-of-line.

Setting aside for a moment that violating a quarantine order is not the same thing as active murder (you can draw parallels, but they are neither in fact nor legally the same thing). We do not take basic constitutional human rights away without due process. I support taking actual legal action against the noncompliant individuals for their actual actions.

“closing the building permanently."

Wouldn’t taking legal action against the individuals violating the quarantine order, up to imprisonment if necessary, make more sense than threatening unconstitutional illegal action that will affect congregants not currently choosing to attend, for years to come?

Closing religious institutions forever, after the emergency is over, is not a power given to any political figure in our country.

dp

The New York City mayor is threatening to permanently close synagogues and churches that refuse to shut down for quarantine. https://m.jpost.com/Diaspora/NYC-Mayor-to-synagogues-Close-for-coronavirus-or-be-shut-down-permanently-622767 “The mayor called on religious citizens, asking that anyone who witnesses services taking place to report to the congregation's officials and request them to stop services. Should that not be enough, the authorities may "need to take additional action up to the point of fines and potentially closing the building permanently." While I think these religious congregations should absolutely be cooperating, this is insane. What kind of power-crazed dictator does he think he is?

He will get it next spring. It is technically a tax credit for 2020, paid in advance. When we all file our 2020 taxes, people who qualify this year but didn’t in 2018 or 2019 (or who qualify for more now than before) will receive it with their tax refund. The reverse is not true, though. No one has to pay it back if they qualify for less on their 2020 taxes than previously.