dsmith
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I gained a shoe size and now need wide shoes.🫤
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I was trying to find somewhere to watch it, never thought of checking there, thanks! The opening music is terrible lol.
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Niece and nephew are having trouble getting their ADHD meds, not sure which ones they take. They often have to go to a pharmacy 45 minutes away. Mil recently had to switch one of her COPD meds because of supply issues. Thankfully the replacement seems to be helping her a little more than what she had been on.
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If you only had to buy food for just yourself…
dsmith replied to Indigo Blue's topic in The Chat Board
If it was just me I could probably get away with $50 -75 a week, but $100 would be more realistic. I rarely eat meat, but I do like the expensive tuna fish that has just tuna and salt, no added water or oil. I love rice and beans, lentils, veggies, etc. For just me I would buy only organic but for our family of 5 I can't afford to do that, so I avoid the dirty dozen. It bothers me when we get inexpensive meat, because there's a reason it's cheap. When I was following a certain diet I only bought grass-fed and finished for myself, but I can't afford that for 5. But even if it was just me I wouldn't go back to that - meat doesn't like my body any more. Beef bothers my stomach a lot, but chicken is worse. If I eat meat it is only 2 - 3 ounces. I doubt I would buy it at all if I was just cooking for myself. I would be tempted to try some kind of meal kit service, or something like Hungryroot. There's also a local CSA that has a small share of organic fruits/veggies that would be tempting. -
Our Kitchen Aid is about 30 years old and gets almost daily use. We make a lot of bread, pizza dough, baked goods, etc. We do have a bread machine, and do use that on occasion, but most of our bread is done in the Kitchen Aid. We also use it for meatballs, mashed potatoes, meat loaf, I could go on... Dh is really the one who uses it the most. I have a few no-knead breads that I do, but he does the majority of cooking/baking.
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I've always disliked eating out if the restaurant is very noise. I get anxiety when being in noisy environments, but we try to go out once a month for dinner, usually well before the dinner rush so it's more manageable for me. We went to Longhorn the other day, and I had my Air Pods Pro in listening to an audiobook on the ride. I didn't take them out when we got to the restaurant, and forgot I had them in. Even though it was pretty early, they were mobbed and it was very loud. It was giving me anxiety, and it was only getting worse when I realized how long we would probably be there with service being pretty slow. I remembered my Air Pods, and decided to play around with the settings, so I set it to noise cancellation, and holy cow!!! I could still mostly hear what was being said at our table, but the background noise was reduced so much, and my anxiety just disappeared! It was one the most pleasant experiences eating out at that type of place. If only they had this type of technology when my son was younger! He was much worse than I am, but he has mostly outgrown his issues. The Air Pods Pro are the only thing I can put in my ear that don't give me an earache or headache. I've tried ear plugs in the past, but they are always too large and uncomfortable, and I can only last about an hour with them. I can't wait to try this at the next loud wedding we have to go to!! My husband was so unsure of these when he gifted them to me, but I love them so much, and now I love them even more!
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I paid $550 for my son's previous pair of eyeglasses. The pair we bought at Costco was $250ish, and that included Transition lenses. That alone paid for our membership. (Edited to add - ds is rough on glasses and these have stood up well to his abuse.) We drive about 35 minutes depending on traffic. The gas lines are long by us, but it is cheaper than any other place. We buy things like cereal, cookies, filet mignon, OTC meds. My husband cannot sleep without Breathe Right strips, and they are a lot cheaper there than other stores. I like their eggs a lot - for some reason they peel so much easier than any other brands. My son likes to have frozen things that he can pop in the microwave, toaster oven or air fryer - things like ham and cheese filled croissants, pocket chicken sandwiches, pizza, breaded chicken pieces, etc. I will eventually get hearing aids there, and I'm trying to convince mil to get them. We will probably get our next dishwasher there. We got a great deal on a tv last year, and when it went on sale even cheaper I went online, filled out a form, and was refunded the difference. We will get the upgraded membership when we renew. We're a bit obsessed with Costco lol. Dh and ds love the hot dogs, and the price can't be beat, so we always have a cheap lunch or dinner when we go there. For some reason nobody uses the self checkout in ours, so we rarely wait on line for more than 5 minutes, and usually someone helps us check out anyway. We also have Sam's Club and BJ's membership. We have different things we buy at each store.
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What is your current favorite podcast, blog, or person you follow?: Bible in a Year, Catechism in a Year, The Meditation Podcast, Weight Loss Made Real Podcast What was your favorite book last year- fiction and/or non-fiction?: I've been rereading series from my past, which has been a lot of fun: Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, The Hobbit, LOTR, Harry Potter, Wheel of Time. I really can't pick a favorite out of those - maybe the Harper Hall trilogy out of the Pern books. Non-fiction: How Not to Age by Michael Greger. I have all of his books, and I am on his site all the time, I just can't listen to him. He has an odd way of speaking that he didn't have in his earlier days. Favorite purchase last year: A larger tv for our rec room and a wall mount, but my favorite has been LED light strips that go on the back of the TV and splash color onto the wall behind the tv. It has a camera that senses the colors on the screen, so the colors on the wall match the tv. I thought it was silly when dh ordered it, but it's made movie night a lot more immersive and fun! I was a bit reluctant to spend the money, but we got a surprise check from a judgement against a company we use for our business, so we decided we needed a splurge for ourselves. Plus the TV was a great price at Costco. Best life hack: Hmm, I can't say I have any amazing hacks. When we make dinner, if it's something that freezes well we make double and freeze what's left for a busy night. This has saved dinner and kept us from ordering out quite a few nights. But there are those nights that we just want takeout.😁 We will also spend a weekend making personal size pot pies for the freezer. We do chicken, shepherd's pie, cottage pie and a creamy tarragon chicken one with a polenta topping. They get wrapped individually and everyone can pick which one they want. Biggest regret: We had a tough time making ends meet for 2022 until the beginning of last year, so I had to use credit cards for a few emergencies. Things are better now, thankfully. What did you do to make your life easier this year?: I stopped worrying about the amount of sleep I was getting and went with the recommendations of a sleep app I was using. It was recommending 1:30 am as my ideal bedtime. I decided to go with that time, and delay my wake up time. I'm fortunate that I work from home and can make my own hours. I sleep better, and I have much better focus during the day. It was a burden trying to fit into the 'norm' of sleep/wake times and work times, and I'm much happier this way. High point of last year: Christmas! It was so much more relaxed this year. We didn't have financial pressures for once, family issues seemed to mellow for the holiday season, we were able to celebrate the way we wanted to. It was probably the best Christmas we've ever had.
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I can't stand trying to force myself to drink a large glass of water at once. I also don't really like having those big water bottles sitting in front of me. I have a 4 ounce glass, and I use that. I have water before every meal, every time I pass through the kitchen, when I think about it, etc. A 4 ounce glass seems much more doable. I also drink herbal tea, and I count that towards my water intake. I'm not an outdoor walker, but I do plenty of walking indoors. It's either too hot or too cold for me, and the weather affects my MS too much to safely deal with alone. Nobody will walk with me, so I adapted and now walk indoors with an audiobook that I love and only listen to while walking, or I will listen to a podcast. I also walk whenever I am waiting for something, like the tea water to boil, something heating in the microwave, etc. I also have one of those mini steppers. It's in the way from my desk to the rest of the house, so every time I need to get up I get on it for a minute or two. I will do a longer session at some point during the day.
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I'm still going strong, with something similar to the original method. The only difference is that I now use a Remarkable 2 instead of a notebook, and I create separate notebooks for tracking things like books I've read, projects, etc. I have a basic template that I use every month and it takes me about 5 minutes to set it up before the beginning of the month. The only resource I used was the original how-to from the website, so I'm not any help.🙂I've always used it strictly to keep myself on track, and never was into all the fancy stuff. As pretty as some people make their journals, for me it defeats the reason bullet journaling attracted me in the first place, which was rapid logging. There are a ton of videos on YouTube, and the website has a lot of info, but the site seems a lot different now than when I started years ago. I did find the book somewhat helpful.
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That dose doesn't bother me beyond the first 2 days of being a little hyper. Just have lots of healthy snacks around if it makes you hungry. Lower carb/no junk food at all, lots of veggies, some fruit is how I usually eat on steroids. Take advantage of increased energy and do some extra cleaning, etc. That's what I usually do. 😊 I find as long as I can deal with the increased hunger in a healthy way I don't put on more than a few pounds of water weight. My elderly neighbor was on that dose for about a year before they were able to taper him off, and he never had any side effects at all. He went through chemo and radiation with a half day of nausea, so I think he's one of those rare people that never have any side effects from any medication/treatment.
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Pediatric specialist of any kind seem to charge a lot in our experience. My son's neurologist charges $395 for a Zoom visit. He does spend a good amount of time, though, which translates to appointments being at least an hour late. At least it's better than when we had to sit in the office for an hour or two. We are lucky in that he will follow patients into adulthood, so we haven't had to find another doctor for him. It was hard finding a decent doctor for him! We've had other pediatric specialists in his younger years charge up to $1000 for a visit. I haven't noticed many regular specialists being much cheaper in our area and they wouldn't accept a pediatric patient. My neurologist charges me $85 a visit, but she's not a very good doctor. I keep her because I just need medications and MRIs. When I checked other neurologists they started at 350/visit.
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We have a china cabinet, but we also have two corner built-ins. The top has glass doors and grooves to display china, the bottoms have solid doors. We also have a cabinet built over the radiator, and to each side of the radiator there are doors with shelves. It's actually a good amount of storage space. Someday we will probably get rid of the china cabinet and replace it with something more modern, as well as modernize the built-ins. I kind of swing between wanting something more modern to loving the old-fashioned look of the built-ins.
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I wouldn't kill the bug either, but I would catch and release for you. Many people don't understand phobias and can be very insensitive about them. As if not helping you and making you 'face your fears' is going to instantly cure the phobia! I'm generally ok with most insects and will bring them outside, but if I see an earwig I have to call someone to take care of it. And if it's actually on me I WILL freak out. I suffered with agoraphobia for years, and most family members and friends were very insensitive about it, and at times just plain mean. Even my son, who has his own phobias, gave me a lot of grief about it, because he loves going to malls and I just can't. I can handle any shopping experience nowadays, even Costco on a Saturday morning, but malls still get me.
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I would say every other month we have one thing delayed. We have a pretty large order, about $400 a month. About once a year an item we order will be taken off subscribe and save even though they still have it in stock. Usually the price is very high when that happens but from a 3rd party seller. One of the teas I used to get for $13 is now over $25 the last time I checked.😠