I want to reemphasize what a lot of others have said. Rent several types many times before buying. Having the right tow vehicle and knowing your weight is critical. We have had both a travel trailer and a class C motorhome for 3 people. The travel trailer was more work stopping for the night and not as comfortable to travel in even with a new truck. If you plan to stay in one place for a few weeks, then getting there doesn't really matter and is easier. The moving part can be hard, long days, not able to stop just anywhere for fuel, and lower speed. Pulling into a campground at night and unhooking the tow vehicle and hooking up the trailer or RV is not fun in the dark. We have a high schooler who finds it difficult to keep up with her school when we move between cities. Reading and writing on the road wasn't as easy as anticipated. Not having kids with you will help. After saying all that, it can be fun. You have all the comforts of your stuff with you. Being able to stop at a rest area, fire up the generator, and cook lunch is wonderful. Having your own bathroom/shower at a campground is nice. It is easier to travel with a pet than finding hotels. Cost wise, I'm not sure you save much as the fuel mileage is awful and campgrounds with full hookups are expensive ($50-100 a night). We use to be campers many years ago with a tent. Today, we use the RV to place us near a city that we want to explore. We want a comfortable home base and the RV gives us that. You need to go in with your eyes open. It can be great as long as you expect the work that goes with it. For two people and a pet, I would recommend a class B plus which is a small class C but much more maneuverable. You wouldn't need to have a tow vehicle - maybe two mopeds to get around the local area.

I second the tent and toilet seat combo. I have them and have used them when a safe facility was not available. They do not take up much space and provide peace of mind when traveling.

We like the 3M Aura ones we get at home depot. They sell them in a box of 10. They have the straps that go around your head and a foam nose piece.

If nothing was planned or it's late or I'm tired, the meal is usually a fritatta using whatever veggies are in the refrigerator or fried rice again using whatever I find in the fridge. We always have eggs or leftover rice.

I had a gas cooktop at a prior home. I have an electric one now that I don't use because I find it difficult to cook with. I have a portable induction cooktop that sits on top of the smoothtop electric cooktop. I prefer using the single induction cooktop over the electric. That tells you how much I dislike the electric cooktop. It is really hard to control the level of heat needed when cooking. I found it near impossible to simmer. I would choose a gas one if possible. We are an all electric home without the option of gas. At some point I will switch it out for a good induction cooktop but they are often pricier than electric. Induction gives you similar control over the heat levels as gas does.

I used Lodge for many years till I splurged and bought one Le Creuset. The three lodge dutch ovens are still usable but do not look nice- chipped and stained. The LC is only a few years old but looks beautiful. More important to me is that I like cooking with LC more. It has a flat and wide bottom where as the lodge is curved. It feels lighter for the same size. I believe it heats up faster and more evenly due to the bottom shape. There is a huge price difference between the two but if I can afford it, I will always go with LC. The Lodge only comes out for baking sourdough now.

I used both Lial and AOPS when preparing myself for teaching Algebra 1. I loved the solutions manual for AOPS. Lial was fine, but I got the most out of AOPS because I could see step by step exactly how the problem was solved. The text also did a great job of talking you through the examples. The online videos for each chapter were also very helpful.

I picked up Ways of the World for modern world history. I have not used it yet nor put together lessons. It may be something to consider as you are reviewing texts. It spans all of world history, but we are going to skip to the 1500s to start. I was able to find older editions at very reasonable prices.

My 15 yr old got hers today. She had me checking every night for the appointments to open. They did yesterday, and we scheduled it for today. She has not had any reaction but a little bit of soreness in her arm. Now she is counting the days to her 2nd.

I wash them, dry them, and then freeze them on a tray before packing and sealing with the food saver for longer storage. These are beans that are only a day or two old. I only used them in stir frys, soups, or stews mixed with other items, but don't recall them ever being mushy.

I got my 2nd Moderna dose on Monday afternoon. I had a really sore arm yesterday but not much else. Today my knees are aching, I'm a bit tired, and I have a fever of 38.8 (close to 102) right now. It is bearable so l am not going to take anything.

I read this a while back after someone posted it. I laughed so hard. It spurred the purchase of our small rooster. I had to read it to my dd, modified to exclude the language. We still laugh about it.

I have a concrete bunny and a little frog and alligator tucked away in the plants. A cute toad house in a corner too. Bird houses, a screech owl nest box, and a bat house in the yard. But what I really want is one of those giant metal roosters. I have a small one maybe 18 inches tall, but a big one would be fun. Our hens would think twice about going near the garden with him in there.

The requirements for homeschooling in Texas are as Goldenecho wrote very minimal. However if you are considering having your student attend high school at any time in the future, you will want to make sure you contact the local school district to find out their process for enrolling homeschooled students. Depending upon the district, they may not accept any coursework unless it was through an approved provider such as TTU. Our district was not even sure if they would take the Univ of TX high school classes. The lack of requirements makes it easy, but we also don't have any access to music, part time enrollment, or sports programs in the local schools in my area. Resources for homeschoolers vary by area so you may want to consider that in your research. Secular class are pretty non existent in our county. I drove an hour each way for a science/lab class that wasn't based on the young earth view. Due to covid, we didn't attempt to take the PSAT this year so I can't comment on the process of scheduling to take SAT/ACT tests at one of the schools. Facebook homeschool groups may be helpful if you have narrowed down your search to an area.

We did 2:30pm private lessons in the past just to get the before 3pm discount. It was a challenge some days because it did break up the school, basically ended it for us, but the discount was why we did it. You will probably get some families willing to schedule the earlier time with a discount. This was well before high school though. We try and schedule everything after 5pm now. The group class would not have brought us in.

UMC. They were until our state decided that no covid precautions were necessary any longer and they followed. No masks required or social distancing unless you personally choose to do it. Another sign to us that it is time to seek other company. There have been other nudges to go, but this is more of a push. Another local UMC is taking it seriously so we will probably start there once we feel it is the right thing to return to indoor church.

We pay 2.5% to the county and the city and another 1.4% for the school district. Of course the county raises the value of our home every year too.

I only have a 9th grader this year so I'm not too far in, but I downloaded an excel transcript template and am using it to keep track of everything. I entered semester 1 grades in it for each subject and have a separate tab for course descriptions. I also created another tab with the 4 year plan on it. We are a mix of online live or asynchronous classes and parent created so that is helping keep my workload down. I do manage the schedule daily by having a quick discussion each morning on what needs to be accomplished. From a planning perspective, I would recommend creating the 4 year plan as others have said and researching what is out there for online classes and the cost in case you find that you need to outsource a subject. I also researched college requirements when she was in middle school, so I knew ahead of time what was needed for the 4 year plan. One school wants a bibliography of literature for homeschool students applying so I added that to the transcript tabs. My child doesn't have a major picked out yet so the standard 4 credits of each (math, science, English, language, social sciences) is making the planning easy. I also have a super slow kid, so I have to make sure I don't overload. Having a backup plan if the original is too much is helpful as it keeps my worrying down.

We had our power back for 6 hours yesterday and then it went out intermittently during the night. It has been on all day today. It is nice to feel normal. We lost water early this morning, but it is back now. I was so concerned with the low water pressure at first thinking we had a burst pipe in the attic that I went up there and crawled around on all fours checking the water tank in the attic and all visible pipes. We have a small guest room hot water tank in the attic. The main house one is in the garage. Fortunately, it was the city running out of water and not a burst pipe. Our temps are slowing increasing into the 20s so we are feeling better. Internet has been hit or miss. DD has used her mobile hot spot for classes and that has been working. I empathize with everyone still going through this.

As someone who just spent 33 hours without electricity in an all electric home, I just wish Texas would plan this better. I understand the rolling blackouts. The street next to us has 1 hour on and 1/2 hour off. We were off for 33 hours without any communication on why or if when power would be restored. Our main living areas are in the low 40s. We have a well insulated attic and newer windows. We put up comforters over the doors and have all the shutters closed to keep out the cold, but nothing works when it is 1 or 2 degrees and no power. We feel fortunate to own a generator. We put everyone in one room including pets and that room is holding at 55 degrees with a space heater. The 2nd heater is in a bathroom keeping the pipes from freezing. We are at the point of shutting off the water if this continues. We gave up on the pool and are hoping for the best. I keep hearing on the news that they knew the plants couldn't handle this. I hope some form of planning comes out of this.

We were fortunate enough to have a hen go broody and watched her raise 5 healthy chicks. It was a great experience much easier than buying chicks. Unfortunately four of the five were roosters. In the garden, we have been transplanting the blackberry canes that pop up everywhere. We planted a persimmon tree 2 years ago and harvested ONE fruit last year so we are giving it lots of attention this year. The first tray of pepper seeds have been started. All the other veggies seeds will be this week. I bought two horseradish roots as a fun project. They are in a bin in the portable greenhouse. I think I'm seeing a small bit of growth on them. I downsized the garden 2 years ago, now I want more beds again so that will be the main project (building and filling). I'll continue to add bat and butterfly attracting flowers. The projects never seem to end, but are a fun respite from schooling.

My final order for the year just came yesterday. I started another set of winter vegetables this week, lettuces, red cabbage, and kohlrabi. I have a bumper crop of napa cabbage just starting to head up. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all of it. We can only eat so much kimchi. I bought sweet paprika seed and cumin that I'm excited to try. I hope to harvest enough for cooking.

I am so happy to report that it was an eastern bluebird. I saw two sets fighting over a nest box in which two broods were raised last year. We have two other boxes up far enough apart to encourage new families.

We have started to go out to places where we can be outdoors with much space between us and people. We went for 2 days this month to an airbnb where we had no interaction with people except for the host outside and distanced at checkin. I cleaned down all surfaces and washed all dishes and pans when we checked in, and we brought our own food. We hiked with masks ready when needed at two local places there. We have stayed at places that are individual homes or cabins and feel that it allows us to stay isolated without people interaction and gets us out of our own house. We also will drive an hour or so to find new hiking trails. We always carry a mask, but have found most people are willing to step off the trail or we do to keep the distance. None of the places have been busy either so that makes it easier. We are planning on longer trips in late spring/early summer taking the same precautions. Renting an RV is another option we are considering. Campgrounds may be doable with a trailer or RV, but we have a tent, and it gets into the 30s at night here. For us, international travel will probably not be till 2022.

We are currently in TTU high school. It has been a hit or miss experience. We have one really great teacher that has responded with great explanations when we had questions. She also takes time during her office hours to really help when needed. We had two other teachers who I questioned their background. I felt that they were just there to grade papers and that didn't always go well either. Just like any institution, you have the good and the bad. Unfortunately we ended up with about an even split which has been frustrating. The courses are intended to be self taught. The TTU K12 website says that the classes are interactive, but we have taken 6 classes and they weren't. I say this only to caution you to dig deep before you sign up for a class. You may get a wonderful teacher that wants your student to learn.