You can just pull over and use it. Now that said, I prefer a little privacy, so we often just use rest areas when on the way to where we are going. We use it when dispersed camping (pull off on designated forestry roads, to flat areas set aside for camping rustic with no fees), we set it up inside a pop up tent. We then dig a hole and bury the contents when we leave. There are rules for this. Biodegradable only TP, must be buried deep and at least 100 feet away from any water source. Also, there are restrictions on soap. We have Dr. Bronners for washing dishes and hands, and their shampoo/body wash. I have leave in conditioner for our hair. Everything we use is plant based and environmentally safe. You also have to pack out your trash. I tend to not like to do this camping for more than a week. Ideally, about three days at a time, and then I am ready for shower facilities and unlimited hot water! 😁 The solar shower is just a simple Coleman shower. It hangs from a tree, and in the sunlight warms up a few gallons of water. We have a shower curtain we hang from the trees to provide some privacy from the road, and since it is a limited amount of hot water, we shower together. 😁 So far we have nor dispersed camped anywhere that we can't walk away from camp into the woods and dump our dish water because we use the environmentally friendly soap. But, you do have to be careful how much food bits are in the water. We tend to skim that out and put it in our trash bag inside the van because we aren't looking to attract bears. Mark does a good job of marking territory around the perimeter at night in the hopes of warning them that we are around. 😂😂😂

Okay, so the potatoes and salad greens this week are absolute junk. I don't know when I have seen such pathetic potatoes. Ever bag I looked at, no matter the variety, had sprouting and rotting potatoes. I ended up buying a couple of bags of cubed, frozen potatoes, and will use those for soups and mashed. We love baked potatoes for lunch with salads. So much for that! Sigh. The light levels are so low right now, nothing but grey skies, that it takes all I have to keep my herbs and chives going. I think I will buy a plant light, and try growing some leaf lettuce and spinach indoors again. I had some going a while back, but it just reached the place that they could not grow due to lack of light.

This right here explains some lectures our middle boy had in his undergrad in the Anthropology department! 😂😂😂

That is so sweet!

Thursday: Toast and the usual coffee assault Leftover chicken, saffron rice, green beans, and brussels from the night before, tang all Leftover lentil, carrot soup, hummus and veggies

Just gorgeous!

I would have stayed due to lack of choice. But when I left I would have had words. I can say that as a new mom, I was very vulnerable. It might have been years before I would have considered being in the same building with that person.

I hope so.

I understand about the therapist. Most Americans do not realize that the queen holds ALL the rights to determine these things for her offspring and their offspring. Did you know that by British law, the monarch is the legal guardian of their grandchildren? Now normally, I would imagine Queen Elizabeth ad no interest in micromanaging all the day to day minutiae of raising children, and certainly not mundane things. But, they actually have to have permission from the institution, meaning someone told mummy and mummy said okay, for something like accessing mental health care and that provider has to be fully vetted and approved by the establishment. Megan, by virtue of marrying into this royal disaster, had no right to a therapist until the institution gained permission, and figured out whom they were going to allow to be the therapist. This is a sticky issue of "image" for the crown. Megan's birth plan had to be approved by the crown, all of that. So the fact that Harry had a therapist on speed dial means that his request for assistance went through all the proper channels, and then approval, vetting, and set up. Who knows how long it took. British law allows Charles to demand Archie and Lilibet be returned to his custody. The sticky wicket that won't fly is that Archie and Lilibet are also U.S. citizens and our courts won't play that game. He would be utterly stupid to try because this would be soooo messy between two NATO allies. Howevere, there it is. I think it is entirely possible one reason they settled here and not Canada was that it was important if a family fight was as going to go down, that they were outside the jurisdiction of a commonwealth country. Queen Victoria overrode her children's wishes for their children all the time. She micro managed her grandchildren, their nannies, you name it, and when Kaiser Wilhelm, her grandson, was born in Germany, she micro managed the labor and delivery plan from England, insisted on an English physician of her choosing attend the birth, and then arranged for what we would describe today as the torture of a baby/child to try to make his paralyzed arm work, birth injury from being born breech. It was grotesque what she ordered done to that child, and though Alice had married into a different royal house in another country, the British Monarch still retained the rights to dictate what happened to that child. Depraved.

Sigh. I exercised this morning, was feeling great, and then about 5 my notes ago realized I forgot to do the crunches. I am currently fly dressed in NOT comfy clothes for exercising. My choice is to do them later or go change. I have a headache, so I think I will wait until bedtime, put on my pjs and do them then.

I think this is valid. It seems like people who are raised in the public eye, have a hard time actually then figuring out how to be private. Even B listers have this issue. Jinger Vuolo made several public statements about having issues as child living the Duggar life on that stupid TLC show. She made statements after she was married about wanting a private life. Yet what does she do? Keeps trying to make money off her "celebrity" with all kinds of hair brained things like vlogs with product placement, writing a book about IBLP and then incessantly promoting it, making cooking videos (which are atrocious because she cannot cook so don't go looking for them, you will gain nothing), a Jinger coffee bean scheme, etc. She does do a good job, like Megan and Harry, of keeping her kids off social media, and not photographed. But literally, she has zero privacy by her own making. She could have faded into obscurity. I have to wonder if there is something broken in adults whose parents exploited them for prestige and money. They don't seem to connect the dots as though they are totally lost just being a private joe.

They won't. The institution is well invested in never changing. The change that could come would be what is impressed upon them by force, such as the court of public opinion deciding it is time to do away with the monarchy or at least seriously trim it, and then choosing not to pay it much attention to the place that it occupies such a minor role in British life, that it becomes unimportant. If the institution itself is trimmed to a skeleton staff, and is not a job that is revered, just one more administrative job in the sea of administrative positions, then there could be meaningful change. And I agree on the other topic of Harry's swipe at his brother's looks. Not every thought we think needs to be put on paper in a memoir. I get it because pain is pain, and after the paparazzi and the tabloids, the gross cartoons, etc. going after Megan for the color of her skin, the speculation of the color of Archie (It is truly heart breaking how depraved people are), he was simply lashing out, and especially at William if William was either complicit in the racism or indifferent to his pain. However, it does not serve any legitimate purpose to put that out for public consumption.

Yes, and due to that and his own admission to the problems associated, he had been active in highlighting the need for better and more accessible mental health treatment, particularly for children. That had been one of his charitable endeavors. These boys were absolutely traumatized by the way the old lady and their pervert father handled Diana's death. It would be awful for any kid. Those morons made it a million times worse with their stupid "image protection" and simply not giving a sh#t because well, narcissism.

I am really not a fan of "pretending to torture or kill" programs of any kind. I don't think any parent sends their kid to school hoping they will be "taught" a fact by way of panic attack. On top of which, kids in school have enough anxiety without something like this. Why can't common sense be exercised? Oh wait. Right. Commons sense is so rare these days it is practically a super power.

I think anyone raised by that sewer rat, Charles, and subjected to the insidious control of the institution, can write a book and call it whatever they want. He may contradict himself, we humans often do when we are in pain and grieving, but that disgusting excuse of a family, deserves what they get. I would be fine with someone outing the queen for continually protecting her rapist son, Randy Andy, and any other of the gross things she did. She was not some nice, sweet old lady. The list of atrocities committed against her offspring is truly gross. The royal institution, by design, is inherently narcissistic and depraved.

Me too. I have a hard time with this one.

I have not read it. I am in the middle of doing a lot of sewing so haven't had any time to consider if I want to buy it or not. I have read some of the released excerpts and Harry quotes from interviews. My opinion of the royal family, as a whole, and particularly as parents is in the sewer. I consider Charles and Camilla to be basically, sewer rats! Historically, spare, male heirs have just always been treated like total crap in ruling families so nothing he would say about his experiences would shock me. What I wish for him is to recognize that his family is toxic and thoroughly dysfunctional. They are never going to upend the Institution, they are never going to truly change, and they will continue to be toxic. Accept it. Grieve. Stop pandering for acceptance and love that they will never give. These stunted people don't have the emotional capacity nor desire to give it. He can't really have a relationship with them. Get therapy, cut them off, and build a new life. He has the opportunity to do an amazing thing for Archie and Lillibet. He can give them a life outside of the Institution which is a great gift. My sister said that part and parcel of all the wars and crusades in Europe during the Middle Ages was a need for the Lords of the land to have something to do with their extra sons since they would not be inheriting. Those sons could win land and reputation by waging war or have it gifted to them by the church for going on a crusade, and all that jazz. If they were killed off, at least they weren't back home jealous and fighting with their oldest brother and plotting against the heir. I have no idea if this is true. She lives in France and reads a lot of French history books! However, with the abject stupidity and inhumanity of the system, I could also see that really being the reason behind a lot of the warring. I will be checking in from time to time to see where the discussion goes.

I am willing to give him a little grace here. His wife is super ill with C diff and dementia, and my guess is he was feeling a bit desperate. We all exhibit human frailty at times. I am far more judgmental of him refusing to see reality about his wife and the level of care she needs. One thing is for sure, if he had nowhere else to take that calf, it would have laid outside and died. He could not have cared for it and his wife, not to mention that he also had to see to the disposal of the cow's body because he couldn't just leave the mother's corpse laying around. Health code/safety takes precedence. It is just so unfortunate how it played out. Ideally, he should be retiring from the farm work while caring for his wife, but most of us never get the privilege of ideal situations. Rough all around. I give OP's Dd props for trying and showing Jenkins tenderness until he passed. Baby livestock tug heartstrings.

I am not sure what your budget is, but if you can afford the fwbric, batting and longarm services, having the kids hand sew four patch blocks and assemble a simple quilt that can then be auctioned or raffles for a good cause might be fun.

Today, Wednesday, was a good eating day. A little oatmeal. Not a lot. I don't like the stuff. But it is supposed to be good for me so I occasionally partake. Coffee Bean slaughter. Lunch - Lentil and carrot soup with Greek yogurt and salads. So yummy. Dinner - already done so we met out goal of eating early and being done for the day. Roast chicken thigh, saffron rice, steamed green beans, roast Brussels sprouts.

😱 Sorry!

Still haven't exercised. I am going to take Lewis for a long walk before the sun goes down. Then in the morning, I will do it as soon as dh is out the door.

I don't know. I have considered torching the house and living in the mini-van camper or on our sailboat so I don't have to dust anymore. My husband thinks this is an extreme reaction.

And I think also folks who would just keep distance, but not cut off...parameters, some contact, just not intense, are forced into it because long distance calls are no longer expensive, email and internet make it crazy easy to bombard someone with unwanted messaging, and people with poor boundaries can just harass the tar out of their loved ones. I could more easily have an occasional phone call and email thing with my brother if it cost him money to stalk me, and if I didn't live two blocks away. There could be "moderation", but proximity and the fact that it is easy and cheap to spew his toxicity on me, that I had to enforce extreme boundaries, same with my paternal niece and her very venomous mother. So ya, I think " the good ole days" of being able to move away, and then it was 50cents or a $1 or more a minute to call, and letters are easily ignored or "lost in the mail" made it possible to limit contact, but not cut relatives out entirely. My niece's biggest fear is her mother will use her frequent flier miles and a taxi/uber to show up on niece's doorstep. Her mom is literally not a person who can be allowed to cross the threshold. She doesn't want to have that scene on front of her 8 year old son who is allowed a once per quarter phone call with grandma on speakerphone for daddy to participate. Just ugh. When they moved, she didn't give her mom the new address, but her mother easily found them with some internet digging.

Moveable. I used Kodaly and Orff when I taught youngsters in school. I am rather eclectic and was in a position where the schools did not dictate music curriculum so I could do my own thing. I prefer an early introduction to the concept of transposition because it makes life so much easier when kids get into band.