Dd is having gaps in decent produce such as broccoli crowns that are not already going bad, fresh mushrooms, green onions that will last more than a day or two in the fridge, same for celery. Seems like it is a shipping thing, and then timing her curbside pick up with the day produce comes in. I have read that tomatoes shortages are going to be an ongoing thing with a significant percentage of vegetable farmers in California choosing not to plant any in the coming year because of irrigation issues and another large number looking at cutting back significantly in the amount they plant. This is going to cause all tomato products to rise in cost. We can get fresh tomatoes for salads that are Michigan raised year round here because we have some farm with greenhouses and doing hydroponics which conserves water. But not bulk. Not enough to make barbecue sauces, salsa, and enchilada sauces all the time for less than whatever they are going to charge per jar or can. I have 28 quarts of tomatoes put away for winter, and believe me I am in ration mode already. I have enough dehydrated cherry tomatoes to handle all of our salads until next harvest. But I am worried, worried, worried, about where climate change is headed for my kids and grandkids. So since temps may be pretty frigid this winter, and food is just going to keep rising but wages aren't going to keep pace, our Christmas gifts for our adult sons who are all still living in Michigan are quilts, draft dogs for their exterior doors, window quilts, and then a bunch of freezer meals as well as some staples like 10 lbs of rice and rice cookers, home canned sauces, and beef and chicken for their freezers as well. They all have decent freezers and some pantry storage space but their rentals are drafty and the landlords have no intention of doing anything about that. They keep their heat at 62 during the day, and 65 at night to save money. Not exactly glamorous gifts, but appreciated. I am trying to make the quilts really nice with extra warm batting for the middle layer. Dd and hubby are better set except for some items that are quite hard to find in Huntsville, so when she was home this summer, we gifted them a whole bunch in advance...30 lbs of sil's alternative flour, organic brown rice (half price at home compared to Alabama), etc. I also gave them 13 of the quarts of dehydrated apple chips for snacks. We have toys and pajamas for the little for Christmas morning. I have noticed my mom, whose budget is tight, cutting back at the grocery store and eating a less diabetic friendly diet because of rising prices, so we will be inviting her to eat with us more often, and paying some of her propane bill this winter which will free up money for groceries.

Totally dead. It froze at night for several days. The last of the apples dropped off the tree, and the tomatoes finally gave up entirely. The basil has been inside for a while and is doing well. So my winter garden is going to be window pots of chives, basil, mint, and bean sprouts in a canning jar. Since I am in Alabama with the grandkids, Mark winterized my raised beds, piling them deep in leaves, and then covered with tarps. I do have a small little greenhouse stand for this spring, and in April will start plants from seed for May planting.

I agree whole heartedly! The "you can have it all" messaging is damaging. The pie in the sky, it will all work out in the end, messaging is a disservice. The Leave it Beaver ideas have to go because reality does not match them. So many women have been crushed, especially those divorced by the primary bread winner of the family, by being sold this snake oil. The number of women know who are facing a horrific future of barely an adequate shelter, barely enough food on the table if not full on food insecurity, facing homelessness in their elder years, is astronomical because they gave up their career building opportunities for the SAHM gig only to be divorced in the mid-forties, early fifties by husbands moving on to greener pastures, and taking all their earning power, the family health insurance, you name it with them. This is exponentially worse now because the house gets sold and split 50/50, but since she had low earning potential, she cannot afford housing in the current market, but he takes his high income with him, his high credit rating, and his half of the proceeds making it possible for him to buy another home, or to rent a decent abode in a decent neighborhood. Even if there are minors and he is paying child support, he is paying a lot less than even half of what it takes for his children to be cared for which means in essence his income goes up, and hers goes down dramatically. So yes, we need to be very honest with our daughters and our granddaughters about making these choices, and we need to educate our sons and grandsons about the lopsidedness, and teach them to work to make this better. I think there are a lot of countries who do better in this regard. Scandinavian countries come to mind. Iceland, whose female prime minister at one point openly breast fed an infant on the floor of parliament while conducting the affairs of the country, and that was just a perfectly acceptable thing was something that would not happen here. We can make it easier. Never equal because gestation, birth, post partum cannot be distributed to men. But, it doesn't have to be so damn skewed and hard. However, I also think that religiously, there is a determination to see religious, cultural beliefs about women that have to be overcome. It also means an overhaul of the family court system, and I don't see that happening any time soon.

Hi, we have been eating an ever increasing amount of steamed or roasted veggies, particularly green ones. I think we have leveled off because we really have made it to seven servings a day of veggies for me, and five for dh who also eats two or three servings of fruit. I think if I get anymore fiber, I am going to have trouble. But we also have been eating smaller servings of meat so maybe 3 oz, and I am doing two rice or GF pasta based meals per week plus a pot of meatless soup for us to munch on throughout the week, usually chili or wild rice carrot with veggie broth and a lot of herbs. I have been baking some gf bread, and for our recent trip to Alabama, we packed food to eat in the car. No restaurant food. I am tired of cooking, but I do feel really good.

My daughter is trying to explain a math lesson to her seven year old as I type while the hyped up 3 year old who is all emotional and won't let me help him, is at her elbow melting down and demanding a piece of candy. All I can say is may the universe smile on every single staff member of every school in this nation today.

We did the same. We got a heavenly mattress from Westin. We LOVE our bed.

Honestly, when I talk to young women these days, the bulk I know are not willing to have children, and the top reasons are that men do not step up for the most part, there is no respect for women for taking on the role of mother, and they put themselves at huge financial peril for becoming mothers since it is nearly impossible to NOT take a major career hit unless independently wealthy enough to afford a full time nanny to do all the mom stuff that inevitably causes them to miss work thus getting on management's hit list for not being the ideal employee. Young men seem to be making these decisions for financial/economic stability reasons as well as global political insecurity, and climate change. But they never express having to worry about their careers or any other major aspirations in life being impacted by parenting. This demonstrates just how incredibly one sided the burden of child rearing is still in the supposedly modern, 2022 America. I think whatever generation this is being born at the moment, it is going to be tiny comparatively speaking in the U.S. Not only are Millenials having fewer kids than Gen X, but GEN Z, I predict, even far fewer than M's. This is what a society gets for so profoundly disrespecting women, and then turning a blind eye to the needs of families in order to keep a working slave class so the Elon Musks of the world can keep consolidating more and more wealth.

We tackled Halloween yesterday evening with a party for our grandsons. We are now very, very tired. Their daddy is taking them trick or treating - 10 houses in a friend's neighborhood (which is much larger than that) - tonight, so all the fun but not much candy. I am making a very yummy spaghetti with steamed broccoli for dh, myself, and Dd while we stare catatonically at the walls trying to recover.

I have had to sew mine from high quality quilt fabric because it was the only way to get the larger size. I have no idea why placemats do not come large enough for a full place setting, however I do suspect that maybe in times past - Leave it to Beaver era - the idea was mom and kids at home for breakfast and lunch eating the small meals thus not needing a larger placemat, and then when the "man of the house" came home, out came the tablecloth, china, and candlesticks...very "Mona Lisa Smile, Vassar College" kind of stuff. I could be wrong though. At any rate, if would be nice if manufacturers caught on. I also hate the poly crap excuses for cloth napkins which absorb exactly nothing, and stain easily, so I have been making a big stack of cloth napkins as well. It is just dh and I now, however, not only do we love cloth napkins, but all of my holiday ones were completely faded/worn out. We will be hosting T Day, Christmas Eve, and Easter this year with all three of our sons and our daughter in law plus honorary two daughters and their respective husband/fiance` so I need placemats for breakfasts and lunches, and napkins for all the meals plus themed ones for the big holiday meal. Other than sewing them custom, I have no idea how to get the size you want. Maybe a fine china store would carry them?

Behr paint through Home Depot has one cup samples they will mix for you. It was quite cheap. We brought them home and just painted little patches that received natural light, and then we could see what our favorite ones would really look like on the walls. It was worth the dollars spent on those samples.

I relate to this. Still glad to be married to dh, and do not regret having children. But if we had it to do all over again, I would have pursued my career harder, longer before the arrival of the first child, then used that money to buy a home in a super good school district and NOT homeschooled. I have zero retirement apart from dh, and the whole pressure of making too much money for our kids to get college financial aid, and not enough to write checks to four years of tuition, room and board a piece, has fallen on his shoulders alone which has been a lot of stress. OP, I am very sorry. Many, many hugs.

It was fun! Unfortunately, the weather really did not cooperate for the catapult. But, pumpkin painting was wildly successful, and Mark had a projector that shows the constellations of this time of year in the northern hemisphere so that was fun too. We were able to get the room dark enough for it to work. I cannot believe how many cookies my almost three year old grandson sneaked and ate. Boy, he was one wired kid to get down for the night!

This evening is the Halloween party we planned for our grandsons. I still need to clean up the living room and mop the kitchen floor. But the monster strawberries, kiwi frankensteins, tombstone carrots, spider deviled eggs, no bake cookie monsters, tangelo pumpkins, three kinds of decorated cookies, vegetable tray, cheese tray, and cotton candy machine are ready. I still have to bake the mini-franks mummies, the potions to drink, the cauliflower brain, and assemble the treat bags (glow sticks, Bertie Bots Every Flavored Beans, bubbles, stickers, slime dough, and a cookie), and have a shower. The best part is Dd is feeling really well so she prepped all the veggies, iced the cookies, and helped with decorating. We have a catapult and each child can launch a biodegradable pouch of veggie/fruit leftovers into the cove, plus pumpkin painting, pumpkin bowling, potion making, and a free play area, and will have "Curse of the Wererabbit" playing on the living room wall with sil's DVD projector. I will also run a "creepy story" station and have a bunch of cute, children's short stories ready. I have been reading the Bunnicula books to the oldest grandson for the last two weeks. He and I are having a blast with that.

Sigh. I have four lap quilts to make between now and then plus a set of hot pads and placemats for new dil, Thanksgiving dinner to host, a youth orchestra performance to conduct (just substituting because the conductor fell off a ladder this past weekend and broke his arm in two places which required surgery to fix not to mention dislocated his shoulder - OUCH), so when I get back from Alabama on the 5th, a rehearsal schedule to add to my calendar, two piano performances of my own, and a family wedding all sandwiched in there. I feel tired already, and I am still prepping for our grandsons' Halloween party. I am planning on a restive coma following the Christmas Eve Smorrebrod that I put on for the family. 😀

All of my kids are grown, and they are awesome people whom we truly love to spend time with and who can also be counted on when the chips are down. Our son in law is an excellent father to our grandsons, and our new, soon to be daughter in law, is a real joy. I feel very, very fortunate. I know so many people who have poor relationships with their adult children, so I feel extra lucky. I will have our three sons and new dil for Thanksgiving. I am very much looking forward to hosting the holiday for them.

I like making a pot of veggie and wild rice soup, a pot of chilli, grilled cheeses, cut into fourths that folks can use a soup dippers, and then tray of fruit - kiwi and mandarin orange slices, pineapple chunks. Easy but hearty. It also isn't a lot of pots and pans, baking dishes and the like to clean up.

No, we cannot talk about Christmas! 😁

La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la I can't hear you!

I wouldn't be thrilled with modern, recent folks being memorialized in this way just because their deaths are more raw to their families and friends. But historical characters from several generations before would be fine with me. We have only one tombstone for the holiday. It says, "Here lies Ebenezer Scrooge" and is a left over piece of scenery/prop from when I was prop master for a production of "A Christmas Carol".

We have started decorating for my grandsons' party. I have been making all of them to save money, using my daughter's kid craft supplies. i have a lot of spooky fun healthy snacks to make plus cut out cookies, but I won't make those until the day before. We will have games, pumpkin decorating, and a kid themed Halloween movie to watch. Here is one of the things I have made.

Writing tickets. Not kidding. It is nearly impossible to get any LEOs in my area to show up to take a report on ANYTHING. We are on our own entirely. Every last one of them is on traffic patrol. It is a great revenue maker for the state. Lots of money, no need to incarcerate, and a state law here allows a high percentage of their fines to go directly back to the police department to fund their salaries directly so they have a huge incentive to spend all day writing tickets. They do still show up at car accidents to help, but otherwise everyone knows you don't call 911 and ask for police for any other reason here. I have a neighbor who is a retired, career army guy. If I had a crisis, a reason to be scared, facing potential violence, he would be my first phone call, not 911.

You weren't being snarky. You genuinely suggested, rightfully, that the restrictions for pot being related to age and dysfunction should be applied equally and especially to things that are more egregious by far than pot such as alcohol, and very much for military. It still boggles my brain that we will send 18 year olds to a war zone with an automatic rifle or hand grenades or whatever and have them make a judgment call about who deserves killing, BUT it is a bridge too far for them to buy a beer to smoke a joint. That makes ZERO sense. You were being logical. I think it was taken as snarky because sometimes having one's thinking on a topic challenged or pointing out logical inconsistency is taken as a personal attack.

Right. That isn't actually illegal. You can swallow rat poison, lye, whatever. We don't have laws against possessing those things. Killing yourself by alcohol poisoning is not illegal. The key is you don't physically harm or kill someone else when you do it. You can legally traumatize the hell out of them with your actions so long as they aren't considered assault. Our legal system is that things are legal until a law is passed to make them illegal. So it isn't a valid argument. Alcohol abuse is WAY worse than marijuana use. Prohibition gave us nothing but a thriving mafia. The war on drugs gave us druglords among the richest individuals in the world, guerrilla wars, ungodly amounts of violence, and non-violent addicts locked up without medical/mental health treatment while rapists and abusers have run free. Meanwhile, alcohol and cigarettes and plenty of other far worse substances remain legal, and easily accessible.

We bought these and have loved them. They have been all over France, Egypt, the U.S., and Italy, and have held up to whatever the airlines do to them. To be fair, except for one flight on W.O.W before they went belly up, we have flown mostly Delta, Air France, Lufthansa, and EgyptAir. I know United and a couple of others have a reputation with some folks for being extra hard on luggage (don't know if it is true or not, just hears from some other travelers that this had been their experience), and our suitcases have not been with other carriers. Wait, except my mom borrowed them recently and was on Southwest. At any rate, they roll incredibly easily, they are light, and they have held up very well for us. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00TJMKD02/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Decriminalize. We fill prisons with non violent drug users and then leave the rapists and abusers on the streets. I am not for treating a marijuana user the same or worse than the Brock Turner's of the world. We pay more of a price in this society over cigarette smoke and alcoholism than cannibis. Seriously. Think about that. If cannabis is illegal, then for damn sure cigarettes and alcohol should be. But wince we have decided that adults get to make the choice about that stuff, we should let them make the choice about cannabis which is actually less dangerous than the other two.