Ours eliminated lockers. Kids have to tote everything to class. Part of the reason was practicality. They schedule classes with only 5 minutes in between, and combined grades 7-12 into one building. Hallways were congested, and no one who locker was on one end of the building to get to their locker and back to the opposite end on time. It got easier when they decided "who needs books", and decided a book was a tragedy perpetuated on youth, and thought a notebook/kindle thing was better. At least the kids are not getting bad backs from toting 60 lbs of books around all day. But mostly, it just makes my brain twitch. They sold the lockers at auction. It was shocking just how many lockers that was. But apparently some of them dated back to the 1960's when the high school population was 3 or 4 times the size it is now. They do have coat hooks and racks at the entrances, and in many of the classrooms so in the winter kids can hang those up and not haul them from room to room.

I don't know how many of you are aware of the background of Doug Phillips of Vision Forum infamy from the 90's and 2000's until his flaming fall from the homeschool movement. Here it is because it is very much aligned with the issues Pam in Ct was posting about. Doug's father, Howard Phillips, was a political activist who formed the Constitution Party, now known as the TaxPayer Party. You may have seen the taxpayer party on a ballot with some obscure name next to it and wondered what that was all about. Howard formed this party, and even campaigned for president, on a platform of "Christian women should vote for me so I can institute a 'city on a hill' theocracy in which as soon as I am elected, I will repeal women's voting rights because that is god's plan" kind of thing. He didn't get far, but he did run three times ,1992, 1996, and 2000. He didn't get more than 200,000 votes in any one of these runs, however you do need to imagine the potential influence of someone who had just enough funding to run around the country stumping in a lot of states, speaking in a lot of churches and faith based conventions. Imagine what happens to the right to credit, the right to enter rental contracts, car loans, the right to bank accounts, if the right to vote goes the way of the Dodo.s He essentially took up the flame of Phyllis Schafly and Jerry Falwell which had begun dying down a good bit. It helped launch Doug's career, a career that put him first in the halls of Homeschool Legal Defense Association, and then later to Vision Forum and homeschool conventions all over the US, special speaker in many conservative environs around the nation, and much liked by several prominent policy makers. So Howard and Doug may have been thought of as fringe to many, many regular people just going about their lives thinking whackadoodles will never get the upper hand on issues. Yet, fringe often does have a lot more influence than we tend to notice until that moment when we get hit upside the head with the proverbial iron skillet and go, "Where the heck did that come from!" I hope that was not too political. And is very difficult to talk about ideology and how those ideas infiltrate our culture without making any reference to politics. I am more than willing to delete this content if it deemed over the line. The degradation of women's rights returns half the population of this nation and their children to a subclass that has no way out of male domination when things go wrong. I think about John MacArthur who excommunicated a woman from his church for divorcing her husband who was sexually abusing their children. The husband went to prison, but she lost her church family and support because "how dare she". I am very thankful that the state of California was not an autocracy under theological ideology that made it impossible for her to get out. As for MacArthur, you can only imagine what I think of him. It would have to be expressed with symbols, because the words would be highly inappropriate for this forum! That is the mess Jinger Duggar Vuolo is knee deep inside. Sigh. Out of the frying pan, and into the fire, as the saying goes.

I think that if we were talking about the crunchy, earth mom influence, then that is a very valid point. Most of the influencers I have seen do not appear to espousing this at all given the sheer amount of lab/manufactured fibers used in their clothing, decor, etc.

I agree wholeheartedly with the performative aspect, and certainly so among "influencers". There is also this kind of mean girl hierarchy, " Look at me. I am better than you because I am doing what God says women should do" kind of attitude. Then there is the whole "Above rubies" thing where they casually forget that this woman had servants to run the home so she could be devoted to business. Above Rubies type theology permeated a lot of homeschool groups and women's faith conventions in the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's, and it was built on a false ideology that the average woman without servants, without the kind of living community of the time period in which it was written was even doable, much less even being desirable or well suited for all women. It was a mess, and this tradwife thing seems to continue to be founded on a one size fits all diminution of womanhood to one very narrow focus. Think about a lot of the speaker at the larger homeschool conferences that weren't Gothard. Doug Wilson, Doug Phillips, Videos Baucham, Geoff Botkin, Josh Harris to some degree, RC Sprout Jr, and many others. Here is an article from the New Yorker that is very interesting. https://www.newyorker.com/news/on-religion/the-unmaking-of-biblical-womanhood The women of Duggar and Bates acclaim might seem to be some sort of extreme, aberrations whose influence should not be taken seriously. But, Jinger - very much still in deep, just with a different leader John MacArthur - Jessa, and Joy have millions of followers. So though they might be considered fringe by boarded here, their IBLP style message disguised by looking more mainstream, is a bit more influential than some would like to believe. These are just three examples. There are many more whose influence has seeped into public life in a very subtle, but definitely noticeable way at a time when human rights are being eroded rather quickly.

The sadbeigechildren thing is about this very popular aesthetic with influencer moms where literally it seems like everything their baby wears, plays with, everything she decorates with, is beige, cream, and grey but mostly beige. Zero color. It is the most boring color palette ever. Not a splash of color anywhere. Jessa and Joy Duggar who do the influencing thing ( and let me just say I am really disgusted by it because it is 100% pimping out their kids for money) and their videos are just, well, sad and beige. Carlin Bates, And just so many others who are well known extreme fundamentalist moms are very into this. The meme was born when people began to notice the trend among them, and I am not exaggerating when I say it is difficult to find any hint of bright color or even a pastel on these kids, around these kids, in the decor. It is 100% neutral, and the least striking neutrals at that. Not even chocolate brown or dark, charcoal grey. It makes everything blend together and look so bland. People feel sorry for the babies especially because as vision is developing the lack of color must be so boring.

There is a comic book and antique store in West Branch, MI that has a very big collection. I don't know if they would be interested in buying all of it, but it might be worth asking. West Branch Comics and Antiques - 989-726-5015 A&A Comic Book Store Lansing - 517-303-3445 The Shire Comics, Commerce - 248-895-8037 They are actively advertising that they are buying comics. I am so sorry about your brother. Hugs

Have any of you seen the movie, "Mona Lisa Smile"? The propaganda from those looking to restrict women to a Leave it to Beaver type nostalgia reminds me of the scenes from the movie in which the instructors of Vassar College tried to prep the students for their inevitable marriage outcome in which they have to be perfect 24/7 without ambition or aspiration, making everything just perfect for their perfect, pipe smoking, successful, future politician/rich/business husbands going so far as to not require class attendance nor test taking or homework if they married prior to graduation so that they could set up house and make things all nice nice for their perfect husbands. If you haven't seen it and have HBO MAX streaming, I think it is available on that platform. It is exactly the kind of thing that Prairiewindmomma and others are alluding to, and it is kind of thought provoking. We haven't had the right to vote, to own property, to have bank accounts and investments, an ability to live as adults with autonomy and non-dependency upon men for very long. There is, I believe, a movement within some conservative, religious elements to erode those rights until the accepted narrative for women is Mona Lisa Smile or worse. In the instance of this speech, I think the entire thing, not just her voice, is the issue. There is so much subtext with the speech, the setting, the slant, mannerisms...

My.eyes.are.bleeding.

Navymom, your instincts are screaming at you that being involved is bad for you and your family. You didn't want financial POA and got goaded into it. Do not agree to the loan, and rescind your POA. You didn't know want to be pulled in, and now they are trying to do that. NO, stoutly given, is a full sentence, and that is ALL the attorney, your parents, and anyone else needs to hear. Once you tell them you are no longer willing to be POA. Do whatever has to be done in your state to be removed from that, and then ignore communications from your dad and the attorney. If they can't draw you into communications, they can't manipulate you. Put your mental health and your family's future ahead whatever this mess is they are trying to draw you into.

I would not do that. States are going after people who help hide parental assets and income from medicaid. This close to the application time, and it could very well be problematic. You want to keep your financials entirely separate of your parents and let the chips fall where they may.

Nm

That makes sense. I thought she was recovering in one of their not in London castle/palace/houses. I can totally Ser things being green in London. I sure wish that they didn't need to make any kind of statements or release photos or anything.

I am now up to 1 bell pepper, 8 lettuce, 2 sugar snap peas, and 2 broccoli having sprouted. Onwards and upwards. I am making sure that the grow lights are on my new seedlings for 8 hrs a day or a little more just to make sure they don't get leggy. Of course they are still very small. Fingers crossed for more new babies tomorrow!

Okay, this new revelation is just bizarre to me! My impression of the British royal family, admittedly from the perspective of being American, is that they basically can't even admit to sneezing without a script. (Obviously an exaggeration but you get my point.) But it was so all fired important to release a Mother's Day photo that the bright idea was to have an amateur alter a photograph and release it? What? This makes no sense. If it was so ridiculously important to release a holiday photo and show her off as being healthy, then why didn't they bring in a photographer, prop her up on some couch cushions, set the kids around her, and everyone say "cheese"? Seriously, even Prince William could have done a better point and shoot candid photo and averted this crazy mess. I just don't get it. It seems like if ending speculation was the objective, this made it worse and was an easily foreseen outcome. And they are letting her take the wrap which I also find odd. One would think that to preserve family dignity, they would have found a staff flunky to make the fall guy. Isn't that normally how it is done? Oh well. I really wish that they didn't feel ANY pressure to release information, photos, anything. Good grief. She had surgery, and anyone with a brain knows that a two week hospitalization and a pre-emptive " She is going to be out of commission for 2-3 months " statement means it was serious, and she needs time to recover. Even my niece needed 6-8 weeks to be recovered from her very infected gall bladder removal. It seems insane to me that there was any need to release a statement or a photo.

AI and Photoshop can produce some really bad photos. As much as they have all been photographed, one would think the family would have had something better to release that hadn't been published before. I get that the rag mags are always speculating about her. But they had announced she would be out of commission until Easter which is only 20 days away. Seems like releasing any photo wasn't actually necessary. I just don't get it. Wouldn't a statement like "Hey everyone, Princess Katherine is recovering nicely, and following her doctor's orders. She will follow best medical practice, and will return to public appearances only when it is deemed best. Thanks for your concern" have been a better option than a weird photo? As for altered photos with both Photoshop and AI, it is becoming pretty serious. It is very possible to utterly fake embarrassing and damning photos, and of course as a general rule, it is on the victim to prove the photos are faked. Even video as well. It is pretty scary in the grand scheme of things. From what Mark has said about the technology, it would be pretty easy to destroy people's lives because the tech is now so good.

There is something off with the photo. Louis has finger crossed, but not in the usual way of middle finger over index, and the pointer finger on that hand actually looks like the finger is amputated at the first joint. George is leaning forward with his arms around his mum, but her head is not impacted by the force of his body leaning forward. The princess is not wearing her wedding ring which seems very unusual if the point of releasing the photo is to assure the public that everything is well with the family. It appears that from the lush grass and tree leaves, the photo was taken last spring or early autumn. I don't really follow royal news, but I have been following some of the issues with AI generated photos, and the personal woes it is causing for a lot of people. So this ended up on my radar. And of course, it might not be manipulated. I don't know that any experts have weighed in on it. I do think it is sad that the family is just not left alone. This could just be another source of frustration and pain.

Hmmmm.....I think Pecan pie might be in order.

I wish I knew! Lake Michigan - red flags, waves 10-12 ft high, riptide warnings everywhere with don't swim on the sign, people still go out and drown. Lake Huron, Port Austin - Don't kayak, sail, motorboat, swim Shipwreck point - signs everywhere, big warnings, red flags, capital letters. So what does a dingdong set of parents from the burbs of Detroit do, people who have NEVER kayked before in their lives? Decide to kayak the point at sunset for the view with two kids in tow. Damn lucky to be alive. A fishing trawler saw them and called the sheriff whose water crew rescued them. They had capsized and were in the water for 2 hrs at that point. Thankfully the kids had life vests on. I doubt they would be alive to tell the tale otherwise. Lake Huron, Saginaw Bay - State Police, Coast Guard, DNR, and Sheriff warnings that the ice is thing, don't go out there. All over the news, the radio, and signs at the state parks. What does an ice fishing idiot do? Drives his pickup truck out on the ice, goes through, and drowns. Just the other day, Rocky Mountain National Park- Stay away from wildlife. Darwin Award Seeker decides to try to pet a moose and her calf, narrowly escapes the much deserved goring. I will never get it. I actually think it is related to disrespect for authority. How dare anyone tell me I shouldn't do x, y, z. That's my working theory anyway.

Nm

NM

That sounds like a crazy maker! Our ground is at 44F, needs to be 50 in order to put rhubarb plants out. Our plants are very very old and not producing so I want to buy 2 new ones and get them in before we leave for the wedding on the 28th. I have row cover so if there is a chance of deep enough cold to injury them, my mom can cover them. But still too cold. I have some old windows with really nice wood frame, and am considering covering that patch of ground in windows to help it heat up. The downside is that it is in an area that could get falling tree branches if we had high winds, and we have had terrible bouts of high wind very regularly. Just nutty. The best laid plans of mice and men..... I hope things get better very quickly so you can get your plants out. This afternoon, a lettuce sprout popped up. I have been feeling very self satisfied. 🤣

Michigan has some ordinances for tiny homes such as must meet all building codes for homes, and be no smaller than 250 square feet for two people, 450 square feet for a family of four. They allow local zoning boards to govern whether or not and under what circumstances they are allowed. They are called ADU's, accessory dwelling units, and currently are allowed in Kalamazoo, Lansing. Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Dearborn, Traverse City, and Briley Township. Our township does not specifically disallow them, but also has enough zoning in place as to what constitutes an allowed dwelling vs a shed, and where you can put them and what you can do with them, that it would be quite difficult to have one and let someone live in it. A lot of this is because they have had some very bad experiences with farmers using migrant workers and putting 10 people in small sheds for housing with one porta potty for 30 or more people leading to folks toileting in the fields and ditches. They had to tackle that issue big time which made the farmers mad, and so if they started letting people live in ADU's without meeting all the permanent dwelling building codes, there would be a pretty big backlash.

I have a broccoli seed that has sprouted! 💃💃💃💃💃

We have been to many weddings, and nearly every single favor was a flop/waste of money. If something must be given, I am a fan of a small tulle bag of candy kisses or M&M's. That said we have ONE favor we use. It was from a niece's wedding which had a very laid back reception - pizza buffet - and they gave out pizza cutters. It is a decent cutter, and was a little better than the one we had so we kept hers, and took ours to goodwill with a load of stuff. Mark would use a tea ball and loose leaf tea. But I think that would be expensive.

Our tail veil (the tent that attaches to our mini-van camper) is light blue. Very nice. It shows the dirt a lot more than a dark color, but I am okay with that.