I just whipped this up in under and hour. I found this panel for $3 at a quilt store. It has a MINOR, like you have to look hard for it, flaw thus the price. I knew my viking bachelor boys would love it. I put a casing on the back, sewed it right sides together, flipped and finished, then straight stitched the grey borders and around the triangle mountains. They don't have any wall decorations because they are not allowed to put holes in the walls to hang anything. The 25.5 year old has been in this apartment for 5 years! So this will take a 1/4" dowel hung on 2 of those 3M sticky hooks.

We have used our has generator numerous times. We are the last to get attention part of the county, so where some places are without power for a few days, we can be out for a very long time. We used it one time to power vitally needed medical equipment at my mother's home when my father was on hospice, and getting very panicky. We also powered my mother in law's freezer after she lost power for more than week having just purchased a side of beef that cost her $750.00. She had a $1000 deductible on home owner's insurance. We have used it enough that it has more than payer for itself. One time we ran it for a neighbor who had life saving meds that had to be kept refrigerated and at a specific temperature. His insurance for darn certain was not going to pay for him to go to the hospital and remain there just because there was a power outage. (Hospital has back up generators.) He would have been out thousands of dollars for that because I guarantee the hospital would have admitted him if he needed to be there for a week. They don't have a patient hotel or anything.

Agree. When my cousin was in high school she got her EMT training and license in high school without interrupting her college prep sequence. Where there is a will, there is a way. There is unfortunately, no will. I hate that.

This is really pretty.

Here is a picture of the throw quilt that was hastily slobbed together because one of my honorary kids lives where there are a lot of blizzards but doesn't have enough blankets. It is all of the flannel strips left from making flannel scarves for stocking stuffers, with two layer of flannel for the "batting" because I have ugly flannel my mother in law gave me that needs some sort of usage that doesn't make me look at it 😆, backed with flannels and bound with it (have decided that this many layers of flannel is a pain the patootie to sew on my machine and results in far too much fuzz in the bobbin compartment). It is not a measure of good sewing technique, just fast technique. We are having a warm spell now, but there is bad wed rather predicted for them in the next two weeks, cold, and possible power outages. My middle son is visiting this weekend, and will take it back to them.

Ya. I get it. We have the Michigan Merit curriculum here. Very school tries to put everyone through it, then pressures the teachers to grade inflate. It is stupid. There should just be variety of options, and all of them well done. One thing I hate is that after algebra 2, they decided tech center would count as a full credit of english and a full credit of math based on "they might use math or have to write something down in their tech program." Sigh. They had already dumbed down the tech center. Why can't they actually have a real introduction to electricity class at the tech center where they will learn really cool, applied things, and use the math they are supposed to know on a regular basis, and not obfuscate everything? I don't get it. Vet science should be called vet science, and it should count as a science. I personally think they should have tech center type options plus lots of humanities options in middle school where the needed math and LA is integrated into the class, we call the class what it is, and because we have teachers with subject matter expertise, we don't have to cloud it all with slight of hand tricks. Call it "Kitchen Chemistry" because that is what it is, and it has basic math, pre-algebra, and algebra 1 principles taught in the class as they go because they will need that in order to successfully complete the program, and they will write gosh darn it because we have a scientific process and it has to be documented properly. Lab reports are a great way to teach kids to communicate concisely, and effectively on paper. I am pretty sure they don't even require lab reports in middle school anymore. When I was a kid, we completed them as we completed the experiment, and handed them in at the end of the day. They received actual narrative grading critique so we knew how to improve if we were so inclined. Sometimes it is really hard to stomach the loss of educational options and approaches that children have endured for 30 years. It was happening when my oldest was young, and she is 32. But it hadn't hit critical mass yet.

This! And in 1984, my high school was not all that rich by any stretch. Very rural, rural funded, lots of money spent bussing kids from hither and yon. Yet we had it. We also complained whenever we met rich kids from Frankenmuth that had even more at school than we did! 😂 Hey they had a 4 star chef at that time, a performance art center (which got rebuilt about 15 years ago by a wealthy businessman in the area and it went from wonderful to totally awesome), and a bunch of other stuff. Meanwhile, corn dogs were on the menu with creamed crap of corn, and some sort of slop that might have been gravy, applesauce, stewed plums, leftovers from the last biology lab project, potentially radioactive slime from the physics lab, no one really knew for sure. Eventually, a bunch of students organized a sit-in at the head principle's office for two days. Hundreds of kids refused to go to class until we were promised a fresh, salad bar with fresh fruit options. It worked! We got it! Today they would call in the state police post and sheriff's department to arrest kids for something like that. The high school civics teacher thought it was awesome sauce, and sat with them. Didn't get fired either. He told the superintendent that he could not pass up the opportunity to teach peaceful protesting as a form of legitimate civil disobedience per the civil rights of students. It was covered by the local newspaper. I figure the fact that a reporter was around is why he didn't get fired. But we got a salad bar! It was everyone's best friend. LOL, it killed the hot lunch program down to ala carte. Pizza by the slice, hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, and spaghetti. Over and over. 😂😂😂

Yup. Extremes. I do not understand WHY! Why?Why?Why? In my high school in 1984, there were a bazillion options for English and Lit, for math, for science, for history. It was so interesting to be an 8th grader and go over the list that last quarter of school listening to parents, teachers, and guidance counselor recommendations of the many classes offered, and chart out a course. We even had the following music and art options: Concert Band (for everyone who had taken band all through middle school), Pep Band, Marching Band, Jazz Band, Symphonic Band (audition only), String ensemble (we didn't have enough string students to have an orchestra), choir (for anyone who wanted to learn to read music and sing assuming they could carry a tune in a bucket), chamber choir (audition only for credit but rehearsed after school), Glee Club (for credit but after school), Art 1-4 plus drawing for beginners, intermediate drawing, advanced drawing, Art History, Art Appreciation, Music Appreciation. We had three music teachers and three art teachers in order to manage it all. Robust PTA that did a lot of fundraising for special things like the band traveling to state honors band or marching band championships, choir when it traveled, gallery showings for student artwork, and combined with the theater department, one major musical per year. The first semester theater department put on a major play. And that play was serious. The drama teachers would make them rehearse the play, the playwrights, symbolism and messaging, you name it. Parents fundraiser to make sure they could make or buy costumes, create good sets, make props. English had lots of options from just basic foundational stuff to a one semester totally devoted to Shakespeare class for those that wanted it. Sometimes students wanted enough electives that they took a zero hour course (7:30-8:30 pm), and an after school like Chamber Choir or Marching Band. One could work your schedule out so that if you were taking a math or science or English that was pretty tough for you personally, you could take other courses that were well done but not so heady and stressful, yet have a full load, and not hurt your chances of doing what you wanted to do as a future graduate. We had a big staff, a well trained competent faculty. Sure we had kids determined to skip school, act up, and sleep through class. They were a very small group of students compares to what teachers report today. I think that is because we had something for everyone from two years of woodworking and metalworking, to home economics. This is what I want to get back to doing. Big staff. Big, expert faculty. Lots of options, but all of them based on the fact that elementary school and middle school get.themjob.done. I am also willing to admit I do not know how to change political and administrative culture, federal education policy stupidity, societal mindsets in order to make it happen. I think it is embarrassing to be a nation this rich and NOT provide this for our future workers, future voters.

Like I said up top, I favor the two years of basics high school, followed by two years of real, very well done Tech Center for trades and professional licensing, then out for kids who want to do something besides a four year college major. I think different kinds of diplomas are okay. I also think that we need to stop treating kids like herds. Butt he foundation must be fixed because we must give as many kids as possible, the skills to be able to choose to make up a gap or deficit in order to change tracks if they want, or decide they don't like their profession and do want to do something else. Right now we push them into higher and higher math levels without the foundation being there, and it serves no one. Fix the base. The if some kid does not like their professional track, they can say "Hey I want to take trig, I want to take AP Bio, or whatever" and then do that, and move into their new program. Mostly, we are just failing kids left and right. Neurotypical kids do not all need to take Calculus. But they need a firm foundation in which I'd they changed their minds and wanted to, they aren't paying for remedial pre-algebra, followed by college algebra all of which won't count for anything, and then finally into college trig. Same with writing. They all need that foundation so they don't get relegated to remedial English before taking basic college writing or even worse and we see this a lot in our area, high school graduates who have to take remedial reading a 099 class at the community college because they can comprehend grow up reading. Neutrotypical high school graduates. This is all kinds of wrong.

I think there was a lesson last year to many Michiganders during the Wildfire/Bad air quality for an entire month disaster. Many of them just so not keep much on hand. Having to go out in it was horrible! But so many and to go stock up in the midst of the mess in order to then hunker down. Social media was loaded with posts about wishing they didn't have to go grocery shopping and such because they ran out of important things on some of the absolute worst days to be outside. Of course, this was pretty much a first for a lot of folks. Wildfire smoke at that extreme is just not something this state has ever had to spend a lot of time thinking about. We will occasionally get a little wildfire or a bush fire, and between our fire departments and DNR, they have always been able to control it pretty quickly. Then bam, we had a good size one up by Grayling, followed by all of the Canadian smog drifting down. It was an eye opener.

Agreed. There is a lot of stress out there. Too much. Kids get overwhelmed. I blame a lot of that on college admissions. No teen should feel the need to take 5 AP classes simultaneously and then set the ridiculous exam in the hopes of getting a paltry $2000 scholarship on a $25,000 annual tuition/room/board bill. That is a mess that needs to change. If a kid is taking Calc 1 and AP Bio, let up, and take some regular stuff or enjoy some electives. This also happens because middle school has simply become a spin the wheels kind of mess. It seems like skills stagnate. That isn't helping anything. Let them run in place for 6-8, and then start heaping on the coals. No wonder there is overwhelm. I swear our educational system seems to take glory in extremes.

We are not preppers. I am pretty certain that there is no way to prep for an Apocalypse unlike many movies seem to indicate. I think there is a lot of money made from sources who take advantage of that extreme in human nature. But, we live in an area that can have power knocked out for quite a while, roads that get packed in with snow drifts or covered in ice, and take days to be taken care of by the road commission. So this is what we have: 14-30 days of food, and that includes grains and legumes that could be cooked. We have a two burner camp stove and we keep 30 days of fuel for it. So I can use it in a well ventilated area indoors or go outside. We keep charcoal on hand for the grill. We have a generator and keep 20 gallons of fuel for it. We never get lower than 2 face cord of wood for the wood boiler, never go less than 20% on the propane tank for the back up furnace, and lamp oil for three Aladdin lamps, plus some extra pillar candles. I try not to let any prescription run too low which is pretty hard given insurance never wants to let anyone have extra on hand. But sometimes the doc will order a longer supply. We also have a very robust first aid kit which is more of a tackle box of supplies. 2 fire extinguishers. We live 8 miles from the fire department and not on city water, so they have to bring a tanker. The hope is to put the fire out or contain it until they arrive. We are on a well, and we have enough solar panels hooked to car batteries to run the electronics on the furnace and also the pump for the well. So I don't keep a lot of jugs of water on hand. My sewing stash is should not be counted as prepping! 😂 If it were, one would assume that I believed there had been a cloth Armageddon and no fabric would be available in the future. 😁

That stinks!

Agree fully. I think there are many professions where the entry and mid level positions could be streamlined into two year licensing programs, and we need more of that, not less.

I can understand the frustration. But honestly, a lot of this stuff grows the ability to problem solve and see patterns, think out of the box. It is like Jedi Temple. The Younglings don't always see the point of what they are learning, but the Jedi know they need it. My husband is a mathematician, though his job is IT. One thing he sees is that if there is hyper focus on only one discipline, problem solving doesn't necessarily cross over into other disciplines if the person hasn't been trained to think critically outside their own focus. So he might not use it, per se, in work in the future, and yet his brain will use the skills without him realizing " oh gee, I can read between the lines of this communication from the boss who doesn't communicate in a straight forward manner because I was taught to think about all the subtleties of the written word". It is subconsciously used without the brain directly linking it to appreciating the fact that he parsed Shakespeare or figured out what in the heck that poem was really trying to say.

That is just insane! And I think it points to the fact that administrators and state legislators/state boards of education, have given up on actual education and see school more as a daycare with activities.

My swim capris are definitely not see through, and they have a built in panty. However, I don't do a huge amount of hiking so I don't know if they would be comfortable for that.

I agree with this. I really prefer subject matter experts for everything. I would rather have a childhood health and wellness expert teach PE in elementary school than the typical PE major. In many states, the El Ed major is actually two minors or "areas of emphasis", and in some colleges, El Ed majors take different classes in those minors than other students, ones that do not have skills prerequisites that must be met to get into the class. At my alma masters the freshman English literature class for El Ed was far easier than the equivalent for actual English majors. I get that they do very much need a literature for young readers class in which there is analysis of what makes good lit for young readers, what is available at that time, how to interest children in reading, what to expect at each age of development. But there is something wrong with the system when freshman English lit is considered too hard or unnecessary for El Ed majors with a Language Arts emphasis. A 2018 National Survey of Math and Science Educators found that only 3% of k-6 teachers had a math degree. It is one thing for a homeschool mom to shore up her own skills and self study to prepare for the next level of math for her child, often outsourcing it to dual enrollment or tutors at the high school level if she doesn't have the confidence to tackle it. It is quite another for someone in that same skill set to be tasked with forming the foundation of mathematics in 30 students year in and year out on behalf of society and the state. The consequences are far worse in the 2nd scenario. I am pro teacher, all things considered. They have their backs against the wall in a system so broken it needs to be relegated to the scrap heap and start over. They get no respect, the responsibility is grave, and the pay sucks. And all of that is part and parcel of fixing the foundation. We need teacher qualifications at all ages and in all subjects to be tough and competitive, we need to then pay these experts to teach, and we need to pay them very well and respect the heck out of them until they do something that proves themselves unworthy of respect. It should be a highly esteemed profession that any proud to be "mathy" or "sciency" or "book nerd" person would not be considered "less than" to pursue.

It makes my blood boil. So dumb. But so much of our education is just insanely stupid. I look at what my state thinks will "fix" K12, and all it is going to do is make more people leave the profession.

In my state, they eliminated the test of basic skills. It was considered too hard and discouraged elementary ed majors. It required a 70% in order to pass, and tested at its highest, most basic algebra 1. I gave my homeschooled not particularly mathy 7th grader the practice exam in 2010. He scored a 96%. Eliminated. We have more than one state university with very low bars for entrance to elementary ed, and in one of those programs, the only math (so long as a 410 on SAT math or 17 ACT is achieved) require no math classes in college except to meet a single Gen Ed requirement with a class specifically for early childhood ed and elementary ed which spends a lot of time talking about making creative flashcards, and bulletin boards with math facts and symbols. Same school also had a "history through nursery rhymes" class for GEN ed history for the football team, and I won't regale you with the horrors of what that class actually was, suffice it to say that my lazy brother - a comp sci major in 1982 - petitioned to get into the class so he wouldn't have to take a real history class. He didn't get in. But his college, known locally as Crappy U, was and still is one of the top providers of new elementary ed teachers. I am in a state that has decided that any 18 year old with a high school diploma can substitute teach, even long term subbing. Let the blind lead the blind. Basic lifeskills math illiteracy is actually kind of normal in many of our rural schools because the pay is low. The most qualified teachers land in wealthier towns like Frankenmuth and Traverse City, Ann Arbor, West Bloomfield, etc. But ya. The test of basic skills was too hard. 😠 When I worked in the quilt store, the lack of math skills of local elementary teachers was pretty darn appalling. I tried to explain to a 3rd grade teacher why 1/8 of a yard of fabric was 4.5" by the width of fabric. Her response was, "I never understood fractions." Well thank the universe she didn't teach 5th grade!

Well, as we would say here, "Bless their little hearts!" 😆 My brother is left handed,but was taught to throw (base ball), right handed along with several other things. I wonder if most left handed knitters were taught early on to do it right handed.

I know exactly nothing about knitting. Is there a problem with knitting left handed? I never even thought about it.

I would caution against them. My parents used one back in the 80's when they were kind of first invented. Theirs was called "The Christian Brotherhood". It rarely ever paid anything, and when it did, it took FOREVER - often a year - for the money to arrive. The CEO/President of CB absconded with all the money, and Florida courts ruled that it was pretty much a " too bad, so sad" situation because legally, they really are not bound to pay. It isn't insurance. But they did seize his Florida home and some other assets in the states, sell it, and refund some money to the tens of thousands who subscribed to it. Many of these do a five year look back on every iota of your health, and that of every family member so being rejected for pre-existing conditions is pretty normal, and there is no law against it because again they are not insurance companies.

Oh my goodness, sending you and the kids all the love I can! So sorry this happened.

Ottakee, I have a cheap pair of swim capris from Amazon. I think I paid $15. I got them four years ago, and they are still going strong. I chose capris because so wanted a one and done bathing suit so I can go from beach, to kayak, to sailboat. It is not fun paddling for two hours in something that rides up, and if I crewed the sailboat in board shorts, I would probably end up with my thighs burned because I tend to forget to reapply sunscreen. Amazon has some board shorts for $25 that also have a pocket.