That is so awful! Yes, so many children again often poverty is at play here, could be at high risk for all kinds of tragedy if caregivers get covid and there is no safety net, no back up system, no relatives or neighbors keeping a close watch and willing to intervene. I weep for the children of the world. They suffer so very much.

I have no young children at home. Our son who is a college senior in the fall is here. He does his own thing throughout the day so it does not impact me. 7:00 am dh gets up, I read or today, fighting a mild headache, came here to surf instead of read. 7:30 am, coffee coffee coffee, man my brain needs coffee don't forget my coffee, yeehah! ☕☕☕ Then a boiled egg and a celery stick. (I am nor much of a breakfast eater.) Then after that I have certain things that I do before noon if my mother does not have a medical appointment she needs me to take her to, but these are not regimented. I just do them when the fancy takes me. So usually, two hours of piano practice, a 2-4 mile walk or hike, a load or two of laundry, and then tidy up the kitchen or bath, and take the dog to a quick walk. I used to be at my Community fine arts director job on Tues, Wed, and Thurs from 9-4 pm plus then some evening commitments such as choir rehearsal for the community choir I directed, the community children's music class I taught, etc. So that changed my routines a lot. So the above is kind of what I have fallen into for now. I am sure it will change since I have also been taking college classes this past fall and winter terms. I have an aerospace engineering courses, hybrid and online combo, that is in the 2nd summer session, and I think if I am not driving to the in person session, I will be studying/completing assignments a lot. The piano practice may end for that period because I really, really want to keep up with the walking/hike routine.

I am so sorry. This stinks! There is a cold virus going around. That is probably what spurred your sinus infection. However, without testing, there is no way to know. My awful, horrible, this sucks suggestion is that so you don't force other folks to get the cold or think they have been exposed and then have to make all of these same kinds of " what do I do" decisions and hunker down at home, get a test and hope the turn around time is not long, and then when it in all likelihood comes.back.negative, resume life again. We just aren't to the place yet as a nation where we have case loads down and vaccinations up enough to not worry about it. It is so frustrating!

My dh, his mom, and my mom as well as middle boy experienced not even a sore arm. I know others as well. It is interesting how broad the range of experience is. I was pretty miserable for nearly three days after my second dose. I suspect I had even mild covid, it would have been longer than that. Dh's brother had a case of covid that his doctor said was on the mild end of it. He said he begged for two days to give him the strength to endure the next breath and then for three days to just die and get it look over with. He wanted not be hospitalized, but didn't even get in the ballpark of bad enough, and despite the pain and coughing, and a month of debilitating fatigue, he was still classified as a mils case. So yikes! The vaccine just doesn't seem to cause anything that extreme.

Yup! It kind of amazes me.

We never saw a bill. They did copy our insurance card information, and I think ours was willing to.pay. But if they didn't pay or only a portion, the state kicked in because we have vaxed four out of five on our insurance and have never been billed.

I know right! Very weird.

This. And that is why I was unwilling to take it seriously after that.

Folks, look, Bill is right about polenta. But, this is the same guy.who has pedaled Moby Dick to us and is now admitting to liking pineapple pizza...so....just saying'! 😁😆

Oh and this one is weird. Tissue paper. I have no idea why. White and 2021 graduation tissue is it, and very few places have even that. So odd.

This this this this this!!!!!

Thank you! Gen x here with smaller retirement savings than we would have liked so that I could homeschool and dad would not be a phantom like my grandfather was, and to some degree, my own father. But we also did not trade out for the totally flexible, most time at home job either because that would have meant not having retirement savings which would push that burden onto our own kids. We tried to balance it, and were privileged enough to have the choice. Is Gen X the "who are these people and why are they here" generation? No one seems to talk about us much!

Savory polenta is divine. My family loves garlic, basil, and parmesan. Yum yum!

What, Bill! You aren't going to recommend a set of Calaphona pans, a French press, and a grain mill??😁😁😁😁

Agreed. I do believe it is a data set that may folks want to wish away because it is most definitely what the public does not want to hear. We have been a nation only ball to ready to throw our younglings under the bus so the adults can have "normal", and there might be a piper to be paid for that. Unfortunately, the ones at the mercy of the grownups may end up paying that piper. I hope I am totally wrong! That would be a relief indeed.

It takes courage to say, but I am right there with you! I view all people who eat pineapple on pizza the same way Anne Burrell views her new recruits each season on Worst Cooks. Some of them just have NO potential! 😁

Thank you Panda!!! This is what people do not seem to get. The virus is a living thing, maybe not like people think of living, but it is alive and hardwired for survival, so it will keep doing as you say, mutating and looking for hosts. The more hosts it finds, the more trouble we are in, and right now kids have to be pretty darn good looking "fresh meat" to this virus. Mutating in order to infect hosts it has had limited exposure to due to protocols, masks, schools being shut down, kids being isolated from extracurricular activities and staying home a lot is exactly what I would expect it to do. And yes, first it was college sports in Michigan - waving my middle finger to the University of Michigan in particular - fell to major outbreaks with many of their mild cases of sniffles resulting in athletes with swollen hearts and other side effects that benched them so the untold story is that since they can't play now, they lose their scholarships (double middle finger to college athletic programs) - then it is was high school sports. Now we have had an outbreak in an AYSO soccer program in our rural area, and everyone is tripping out because "we never saw this coming". Really????? Study biology again or for crying out loud listen to epidemiologists and microbiologists. it should be no shocker if this thing mutates to a transmitting effectively outdoors virus. Cut off from its usual adult hosts in indoor gatherings, social distancing, limiting group numbers, etc. combined with vaccinations, it is going to be forced to find new hosts and mutate to infect those new hosts at high rates in order to survive. We should have had an epic three month shut down right at the beginning to stop it in its tracks, and allow the medical community to figure out treatment plans, and for epidemiologists to get a handle on the bugger. I mean, even Star Trek, and a few really poorly done Sci Fi movies have demonstrated this basic principle. So since we can't just isolate it and have Scotty beam it out into the vacuum of space, we have to create that vacuum here. But we let the genie out of the bottle, and just when maybe, just maybe we might have a had a chance to control the genie, we thought " Hell yes, let's let the genie run free and hope nothing bad comes of it". Un.be.freaking.believable. Never underestimate human kind's penchant for trying to make itself extinct! So here is the micro biology fact of the matter. Not giving a rat's rear about grandma dying or "the pre-existing condition people" or "fat people" or whatever is ultimately not giving a sh$t about kids because not only do kids not live in a vacuum, neither does this damn virus. The staggering ignorance and narcissism in this country is beyond the pale!

I am so sorry to hear that! I hope they get better soon. My almost 21 year old had fever, chills, and migraine for 24 hours. I put him in a recliner and gave him slushies, popsicles, and ice cream.

I am against the D.P. but if it is to be done, nitrogen gas poisoning is way less gruesome. You could do CO2, but some folks really panic, and it can take a long time. A gas chamber, one valium, and slowly turn the nitrogen up, is pretty painless and less panic causing, takes far less time than Co2 where if the person does not fall to sleep will feel very panicked and suffer a lot. Not a fan of bringing back "the good ole days". If we are going to give the state the power to do it, then we should make them be as civilized about it as possible and especially when we have proof that numerous innocent individuals have been executed which is nothing more than state sanctioned wild west murder. Not a thing I am a fan of the state having the right to do, much less the right to torture the person before the end. We've seen how that plays out in other countries. I really don't know what SC is thinking.

That was a very thoughtful response, BlsdMama, thank your for taking the time to write it.

She might want to get some basics at Goodwill since this is temporary and then donate them at the end. I would be tempted to buy her an instapot and have it delivered there. It is just so handy for making a variety of healthy, one pot meals.

Yes, you do just use portable fencing (it isn't super expensive or it least it wasn't before the pandemic, who knows now!!!) to steer their grazing. My philosophy is "grandchildren" 😂 hey kids, keep the goats over there. 😁

Oh my goodness, that is so sad!

According to my sister, prenatal and postnatal care is much more robust in France with home visits often. They are big believers in mama well being so many more services and benefits are covered than here.

I think you just let it go. The ball is in her court. You apologized and tried to make it right and she was not accepting. She may come around, she may not. Gently, the one person IRL that I had this trouble with I eventually moved from friend to casual acquaintance and did not socialize with anymore. It was sad. But I found that over time spending time with her when I was always on eggshells and worried about setting her off made me upset and really tense which I then had to deal with and make sure I didn't convey that tension at home. She lived close to us, and wanted to be around me a lot so it was a bit tough to step back. However, it was important. I think maybe she has formed new friendships.