The concept of cutting back is not an option. Already people are rationing healthcare, kids with life threatening allergies without epi pens because they are so unaffordable, the state of Michigan has the highest car insurance rates in the nation by a WIDE margin and drivers are mandated to carry insurance, people are literally duct taping their cars together, and the $680 one bedroom apartment is a roach infested, drafty, freezing cold, tenement style slum lord crap heap. These same folks are already eating ramen noodles, and they are NOT making bad decisions. This is devolving into The Hunger Games for District 13 and the odds are not in their favor! The hate on young people gets old. I have not yet even met a twenty something who was being irresponsible with their money. They are working their a$$es off, being taken advantage of by employers, being fleeced by the insurance and housing industry, and then told by their better off elders that they are morons for not being able to do better despite Panem screwing them over and over and over. It should also be noted that many GenZ not only believe, and not incorrectly, that home ownership is out of reach, but that they will never be able to retire no matter how old or infirm. They aren't wrong. All of their social security contributions are going to go to their parents and grandparents, and since congress has kicked that can down the road for 50 years, it isn't going to be fixed. So a lot of them are prioritizing travel now, experiences now, because they will never have a time of not working like a dog before they drop dead. At some point, life should at least be worth living. According to Justice Gap.isc.gov, (I cannot get my kindle to copy and paste the link), 15% live in poverty, 1 in 5 children. The income level required to constitute low income would be mean homelessness in my county. By every metric, the middle class has been shrinking steadily for the last 50 years. Gen Z is well aware of their predicament so their decision making is going to look very different, with good reason, than that of the Boomers and Xers who talk about them negatively all the time. Maybe they do indulge now and again. Why not? They can't get ahead, their future is very bleak by every measure, the planet is being wrecked. They may as well have a little fun now because hell is their future. Deprivation now will not translate to comfort later. I am going to call a spade a spade here. It is immoral, literally disgusting that Boomers and Gen X talk like this about Millennial and GenZ. 7.5% of their gross income is stolen from them to support the generations that malign them constantly. Literally, two generations are committing mass theft from, and then calling them character deficient. The current talk is to make THEM work to 70, many calls for this, even 72. Meanwhile the thieves get to retire at 65 even 62. Look in the mirror before you call out the younger generations.

It is in a cozy, east window, in a generous size planter with a drainage hole, and a grow light pointed at it. That grow light is the thing making it successful. Michigan is currently experiencing daylight hours without light! 😭 Mark follows me around checking water levels which is probably why it is thriving! He is better with plants than I am. I also religiously pinch off blossoms. I am good about that. If it is allowed even a hint of bolting, it is done as a houseplant. Just done. I harvested leaves regularly last year all winter long which might also encourage growth, however, I don't know enough about it to claim that this definitely helps. Mostly it is probably a miracle! 😆

Oh, also none of the local apartments come with a washer and dryer, many of them not even having hook ups. The laundromat (of which there are only two for the entire county) is $6.50 to wash and dry a single load.

I did some checking on the cost of living locally. I took the median average on several items: rent for one bedroom apartment, car insurance for full coverage but not optimal coverage, cell phone plan that works in this county (very few options, not much competition), internet (a requirement of nearly all employers now because they post so much online), non-smart, base model phone (built into the monthly cell phone plan payment schedule), health insurance for one person, electric and assuming the apartment is heated with electric (houses here are heated on propane because we do not have natural gas, so $350-700 a month depending on size of place and quality of insulation and windows, efficiency of furnace), and came up with $2400 a month. Average medical insurance premium was $497 per person. Not included in that $2400 was food, clothing, car maintenance, fuel (we have no public transportation here), personal care items, etc. The average deductible was $5000 but with many plans sitting at $10,000 for one person. (My brother's company policy is $10,000 per person, $15,000 per family, and $20,000 out of pocket before it kicks in 100% and then only if every single provider is in-network so don't even thing of having a medical emergency outside the network.) $55,000 a year is $3600 roughly in take home pay. One would not be able to eat and still maintain a car, meet the medical deductible, and buy fuel for that car for the work commute. A lot of people in my county go without health care even if they have medical insurance. They simply don't have the cash. My husband's last annual physical in which the nurse practitioner was in the room less than five minutes was billed out at $350 for the office call, and routine bloodwork was $593 at the in network lab. The insurance covered not one cent of that. Now add for young folks $30,000 in federal student loans which is less than half the actual cost to attend most public universities here for four years, and that is another $319 a month payment. Setting aside money for the deductible and out of pocket non covered expenses, that is another $1000, annual average cost of routine maintenance $123 a month, and upwards of $500 a month for fuel since jobs that pay $55,000 in this county are few and far between making commute normal, and $100,000 is literally doctors and dentists only, this means that one cannot eat on $55,000 IF they also pay the average in medical costs. And on a rough estimate take home of $6100 on $100,000 salary, $5300 or so in expenses leaving $800 leftover for food and maybe making a 401K contribution. Note the lack of car payment. The median salary in my county is less than $55,000 a year. Dh works remote for his IT company which is why we can live here and take care of our mothers whose retirement funds would not allow them to live closer to the city. He is in the top 1% of earners for our county. We are very comfortable for sure, and know how lucky we are! Most folks in the area belong to dual income households and still rationing healthcare down to a game of russian roulette with their well being, duct taping their cars together. Average salary is $43,000 ish. A single person on $43,000 has to have two roommates, and eat ramen noodles while praying to never have any kind of medical emergency. It has been noted by police and EMS that often the young folks refuse medical evaluation after car accidents because they are terrified of a huge medical bill they cannot pay. But hey, ya...let's have MORE capitalism where robber barons get even richer while the masses suffer, and definitely more healthcare dictated by a for-profit insurance industry! (Dripping with sarcasm, I hope you caught that!) Read up on the Guilded Age. Vanderbilts, Astors, Livingstons, Roosevelts, Van Dusens, Van Burens, Stuyvesants, Rockefellers... We are having our second Guilded Age now, just different names. Musk, Bezos, Waltons, Koch, Mars, Hearst, Duncan...There is enough "stuff", enough technology and glitter to make it look more palatable than the last one, and yet, in terms of wages vs. robber baron income, about the same. Exhibit A: railroad workers for a start.

We are expecting 8 inches of snow (20 cm), and my primary gardening activity at the moment is perusing my gardening books. I am about to start a basil plant indoors. I made pasta sauce the other day, and realized I only have about 3 more batches worth of basil leaves left, and no basil house plant. Time to grow one. I have a plant light on a shelf here in my east window which is much needed as Michigan has not actually experienced this fleeting phenomenon called "blue skies" in so long, we have forgotten what that looks like.

Wiser words have never been written ! 😁

I usually make 3 or 4 soups/stews in advance and then if we lose power, we warm them in our camp stove. I also make breakfast burritos and cinnamon rolls. We like to have cinnamon rolls or something similar when the first big winter storm of the season hits. For my breakfast burritos, I brown cubed potatoes, diced red pepper, and onion in a skillet, then add some shredded spinach, stir till it wilts nicely, and then add the eggs, scramble it all of up (we also like garlic and red pepper flake in ours), warm the tortillas, fill, roll, and bag up for the freezer.

No idea really accept to say to check property taxes and see what you can do to NOT have that go up a ton. The way we avoided that here was that the basement is not considered finished living space and taxable until the ceiling is done.

Adding to this discussion, my mother just turned 80. She sews pillowcases, hats and scarves, and blankets for a homeless shelter, makes clothing for some kids in her church, tutors reading at the library, volunteers at a food pantry. In the summer, she has flower beds and a vegetable garden. On Wednesdays, she has 2 tweens who come to her house to learn sewing and baking. Last Lent, she had a painting day, and had 8 kids to her house to paint wooden eggs. She stays busy. On the other hand, her sister and brother in law thought retirement meant doing nothing, and they literally did exactly that. Cooked meals, laundry, mowed the lawn, watched t.v., stared at the walls, and made each other crazy. They were miserable, but never changed their ways. My aunt passed away 7 years ago, and my uncle is still going store crazy. He refuses to get involved in anything. So moral of that story, do things, travel, get involved, try something new, do all the things if your health and mobility allow it.

I lost my fine arts job during covid when the foundation lost a lot of money and couldn't do their typical fundraisers. I have not pursued another job since then. I have a lot of things I do now for my 87 year old mother in law. My days have been busy with all kinds of things one pursuit was to finish the requirements for my general sciences certification. I had missed that minor in college by one class since I had a double major I was pursuing. I did this because science teachers are very hard to find in the public school, and so IF I wanted to go into teaching for income and health benefits, there is a fast track option to licensing. Getting that one class makes me eligible to teach biology, chem, physics, life science, etc. Then for personal enrichment, I have been taking aerospace engineering courses. I am not degree seeking so some have been for credit, and some have been for audit. If I were younger, I would be pursuing the actual B.S. degree since aerospace and rocketry had become a life passion. As my mom's driving more than 20 miles from home has slowed down, I also do some driving for her, and since the lawn company that took care of her lawn and mil's as well closed, I am back to caring for three lawns. I also took up gardening. I am a volunteer tutor one afternoon a week at the township library, and have five students. Two elementary students receiving reading help, an 8th grade algebra 1 student, a high school chemistry student, and a college music theory student. I have fun balancing all of those topics simultaneously for two hours, and I love it! The college student is very dear to me because if she is waiting for me to answer a question for her while I am answering a question for the others, she will let a reading student read aloud to her and correct them. She will make a wonderful teacher some day IF the system doesn't burn her out in the first five years. Michigan has a hard time NOT driving off new teachers rather rapidly. I am quilting again, gardening, and doing some performing and accompanying. Many of the personal pursuits that were abandoned during the long years of child rearing and homeschooling, juggling three kids in college at once and going to their schools for the activities and performances they participated in, etc. are back and making me happy. Mark had not retired yet, but we are traveling more together, and he plans to have a cabinetry/woodworking business on the side when he retires. He does gorgeous work so I am sure it will keep him busy. We are also building and launching rockets together, and we are part of the crew of 115 NAR members who run the American Rocketry Challenge competition. This year that competition has over 900 teams and over 5000 students involved. We travel to Virginia each May to run the National Finals. We also have three grandsons now and regularly travel to spend time with them. Mark's day is still regimented, but mine is not. When I do not have medical appointments to run the mothers to, I tend to then have a planner filled with project deadlines, and my days are spent working towards those goals like a Chopin Ballad that I am memorizing which means lots of practice, two throw quilts being set together, and now that I have a collection of fabrics for making some mix and match summer clothes, I have deadlines for when I want those garments complete. Oh, also Mark and I have taken up sailing and kayaking together. These two things keep us busy on the weekends throughout the water sports season.

I have littered around outside off and on since January 1. But we have had so much nasty drizzle/rain, that it is just not possible to stay out. 35 degrees, rain and mud, does not make for great outdoor weather. Ugh. We actually for snow today so if the road isn't icy (which it might be since it rained yesterday and now is freezing) I will take Lewis for a nice walk. We have a S.C. wedding at the end of March. I am hoping it is really nice out, and we can manage to get some walking accomplished during the trip. The reception venue has an outdoor, rooftop dining and bar option, and our goal is to be out there for the entirety of the reception if possible. My guess is I have at best a paltry 4 hours. But, I was not actually trying to get to 1000 because it is very hard to manage with low sunlight, ice, and high wind in this part of Michigan during the winter. My goal is more to maximize outdoor time once the spring equinox arrives, and continue that until it turns to constant rain and mud in the late fall.

None. I went into labor the same day that her mother was admitted to the hospital for emergency open heart surgery. My grandmother died 3 days later. I think Dd was a month old before mom came to meet her. We lived out of state. With my other three, my sister, a high schooler on dual enrollment came a bit here or there to help. My mom was working full time. My first grandson was born 5 weeks early while I was in Egypt with no way to get home quickly due to my remote location. A very very dear friend of mine, and dd's second mom drove to New York immediately and stayed with them for 1.5 weeks. With our 2nd grandson, I was not needed until he was 2 weeks old when son in law went back to work. With our third, I lived there for a month because he was born 6 weeks premature and spent 4 weeks in the NICU. I took care of my grandsons, ran the household, and homeschooled the oldest while dd and sil practically lived at the hospital.

Play on, Sid!

It does. Many species of animals are migrating north at a significant rate and have been for a while. https://viterbischool.usc.edu/news/2022/09/in-a-warmer-world-half-of-all-species-are-on-the-move-where-are-they-going/

Three things very much affected my eating habits as children, and what mom served. 1st: my father seemed to have hyperactive taste buds that detected pretty much every herb and spice as bitter or bizarrely spicey. He liked only two things on his food. Black pepper and salt. My mother deferred to him and as a result our food was so bland it was absolutely gross. Imagine being 5 years old and still getting what was essentially gerber baby food out of a jar. 2nd: He had an expensive hobby - really expensive - that was not particularly affordable at their income level so the household budget, including groceries, was too low. He did not give two hoots about food either so long as there was enough of whatever gross, bland thing to go around, he was fine. 3rd: My mom worked tirelessly in his business, and it wasn't like the misogynistic prick helped at home, so her burden was great, and time was short. As a result, a typical meal was an unseasoned small amount of ground beef, a bland sauce like plain, canned tomatoes, or a couple pats of margarine (far cheaper than real butter), or a milk gravy with no flavoring, and pasta, a bowl of DelMonte peas warmed in the microwave, and then an iceberg lettuce salad with a little grated carrot, and vinegar and oil. If we said we didn't like the vinegar and oil, and would prefer something else, we were told to shut up and eat. Mom didn't say it. He did. Mom packed our lunches, and a typical was a peanut butter, no jelly sandwich, a bag of chips, and a cookie with a little tupperware container that had some applesauce in it. We were given the 10c or whatever it was at the time to buy milk at school. As a result, I grew up without a lot of fresh fruit in the house, a lot of very cheap convenience foods, and no idea that vegetables could taste good, and not have the texture of paste. It took me a long time, and exposure to a lot of different ways of preparing vegetables and whole grains to develop a better palette. What I have discovered is I love savory, savory, savory, and I like a little heat. Peppers are divine, many kinds though I don't gravitate towards the insanely hot varieties. Green beans are now a favorite vegetable. I don't like steamed broccoli, but I do love it roasted in the oven with garlic and red pepper flake. I have ways I like to fix Brussels sprouts - a vegetable I had literally never seen prior to leaving for college, and many ways I like to have salad. I only enjoy, for the most part, the fruits that are on the tart side and NOT mushy, bananas make me gag. So I also do not enjoy squash or avocado. My dad has been gone for 7 years now, and amazingly, mom's cooking had improved greatly!

It is so scary what is happening, and even more terrifying how few people give a damn! It is FINALLY snowing. Large, fluffy, beautiful flakes, and it might actually accumulate and not immediately melt. Yesterday and today, we will get 16 chill hours during the day time temps. The night time temps will be too low. The temp during the daytime from Wed-Sun will also fall too low. That is it. We will still be below 200 hours. I am actively tracking now. We barely had enough last year. If we do not get enough this year, it will inform my decision about what varieties of apples, peaches, and cherries to plant on our 10 acreas of land up north. The apple, peach, and cherry orchardists in Traverse City/Antrim county are pretty nervous or at least that is what was discussed among 4H master gardeners recently. The varieties I have here, three hours further south, are easily apples that should be fine in zone 5b which is what we are currently zoned. (Be afraid because 50 years ago where I am right now was zone 4b.) But, I think despite the Department of Ag optimism that we won't change zone again for a while, we may need to look at 6b varieties in order to have apples on trees 10 years from now. The high chill hour need trees just aren't going to be able to produce. If we get close to the required numbers, within say 50 hours, then on the first days of march when temps want to get to 45+ and stay during the day, I could put sprinklers on the tree spraying cold well water on them which will prevent the internal temp of the tree from rising, artificially adding chill hours. But given we might see a drought this summer due to lack of snow pack and ice melt this winter, I am also concerned about that water usage for just one food source. At any rate, I am trying to at least enjoy the fluffy white today. It is very pretty.

Sure: but it isn't really a "recipe". I am the queen of tossing it in the pot, and tasting as a I go! 😂 One quart of canned tomatoes (I use my home canned, Amish paste tomatoes which are super delicious so my guess is that the commercial equivalent is canned San Marzanos if you can find them, or maybe fire roasted romas...I don't really know what is available.) 2 tbsp of tomato paste (I do buy that because I do enough things without having to stand at the stove all day cooking down tomatoes until the water is gone.) Bourbon (I use Very Old Barton) but truly, any bourbon will do. Molasses 5 garlic cloves ( we like garlic so adjust according to your own palette) One large, sweet onion. Amish Candy onions are da bomb, but we can't get them in winter, so vidalia is the substitute. Smoked paprika Sea salt Apple cider vinegar Liquid smoke Olive oil In a sauce pan, caramelized onions in a little bit of olive oil and add the minced garlic at the end since they take very little time to carmelize. I like my diced onions to catch a bit of color and not just be a light saute. Just don't burn or you will have to start over because that scorch flavor comes through in the sauce. Add the caramelized items to your blender or food process plus the quart of tomatoes (no need to drain first) and puree. At that time de-glaze your hot sauce pan with bourbon (I don't measure, but my guess is somewhere around an 8th cup.) Add the contents of the blender back to the sauce pan with the bourbon. Add roughly a tbsp of molasses - again, I don't measure, I just pour a small dollop in there. A dash of smoked paprika, a dash of liquid smoke, 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (or more if you want a tangy tangy sauce), sea salt to taste, and the 2 tbsp of tomato paste, and cook down until it is the desired consistency. At 15 minutes of simmering, 40% of the alcohol is still present.So keep that in mind. If you want zero alcohol, you will need to simmer on low for 2 hours if my memory is correct. Some folks want a very sweet sauce (giving the side eye to middle son) so I add a little honey if I feel like pleasing him. I avoid adding actual granulated sugar like the plague, and this is a no artifical sweetener house so none of that. We also do not use stevia. I like tangy sauce, and since I am the cook, I get my way. So I am always tasting and adjusting. Sometimes it gets extra apple cider vinegar, sometimes not. It all depends on the original sweetness of the tomatoes which of course varies over the life of that fruit so no two quarts of my home canned may be exactly the same, though in general, they are all quite yummy. Amish paste is a good variety, and more consistent in flavor I have found than romas. I have never worked with San Marzanos, but I have heard good things. My recommendation is throw recipes for sauces out the window, get a set of tasting spoons, and add what you like in small amounts after every taste until you think, "Oh my gosh that tastes soooooo good". Most recipes do NOT call for enough herbs and spices. Americans apparently adore bland food! And I openly laugh at any recipe that says " a tsp of cumin". Cumin should be used by the, at minimum, tablespoon!

I am 100% in agreement with you! And it fosters this idea that human workers are robotic automatons and should be treated as such. Disgusting!

Definitely those hand warmer packs. Aldi has a bag of of ten packs for $4.99. You can get a camping, thermos that plugs into the cigarette lighter and keeps fluid warm. Would be great for keeping coffee, tea, cocoa, or soup warm. I would be inclined to have an emergency first aid kit plus Mylar emergency blankets to use over top of any fabric blankets you have because this protects against moisture should the car be damaged (broken windows come to mind) when sliding off the road or something. I would think about it in terms of "primitive camping", and take those kinds of essentials. Protect against the elements, plenty of food and water in case one is stuck for a couple of days.

Yes, work schedules are a big issue. Mark has to take "working" lunch in IT which means he is listening in on meetings, and mutes his mic in order to grab a bite. The only reason it isn't a burger and fries lunch is he is working remote, and so if he is at his mom's house, he eats a salad and a piece of fruit. If he is here, I usually make one of my many veggie laden soups and stews, and we consume that. His coworkers working in person have no time to consider a from scratch meal unless they take the time to pack, and the only ones that can do that are the ones who live very close to work, and do not have a one hour, ten mile commute, in insane traffic since many have 7 am meetings. One of our ds's only has 30 minutes at lunch which the manager is CONSTANTLY infringing on which means often 10-15 minutes to gulp whatever you have down. Can't exactly do that with a salad, and an orange that has to be peeled, so often a mug of ramen. Sigh. I really want him out of that job. If work days had more protections for workers, it would really help so they can slow down and eat better. But it isn't like the capitalistic machine cares. The lords of the land do not care what the serfs eat, and how that plays out for their health, and frankly, pharma makes a hell of a lot of money off the consequences of this.

I am so in love with that darling skirt!!!!

Looking out my window this morning, there is a fine, fluffy flurry. It looks pretty. But, it is melting the second it hits the ground. I am not amused.

😂😂😂 But I still take them as better than this JJill option which is a throwback to my grandmother's days, A fashion choice that should have become extinct....the polyester nasty fabric pants with the nubby permanent "crease". When my grandmother died, we found 32 pairs of these pants in the back of her walk in closet. I was practically traumatized by the time we dug them all out, folded them, and hauled them off to the thrift store where we prayed they would go to the fabric recycler but in fact were put on the rack, and SOLD! 😱 straight-leg-pants-253261871xs?jid=94656259&category=P&jid=700000005&category=P&source_campaign=Shopping-Bottoms&keyword=device=t&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6L_6hsTLgwMVvUdHAR1Y4ABHEAQYASABEgJeXPD_BwE Begging you. Do not wear the polyester nubby crease pants. Do not contribute to the fashion industry ideal of recycling criminally awful fashion statements from the past! 😁

Same here. And it is important to remember that the "healthy choices" of places like Panera are still often based on dump and go, pre packed items which are laden with sodium, nitrates, and other add on that are not healthy. So yes when traveling the Panera mediterranean chicken bowl of arugula, olives, cucumber, quinoa, hummus, and chicken is a much better choice than the grilled cheese, that premade hummus is laden wth sodium, and the amount of actual vegetables in the dish is low. The 800 gram challenge and having to measure and weigh veggies showed me just how much veg it takes to be a serving, and how much more it takes to get the bulk that is best for decent gut health. It is so much higher than what folks think it is. The amount of veggies that comes with this bowl is not high in the grand scheme of things. I think it can be very hard for folks to grasp just how much bulk they need to eat to truly get 5-7 servings of fruit and veg. To be sure, dried fruit and trail mix type things are a better choice than other empty calorie snacks. But read the labels. The sheer amount of sugar added to fruit is insane. I have taken to dehydrating my own - more work for me 😜 - because Mark loves to have dried fruit to snack on and take in the car. This is the only way it is actually nutrition without spiking blood sugars. Most kids have a palette trained to desire sugar, sugar, sugar, because of how much of it is added to everything. I make my own barbecue sauce. Go read the labels on those jars. The amount of high fructose corn syrup and sugar added is staggering. Meanwhile, I make if with only a little molasses which adds iron, and then all the fresh ingredients, tons of herbs and spices, and a splash of bourbon, the alcohol cooking off. My family raves about that sauce, and it is a bazillion times healthier. However, this is at the cost of me not working full time outside the home so I can do these things. Meanwhile, my sister living in France has fresh markets around every corner of her town, and their foods are not sodium and nitrate laden, not grown with RoundUp sprayed on everything, and without sugar added to every item. She does say that there has been a cultural push for more convenience foods and those are starting to become available, and with it, a rise in health problems which is really upsetting French medical practitioners who want this stuff OUT of the French diet. A typical lunch served in French elementary schools is a salad started, beginning in preschool mind you, grated carrot salad being popular, then a main course of cooked whole grains and veggies - usually very tasty since they employ actual chefs who use fresh herbs - followed by a cheese course, and then a small dessert treat which is baked at the school, and tends use fruit as the sweet element. Meanwhile, the elementary school in our district still serves corndogs claiming the corn breading as a vegetable as well as ketchup! Poptarts are the free breakfast. Frosted blueberry poptarts, as of 2022, were considered smart food compliant. 😠 This stuff is ultimately regional. I know there are places in Michigan where the offerings are better, the options decent. But let's be honest, those places are nearly always in affluent neighborhoods. Same old same old.

I just read an article about 9 foods that will be rapidly disappearing in this next 10-20 years due to climate change, and rainforest decimation. Coffee. Chocolate. The other 7 do not mean so much to me but would be rather bad if they were gone. Beam me up Scottie. I need a replicator!