Steps away from the Old Mill restaurant, there is a blacksmith where you can forge a knife from a nail or railroad spike (depending on age/size/strength). You have to make an appointment pretty far in advance. Then walk a few doors down to have the leather sheath stamped with your initials for a few bucks.

I don't have advice on the math, but does your state require you to register and teach the kindergartener this year? Can you wait until January or next fall or go straight to first grade if you needed to?

Gas here is 4.89.

The kids wanted bagels for breakfast. They are up to $5.29 for a regular brand bag of 5, cream cheese was $4.29. But the grocery store bakery had fresh 4 count packs BOGO at $2.99 and the store brand cream cheese on sale so I went that route. I'll regret not having Philadelphia tomorrow, I'm sure.

My husband had that haircut in the mid to late 80s.

I could eat meat 2-3 times a week and not mind. I don't usually crave meat. However, my mother's blood type is prime rib and my dad thinks it isn't a meal without meat. My husband and boys tend to agree with Pop.

@prairiewindmomma I got an ELF lip color in Black Cherry that is a great dupe for Clinique BH and cost like $4.

You don't say if he is oldest, youngest, or only. That might change my answer. However, when my oldest boy was 9, I made him a chart for what subjects needed to be covered each day and by what time, but let him choose which order he completed them. Subjects that required my help occasionally had to be shuffled as the events of the day dictated (don't ask mom to do your English oral drills while she is in the garden or on the phone), but he otherwise had freedom to do as he desired. Some days he wanted to get all the easy work out of the way immediately, and sometimes he trudged through harder stuff and saved "the best for last". Which is, when you think of it, how many of us approach our days.

It's actually for an older family member who gets occasional underarm rashes. Desitin is the only thing that seems to work.

Diaper rash cream is hard to find. I had to go to 4 stores.

Prices on beef have dropped a tiny bit, but they are still quite high. Bread is up every trip. The only place I see completely empty shelves is Walmart.

I don't know about the dog component, but after having 3 male cats and 2 females come to us at different times and live together, my experience is that males do best with males. Females together is the worst but not your situation, and M/F varies, dependent largely on the F.

I don't like non-service animals in stores under any circumstance. Not even purse puppies. And certainly not the pet skunk I recently saw in a Walmart cart.

I did this TWICE. Both times while pregnant. With my first, I walked up to a car like mine but wrong color. I was about to put the key in the lock when I realized I was looking into the window at fast food wrappers everywhere. I stood there legitimately thinking someone had broken into my car, stolen the jacket and umbrella, and trashed it. Then I realized the car was tan, not grey. Second time, I OPENED THE DOOR OF A VAN AND TRIED TO TELL MY 4 YEAR OLD TO GET IN WHILE THE OWNER WAS PUTTING HER KID IN THE OTHER SIDE. I scared her pretty badly, confused my kid, and made myself cry.

In the years with infants and/or very small children, I have often been happy to park randomly beside a cart left by a tree or elsewhere in the lot. I could get the kids out and immediately load them into a cart, which always beat carrying the carseat and holding a hand a diaper bag to walk up to the store, particularly during extreme Florida summers.

I need to start emailing companies for coupons. I have been meaning to do that for years.

I just got this car and we haven't had it changed yet so I had no idea. The local place does it for $61. I'd have a hard time with $100! Walmart here has all self-check lanes now. So there are only like 2 workers watching for help call lights. I did call for help and price override today because one item was clearly marked down to $3 but rang up almost $7. I didn't quibble over the ones that were off by a dime because the place was already nuts.

@heartlikealion Walmart tags are off here, too. Like every trip, I know atleast 3 items will ring higher than tagged. Today it was 4.

It's a matter of values and personal integrity. I was annoyed by some of my required courses but never cheated because 1. I didn't need to, but also, 2. It was morally wrong. Because yes, I have seen a lot of the under 30 crowd make tiktoks and reddit commentary etc about turning a blind eye to theft in the workplace, from customers or employees.

I don't think it should be so much as it sometimes just is. We were poor. I was the oldest of many and first gen college student. I was annoyed at gen ed requirements that didn't meet my needs for training for a certain path. Sure, I liked to read and learn about plenty of things. Just not the ones that someone else decided made me well-rounded. To me, college was a means to an end, which was gainful employment in a chosen career field. I didn't have the luxury of time to devote to liberal arts if I wanted to make any money to pay my bills. I didn't want to be a starving artist or philosopher. I was an avid reader as a child and I still am. I went to a performing arts magnet school, learned quite a bit about music and the arts, danced for years. But something in my upbringing and my personality put much of the humanities in a box outside of normal, everyday life. I have a sister who has a degree in fine arts. Lots of student debt. Very creative and now has a business of her own that is thriving. Her quip to me recently was was that her college experience was a waste because she already had skill and drive and anything she lacked, she could have found a course for online at a much lower cost. The rest of us all chose "safe" jobs.

Since this has turned a bit into story time and I am feeling nostalgic here a month post-womb-removal... My first was full term but in NICU 10 days. I could not hold him for 24 hours so he had formula and whatever colostrum I could get. Milk came in day 4 or 5 and I went home with coolers of it. But it was skim milk no matter what LC or pump or schedule or herb I tried. He seemed to nurse well but didn't gain weight for months. He also projectile vomited after every feed, and got severe eczema at 8 weeks. I did elimination diet and it calmed down. I went back to work PT at 12 weeks, and at 14 weeks, my thyroid plummeted and I lost my milk virtually overnight. I put him on ready to feed formula and he GREW. He would drink 60+ ounces a day. Second baby, 2.5 weeks early and healthy as could be. He was a slow nurser and I could sit for over an hour before he'd seem satisfied. His ties had to be addressed twice. Still no gain. Then he had screaming fits after nursing that we traced to acidic foods. (I had been on a pineapple, citrus, and fresh salsa kick.) One LC got invested and we realized he had a partially paralyzed facial nerve. So we went to OT for feeding. I started pumping to keep up supply until I could get him to nurse. I had a TON of milk, this time even fatty milk. Eventually, he did nurse... only at night, in the bed, on a specific side, with the fan on and lights off and me patting his butt and massaging his jaw, just before he fell asleep. I continued to EP until 7 months, when I started supplementing with formula. He then had 75/25 breastmilk to formula until 11 months. Kid got so enamored with formula that he ended up drinking Enfagrow until 16 or 17 months. Both kids are brilliant and healthy and strong. I'd do it all again. FF was the easiest but a kid who could latch and feed and grow would have been easier still. I didn't begrudge being the one whose job it was biologically; I loved it.

I have a friend that was local to me for years. We met on FB. She moved out of state a few years ago. We kept in contact on FB. Stupidly, I deleted FB in 2020 without saving her other contact info. I looked for her online this week. Found her name on a gofundme because her husband and daughter were in a fatal accident last year. I sent the organizer an email with my contact info, my relationship to her, and my deep condolences at the news. When/if she contacts me... what do I even say? I missed you and looked for you and am so devastated to learn about this terrible loss??

Sorry, wrong subforum.

This describes my older boy around the same age. My 5th percentile baby is now 75% with some junk in the trunk and thunder thighs. My younger one is still a runt. Gas is 4.75 here for reg unl.

My sister's kids once used PACES and she said they had an unused Missions course but I don't know if it was a PACE product or something else. I should ask because it sounded like something we'd like. I do know there is at least 1 mom-written course on missionaries that can be used with Benge biographies (Christian Heroes Then and Now). It's called To Every Nation.