Congratulations to your daughter (and you)! If you really want to do something more reasonable than a traditional reception, think outside the box for venue ideas. We rented a local college cafeteria, that was not ugly...fortunately=) This allowed us to hire our own caterers to serve local gourmet ice-cream as a pretty spread with toppings in crystal and silver. It was elegant...and thrifty. Perhaps, you can find an atypical venue and do a meal with your own caterers more reasonably. At any rate, enjoy this fun, fleeting stage!

Empathy and a hug!

May your 'finally starting to feel better' continue! 💐

NOW, when you turn on the switch next to it, what happens? 😁 It looks great, btw!

Goodness, when I tell people that I am a Dave Ramsey fan, I didn't realize what I was saying. We watched his high school personal finance program as a family when they were all teens. They did the workbook, and I gave them a semester credit in a personal finance elective. It taught them to determine their simple financial needs, pay first for those budgeted items when getting paid, and save for big expenses. Even I got a lot out of that. Although we have, when we were first married, been stretched beyond our means at times, our way of dealing with that was simply to spend as little as possible and hope for the best. I had never really set up a budget. Setting up a simple budget for our more complicated lifestyle (and blessed situation) helped us send our first to college with relative ease and less pain. Now, following a budget, seems to make money come out of the woodwork. Now I read what many of you (who are more informed about DR's teachings) say about his long term advice on investing. Yikes - I wish I hadn't told so many how much we loved him.

Prayers offered for you and your family.

I keep a bottle of Gallo Extra Dry Vermouth next to my stovetop. Recommended by Cook’s Illustrated Magazine as their go-to for cooking. I use a splash of it in many items, and it gives them life! Perfect for deglazing pans when sautéing, added to most sauces, etc. If a recipe calls for Sherry, a sweet wine, I just use my vermouth with a few pinches of sugar added.

Prayers for you and your little one!

Yes, thank you and Happy New Year! What a blessing WTM has been to our family life for 20 years and going!!

Future. But, I have trained myself to live in the present. That's where the Grace is.

Dd made a cosmetic sized bag for my travels - I have said that I can never have enough small bags for incidentals. It is a very simple bag, but particularly special that despite relentless school and running her own fiber business, she found time to do this. Most happy that she hasn't lost her professional level sewing skills - I appreciate a well done zipper=)

Kitchen Catboxes Bathrooms Wrap, wrap, wrap Mail Christmas cards, go to bank, visit friend Dinner & movie with DD if I get enough wrapping accomplished ((Dawn))

May your dear daughter be well soon!

I am so sorry you are stressed, about to begin a challenging time, and have a difficult mother. I have walked almost exactly the same road. Do continue to set boundaries, especially for your time. I do not mean simply the time you spend helping, but the mental time. Be as generous as your stress level can tolerate, and as generous as your heart wants to be, but protect your mental time fiercely. When you are not with her or directly doing something for her or planning, let.it.go (easier said than done, but it took me a long time to realize that I needed to schedule my thinking about it as well as the work) ETA - you are doing a very loving thing for your mother.

Thanks for the book suggestion, @Rosie_0801. EsterMaria...oh, I was knee deep in homeschooling by then and influenced greatly by her and other posters to keep it going. I mentioned in the thread about homeschooling books that we majored in the majors. Not only did we seldom move beyond the academic core, we really didn’t even do the classics well. But, we focused on the four R’s, and I left the creativity to them for free time. Not only did I think they needed to listen and learn from other great voices and ideas, but they needed the free time to explore those ideas and make them their own.