Praying for all involved.

Has anyone heard from @Jenny in Florida? This resurrected thread reminded me of her. I really enjoyed her posts.

I am so sorry.

Great article! As the mother of a 25-year-old with severe autism and cognitive impairment, I know how important this type of information is, Thanks for spreading awareness! We have had both good and bad experiences with emergency responders, but mostly good. The more awareness, the better.

I do ours myself, first on paper and then I type it all into the IRS Free Fillable Forms so we can e-file. Ours are not super simple, but not super complicated either. I enjoy learning about tax rules and spend a lot of time reading IRS publications and instructions for fun 🙂 I taught DD23 how to do taxes when she had her first summer job and now she has a full time job and and an HSA and some side Schedule C income and she can handle all of it with just a little help from me when she encounters something new (e.g.- first year with an HSA). Even if she ends up using tax software later, I am glad that she understands how taxes work.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a hard act to follow. One of my favorite books ever. The other Betty Smith novels are nowhere near as good.

I have a 1976 set that I plan to keep as long as possible 🙂

Praying for you and your family!

I was just about to post this when I saw that Tap beat me to it 🙂

In the high school where I work, a small handful of students (maybe 10) mask regularly and two teachers mask always. However, there are always a few students or teachers who are masking because they have just returned from having covid.

Praying

Almost this. He does file his own taxes. He does check the box that he can be claimed as a dependent. On federal taxes, if his only income is earned income, he will end up with the same standard deduction as if he could not be claimed as a dependent. However, if he has unearned income like investment income, then his standard deduction is much lower. If his work study income is earned income (likely if they gave him a W-2), then this is easy. OP leaves her taxes the same with him claimed as your dependent, and he files to get any refund he is owed, remembering to check the "can be claimed as a dependent on someone else's taxes" box. ETA: On state taxes, his standard deduction is almost certainly lower.

I never thought that. And I remember a couple previous user names for you, so it's been a while. I'm so sorry people thought that. I have always been impressed by how carefully you consider all your parenting decisions. I'm glad your kids have you!

Also in Michigan. A beautiful place to visit in the summer! I would love a meet-up!

Update: We are all doing okay here, although DH is recovering slowly as always. The Paxlovid helped a lot, but now the rate of improvement has slowed again. No rebound yet, though. DS was back at school yesterday, but today is another snow (ice!) day. Mid-week snow days are always confusing for him 😞 I also work for a school, but I don't get paid for days off so that is another bummer about snow days. I am happy for my DD, though, who is a full-time teacher who does, of course, get paid for snow days. She is enjoying the peace and quiet at her apartment 🙂 I think we are almost done with this covid and snow day stuff!

I think that venting on these forums is a healthy coping mechanism. I, personally, want to hear these updates since I am praying for you and your husband and MIL regularly. There are probably 6 or 7 (at least) people on the forums that I think about and pray for every day. You (not just your husband, but you also!) are going through some major stuff. Please don't ever hesitate to bring it here.

That's great! We always have a tricky time scheduling repairs as we want to have everything done while DS is at school. Mostly, people have been very understanding and accommodating, but it is still a challenge. Often, we have to delay things so we can schedule them the way we need to. You have had so many things happen at once! You are amazing! Hang in there!

How are things going @wendyroo? Will your older two be back at school on Monday? Can the fire cleanup crew do their work when they are at school?

It depends on both. It depends on both. Of course, the age he started drawing SS is a done deal. If she wants to max her survivor benefit, she should wait until her full retirement age. If she is still working, her own benefit could be reduced enough to make it not worth it, but this is something to look into.

We print boarding passes at home for the outgoing flight. For the return flight, we print at the airport kiosk. We also have the electronic boarding passes on our phones, but we like having the paper ones just in case. Plus, it is convenient to have the paper boarding pass and ID in hand while going through security. Also, phones can run out of power or otherwise malfunction.

We are surviving covid okay. DH started Paxlovid on Wednesday, which is good because he is in his 60s and has some health issues that make him high risk. DS is doing okay. I have tested negative three days in a row, confirming my theory that I actually had covid a week and a half ago.

Thanks for the update! I have been praying for him.

I am so sorry. Things like car problems and furnace problems and schedule changes are so vastly more complicated with kids like ours.

The good news is we still have power and the storms are over. The bad news is that DH and DS tested positive for covid. We concluded that the mild nasal congestion plus not-mild fatigue that I had last week was actually covid and that I gave it to both of them 😞 The timing is not right for DH to have contracted it when at the funeral. Both DH and DS started symptoms on Saturday, but DS had only minor nasal congestion at that point, which I attributed to dry air. He did not start to cough until Sunday evening. I feel bad about not testing myself last week, but it just never occurred to me as it was so different and milder than when I had it two years ago. The fatigue was pretty intense, though, which should have been a tip-off, but I spend so much of my life sleep-deprived that sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. So now there are more days of no help and not much interesting for DS to do. I don't want to complain because there are so many worse things in the world, but I am really struggling. ETA: I tested today and I am negative.

So sorry you lost power but glad that the freezing rain is over!