@alisoncooks what is pink stuff? Impressed with your long term menu planning. Wish I had been that organized when we were raising kids!

This is close to how our household runs, but I will say that my guys don’t care about variety and are thrilled if I make pizza every Friday night, tacos on Wednesday, etc. I modify my own meals to give me the variety I desire. On grill night the guys want burgers and baked sweet potato fries. I’ll make a big salad and toss on a piece of grilled chicken for my dinner. Not much additional work, but makes me happier.

For Dd, it was the Junie B Jones books. Every time.

I censored youngest dd’s reading at times. She was reading chapter books when she was 5, and by the time she was 7 or 8 she was making selections from the YA section in the library. Several had themes I felt she was too young to be exposed to on her own. Now, I read aloud to my kids daily until they were high school age, and I did tackle some mature books as read alouds. My argument was simple…knowing how to read at an adult level didn’t mean she was mature enough to be exposed to adult problems.

There’s a charge for the sticker? We moved here in 2019 and my car has the sticker but our other car doesn’t. I don’t recall a charge for the sticker, just them asking which way we wanted it. Like you, I didn’t want to advertise my county.

We give a modest amount of cash to our adult kids and their spouses because they’re all in the stage of life where having some discretionary cash is a treat. I don’t enjoy shopping or wrapping so this is a win win for me. Our adult kids do not exchange gifts w each other, nor do they buy for us, except for our son who lives with us. He does enjoy picking out a little something for me and dh. Our holiday gatherings are pretty laid back and gifts aren’t a focus in any of the households. It’s kind of surprising because when they were little Christmas was very much about gifts. Not really sure how we morphed into the current model, but it works for all of us.

Definitely haven’t given up. I’m in the process of thinking through what I want…what is important to me in a friendship…because I think that will help me focus on where/how to look. Everyone understands how work friends, homeschool friends, church friends work and why. But with those gone, WHAT is important? It’s been on the back burner this year because my sister moved to be near me and she arrived with a deteriorating medical condition and she’s now had surgery and is wheelchair bound. So I’m spending a lot of time caring for her. As she improves I hope I can resume my normal life.

We moved to Illinois and stayed for 30 years, then in 2019 retired to Georgia, between college town and the mountains. It’s been hard to get connected again. We left all our friends, and are grateful to have several who visit. But it’s been hard. I’m sure the pandemic lockdown didn’t help, but we’re finding it difficult to connect without having kids/job/homeschooling and stuff like that to help us find friends. We love it here, and have family in the state, but finding those best friends just hasn’t happened. Even getting involved in our hobbies hasn’t panned out beyond casual friends. Moving was absolutely the right choice for us. But I sure do miss our friends.

As an older person who enjoys attending concerts, I don’t really love that it’s so common for the crowd to be standing and dancing the entire show. I have the same issue w some sporting events we’ve attended- if we don’t stand, we can’t see. I know and expect some shows will be like that- Taylor Swift, for example. And it’s been going on for many years. It it’s still hard for people why buy seats and want to sit in them.

I read they were using flash, which was sometimes pointed at ML, framing her in their selfie. I’d also heard it was four women, who were doing group shot after group shot, blocking views. Most shows either the security removes them for using flash or the patrons around them take care of the rude behavior. Having said that, ML might want to watch how other artists are embracing patrons creating content during shows. Taylor Swift and Beyoncé for sure, but even like almost 10 years ago I was at a Brad Paisley concert and he took audience phones and shot video from his perspective. Lots of artists have embraced phones, knowing that for fans that photo can mean a lot.

We found that there are other brands of windows that are much cheaper than the Pella that the sales guy was pushing. We’re in our 60’s so we really didn’t need top of the line replacements. It can be done affordably.

We have normal size windows. Got a quote for Pella replacements, and for the seven we wanted replaced, it was $26,000. That was over a year ago, so probably higher now.

I wouldn’t keep any of those items unless your kids have expressed some interest in keeping them. I kept some items because my grands came along not too long after our youngest used the items. Exactly zero of the things our kids loved turned out to be things the grandkids enjoyed.

I’d have a cold drink ready to hand him, and a thank you.

I don’t necessarily see the responses leaning towards large loans are always bad, just that they need to be balanced with what happens when the loan payments begin. If a student takes out large loans to obtain a degree with high earning potential, there’s at least a reasonable chance they won’t face crushing debt for 25 years, But taking out high debt with no real earning potential to pay it back can turn 4 years of college life into decades of stress over ever increasing debt. When payback begins, if the person is on income based repayment , they may have low enough income to have zero payment. But the interest continues to accrue. Then later if they DO earn more, their debt is much higher than it originally was. All of that is to say that whether or not it’s smart to take out loans for school is nuanced by each student’s situation. That’s mostly how I read this thread.

I hope nobody read our experience and felt bad. There’s so much more to a story than a loan amount, whether it’s a ton of loans or none. Oldest Dd, who had a full ride for both undergrad and grad school did it by moving to Georgia to live with her dad for high school (that allowed her to qualify for the HOPE,which at the time paid tuition in full), and living at home during college instead of in a dorm, and bringing lunch from home instead of a meal plan. For most people that combination of things simply isn’t possible.

Oldest had HOPE scholarship for undergrad and then Ga Tech covered her grad degree, so she had no loans. Middle did two years of community college and then a private college for the last two and came out w $10,000 in loans. She paid that off in 2021- between no interest during pandemic and the stimulus checks, she was able to pay it off. Other two kids just did community college w no loans.

That would freak me out forever. For real, I’m not sure I could get over it and I’d constantly be looking for snakes.

I had no idea that Pa Keller’s racist statements were recent ! I saw the video and assumed it was years ago. IBLP isn’t one bit better without Gothard at the helm.

@Faith-manor, is Brandon Keilen also in the running to take over? I would assume both Jim Bob and Gil Bates are perhaps seen as too old or part of the old regime and that either Brandon K or David Waller are more likely to take over. But maybe Brandon isn’t involved anymore…haven’t kept up with them. All four of them are despicable, but David Waller really gives me the shivers.

Agree w having them rekeyed since the new buyer is going to do that anyway. It’s a lot cheaper than new doorknobs. (At least it is in my neck of the woods) You didn’t have house keys on car keychains? Or give one to a neighbor for emergencies? Just thinking of other places to get a key…

Katie, your quilting is lovely! I enjoy contrasting thread so I can see the quilting.

You garment sewers are making me swoon. Wish I had your skills! The past two weeks I have raided my stash and the stashes of my two sisters and pieced a quilt for my son. His current quilt is worn out. My daughter will quilt it on her longarm.

Glad he’s home, but with no answers it has to be scary…you don’t know if it’ll happen next month or in the next hour. Dh had some stress reactions that gave him swollen tongue and impacted his breathing… could your dh’s be stress related? I hope he can be seen soon and gets some answers.

Lots of prayers for you both.