You can do as many languages on Duo as you want. On the mobile app, tap the flag in the top left corner and it will let you choose another language.

I agree with your post, but wanted to jump off this part. My 14yod was on Germany for 2 weeks last spring. She couldn't get her atm card to work at all. I was surprised because I have never had persistent problems with that when I've traveled. In the final analysis I decided that it was most likely because she only had a savings account and not a checking account. At home she very rarely uses it, and the credit union allows atm withdrawals from savings. I think the German network couldn't support that. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Such lovely fabric!

🤦🏼‍♀️ Of course! I forgot about the flavoring injections.

Do you (or anyone) know why this is? Is it added salt to dishes with chicken, or something about chicken itself that is high in salt?

It has been a long time since we enjoyed those books together! Instead of the review cards, we put together a lapbook for each of the first two books. They served a similar purpose. I think every 5 chapters we would stop and spend a day talking about the pieces for each of the previous chapters, assembling them, and gluing them into the books. As a bonus, there was additional review when Grandma visited and everybody wanted to look through the lapbooks with her. I just pulled out the lapbook my high school freshman made way back when to remind her about the Seven Wonders after a discussion with her sister this week about the Colossus of Rhodes. If I were to use the cards I would either use them to prompt a casual review conversation or else the Montessori idea might be appealing. Avoid the trap of letting it get tedious for your dd! Maybe let her be in charge of the cards half the time, or something. Another idea that I used to see from other families was to hang a string in the wall and then as you review the cards, hang them up with clothes pins like a laundry style time line. In our house, history was a subject I tried to keep pretty casual about. I feel like it is one of the few subjects where even low key, consistent exposure really makes a difference.

This is true for me also. When I'm forced into those short term free trials of Premium I've been using that time to go back and get to legendary status on lessons from a few levels ago. During Premium there is no cost to trying for legendary and it allows me to do some deep review.

My first pair of pants came off the machine as an ankle length pencil skirt that went directly into the trash with a scream. The machine didn't see daylight again for quite a while. 😀

What will you be psyching yourself up *to*? Clothes drafting? I, too, often need to live mentally with big projects before actually starting.

I'm interested in the responses you get. We have one of the real estate agent combination lock boxes on the back door with a spare key, but some day maybe we will upgrade.

I've wondered that too as I ramp up my use of the Kenmore that I've been using off and on over the last 20 years. 🤞

I benefit from this forced practice too. In fact I don't care for the premium level because I can't seem to figure out how to keep the 5 heart limit. No live person would enjoy participating in the amount of repetitive practice I seem to require. 😀

I agree with pp about Duolingo. One thing it is missing for most languages is any formal grammar. If I wanted to really learn a language from scratch I would supplement with some grammar resource. Maybe a workbook like those Practice Makes Perfect books (are they available for lots of languages?), or a regular podcast containing a grammar portion, like Need in Slow <language>, whatever suits you. That is where you get explicit background on things like irregular verbs, reflexive verbs, common idioms, preposition usage, etc. Duo teaches those through exposure and repetition, but for me it is helpful to have them spelled out for me. If course just having those resources does not mean I use them regularly, as I should!

So you have any tips for studying multiple languages on Duolingo and keeping them straight? My brain starts to cross language boundaries when I study more than one language using the same platform (generally Duolingo).

I just finished this warm, squishy scarf. The yarn was a souvenir from a trip to Spain. I started making a shawl and then ran into trouble and put it aside for many *years*. Sigh. I recently resuscitated it, rediscovered the problem 🤦🏼‍♀️ and then knit it apart into this scarf which I'm going to love.

I've been using Duolingo for German. I'm considering a Jiveworld subscription to bring my Spanish out of hibernation. It is aimed at intermediate learners and uses stories from the podcast Radio Ambulante, which I listen to.

So amazing!

You remind me that I had to call the hospital and ask that either they fix her birthday on the birth certificate OR refund me the costs associated with day 1. 😄 They fixed the birth certificate.

It has been done! https://youtu.be/GjX2NT_XZCs?si=rU3MYp_7FRFDYUTO

We had a thing where a medicine was charged, but we never picked it up (the dosage had changed). It took 6 months for the charge to get taken off our deductible. As a result, a recurring charge for another family member blipped up one random month at the end of the summer. I spent so long on the phone trying to figure out what had happened. Finally understood on a 3-way call with insurance and pharmacy. The insurance rep was so, incredibly rude! I was so angry I called back and waited patiently until I got a supervisor and told her that 2 of the 3 reps I had spoken with that day were super helpful in getting to the bottom of my issue and thanked her. 😄 She was really surprised, but you know how it is, if I called and complained I wouldn't have gotten any real satisfaction. I figured she could read between the lines and investigate if she wanted.

Or maybe buy a cheap fabric and try out the pattern on that first, before you cut into your precious fabric.

We have decent insurance and I still totally agree with you about the morass that is insurance. 😝

For me a lot of it is the lack of conversation. If you have reasons and are open about things then I know you've thought about it. The reasons don't have to be incontrovertible or unchanging, just keep me in the loop.

I had to read this twice because it didn't make sense. I still don't get it. Your ds made the biggest mistake in the diy book and people are upset with you for reacting? They are being rude to you, probably out of embarrassment either from making the mistake or knowing that they would likely have made the same mistake. Please be as upset as you need and then, when you are done, move on and give them icy stares when they try to guilt you.

QFT! Before they suddenly moved 12 hours away, my in-laws would drive past our house (20 minutes from highway to us) on their way to a vacation spot, but would decline to stop by over night or for a meal or a meet up at a coffee shop, nothing. It was so strange.