I have a 13"; my husband and oldest son have 15" laptops (my son's is inherited from DH). I find 15" cumbersome and heavy to carry around, plus it doesn't fit in my preferred bag. However, DH and DS are perfectly happy with the added weight as a tradeoff for a larger screen and have bags/backpacks that fit them comfortably.

My son is a rising senior and I have been looking closely at distribution requirements at various colleges and universities. So far I've only seen one school that actually requires students to take a class in the arts. Much more common are humanities requirements, which can be satisfied with arts classes but certainly aren't limited to those.

For what it's worth, I would first ask your attorney the following questions: (1) My STBX struggles with mental health and I fully expect that he will continue to file contempt motions against me, especially with respect to the children's religious upbringings. Given that, in your experience, what sort of language would be best to include in the final parenting plan? Should I be very specific or keep it vague? (2) In your experience, how do judges in this jurisdiction handle post-dissolution disagreements over religion clauses in parenting plans? Do they ever enforce them, and if so, when? (3) My kids are teens and while i don't expect them to push back on going to Mass, etc., obviously you never know. How worried should I be about including something in the parenting plan that ultimately I can't/won't enforce as my children get older? (4) Is there anything else we can do to make it more difficult for my STBX to harass me through the legal system in the coming years? Best of luck to you, OP. I am so sorry that you and your kids are going through this.

Same.

LOL, I believe DH said the same thing the last time we bought a physics text. Good question about the labs. We have no requirement beyond what we should be doing for college application purposes (DS is a rising senior) and of course for pedagogical reasons.

Thanks, this is extremely helpful. I assume that the edition of any of these doesn't matter? I am sort of perplexed by what to do about labs. The CB has really good guidance for labs in other classes but there's almost nothing for either AP Physics C course.

Oldest DS will be doing both AP Physics C classes at home next year. DH has the background to supervise but I need to choose a textbook and figure out labs. DS did AP Physics 1 and 2 at home in 9th grade, using Knight et al and a version of regentrude's syllabus. We used the introductory physics lab kit from eScience. He has completed the AoPS Calculus book and will be doing linear algebra next year. If it's relevant, DS tentatively plans to be a math major. It is very unlikely that he will go into engineering. Any suggestions?

Are any of the current board members willing to head up a broader fundraising campaign on behalf of the organization? Or perhaps you can bring someone new onto the board who could help identify and approach potential donors? Are there institutions and/or foundations that you can approach as well? Establishing scholarships, especially named scholarships (e.g, The Robert and Eugenia Cricketloop Award) can be a great way to raise larger donations. Bequests are another low-hanging fruit -- you can solicit people to name your organization in their wills. That won't bring in money right away, obviously, but over time it certainly can. IME, publicizing your organization through social media and the like can help you raise small amounts of money -- $50 here, $100 there. But to raise tens of thousands of dollars year after year you will almost certainly need a more targeted strategy.

Are you trying to raise $30,000 through individual small donations? That seems very challenging to me, especially with such a small mailing list. IME, the most effective way to raise that sort of money is to personally solicit wealthy community members. In many of the nonprofits I've been involved in, there are certain board members who are there for that very reason -- they make substantial donations themselves and/or are willing to reach out to their friends to solicit. What does your board look like?

I am the chair of a local community organization. We do several events every year that need a lot of volunteers. What I have learned: (1) Two weeks out is the sweet spot. Most people won't commit many weeks -- let alone months -- in advance, and those few who do often wind up cancelling. (2) Break a long event into shifts, preferably of no more than 1.5 hrs. (3) Have people sign up by shift, not by job. People want to know what time they have to be there and when they can count on leaving. They mostly don't care so much whether they are working the ticket booth, setting up, or washing dishes. (And the few who do care will tell you.) So fill your shifts, assign them to jobs yourself, and then tell them what they're doing when they get there. (4) Remind people multiple times what time they need to show up AND where to go. (5) Be prepared for a couple of volunteers to cancel at the very last minute. (6) After the event, thank everyone profusely and make them feel appreciated however you can do so. For one of our events we hold an afterparty for volunteers; for another, I send individual thank you emails. Volunteers also often have great suggestions about how to make the event even better, so keep a document or file with those notes.

I have never sold a house myself. However, FWIW, when we bought this house the seller's agent was someone who did not normally represent either sellers or buyers in this particular neighborhood. The house was markedly underpriced and our immediate offer to pay listing price was promptly accepted. (I didn't even see the house first -- only DH did.) We would have been willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars more for this place, and others might have been willing to pay even more. But the selling agent didn't know what she had.

Useful thread -- DS18 is getting his out on Thursday!

Oh my goodness, I am so sorry.

Sometimes I use it, sometimes I don't. However, I just noticed that the copied recipe calls for 1/4 tsp of table salt, whereas the original recipe says 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. The salt is key! Use 1 tsp of kosher salt.

This page has it as well.

Is there a place where you can wash up? I live in TN too and you will surely arrive absolutely soaked.

This is the best granola of all time.

In that case an out-of-state library card is almost certainly going to be worth every penny and then some. Note that some have student rates.

My two high schoolers (so far) have done relatively few outside classes -- mostly we homeschool at home, with me and/or occasionally DH. They do outside classes for things that I simply don't have the background to handle: mostly foreign language and religious studies (which is in a foreign language). I very much agree with this, and would add that even the best student needs feedback and interaction to push him/herself to higher levels. I suppose that my main advice, then, would be not to underestimate the time commitment and to use the summer to get as thoroughly prepared as you can for the upcoming school year. I spend a huge amount of time over the summer preparing classes and getting myself up to speed so that during the school year I can concentrate on the day-to-day.

This I did not know! But replacing the three sofa seat cushions would allow me to replace the slipcover for the whole thing. I believe that you may have solved my problem ......!

We have an IKEA Ektorp sofa, armchair and ottoman that we purchased about 20 years ago. About 10 years into the sofa's life -- and after the baby-spitting-up years were over -- I replaced the original washable slipcovers with a new set. On the whole, the sofa has held up remarkably well to exceptionally hard use. However, a couple of years ago we got a puppy, and I think you all know where this tale goes next. Sigh. The dog is not allowed on the furniture but of course training is a process, and well, at some point the dog chewed up the corners of several of the back cushions. He has also stained the seat cushions with licking. Unfortunately, further investigation has revealed that the seat cushions are so destroyed internally that is is no longer possible to remove the covers to wash/replace them. So I have several choices: (1) Get a new sofa, ottoman, and armchair. I am very reluctant to do this. The dog is much better trained than he was but he is still young and brand-new spiffy furniture seems like an engraved invitation to tragedy. (2) Continue to try and strategically tuck in the ruined corners, wipe the seat cushions with water, and pick up bits of stuffing for the next decade until the kids and dog are out of the house and we can get new furniture. I should note here that if it isn't already obvious, our house isn't exactly ready for its close-up in House Beautiful, but even so this option is a bit of a downer. (3) Figure out a way to re-cover all of this furniture with something sturdy, washable and not terribly expensive, but without actually removing the existing cushion covers. Thoughts? Ideas? ETA: I should mention that after my second son was born 15 years ago we had a bedbug infestation and DH still has not recovered from the experience. So replacing our sofa with a used one is a nonstarter.

I have seen Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban at the grocery store. And a while back I was walking on a greenway near my house and passed this old guy with crazy hair -- long, curly, and all black with white streaks -- walking a little dog. I later figured out that it was Steven Tyler.

Thanks, this is helpful. I don't think we need a provider (and DS strongly prefers to work with me) but something that we can do together would be ideal. I'll check out both of these.

There was a thread on the HS board earlier this year that mentioned a few useful resources for students working on college application essays, but I wanted to bring the topic here as well -- any favorite recommendations?

Bumping up this thread as we head into summer -- any other suggestions?