You're making me want to trade you my 16 year old. What a great guy!

Got the score and have very mixed feelings. She's great with the reading/English stuff and her goal of perfect or nearly so is doable. So that was exciting. But math. She's been on a downward trend in the past three years and that continued with an even poorer showing here than what she did back in June on the SAT. She's only a sophomore so I have some hope of getting more math into her head, but will admit I'm baffled. And I'm disgruntled that she's spending the majority of her school time on the subject whilst neglecting the things she has a talent and interest in.

Christmas Eve is soups, a charcuterie board, and all the homemade Christmas candy comes out. On Christmas Day we do bread bowls filled with cheese fondue and then have steak, ham and veggies for dipping.

My people get a new Christmas ornament each year on St Nicholas Day. We also do the chocolate coins, and I make a coffee cake and shape it like a bishop's crook.

I doubt one of my kids will ever have children and for the other, who wants a medical field career, I expect she'll be in her 30s by the time there are kids. We're definitely downsizing. I'm stressed out by the amount of space we have as it is and don't like owning a bunch of stuff. I can't imagine having two more bedrooms without full-time occupants. But I'm weird and only have this house now because my children insisted that I be "normal". It sucks and I'm counting down the days until they're both moved out and I can get the boxcar, gypsy wagon, lighthouse or yurt that I would prefer.

I think my sister is peeved with me right now because none of my contributions to Thanksgiving dinner are traditional except the turkey, which my brother-in-law is preparing, otherwise she probably wouldn't like it either. Along with many here, we don't like the marshmallowed sweet potatoes or the evil fried onions from a can on the green beans. Don't care for pumpkin pie because of the crust. Don't like the jellied cranberry or mashed potatoes and the only stuffing we like is made with cornbread. We also don't eat those sweet, white dinner rolls, which make me think of glue.

I make hordes of slow cooker peanut clusters every December. Super easy and I can keep them in the freezer and dole them out as needed. We also like the saltine cracker toffee that was mentioned earlier. It's easy, too.

Our dog has done longer flights than that in the cabin and she was fine. We prefer to have her there with us. Her personality is such that she's chill about the whole thing and just curls up and goes to sleep. For us, the cabin is less stressful.

We have the pumpkin spice oil change here, too. I also saw a pumpkin spice fencing sale.

I just thanked God for my spouse who yesterday told me exactly what would be a great gift for him this year. I ordered it today. Merely reading about being expected to read signals and come up with something from my deep and loving knowledge was enough to stress me out.

Be glad you got him to notebook. My daughter refused to have anything to do with that from a young age. No coloring, cutting or pasting from her without a battle at around second grade. She said, truthfully, that she didn't need to do that to learn.

I totally know what it's like to cry because the blood tests came back normal and you wanted them to have the answers. BTDT. But I wasn't crazy, and I bet you aren't either. Sending good wishes that you get it sorted out soon.

It was very disappointing both times we tried this. I'm still sad about what I didn't get to see because of the lame things they wanted to do, and it cost me more than I would have spent, but I didn't want to introduce any discord into the situation. Discuss beforehand what you're doing exactly.

I was told that having a fan blowing on my head could kill me. Eating fish and accidently swallowing a bone could kill me. And, basketball, yes, it could also kill me. I do understand that one, though, because when she was young, my mom did see another young person die on a basketball court, but it was from an undiagnosed heart condition, not basketball.

Where I'm at the basement isn't included in the square footage even if it is nicely finished and a walkout.

Because everyone in my household is quite capable of making the dinner. I'm done with the expectation that it will fall upon me, especially as I will return to full-time employment outside the house and my people are closing in on young adulthood and needing to be able to fend for themselves.

This post got me worried, so I double checked ours. So happy. They're exactly the ones in the OP link.

My mom gives us lots of stuff. I finally learned to always take it because she expresses love that way and would feel rejected when I said no. I also realized that in taking it I was helping to keep the clutter down in her house, which helps me out after she passes on. It's a win-win. Most of it moves right on out of our lives. I don't keep things we don't need or don't love. Some of it I know other people will enjoy, so it makes me happy to take it to the thrift store. Then, it's a win-win-win.

I've been through the tornado siren thing with no basement or storm cellar and would like to never do that again. So even though I've never seen one I liked, a basement is a must for me.

I'm in the same boat and it does feel odd. I was just going through all the books today and realized we're good to go with hand-me-downs except for possibly a math workbook.

I had a student in the live physics class last year. No complaints from us. I thought the teacher was engaging and the material was covered well. The workload seemed appropriate.

You might see if DampRid containers will help you out.

We are traveling to see it at 100%. I have an Annie Dillard essay called "Total Eclipse" to blame for my need to make this trip. At the moment, I have reservations at four different hotels in different cities because we weren't exactly sure of our logistics. Since we have that worked out now, I need to release the other rooms because I know places are booked up.

One of mine has similar scores. We weren't surprised. We said, thank god for spellcheck, and I once again told the story of my favorite college professor who stunk at spelling and would ask us how to spell things as he wrote on the board. Somehow he still had a PhD and a happy, successful life. We've used Sequential Spelling, Rod and Staff, MCP, and Spectrum and nothing magical has happened. We'll probably continue a formal spelling program through middle school, but I don't have high hopes. What I am hoping will improve is that she'll buy into my idea that one does not get to guess at spelling. Some words she doesn't realize she's getting wrong, but a lot of times she knows when she's taking a stab at it. She's just always in a hurry and doesn't want the hassle of checking her spelling. I'm going to keep insisting that she look up words, and she'll probably get the sermon a few more times about the people out there who will make inaccurate judgments about her based on spelling, so she should try not to undermine herself in that way.

Glad to hear some good news. Continued prayers.