Memoria Press Online Academy is mostly full but has a couple seats left in a few 5th grade classes. Not sure if you could build a whole schedule out of it. Monday classes start tomorrow (then they are off Labor Day) and the rest of their classes start next week, so I'd get on it now if you are interested. Well Trained Mind Academy is starting its 4th week tomorrow so many of these courses have already started.

Just a thought- I love crushed ice but have sworn off ice makers in the refrigerator. They are the first thing to break and I have known more than one person to have a leak from the ice maker that resulted in flooding and needing to replace entire rooms of flooring. I'd still fret about where I am going to find a fridge that fits when it dies but I have given up my crushed ice through the door fantasies.

Well now my ds who is taking de at the local U has now gone from online/hybrid classes TO all face to face classes. His professors just really hated the hybrid and have worked out solutions with bigger rooms/installing dividers between desks/etc.

I cannot stand going into Walmart but I had to break up with Aldi after serious quality issues and Publix is just too expensive for my regular shopping needs. So, after my Aldi breakup I started doing Walmart grocery pickup and I have been using that almost exclusively for my shopping for over a year. Substitutions can be weird but I mostly allow them because more often than not they work out in my favor (larger size, more expensive brand) for same price as requested item. If they are not acceptable I just decline them. Occasionally I have accepted an odd subsitution just to try something different. We have had some glitches (poor quality produce or a package that had come open or something) and I requested a refund with no issues. It's annoying but not enough to give up on it. More often than not it is just fine and shopping inside Walmart isn't an option for me even pre-covid. I can only buy enough there that I can do self checkout with. My teen ds enjoys pizza hot pockets when he is on his own for a meal. Last week they substituted ham and cheese hot pockets. I declined them and they didn't charge me but somehow they still ended up in my order. So I've been eating these stupid hot pockets to get rid of them. I don't like them. I just didn't want to waste them or drive back to the store. Sometimes we do end up with weird situtations like that. But we also have times I order a small bag of frozen catfish and they are out so they substitute a whole case 🙂 The worst experience was getting almost home and getting a call from the store that they had given me someone else's order. So I had to drive back and return it and get my own order and I ended up late to an appointment. That was highly annoying but I have worked enough service jobs to have pity on the girl that made the mistake. I am careful now to eyeball what is going in my van now and make sure it looks like my order.

My son's university also added a addendum to the housing contract that there will be no refunds if they close dorms. They did allow for an opt out after many classes were moved online IF a student had all online classes. Being in off campus apartments has really been easier for us in all of this. Now, if he had come home in the spring it would have been a loss because the apartments didn't let kids out of their leases when school closed. But my ds stayed in the college town so not getting kicked out of his dorm was a big plus. I always felt a little safer with the idea of my kids on campus but having off campus housing really did make this smoother for both of my college guys in the spring. Oldest is graduated now but second son is off campus again. It works better for us not to be at the mercy of being sent home by the college and not having constant uncertainty about the living situation, changing rules, etc. I feel so so bad for the ones starting their freshman year. As much as it stinks for everyone it seems super sad for new freshman trying to get settled. I saw people on the parents FB page talking about driving Uhauls half way across the country to move their kids into the dorms. At least my kids travel light. My high school senior does de at the local Christian U. The president had a video message sent out today in which he reported that there have been 14 positive cases since school started last week. It seems impossibly low given our situation here locally. Local public schools are in their fourth week back now and their numbers are super low too. I can't really make sense of it, really.

Well now both my college boys have started. My de kid is taking three classes. One is fully on campus and the other two are hybrid (goes one day a week and zooms the other). My college senior has three fully in person (though the two he has been to have only 12 and 6 students and this is a huge public university) and two online and asynchronous. I really hope my college senior's stay in person. They are tough and he will graduate in December if he passes. One is a repeat so it seems like a big IF. But he is fired up and was so excited today to be back. I hope it can stay in person for him or he might be in trouble 😞 This kid as been a good enough student (has over a 3.0) so it isn't like he is a slacker but he literally will not graduate if he can't get a C in this class. It is very stressful. If he gets a C, he'll graduate at just 20 yo. If he doesn't he'll have to transfer. So stressful! He doesn't need Covid making it any harder. Ugh.

Oh I agree. Very bizarre! There is no playfulness or lightheartedness like some couples who disagree politically but have good relationships usually have. Jame Carville and Mary Matalin were amusing. Kellyanne and George appear to literally hate one another. Awkward. If it is all an act there is still some unpacking to do for me to make sense of it.

In 2016 I though the Conways were gearing up for some kind of reality show. They disagreed but we have seen political couples who disagreed before. But then it just got nastier and nastier and it didn't seem like they were playing it up for an audience anymore. It seemed genuine and mean. And regardless of what I think of Kellyanne's boss I just really thought George was a jerk for undermining his wife's career in that way. It's not like George's commentary was saving the country. Just making his wife's job more difficult. Kellyanne was successful and influential and her husband was just trying to sabotage her job. There was no playfulness or "it's just work" about their conflicts. They seemed very real and very hurtful and it was embarassing to watch. I hope they pull in together. I've had teens and they have challenged me in ways I couldn't understand even though I was here 24/7 and totally focused on them. I can only imagine the drama in a house with that many complications, even minus abuse.

My second ds worked sometimes as much as 30 hours per week in high school. It was okay for him because he was not in any extracurriculars at all (much to my annoyance) and he just wasn't one who was going to be productive in his own down time. He was doing dual enrollment and it just came really easy to him. So it totally made sense for him to work that much while taking three college classes. It made sense for him and he saved for college, paid for repairs when he had a car mishap, etc. My third ds is working about 12-15 hours a week. It is plenty. So I really would say that is as much as a kid that is appropriately challenged by school and has some other activities and interests.

I get the frustration but I think people are just doing what they can to cut down, not eliminate, exposure. I can appreciate that. I really want the kids to play but I also think people are right to do what they can. I think what is frustrating me is that people are shooting down any precautions that you can poke holes in. Do temp checks catch everyone who might be contagious? Of course not, but might they be a layer of protection? Masks of course are not 100% effective and people won’t wear them perfectly. But might they provide a layer of protection? Can distancing be perfectly enforced? Usually not but it is a layer of protection. So what if we do temp checks and masks and social distancing when we can? Will that at least slow things down? Slow them down enough that our kids can play sports and maybe go to school? I find myself eye rolling over some things but then I think people are just doing what they can to slow transmission and that is ok.

Okay- I only have two kids left at home and I don’t bake bread daily like I used to but this would have made me SO happy about ten years ago. I totally get it!

I have a restaurant size box of cling wrap that I got at Sam's Club at least ten years ago...maybe 15. I don't have any idea what I paid for it but it was possibly the best purchase I have ever made. Way better quality and easier to use than grocery store saran wrap too. I have thought of giving it as a wedding gift or shower gift. It wouldn't be appreciated at the time but on their 20th anniversary it would be one wedding present they still have. LOL. Though they might not appreciate having to move it from house to house. Hahaha.

We had a roof replaced after a major hail storm so there was no question it was needed. Every roof for miles around needed to be replaced. Our insurance did not go up but what we did find was that there was some kind of additional deductible for hail damage. Something that had just been added in the last few years and we hadn't paid attention to. So, our cost was higher than just our deductible :( So check your policy for some special hail damage fee. I think ours had been sent in some yearly update of terms and I didn't pay attention to it until we needed it.

My ds got an email from UAH that their application is now open.

I am generally not one to fuss about anything but I have seen non-compliance be contagious with masking. We are in an activity that started with most people grudgingly complying and a couple objectors. Those that were unhappy to mask but complied quickly followed the lead of the ones that refused. :( So it might be worth mentioning just because I suspect if it isn't addressed others will follow suit. It is hard to be the first ones to buck the rules but easier to be the second/third/fourth ones and then what is the point of the policy at all?

My 17 yo ds starts de today at the local private U. His school was the last in the state to go fully remote in the spring and has been insistent all summer that everything would be in person as planned. They have walked things back little by little. First masks were allowed, then encouraged, now required. They have an app they have to fill out a health screening everyday. If they pass that the screen changes to yellow and they proceed to a temp check the first time they enter an academic building. If he passes the temp check his screen will turn green and he will be good to be on campus for the day. He has three classes. Two have moved to hybrid (half the class each day while the other class zooms) and one is still fully in person because it is small enough to distance adequately in the room. He is lucky. Most of the kids he knows have gotten emails the last few days that moved them fully online. We'll see how it goes. The population of the student body and teachers definitely skews toward the side that is skeptical of masks. One professor told them he will be masking according to requirements but that he and his entire family has already had Covid. Another teacher told them they won't need masks in the classroom. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out. We are in an area that the political will is on the side of keeping things open. Someday my town can be a case study in approaching the pandemic with a goal of herd immunity. We haven't had much mitigation here and we have had plenty of Covid.

My ds is heavily involved in 4-H. He is applying to the state flagship which is home to the 4-H program and is having his recommendation written by the 4-H director there he has worked with. So his recommendation is coming from an email address associated with the university he is applying to. We never thought of it as a negative. The recommender is well known at the university and honestly has probably written many letters for there and is familiar with the setup. I only thought of it as a positive. He has another LOR coming from the local private U he has done de at and I figured that would hold less weight as the big state U probably looks down a bit on the private U. You never know how the readers will respond. I say just go with the one you think will write the best letter and not stress you out worrying if they will actually complete it.

If we contract Covid it will likely be from my 70 yo father. We are generally cautious but he is not at all. He lives alone and he comes to visit every two weeks or so. At this point we are willing to risk it rather than deny him the visits with family. He is very lonely and I just can't bear to say no when he says he wants to come visit. It is too hot to sit outside, he isn't going to mask, etc. I am aware of the risks and we choose to take it in this circumstance. Otherwise we are pretty cautious and our contacts with others are distanced, masked, and/or just short interactions in passing. I think our highest risk is definitely getting it from him. :(

Oh I definitely don't think all anti-vaxxers believe that. Not at all. But I know some that do.

I'm generally one not to jump and figure there will always be another deal another day. I guess we have to be more ready to do the deal when we find something. My 17 yo ds wrecked the old trusty extra family car that had been around forever and I'm really not wanting to pull the trigger on another one. The shortage is not making me any happier about it.

The loss of any kind of truth is really troublesome. I have people in my life that simply will not believe anything they don't want to. I know alot of anti-vaxxers. If, for example, we had a measles outbreak in town, these folks would just say they didn't believe it was really measles, they didn't think those kids were really sick, they didn't know any of the sick kids, they know a nurse who said it wasn't measles. They would simply not believe it. These people would not believe they had Covid if they tested positive. They simply would say the test was wrong or that someone was lying. If getting the disease yourself isn't enough then I just don't know where to go with that. We have enough in our community at this point that everyone knows people who have had it. Yet, some just won't believe it.

We are trying to find a used car for my 17 yo. We keep being told that there is a shortage of cars due to COVID and they are being sold quickly. It does make sense that there would be a shortage of people trading in cars with the downturn in the economy and while dealerships never shut down here I imagine maybe some places they did? It doesn’t really matter because we either find a car or we don’t- but I get prickly about sales tactics and I was wondering if this is really another hard to find item due to pandemic? Or this is just the latest sales line? Anyone else been used car shopping?

The thought is the virus is a real thing but no worse than H1N1 which didn't shut down the economy. Media and Democrats are overblowing the seriousness to destroy the economy and in general make people miserable so they don't re-elect the president. As soon as the election is over everyone will move on and things will go back to normal.

Oh- as far as cost- just the tub was quoted to us at $625 with a five year warranty. It is worth it to us at this time.

I am getting one tub refinished next week. Just the tub. The tile surround is fine but the tub is 70s harvest gold. We are also getting the six foot double sink vanity top refinished at the same time. Same thing- 70s gold. Everything is solid and in good shape but we just arent up for a bathroom demo just for cosmetic reasons. Then, two weeks later we are getting our shower stall in the master completely refinished and the vanity top in there. This shower is stained small ceramic tiles that had been covered by a DIY apoxy kit that is now peeling off. It's very very bad. Both these bathrooms were structurally fine and the floors, and walls, etc, are fine and we didn't want to demo and replace so we are trying the refinishing as a cheaper compromise and something that can be done without displacing us from our bathrooms for weeks. They absolutely would have to be done before we sold and while we don't have plans to move, with dh's job situation it could always be sprung on us. So, I can let you know in a few weeks how it went.