I would paint it white for sure. It would look pretty and bright and then you could change other features without painting again. For full disclosure, though, I always lean toward something neutral for any feature I wouldn't want to just paint again if I didn't like it. An easy wall or small room I'll take my chances and try different colors but something that is going to be a pain to paint I go neutral. I really think white will be really pretty especially because it is so tall. Also, I used to think white was boring but I'm starting to love it on walls more and more. I think it will be really pretty.

@fairfarmhandyes, it is bad here in TN. I feel like it is absolutely closing in on us. As of yesterday our county was averaging over 130 new cases/100,000 population per day over the last week. That number makes me gasp and then I see that a full half of the state is worse than that. Yet, things are just chugging along. Very few masks. Church Christmas programs in full swing. Indoor dining is packed etc. I feel like I am the only one who even knows what is going on. It is a very strange feeling.

Dh switched to a job six years ago that gives a choice between a traditional health care plan or an HSA plan the company contributes half the deductible to. We like the HSA and I really like being able to choose the right one for us. Dh has a 401K that his employer puts in 4.5% of his income and matches 75% of his contributions to 6%. So we put in 6% but it’s a total of 15% going in. It adds up. There are other basic benefits but those two are the ones that make me feel really good about his employer and work for us.

I’m honestly not sure. He applied back when it opened in August. I think he got a letter within a couple weeks with the acceptance and initial scholarship (the automatic amount that is posted online). I’m pretty sure it was less than a month but it was early on when they likely had less applications.

Not sure what we are doing this year. Last year on Christmas eve we got a big variety platter of chicken tenders from Publix and french bread from the bakery. We had other fixings and people made their own chicken tender subs however they liked them. It was easy for me because it was pretty much self serve and there wasn't alot of prep/cleanup. I also appreciated that if I overbought it would be something people would eat the next day or two. We had other odds and ends snacky things but that was easy and enjoyed. Christmas eve was always hard trying to figure out what to get on for dinner quickly after getting home from a 5:30 Mass but my young adults/teens really enjoyed this meal and it was EASY. This year we aren't going to mass (Covid) so we can do a bigger meal. Prime rib was the request. I'll have my adult boys home for the first time together since last Christmas so I'll make whatever they want 🙂

Yeah this part really gets to me. I knew with ds #2 that we wouldn’t get anything competitive so I didn’t make him go through it. This ds is close enough he has to do it all but still a long shot. My son’s girlfriend has also been jumping all these hoops while having a busy senior year with academics and other demands. Yet, she has been jumping all these hoops because she meets all the minimums to apply and supposedly be competitive. Well the EA decisions came out last night and she didn’t even make the honors program. So she isn’t going to get one of these competitive scholarships that goes to students in that program. Would have been nice to have that info before the competitive scholarship app was due. So much wasted time and effort when she was never in the running. That stuff gets to me.

I actually thought today about picking up some fried chicken from a grocery store deli that I would just heat up and would go well with mashed potatoes and gravy and stuffing. I never make fried chicken because it is way too fussy and it isn’t something we tend to eat out. So it would still be kind of special in a way in that it is something different. I will probably make a prime rib Christmas Eve. That is expensive but easy. Then the fried chicken can be on Christmas Day and leftovers.

It was always me that did the wrapping when the kids were small but dh would do the toy unpacking/assembling/battery installation/tech stuff so that was pretty equitable. Now that boys are grown and it is just 12 yo dd, it is much less stuff in general and more of it is clothes and easily wrapped items and no toy assembly. My dd actually does most of it now. I have occasionally even given her a box for herself and had her wrap it while I was there so she wasn't tempted to peek. She doesn't mind that or I wouldn't have her do it. Dh wraps things he buys for me and dd. The big boys do some of their own wrapping and some my dd helps them too. It's fun to see how my guys wrap 🙂

My ds got his acceptance to UT-Knoxville tonight along with confirmation of the expected automatic merit. He also got accepted to the top honors program which was not guaranteed. Some friends with good stats but just a point or two lower on ACT did not get into the honors program. So hopefully that bodes well for any additional scholarship money that his application has been well received so far. He has a couple more scholarship applications to finish (one more for UTK and one for an outside scholarship).

Mine is cute too!! Especially in her Christmas llama pajamas.

During the election I saw that Bob Dole tweeted something that got attention. My brain couldn't process that he was still alive...and that he is on Twitter. (I realize that it is probable some one else tweets from his account but still...it really stuck me as strange).

I think that scenario is both very annoying and commonplace. Sorry! I’d be aggravated by the request but would have complied and stewed about it. 🙁

Interesting @RootAnn I really haven’t followed anything regarding UAH since ds stopped considering it but we did enjoy our visit there. I also figured since ds has not applied for any competitive scholarships or the honors program they might be able to guess he isn’t really interested anymore. And if they are seeing that from alot of the higher stat kids they might be revisiting scholarships again.

Just a note that I would stay tuned about UAH merit aid. My ds applied as an OOS student for fall 2021 and he would have had full tuition based on last year’s matrix. They adjusted it for this year and it wasn’t such a great deal anymore. Then he got a letter a few weeks later that they were adjusting it again and he got a couple thousand more dollars. He just got a letter today. They are giving him in state tuition and an adjusted scholarship amount that equals full tuition. So after a couple adjustments he is back to the merit aid he thought he would have when he applied. (Full tuition for OOS). I suspect their applications were down or the quality of applications down with the reduced merit and they are trying to get their footing with the Covid disruptions. Just wanted to mention that the merit aid situation at UAH is certainly under review. Unfortunately in the meantime my ds has moved on and has written off UAH, but it is still there for him as a good option if something goes awry with his first choice.

Yes, complicated. Which is why I haven’t paid attention before. I just haven’t had the brain space is suspected I needed.

I keep seeing these mentioned in regards to mitigating Covid risk. I haven’t looked into it but I am positive smart people here have. What would I be looking for if I wanted something to decrease risk ? (in addition to all the other measures always mentioned). I would assume there are all kinds of useless products being marketed and I think I have just been assuming anything useful is difficult to get because of demand. Are there effective air purifiers readily available still? What am I even looking for? Thank you!

Early in the pandemic I sent my adult kiddos far from home Omaha Steaks. Grocery shopping was hit or miss and they were spending alot of time at home and cooking out. I actually ordered some for us too. Everything was really good. Even the side dishes and things that came in different packages were really good. I'm not usually one to like prepared frozen dishes like that but we were really happy with it. They have a variety of packages.

No problem I just saw this go badly twice and mess up opportunities for homeschool kids to participate in high school sports. My oldest played ball in college, actually, having played on a homeschool team but the team disbanded the next year because of all of this.

No I wasn’t perceiving prejudice at all. I think what the first team I mentioned doing was shady and I don’t blame other teams for not liking it. We were involved before it turned into a place for disgruntled players to land. The second one I wasn’t involved in I just watched happen. My only point was that homeschool teams need to hold themselves to standards even if there is no governing body forcing it. No one might care until the homeschool team starts winning. But eventually the other teams will care. It is true that these games didn’t count for anything for the public and private schools that played them. It effectively was a scrimmage on the school’s schedule but the homeschool team could put together a nice schedule by playing these games. But if the teams won’t play you because you don’t follow their rules you have no schedule left. Or open tournaments that you could participate in if no one objected, you aren’t going to be welcome if you don’t follow the rules the other teams do. Homeschoolers can’t have it both ways and say “but we aren’t sanctioned and don’t need to comply with those rules” and then still want to enter open tournaments and have teams scrimmage them.

Right. I think that it is that from a public health perspective you are catching almost all of it because it is rare to get sick after ten days. It does happen, though, so on a personal level you aren't out of the woods after ten day. But from an impact on public health they will catch almost all of them in the shorter time and they are hoping for increased compliance. I think part of the issue with information and people trusting what they are being told is that the public health perspective and the personal safety aspect are not exactly the same and this is not always explained.

Well, I wasn’t super clear because really my advice was just to be in tune to local politics. One example was a pretty loaded homeschool team (mostly long time homeschoolers) that started picking up kids that were really good and had coaching conflicts or academic issues or weren’t getting enough playing time or got kicked off a school team and decided to homeschool. Then our homeschool team becomes a bunch of good homeschoolers and some really really good kids who suddenly decided to homeschool in the middle of a school year. The homeschool team was not sanctioned and had not violated any rule per se but is sure didn’t look good. And public and private schools banded together and wouldn’t play us because they perceived what out homeschool team to be doing was shady. The homeschool team wasn’t sanctioned by anyone so wasn’t breaking any rule. But it still was a bad situation. When the homeschool team starts beating the good school teams they are going to come under scrutiny. Another situation I saw get really ugly- our state sanctioning body has a rule that younger students can not play on high school teams. Homeschool team had a 7th grader on a varsity team. There was no rule broken because the sanctioning body has no authority over homeschool teams. But to the other teams, that are under the sanctioning body, that is against the rules. And they didn’t want to play the homeschool team if the homeschool team was operating under more lenient rules. So both sides argued and argued about it until the state sanctioning body banned member schools and officials from playing the homeschool team or working their games. So those situations are not specifically what the OP was asking. But what I have seen is that operating by your own set of rules can be your downfall if you want to engage with public and private schools that are under no obligation to play you. I was just pointing out that I have seen it get really ugly and OP is right to try to figure out how they are going to address the specific situation.

I don't have any real answers but we were involved in a variety of homeschool sports/private school that allowed homeschoolers to play when my boys were in high school. The one thing I would note is that while some things are legal in that no governing body has authority over homeschool sports...they can promote ill will that prevents the success of the program. For example, if players played for multiple homeschool organizations, while it might not violate any rule officially, it can get public school folks, others frustrated and upset and it can feel like cheating. Even if no one is actually "cheating" the feeling can lead to enough animosity that no one will agree to play the homeschool teams. We were involved a couple times where homeschool/private schools were doing things that, while legal, left a bad enough taste in the mouth of competitors that other schools refused to schedule and state sanctioned officals wouldn't officiate. So, I would just suggest that while there may not be anything legal governing homeschool sports in your area, avoiding the appearance of impropriety is also an issue. Even if you aren't outside any rules, just the appearance of being shady can make it so no one will play you. If the state sanctioning body, that has no authority over you, forbids their member schools from playing you and their officials from working your games, that is a bad thing, even if you haven't broken any actual rule. BTDT

I know all these precautions make sense and are well intentioned. I just think some of this would depend on the older person and their attitude or personality. If my mom was still alive I think we could have done some of this. But it is my father that is still with us. If we were to discuss whether or not he could use our bathroom or set him up in a chair across the room with gifts set up so no one needs to go nearby and set a timer telling him to leave. Well, it would be a fate worse than not visiting. I think if we treated my dad in this way the result could possibly be that he brought harm upon himself. I realize that is dramatic. But in my situation there is no way no how my father could handle being treated in this way. It would destroy him. Not saying we are going to climb up in his lap or share utensils with him- but our precautions are going to have to be far more subtle. This is all so hard. No good answers.

I think it would be reasonable to shut down contact for a limited amount of time. For instance if you have things coming up that you need to be well for (like we wouldn’t have allowed a visit when my dh was about to have surgery) or if you felt like things were getting really bad and you need to shut things down for a month to see it through or something like that. You have been allowing contact all this time so it wouldn’t be a year like it would be for people who shut it down in March and are waiting for things to improve. So while I wouldn’t deny ds visits with his girlfriend for a year I would for a month depending on circumstances. It’s hard with it over the holidays because obviously they are going to want to see each other. Also difficult if you are allowing some things and not others. My 22 yo Ds got Covid from a housemate. Ds and his roommates were careful but one had a job outside the home and he brought it into the house. All four got sick (they are ok now!). I think that living situation for young people is ripe for spread if anyone is going out at all and it really is unusual to have a house of young people that are all able to work remotely and choose to exercise caution consistently. This is so hard. I think people coming to different conclusions is reasonable.

My nearly 18 yo ds is in a long disance relationship (about a two hour drive). This has made it easier in that they don't see each other often except when they do make plans to see each other it is an all day thing. With how long this has dragged on I don't think it is fair to just say we will see her when it is over. When they have seen each other they have kind of talked through their contacts for the previous week or so. One time they did not get together as planned because half of the girlfriend's dance team was positive. I also have stressed that they are not to visit if there is so much as an inkling of illness. (I do understand that some people have constant allergies but that is not the case). I have said that if she comes to visit and is coughing or visibly ill at all that is going to be a trust breaker for me for the future. We also are careful after the gf has visited in that we do not visit with any of the older folks we occasionally do see until a week or so has passed. I do understand all the risk and holes in this plan but it is the best we can do right now. I'm not comfortable with telling ds he can never see his girlfriend of a year and half until this is over. It will have been over a year at that point. I'm not comfortable telling them they have to mask all the time or sit on different furniture. So this is a risk we take. Mental health of young people is important too. I'm not sure how I could just tell ds who is otherwise extremely responsible and cautious that he effectively has to end his relationship in the interest of public health. So we do our best. Also, the prospect of a local girlfriend who he would want to see frequently is a whole lot worse. So I'm going to roll with the long distance relationship for now.