EmilyGF
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Posts posted by EmilyGF
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10 hours ago, popmom said:
My vote on the sink is the petite undermount.
I'm neutral on the countertop material. I will say that I'm disappointed that my white quartz does stain a bit. Nothing that I can't remove with a little Bon Ami, but it's aggravating since that material bills itself as impervious to stains. Maybe my brand is inferior?
We've had the same experience. If I had known, I would have gone with a different color of quartz. Ours is marble-look and I use a magic eraser every few weeks-months to remove the stains.
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I bought some from Gap last year and they are great.
The J Crew ones fall apart like nobody's business. No more J Crew for me!
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48 minutes ago, Elizabeth86 said:
Would Childhood of Famous Americans work? There are of course girls, but you could choose the boy ones.
He loved that series and gobbled it up last year.
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9 hours ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle Again said:
Houghton College is solidly Christian and has strong sciences with a good medical school acceptance track record.
Just be aware that the academics are not for the faint of heart, and it is truly in the middle of nowhere.
I guy I went to Caltech with is a biology prof at Houghton. 🙂
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The car is officially totaled. We're moving on to a new car, but friends have loaned us their car for the time being so that we can look at cars.
DS17 and DH are visiting a university this weekend. If ds17 likes it, we would save a lot of money on college. It would make life so much easier.
We've got to walk through out house and make a list of things to fix so that we can rent out our house when we move this summer.
My goal for tonight is to start taxes. Our income has fluctuated a lot over the past few years and we'll probably put a large chunk of the return towards a new-to-us car. I have no clue what our refund will look like this year.
Emily
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1 hour ago, Farrar said:
Is this one out of date now? I'm thinking you already went!
But my favorite set in DC kids books are The People of Pineapple Place and The Seventh Most Important Thing. Both have very DC ties. Though, right now, you can't see the crazy sculpture that is at the heart of The Seventh Most Important Thing, so that's too bad. That wing of the SAAM is closed right now.
The Dan Gutman book The Kid Who Became President is cute. And for younger kids, the Rob Roy Capitol Mysteries are fun. They're Magic Treehouse level books but they're very Washington in theme.
Totally out of date, but now it looks like we might be moving to the area. Out of date and strangely on-point at the same time.
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1 hour ago, ScoutTN said:
Redeemed Reader and Read Aloud Revival usually have good lists, if you haven’t checked those already. World magazine does good reviews too, esp. the ones by Emily Whitten.
I find Redeemed Reader incredibly difficult to navigate. I wish they had a reasonable search function. Any suggestions on searching? I use Google, but still the results are frustrating to dig through.
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51 minutes ago, JennyD said:
The Toothpaste Millionaire
Henry Reed, Inc.
He loved the Henry Reed series!
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I sold a bunch of HS stuff that had been taking up a closet for years and made $75 while making someone else happy!
We'll hear today if the car is totaled.
I'm going to stop my IRA contribution for a few months. Between the car, a kid starting college, and what looks like a cross-country move, I need a bit more wiggle room in my budget. Last year, I worked Jan-June, with the plan of being rehired in September, so I just kept contributing to my personal IRA as I had enough extra money to tide me over the summer. However, my start date got moved back to the end of November, so I had to dig into savings to keep contributing. That would have been fine, except for probably needing to buy a new car.
Emily
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I've done some searching but haven't found any list that really fit the bill.
DS11 loves books about boys doing things like starting businesses, helping their families, working, etc.
His favorite books in the last year included Farmer Boy, Little Britches, Mysterious Benedict Society, Brady, Bud and Me, and Homer Price.
Do you book recommendations about boys attempting things?
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We're pretty good with math everyday. We have a workbook-based math that is working for him. It isn't my ideal, but the old math(s) were breaking the relationship.
I like the idea of a lot of read-alouds and documentaries, keeping the input and minimizing the output. I think I'll scrap the harder books I've been having him read to himself and focus on books he takes to easily, as harder books I like sometimes put me to sleep.
How would you write a daily list for a situation like this so that ds11 can feel like he "accomplished" school?
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I think it depends on the age of the kid. So, if your Algebra 1 kid is 11+, I might say, "Paper is much cheaper than time. Please use a lot of paper." I also emphasize the payoff - I make you redo the whole thing if it is wrong without work, but I can help you figure out your mistake if you write the whole thing down. Also, I emphasize they are less likely to make mistakes when they write down everything,
Also, I think it helps to have hard enough problems that the kid doesn't feel like t is an effort in futility. Even my most compliant kids with excellent fine motor skills would balk at writing out the example problem you gave. Whenever a silly mistake is made, I say, "You probably wouldn't have done that if you bothered to write your steps."
I encourage one equation per line and clear notes that show thinking.
Emily
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Hi all,
DS-barely-11 has been napping since early November and is really exhausted and dragging all.the.time. We ran a bunch of tests, and just got the diagnosis of sleep apnea. He'll be to see an ENT, but we can't get in until the end of March. We are on the cancellation list. Then it'll be a while before he gets treatment. This could easily last until the end of this school year. Sigh.
What would you do for school if your kid was always tired and and easily frustrated? Part of me wants to just throw most of the curriculum away until he's treated. He has lousy fine motor skills at the best of times, can spell fairly well, only likes reading if he loves the books, and enjoys history and biography. I'd like him to become a stronger reader.
What would be your bare-bones, get-it-done, 5th grade curriculum for an exhausted kid (with a health-related exhaustion cause)?
Thanks in advance for the help.
Emily
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41 minutes ago, historically accurate said:
It's been a fair month. I finished my taxes last night, so I will have a refund coming in February.
On the revenue side:
I did sell one large item, but nothing else moved. I worked a few extra hours in preparation for going away for the 3 weeks. I did some surveys and chose a Lowe's gift card as the reward - going to save up for a water softener.
On the expense side:
Several large expenses hit this month - PT for 2 kids, hotel for 3 week booked for medical trip, new medication, new mattress for the trundle since my oldest is sleeping on it full time now.
I kept to within my grocery budget. I have a fairly full freezer now, since I did a lot of make-ahead cooking this month.
I found that I have vacation time left at my second job from when I worked more hours there, so I will actually get 16 hours/week rather than my usual 8 for the 3 weeks I am gone. Which will help since my other job will be $0 - just whatever I can work while at Mayo.
Great job on the taxes. I'm starting taxes tonight! I was waiting on some charitable receipts. Hopefully I'll finish them this week.
I'm hoping the refund can go towards fixing up the house, but it may need to go towards a car.
Emily
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January finishes this week and this is the last week of well-trained wallets threads!
Have you made any fiscal goals for the year? Have you cleaned fiscal house a bit?
We are now referring to our car as our "crunch-mobile", since it was hit into another car by a hit-and-run driver while sitting in the mechanic's parking lot. We'll find out Tuesday evening how extensive the damage is and decide whether to repair it or look for another car. I'm so thankful for our friends. We've had people offer us uses of their cars until we get things figured out. We will decide Tuesday whether to take someone up on the offer.
Otherwise, I paid the downpayment on DS17's Invisalign braces this week and also bought DD14 a violin case. We're going violin shopping on Saturday.
I kept my CC grocery bill to $110 this month and ate through some, but not all, of the weird food in my pantry. Making an inventory now will be much easier than it would have been a month ago.
We found an Indian recipe for a falafel-like toor dal fritter that we love and want to put into lunch rotation. And, we still have 6+ lbs of toor dal.
I have a running list of things I thought about buying but put off, and now I can think about them with a bit more distance.
Emily
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Have you heard of Eight Steps to a Painfree Back? It isn't only about pain-free backs, it is about building core strength.
Basically, the author teaches you to walk in a new way that builds balanced core, quad, and buttock muscles. Once you learn the new way of walking, which isn't noticeable, you just walk like that and it works your core while stretching your hamstrings. I have had a lot of success with it.
Emily
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3 hours ago, ScoutTN said:
So you’re done?!? 🎉🎈
Or is this a back-up?
He still has one school he wants to apply to, but it doesn't make any sense because it isn't as good as U of Illinois Engineering and would cost a lot more. I am confused.
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Big sigh of relief: DS17 got into University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for Computer Science!
ETA: And that means no more last minute-end-of-January safety schools.
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35 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:
Oh no oh no. I am so sorry. I hope somehow things work out. Did you already pay for them to fix it?
Yes, already paid for the fix. Sigh. But at least, it turns out, that this is an issue for their insurance or the insurance of the hit-and-run driver who left his license plate and not ours!
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8 hours ago, lewelma said:
They need to have an arrow from physics to finance. Apparently, that is a pathway for those ready to make some money!
DH is as astrophysics prof. A guy he worked closely with left for finance. One summer both were posting their pictures on Facebook with their boats. DH had an inflatable canoe, his ex-colleague had a high-end speedboat!
Emily
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Plot twist - we took our car to get fixed on Wednesday. They fixed it ($$$) and while it was parked in their lot, a driver on the street jumped the curb, ran into our car, pushing it into the car next to it, and then drove off without stopping.
The mechanic called the police and they found the license plate had fallen off the offending car.
I'm not sad, just find this sort of comical. But this was one expense I wasn't expecting! I'm not sure whether it is repairable. DH loves the car and thinks it is fixable, I think it is totaled.
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1 hour ago, regentrude said:
If they had a chance to travel over their Christmas break, I'd be happy for them.DS17 is getting in plenty of traveling this summer, when he'll be out of the country for 6-10 weeks. It matters to me that he continues spending time with siblings while they are still at home.
1 hour ago, Tenaj said:How long are you going to put this expectation on your son. If he married is his spouse's family just out of luck on holidays?
In my first post, I specifically said, "While we are paying for college" and I don't expect him to get married during college, LOL. Actually, I'd be surprised if he dates seriously while in college, but he's welcome to surprise me! It is rather nice that college Christmas breaks are long enough to do many things!
All of this is in the context of kids who *want* to be with family and who get seriously miffed when we try to do weird non-traditional things over Christmas.
Emily
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I've told DS17 that I expect him to come home for Christmas.
(DH spent the Christmas of his freshman year in college traveling Europe with his brother while his parents stayed home. I told DS17 that he's in deep trouble if he does that. He can go to Europe during spring break if he wants, but family has dibs on his Christmas time while paying college bills. This was a joking conversation; I think he already knew this expectation and looks forward to time with family.)
Emily
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14 hours ago, Soror said:
I've been tracking my spending closely for awhile so I've not noticed anything new there. I know I don't wish to keep such a tight budget anymore. I was always the one telling dh we'll just tighten up. It's fine we can live on less. But I'm tired of it. There's not much else to cut. We've avoided even getting started with expensive activities because we knew we couldn't afford it. I don't want to have to tell them no on everything. I'd like to be able to buy a few higher quality clothing items for myself. I hate feeling like my son picking out shoes he likes to replace his holey 1.5 year old shoes is a splurge. I'm grateful we have a roof over our head and food to eat. We have so much. But I don't want to sacrifice any more and would like to be able to do more for the kids and loosen up a bit .
I felt a lot like that when I went back to work in January 2021. I felt like I couldn't even get a haircut, despite not having had one in two years, things were so tight. DH had had a significant decrease in income in 2020 but we had commitments based on the larger income. I don't know how much my earnings contributed, they were so minuscule compared to what he earns, but we're in a much butter position now and I probably will reconsider after my current term at work ends.
We went to family camp again last summer because I worked, and it was so wonderful for our family.
Emily
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~~~~~~~~~~~~ February 2023 Frugalistas ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
in The Chat Board
Posted
Our car was officially totaled, so we bought a new-to-us one. I think we got a good price for it but this is a tight market and it was pricey. It is also the lowest mileage car we've ever bought and I appreciate that.
That totally exhausted our Emergency funds, so we're building that back up. I'm taking the next few months off of retirement account contributions. The goal is that I at least don't have to take anything out of my Roth IRA but it is good to know that I could if push came to shove.
Other big expenses recently: DS18's braces and DD14's violin.
We also have a move coming up. We plan to rent out our house for a few years and then move back so we've made a list of things to fix or upgrade. We started some fixes this week. I've been decluttering and just started listing things online to sell. DH is in favor of getting a storage unit for things we don't take with us on our move but I'd rather sell anything we can live without for two to three years!
So, the current goal is to postpone or skip any non-essentials until we do our home fixes and rebuild our emergency fund. I just made a 2-week menu plan based on sales, though we generally aren't tempted to eat out much.
Emily