I will admit that sometimes what they choose to substitute or don't is weird, but overall we have had great luck with Walmart. Usually the substitutions end up being a great deal for me because it's always a larger package or the name brand instead of the store brand for the same price. It's the only reason we now shop at Walmart, because I don't have to do the shopping. I had one time where some of my produce was not a quality I was happy with. They have a 100% guarantee on produce and the return was so easy. All done on my phone and I didn't have to actually return the produce to the store. On the other hand, I had terrible luck with Kroger, and that was before the pandemic when I was paying $5 for the service.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. I haven't had a chance to talk to him again about it. I know part of it is just feeling terrible that we would miss this. I, too, will feel terrible to miss this. It's the youngest son in the family that we're the closest to on DH's side of the family. I called DH's aunt, the mom of the groom, to get a better idea of the plans. I didn't want to make a decision based on assumptions. It's as bad as I thought. They invited almost 400 people. The hall holds 275. This is what they have done for every other child's wedding and we've crammed in and had a great time. It's just different now. Our state currently has a mandate against gatherings of more than 10 people with an EXEMPTION for weddings, capping out at 300. I will never understand this, other than that it's political. The wedding will also be in the current worst county in our state. It is rural and has a small population and is very conservative. The conspiracy theories are running rampant and despite there being a mask mandate in place, hardly anyone is ever wearing a mask. Our Governor actually called out our county today and his exact words concerning the infection rate were "Way above anybody else....and that's the news there unfortunately. Significant community spread is taking place." Schools start here next week and every. single. school. is going back in person, 5 days a week. Wish us luck! I know the problem is everyone considered it a big city problem and rolled their eyes during the shutdown. And it's true, our county probably could have waited to shut down a bit because it wasn't even close to being here yet. That made everyone think it was ridiculous and over hyped. So now it's here and the only people who seem to have noticed are those who work in the hospital. It's just stressful and yet I know if this is the worst thing my family has gone through so far during this pandemic we're very lucky.

I have been aware for quite some time that DH and I are not on the same page for what precautions should be taken during this pandemic. Since everything has been cancelled and his work adjusted his schedule and implemented safety standards there it hasn't mattered much. By mattered, I mean that we didn't have to argue about it. He wasn't wearing a mask in public when it wasn't mandated, but now he is. However, we just received an invitation to his cousins wedding for next month. I think it's a ridiculous idea to gather with 250 people for hours and hours a few weeks after schools around here have started. He's upset and hurt that I would think to miss his cousin's wedding over what he sees as an overreaction to a new strain of the cold virus. Our RSVP is due within the week. Is anyone else out there dealing with something like this? There's a part of me that wants to shrug my shoulders and tell him to go by himself, but he wants all of us to go. I keep explaining to him that I would prefer to play it safe until more is known and understood about this virus. He thinks I'm overreacting because I have heard too many horror stories from my mom and sisters who are all nurses who have cared for Covid patients these last few months. I really hope our Governor just shuts things like this down again. We have a limit of 10 or 20 for mass gatherings but weddings are capped at 300. How does that make sense?

I remember making a dessert last year that included vanilla wafer cookies like Voortman ones (not the circle ones) and Cool Whip. I *think* I remember that there were only two other ingredients. It was NOT a banana pudding. There may have been chocolate syrup or fudge? My impression was that it was beyond simple to make and very quick, as everything was store bought and then thrown together. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

I have snoozed or unfollowed every single person in our co-op. I love FB for being a free event planning site for many groups. I love seeing pictures of my cousins' kids instead of just getting a Christmas card every year. I miss the days when FB was only used for pictures and my aunt letting us all know that she went to the grocery store and ran into an old friend.

I just got off the phone with K12 as I am attempting to help my neighbor enroll her kids for this coming year. Their website keeps crashing on us. I was told that they expected and prepared for a lot more people enrolling with them this year but that enrollments are surpassing anything they expected and their system is struggling at times. They have an enrollment cap in our state and it sounds like they're expecting to max it out in most grades, at least for the first semester. On top of that there are at least 45 new families on our rural, little FB group who have full intentions to traditionally home school. Prior to them joining we had 187 members. That's a HUGE increase for our area!

I would do it provided I knew we could cover the added expenses of a larger home. Unless you are actually gutting rooms, I consider most of what you mentioned giving rooms a face lift, not a major renovation. However, DH and I have overhauled two houses entirely at this point and I grew up with parents who did the same so that could skew my opinion 🙂

I'm asking this to see if I'm being reasonable about what I'm willing to pay for a week at the beach with my extended family in a rented house. Apparently when there are 6 families getting together there are also 6 different ideas of reasonable. Either the total or per person price would be helpful as well as how many bedrooms you would expect for that.

Thanks for the replies! I was able to get an appointment with Children's Ortho this afternoon! We'll see what their time frame is for everything but in general, I'm feeling better about going with someone who only deals with pediatrics instead of mainly doing knee and hip replacements.

My 12 year old daughter fell Sunday night and hurt her knee. We live in a rural area and I knew from past experiences that the only thing the local ER would do is X-ray it and then, damaged or not, send us home with the instructions to call the ortho center that's about 45 minutes away. So Monday morning I took her to the ortho where it was determined that nothing was broken but something is probably torn and she needs to schedule an MRI. The first appointment for an MRI is on June 16th!!!! and then we would go back 3 days later to meet with the Dr. about our results. So basically we were sent home with an immobilizer brace and told to use ice and ibuprofen and hang out for the next two and a half weeks until we can get more information. Is this normal??? I'm trying to figure out if this is just the way it is or if I would be better off seeking care further away at the closest children's hospital. What would you do?

I'm ready for the younger two (5 and 9) but other than candy, have nothing for the 12 and 13 year old. DH and I were just talking last night about making up certificates getting them out of a week of a chore of their choice or something like that. Maybe IOU's for a smoothie run to our favorite local place? Maybe a few plastic eggs in their baskets with cash? I usually find fun toiletries from Sephora or an album I know they'll enjoy but those stores have been closed for a few weeks now. For the younger two I had picked up some seed packets as well as a few things from Target when I happened to be there mid February. I like to buy things earlier because when I go closer to the holiday I feel more panic about being unprepared and tend to overbuy.

We're in Ohio as well and in our area (NW, rural) everyone has been adhering to the rules fairly well. The only issue we have seen is on Friday night at a popular restaurant when picking up carryout there were quite a few people gathered around the bar. I picked up lunch there today though and they had signs up to wait in the car until they called that your order was ready so they found a solution. I could see groups in the park as more of an issue in urban areas than here as we have quite a few park options for our low population.

My family full of nurses always says not to mess around with illnesses with hip and knee replacements. They're major bone surgeries and bones make blood.

A belated thank you to all the replies! We ended up needing these recipes sooner that I expected as the little guy decided to come at 32 weeks! He's still in NICU but doing well and my brother and SIL have been so thankful for these meals. I'll probably do another batch once we know when he'll be coming home. They have loved not needing to get takeout every night and since all the work is done, my SIL's grandma has been able to pop things in the crock-pot or oven for them. And thank you for the breakfast ideas! I did the casserole, frozen waffles, the breakfast burritos and several dozen frozen muffins. They have commented that being able to grab something quick and small has been great.

I would like to make up about a dozen or so freezer meals to take to my brother and sister-in-law next month when I visit. She's pregnant and due mid-April and since I don't live local, I thought it would be a good way to help out. However, every single time I have ever frozen something it seems like it's just mush when I thaw it and cook it - especially every crock-pot freezer meal recipe I have tried. So, if you have a recipe that you trust to turn out and that a lot of people have enjoyed, I would so appreciate if you would share it! Please let me know how you freeze it as well as the thawing/cooking directions as well.

I am in need of some ideas to give DH's dad for Christmas gifts. A few years ago he expressed interest in giving the kids something they could use for school. So far we have a very nice microscope and a digital piano. He does not want to give classes/memberships etc. or electronics. He wants them to have something to open and would prefer it to be something that they would be a little excited about. I'm kind of stumped this year. I have a child in 7th, 6th, 3rd and K. All I can come up with is a nice science set, but I don't know how excited the kids will be about that 😉

Some of these are repeats but my two teens suggested the following: Decent, not dollar store, soccer balls/footballs/basketballs Cute hoodies/fleece jackets in a L/XL They pointed out that Walmart had some good ones for under $20 Joggers, name brand if you find a good sale, but again, Walmart and Target have cute ones. Name brand slides can often be found on sale around $20. Nice water bottle Graphic T-shirts - they pointed out that cute sayings, Marvel and Stranger Things were a good bet. Scrunchies Name brand tall socks Also adding inexpensive make-up kits from Ulta or Sephora, usually the store brand, especially if they come in a case that can be used to store more items.

Thank you everyone for your replies. My friend did not expect me to show up for this and we've been talking every day, for short periods, since her brother passed away. But I come from a "You go to the funeral" family and was struggling a bit. I know that's why DH kept asking me if I felt certain. We did not go, as originally planned. In posting I think I needed to hear that that was OK from someone who wasn't impacted by all the grief everyone I'm close to is reeling in right now. We had already sent flowers for her sister-in-law as well as a plant for her. I mailed her parents and her other sister a card yesterday and plan on taking her several meals for her over the next few weeks. I also have Halloween gift bags for her kids as they didn't get to go trick-or-treating. I, and she, knows that's not a major point, but it's hard when they're little and big scary sad things are impacting what is usually a fun tradition.

I made a choice in the middle of a stressful time to NOT attend the calling hours or funeral for the brother of my best friend of 28 years. Calling hours are this evening and the funeral is tomorrow and now I'm feeling anxiety and panic that I made the wrong choice. It's not something you change once it's done, you know? It's in Chicago, which is a 4.5 hour drive from me. In the past 3 weeks I have buried by uncle, a close cousin who unexpectedly died at the age of 30 who was 4 months pregnant, and just Wednesday my god-daughter - at the age of 24 from ovarian cancer. We were out of town for all three of those events and just got home yesterday afternoon. My dear friend texted to let me know about her brother while I was at my god-daughter's calling hours. I am now second-guessing whether choosing to not go was really just me going "I can't handle this right now" instead of a legitimate logistics choice. We are for sure unable to go to calling hours this evening because my day is full until 9pm and I would have to cancel several things very last minute which isn't fair to everyone else involved - but I could drive late tonight and get a hotel to make the funeral at 8am tomorrow. And poor DH, he's been asking if I'm sure I don't want to go every single day. And now if I do go it'll be a huge stressful emergency situation of my own making. Would you expect a good friend to travel that far? I am not at all close to her brother or his family due to our age difference, he was already out of the house when we became friends. However, I love her parents dearly as well as my friend and her immediate family.

When I asked the nurse at the pediatrician's office what exactly was off, I was told that her free T4 was at .5 and that was considered low. Honestly, that's all I know at this point because the next step was to go to an endocrinologist. I'm thinking I need to have them send the referral to someone else. If it matters, what we were initially at the doctor for was to talk about the possibility of ADHD as well as ask for a referral to a therapist. DD is very low energy, inattentive, has trouble sleeping and has chronic constipation. DD has said she might be depressed because it's hard for her to want to do anything. Our pediatrician gave us the therapist info but also wanted to run some basic labs to see if anything else was going on. Thank you for all the info so far!

I'm not sure where what to do right now. My daughter's pediatrician ordered some blood work and according to the Dr. it showed that her free t4 was low. The Dr. re-ordered that test to verify, and according to Dr it was low again. So she referred us to an endocrinologist. I just got a call from the endocrinologist that said all the tests (the ones from pediatrician) were fine and that daughter doesn't need to be seen by endocrinologist. So now I'm sitting here wondering if I should have a second opinion from an endocrinologist or if our pediatrician doesn't know what she's doing?

Thought I would ask if anyone has any recommendations on house training a new puppy. DH and I have agreed to get a puppy after thinking about it for a few years, it's not a spur of the moment decision. Between us we have adopted 5 adults, house training 3 of them, but never a puppy! What am I getting myself into? If it matters, it will be a male med-large mixed breed. Parents appear to be Yellow Lab/Golden Retriever and Treeing Walker Coon Hound/Bull Terrier/Pit Bull? Any other tips for the puppy stage are welcome!

They SHOULD be washing them before meals, before unloading the dishwasher, after using the restroom and first things when we get home from being out in public. Oh, and whenever they come in from the barn. Everyone is pretty good about it, but I still remind them from time to time.

I feel like it's not so much that you didn't get a gift it's that no one even took 10 minutes out of their day to pause and appreciate you. I get that. I had to have several conversations with DH about this and to be fair to him, it was a bit of a change for me. I was never big on celebrations and technically, I'm still not. But after all these years of giving giving giving and making sure everyone else's days was special - even if just with a small cake and their favorite meal for dinner - it started to hurt a little bit more every year when NOTHING was done for me. Going out and buying my own cake wouldn't solve that problem. DH taking 5 minutes to pause with the kids to put a candle in Little Debbie snack is really all I was asking for. It's not about the actual gift, just the time to remember. Eventually, after many conversations, it's happened. Usually. I do still have to remind quite a bit ahead of time.

I completely understand! We moved close to family 2.5 years ago and I'm still adjusting. It was so strange to me when my MIL wanted to know the soccer PRACTICE schedule, just so she could come watch. However, I'm trying to fully embrace it, especially this year!! 4 children with 4 different sports teams, 4 different lessons for instruments and 4 different levels of Scouts....I'm maxed out. My MIL and DH's step-mom both recently retired and have volunteered to do a lot of the running, so I plan on keeping them busy. Considering all those promises to help were part of the reason we moved here, it's only fitting.