*very few* in College Station will do a 6 month lease; it's hard to even find "school year" terms, and those that have that, charge the same total as a 12 month lease, just smooshed into 9 months.

Good morning! Today I have: ....coffee ...prep to go tutor -- we've been off for about a month or so while they had to redo the entire floor in the whole house, so I have to review where we are with things ....make sure the big kids do their D&D prep stuff (cleaning, stock the fridge, etc.) ...school with DS ...NAP ...make sure the kids have food for tonight ...go see Taylor Swift tonight!!!!! yay!!! ...come home, go to bed

finished school with DS, dinner is simmering, fencing bag is packed, just need to change clothes & get the ice chest & waters ready

I started fencing which has helped a ton. Exercise, yes, but also a built-in social outing, and since DH also started fencing with me, built-in date night. I also started joining DH at his "boot camp" exercise class (it's not one of the militant/military style ones, that's just what the guy calls it); again, the boost from exercise, but also the mental boost of seeing myself get stronger, have more energy, etc. That has been a huge confidence boost for me. Changing churches - some of y'all will remember the (mental) health crisis my oldest went through right before Covid; our then-church/pastor did not support us at all (not even a single email, text, phone call, nothing from him) during that time. The youth pastor/team were great, although the then-youth pastor hadn't ever even really met our oldest. But the actual pastor, nope. When we switched during the pandemic, it was such a huge relief. I'm trying to lean into my "what do *I* want to do" phase of life, like MEMama mentioned. I'm not there yet, but getting there. I've been making some art quilts, working through/processing some emotions, and that's helping a lot. Also, we started family therapy, for other reasons, but it's been beneficial overall as well.

Have her search for Texas A&M student groups on FB, Discord, etc. - there are *often* housing posts. Our son when he was there lived at Northpoint Crossing; we liked it, but they were certainly pricey -- less so once you factored in that they had all covered parking, included, and visitor space available (so many in CS don't). (and it hails, a lot, so covered parking is important). But, there are TONS of places...I don't recall all of them, son hasn't been there since 2020, but if she can find an online student group, she can search reviews of places, too. I got all of our housing info from a parents' group (also an idea if you are on FB, and have more time than her, you could join one of the parent groups and search that way; I'm not sure what's out there for parents of grad students, but maybe....???

Created a couple of documents that explain my "In Home PreK/K4 Class" and sent those over to the mom from this morning. Fortunately I still had the "syllabus" of sorts I created the 1st time I did this class; tweaked a few things (for ex, I used then with that student a "Brave Girl" coloring book; clearly we won't use that with a little boy, so I just changed it to "coloring page" although I'll try to find a similarly encouraging book/coloring book for a little boy to use). We'll see what she says; I'd be excited to have another little at-home student (I'll have 2 with my regular family next year, and this one would be a third). Tried to do school with DS but he was falling asleep, so did the above. Now to sort out dinner plans and then get him up from his nap so we can finish stuff.

Home from the eval; the mom took the feedback really well, and I'm to email her later with info on my in-home K4 tutoring/class, info on the registration deadlines & a potential re-evaluation for this year (I told her even if he did better, my recommendation would still be to wait, which she understood), and we'll go from there. Grabbing some lunch and then need to do school with DS.

heading for my K'er evaluation

Done with K/1st prep

Oh! That I'll magically finally perfect my science portion of my classes this summer, so that I'm not fumbling week to week to get it just right. I have plenty of resources -- too many, maybe. I have grand plans and ideas. I'm finishing up my 5th year of this gig, and I think I have tweaked science each year. I *need* to get it figured out and finalized, so I can actually say to parents "we learn about xyz in this grade" and know what I'm doing. I plan to do this every summer. So far......ha! This year. This will *surely* be the year. right???

Well, my niece did not stay in line - got there at 5 a.m., already 300 people in line, and police weren't letting cars stay b/c the gates weren't open to the parking lot. waah. I may push all my school stuff to tomorrow and go w/DH to drop off Middle, so he can drop me at the merch line and come back at the end of class to get me. Ha! We are so terrible. Also, wrote & deleted an email to my dad - writing it all out helped, but there's no reason to actually send it

Oh, gosh.... Until this past week, after seeing my Grandma after her fall/neck fracture, I was in major denial that she's going to die one day. I'm still not happy about this, but I have finally admitted she will not, in fact, outlive me no matter how much I wish it were so. On the lighter side, right there with all of you on the eyesight thing. Oof. Also on the lighter side, perimenopause. I'm in such strong denial on that one that I marched myself to the doctor a year(ish) ago and said "look, this period wonkiness has to stop, I'm not doing this." He happily prescribed me low-dose estrogen bc pills, taken w/o the pause, and poof, no more periods. Hooray, I have successfully ignored whatever's going on with this "aging" business.

Praying for your son, @WildflowerMom, and for continued/on-going recovery & healing for you & your whole church family, @ScoutTN. My day today: ...coffee ...prep K/1st stuff ...prep for a potential K'er meeting/eval -- I expect to be saying no, but can offer her suggestions for this year while she waits for him to be old enough for K next year (he is currently *three* "but he'll be 4 by then...." -- :sigh:) ...write, but probably not send, an email to my dad re: a bunch of junk he's fussing over ...school with DS ...figure out dinner, cook, eat ...get the fencing stuff ready/go to fencing - it's the last night for one of our friends, as he's moving to Seattle - see if we need to bring anything special ...see if my amazing niece was able to get Swiftie merch for us ❤️ (she's off today, so camped out last night in line to get stuff for herself, her sister, and me) ...I think that's about it....keep in touch with my sister, etc. - not sure what time she leaves Grandma's today and my uncle comes down ...come home, go to bed

Everything is ready, dinner is in the oven, I'll have to have one of the kids get it out of the oven as I need to leave before it comes out (I didn't read ahead, and thought it needed 30 mins but it needs 45 mins....dang). Grabbing something to eat myself before I go, and then changing, etc, and taking off.

It is both of those, but the news papers are reporting that the charges they did file are those with the highest/strictest sentences possible; that either of the other two (attempted murder, hate crime) would have lesser sentences. Which makes no sense, but.....?

folded more towels that finished up in the dryer had a call from my sister -- grandma insisted on showering, solo, and came out hurting more (she also refused her pain pill last night and this morning, b/c her good friend from church said since the swelling is down, she ought to be able to go w/o it soon - need to figure out what to say to him about that); sister got her to take a pain pill finally since it had been a while since the tylenol, and will try to get her to take one at bedtime as well (although that's not 12 hrs, so.....??? maybe I'll text her and say give her a half pill at bedtime???) reviewing my stuff to take, and rearranging things b/c of the less space I'll have at this location

Got all the school stuff done with DS got a nap, and ate something - should probably eat more; I think "triscuits & cheese" will not suffice for getting through the evening open house working on making sure I have all my stuff ready to go

Agreeing completely.

Everything is prepped for 2nd grade, had more coffee, DH solved a paper jam for me (yay), re-organized the deep freeze after I smashed my finger b/w 2 frozen solid briskets DH had just thrown in there on top of all the "real" food (boo), rage-cleaned & folded/put away all the laundry that was waiting (yay), and now heading for a nap. :yawn:

We had to help my grandma file an extension on hers (she owns her own business, and always does her own), since she'd put them off, but then with the fall, fracture in her neck, in a neck brace, etc., she can't look down long enough to finish filing. She was going to guess an amount to send, but she & my sister did get it in the mail yesterday. Fingers crossed she guessed roughly correct &/or can appeal any penalties if it ends up being wrong.

@ktgrok, enjoy your new machine! That's so great!! @Melissa in Australia, the sailor outfit is amazing! What a precious gift!

Some kind of necklace that will be dressy enough for your event, that fills the shape/falls in the shape of the neckline - pearls, turquoise, something blingy, whatever your style is. You could add a sparkly belt or a dressy scarf belt thing to add a pop of color.

My day today: Already done -- took my car for my brakes to get looked at; they aren't bad enough to need fixing yet, so we will wait a little bit. Still to do -- ...more coffee ...prep for 2nd grade for tomorrow ...school with DS ...pick out something/crock pot for dinner, get that going ASAP ...nap at some point ...keep checking in with my sister re: grandma as needed (trying to let her reach out w/updates, so she doesn't feel I'm checking up on her) ...make sure I have everything ready for the open house event thing tonight for my classes ...go to the open house thing ...come home, veg out, go to bed I should also see what other laundry needs putting away. Not sure what else besides that.

Oh, @hjffkj, what a horrible mess! I hope and pray it gets sorted out quickly. I'm so sorry!

We had one, and yes, you would need to take the canopy off during wind. Ours was a kind where you could screw the canopy on & off (remove the big giant screws that held it on; they were there so you could adjust the angle of the canopy, also). Or, move it so that it's against the wall of your house - we often had to do both, because even with the canopy removed, the wind would sometimes knock over the swing entirely. Not projectile level, like a trampoline, but... It did take two people to get the canopy on/off (well, hmm, you could likely get it off with one person, but back on would be harder). We usually, after the first couple of surprise windy days, ended up either carrying the whole thing over to a spot against the house where it was shielded from the wind, or taking the canopy off and taking the swing itself down off the frame and moving that over by the house. It was just part of our "oh, it's supposed to be windy..." prep -- move the patio chairs up against the house, take down the canopy, bring the swing over. I think eventually we quit putting the canopy back up.....there wasn't an easy way to store it between on/off periods. Easier might be porch swing, and then stand-alone adjustable umbrella -- you'd still have to take the umbrella up/down, but they are made to be much more maneuverable and such.