Could Louisiana peeps make some recommendations please? It will just be myself, Dh, and ds age 14. We love museums, historical sites, and the outdoors. Thanks 😊

I use Jill McKeever's YouTube recipes and her book ALL THE TIME. I love her instant pot recipes- so quick and easy! We also eat rice, beans, meatless tacos, pasta, "Reuben" sandwiches with sautéed onion and peppers instead of corned beef, soups in the cold months, and lots of fruit/veggies. I am also addicted to humus. When I cook for guests, I will often buy things I normally don't just because I know it is something they enjoy, but I never cook meat. If the meal is yummy and has a side, salad, and dessert, everyone seems happy even though there isn't meat.

That is awesome. May you and your husband have many wonderful moments together 😊 P.S. I am a little bit jealous. Maybe my Dh and I will treat ourselves to kayaks when ds is out of the house😉

dp

UPDATE: Good news/Bad news The good news is the smell is not coming from my cat. The bad news is it the bushes themselves. I had never heard of this before, but stinky shrubs appear to be a real thing. I looked it up after we went over investigating (I am sure we looked a little odd to people driving by!), and it appears that they may just be particularly smelly during late spring. Hopefully, it will soon pass. Now I am curious if they have always been smelly in the spring and my elderly neighbors just don't remember or if conditions were just right this year to produce more smell.

He is not feral. I don't know anything about where he came from but I suspect there were humans involved. It took a long while to earn his trust, but he is a super sweet boy now. Unfortunately, our community has a lot of cats and it is really hard to find homes. (My three indoor kitties are all strays that appeared the same way over the years). I have spent a ton of money over the years spaying and neutering strays. Our community has no laws about cats roaming outdoors, and while Animal Control picks up dogs, they just leave the cats alone. It is a sad problem.

He appeared just over a year ago and roamed several yards. Ironically, it is our elderly neighbors who started putting out food for him. They enjoyed sitting in their chairs watching the cat out the window as he would eat and sun himself in their yard. They both had some serious issues (he fell, she had surgery) which took away much of their mobility (they are in their 90s). When they were no longer able to safely step outside and feed him on their patio, I started feeding him. When I built up enough trust and could touch him, I took him to the vet. He arrived as a neighborhood stray, but he is very much my responsibility now. I don't think my neighbors actually care because they can't go outside, but I don't want there to be a stinky cat odor to greet every guest who comes to their home. (Their church has a different person stop by every day for a brief little visit.) The Hive has had some excellent suggestions. I will probably try several, but I am now wondering if the bushes themselves have an odor. I will investigate tomorrow!

How long would the lemon last? Would it need to be refreshed often?

We have three indoor cats already. This new guy is super sweet, but I can't handle one more inside. (He does sleep in the garage every night.)

Yes! It is about 8 feet of bushes right in front of the door. I am going to go over tomorrow and sniff around. Could they smell like pee to some people and not others or does it smell like that to everyone?

My elderly neighbors are in very poor health. Several months ago, their out-of-town children made arrangements for full-time home health workers. This morning I was sitting on my front porch with our latest stray cat at my feet. The neighbors health worker stepped out on their front porch to smoke and I heard/saw her open their glass front door and say loudly that she can smell it again this morning. She then stepped out onto their driveway, and closer to where I was sitting. She asked if my cat was a male. I said that he is. She informed me that he pees on the bushes by their front door every morning and it stinks. I apologized for this and told her I would try to find something to deter him. (I did not add that her smoking wasn't making the area smell any better either😒). Since the neighbors have become home bound, they have regular visitors and I certainly don't want my cat's offensive odor to greet their guests. I googled and saw same products for spraying to use indoors, but nothing for outside. She said she has seen him go in the bushes. It appears this is a pee problem and not poo. We had him neutered months ago (as soon as we could catch him). Any suggestions? He poos and pees regularly in the flower bed beside my front door. I haven't noticed any odor, but my flower bed has a thick layer of mulch. Maybe the mulch is making the difference? If I put mulch under their bushes, will this get rid of the smell or encourage him to starts pooing there too? Would those granules that keep wild animals away keep a cat away? If so, are there any that don't smell like rotten eggs or dead animal? That would hardly be an improvement 😖 I don't want to be a bad neighbor. While my actual neighbors can't come outside and thus are not bothered, I don't want to offend their many guests. What should I do?

Wait! What is a "fake sign shaker???" Now I am wondering if I have never seen one, or if I thought it was a person. I'm so confused here!

Mineral oil. Maybe once every month or two even though my board is used daily.

Ugg. This makes me soooo sad! The materials just arrived last week so we can return it, but the sample online looked so great I didn't research other programs 😕. I really want a video course. Any suggestions???

How long did it take for your student to watch the video lesson AND complete the assignment? I ordered this and today was day 1 for my ds. (We do school year round.) I was surprised to see the first "lesson" is 45 minutes of how to use the IRU controller for the discontinued Home Stat option. If you have used BJU Geometry Distance Learning, do all/most of the videos have a lot of "classroom" time where the teacher answers called in questions and is talking to students? I have used several BJU dvds in the past and we have never encountered this issue. It seems like it could waste a lot of time. Did your student watch the entire 45 minutes of each lesson? How long did it usually take your student to complete their assignment after they watched the video? I am suddenly unsure if this program is what we want to do this year. I confess I am very disappointed to see the video was made for Home Stat. This was not obvious when I watched the sample of the class on the BJU website. I feel like I paid for on old, out-dated video product that is going to waste time with each lesson with students calling in and asking questions that my student doesn't need answered. If you have used this product, can you tell me a little more about what to expect?

My ds14 has been swimming on a competitive team for almost four years. We are a small town and a small team. When we first started, the coach was a mom with swim experience who was kind but didn't teach the kids much. When she left (had another baby and coaching was not a priority), we hired a young lady who had just graduated high school. She didn't have much swim knowledge, but she was responsible and good with kids. (In a small town it is difficult to find someone with competitive swim experience.) She was with us one year before she left for college. Almost 2 years ago, we were excited to get a "real coach." He had coached for this swim club for 17 years and had stepped away from swimming when "his life was kind of falling apart." We knew he had some problems with depression, anger, and alcohol in the past (he was very open about this), but he had been away from the sport for 7 years and was in a better place in life and excited to coach again. My Ds loves swimming. He is good but not great. He enjoys friendships of the other kids on the team. However, for the past several months our coach's behavior has changed, and my son now fears the coach. Coach comes to practice agitated and yells at the kids. Not yelling because acoustics are bad or because someone isn't paying attention, just a rage. I feel like he is just taking his frustration out on the kids. He yells at the older kids for every little thing, and says cruel belittling things. I am embarrassed to say that I did not step in and talk to coach about this until he started taking his anger out on my own son. (Most parents drop off their swimmer and don't stay to watch practice so they don't see what is going on.) I am the vp of our board but was afraid if I confronted him, he would make my son his next target. He seems to be targeting my son anyway. My husband and I spoke with him privately about this and he seemed relaxed and not defensive at all. He said he would make some changes to improve his interactions with the kids. We were on vacation this past week and I received a text with the resignation of two of our board members. No explanation, just leaving the team. When we returned to practice this week, I dropped son off and didn't stay and watch Monday. He was in tears on the ride home. He just said coach was yelling again and ds was frustrated that he couldn't do anything right. Tuesday coach was absent. Yesterday my ds asked me to stay and watch practice. I told him that if coach started raging at him, that he should get out of the water and we would leave quickly and quietly. Coach was agitated when he walked in the door. We made it about 45 minutes before he started yelling at the team. My ds got out the the water and we left. There are only three of us left on the board. One mom believes that yelling is just what coaches do. She acknowledges that our coach is a hothead, but she is a hothead herself and sees nothing wrong with the situation. The other board member doesn't like his tantrums, but doesn't want to say anything in fear that he might start picking on her daughter. If we fire this coach, we will return to having a "coach" who knows little about swim. The team almost fell apart before because we didn't have a real coach. No one wants to join a team if they don't have qualified instructors. Because of this, I know I will not have support from the other board members to find a new coach. Our current coach knows this and I think he believes he can behave badly because he is irreplaceable. I am at a loss as to what to do next. Dh and I have already talked to him about this. Ds wants to quit the team but keep swimming. The closest team is 90 minutes away. I could drive there 2-3 times a week, and he could practice on his own the other days? I think if he just practices on his own, he will not improve and give up. I hate confrontation. I hate seeing my son so upset. I just don't don't know what to do next. I told my son I would take him this morning to practice on his own today, but what about tomorrow and the next day....????

Our sirens are tested EVERY Thursday at noon. They make my dogs howl.

Do not get the Big Joe bean bag chair. We bought two after the regular bean bags died. They just don't last. Yes, they are comfy (but make your back hot), but the filling looses its fluff after a few months. Ds sat in his daily, but maybe for one or two hours a day and they lasted about 3-4 months.

I love it! It looks great on you😊

We use swim outlet for ds all the time. Every brand fits differently and the sizing charts are not all that helpful. It is not unusual for me to return something once or twice before we get the right fit. They are great with returns (read their policy first), but it is a hassle. I will continue to order his competitive suits, but I will never order for myself again because I hate the hassle or returns. I am better off trying on my suits before buying.

I have seen the devastation of carpenter ants on HGTV, and am therefore an expert. Call a professional. Now WTM writers, please examine the first sentence of my post. Is there a misplaced modifier or is that correct? Clearly, I am not a writing expert. Lol

I love spring. The trees in bloom, tulips almost ready to open, the happy songs of a dozen birds, and....wait for it....ticks. This morning I felt a tickle sensation on my neck. Yep, it was a tick crawling on me. I had just had the outdoor cat up on my shoulder and feel pretty sure it came from him. Why must they make flee/tick meds that only kill pests when they bite the animal and not repel them so they aren't on them in the first place? (Rhetorical question, no need to answer😉. Just whining here). We didn't have any really hard freezes this winter. I am hoping the pests won't be extra numerous this year😕. I am really creeped out by ticks.

I use mine several times a week along with the OMGee Vegan IPot cookbook. I also use my Mickey waffle iron once or twice a week! One person's most used kitchen item can be someone else's dust collector 😉

I think it is a very nice gesture to give them a homeade treat in return, but there is no rush to have to do it right away. In fact, if I were the giver, I might worry that my gift made you feel pressured to hurry and return the gesture. Waiting a few days seems fine.

Desert Strawberry, Thank-you for such a detailed response! I may be an old dog, but I am trying to learn some new tricks in the kitchen. I have never even heard of all of those types of peppers. Going to do some exploring at the grocery store tomorrow😀