These are the books that turned me into a reader. I devoured them in elementary school! We lived within driving distance of several of their homes and visited them on family vacations. I have such good memories of reading those books. Several years ago, I read Little House in the Big Woods to my kids. It went fairly well, although I did edit a bit on the fly. My kids showed no interest in the other books and I didn’t read the others to them because they weren’t that interested and there are SO MANY good books to read and just not enough time. Another childhood favorite, Anne of Green Gabl

What hard news to receive. Praying for a miracle!

Praying for your dad.

I have hidden a large portion of my extended family on FB over the past year due to beliefs that Covid is fake and rabid political beliefs. I’m really not sure how to interact with these people IRL once I actually see them.

It is fantastic that Oregon is prioritizing people with disabilities. We have a son who is developmentally disabled and medically complex with a history of very severe respiratory issues. There is still no word on when PCAs and other caregivers, much less families of those with disabilities, can be vaccinated here. I am hoping it will be sooner rather than later.

Homeschooling is not new to us - this is my 8th year, but we’ve always had some combination of homeschool/public school/private school for our 4 kids. Due to all of the uncertainties regarding Covid and our youngest son’s complex medical issues and absolute inability to do any form of distance learning, we pulled him out of public school this year to homeschool. It’s not easy, because he is profoundly disabled, but I’m thinking that without a vaccine for children anytime soon, we may end up keeping him home another year. The health issues are definitely a concern, but if there continue to be c

Wondering this, too!

My son’s private high school offers both distance and in-person school. The distance kids are required to come in for final exams. If they wish, they can take the exams in a private room or in the classroom. It’s a small school, about 250 students, with about 25 cases of Covid so far. They are pretty strict on masking and say that contact tracing has shown that transmission has not occurred in the classroom, but during lunch, extracurricular activities and in the community.

If you want free, our public schools allow part-time enrollment via distance education. Otherwise, I’m pretty sure that anything worth doing is going to cost some money.

We spend a week each summer at a lake with extended family. I’ve already booked our lodging. The cancellation policy is pretty liberal so while I’m pretty sure we will be able to go, it’s good to know that I can cancel if we need to.

We typically do not wear shoes in our house. Most of us go barefoot but will usually put on socks or slippers in the winter. I do have some clean sneakers that I use on my indoor spin bike.

That is just wrong. :(

I agree that chat is a great option. I try to use it whenever I have an issue with Amazon and it seems to be the most efficient way to solve a problem.

That is shocking. I’m so sorry!

I usually bring my bike out into the living room and use our big TV but occasionally just use my iPad. I use my iPhone for the Wahoo app which shows my heart rate and cadence.