I’m fairly certain that it’s the Echelon brand that is available at Costco. I have seen it advertised and my daughter reported seeing it there. Peloton seems to only sell direct, not through resellers.

I ride on an inexpensive spin bike from Amazon but use the Peloton app. I love it! In an ideal world, I’ve love a Peloton but I’ve been able to put together my own DIY Peleton + heart rate monitor + cadence monitor for less than $400. The app is really fun with a ton of variety, and it’s not just all spin classes — there are also cardio workouts, strength workouts, indoor and outdoor runs, stretching, yoga, Pilates. New classes are added almost every day. I have a very long bookmarked list of workouts to do and I look forward to it every day. Just as a word of warning, there are many complaints about Peloton’s LONG delivery times and poor communication on their bikes and treadmills. I have seen over and over people expecting delivery of a bike on a certain day and time only to find out later in the day that their bike won’t arrive for another several weeks — or months. It seems to vary regionally. There is even a FB group with 2000+ members to discuss this widespread issue. In addition to the low-cost brands like Sunny and Pyhigh, there are higher-end alternatives that you can use with the Peloton app if you don’t want to risk the Peloton logistics mess — look into Schwinn, Keiser, Echelon, Proform.

We have gone for a few weeks at a time with a non-working washing machine and so I’ve had to use a laundromat. It IS expensive, and time-consuming!

I’ve done a fair amount of ordering from Amazon lately and everything has been on time. I even ordered early one morning and had my items by the end of the same day!

It sounds like you are doing great!

Our first year of marriage, my DH apparently procrastinated because I got a polo shirt with his employer’s logo on it, purchased from the company store. He’s not known for his gift giving.

I am so incredibly sorry. Of course, I will pray for them but I’ll also pray for you and DH. I’m so glad you have such strong family support.

Definitely send it back.

Ha! My 11 year old daughter said she’ll try it ... I’m a little scared that she might actually do it.

Amen to this! You are doing an amazing job and don’t let him let you think otherwise. I have people in my life with similar controlling tendencies, albeit with different issues, and I know how hard it is. The meals you are providing are varied, balanced and healthy.

Also following. I have had an inflatable kayak for the last few years and would really like a hard-side one.

I am really struggling with this right now. Our church went virtual in March, reopened with significant modifications for the summer (masks, distancing, no singing, pre-recorded sermon, no fellowship time) and is back virtual. I haven’t been back since early March except for a few outside events this summer. I know they are trying their best but the virtual services just aren’t cutting it. I miss the people and the music. My husband watches services from a different church and my kids are completely disengaged. One is doing confirmation on Zoom but otherwise they are completely checked out of youth group Zooms. Until our recent dial-back, two were doing volunteer work with the youth group in a Covid-safe way but that has been put on hold for now. Thankfully, my oldest son goes to a Christian school 5 days a week where he has chapel and class devotions, so he is getting spiritual input there. I am part of Bible Study Fellowship (a national organization with local study groups) and we are doing that on Zoom, and that is going pretty well as a study. There’s not much a fellowship aspect for me on Zoom, not having known the other group members prior. We missed our church’s lovely candlelit Christmas Eve service last year due to travel and I am so sad we will miss it again this year. There are plans to do it on Zoom, but I NEED to be in church. I may try to visit a different church where I know they are following precautions and where I’m fairly certain it will be easy to distance.

I also spaced things out because we have a family history of allergies. Our ped is a friend from college so he is pretty flexible knowing that I will bring them in when needed.

I do it, although we are now at the stage with our kids where they just want cash, so that’s easy.

We are finishing school up this week and then taking 2 weeks off. We don’t actually have much planned over the holidays due to the pandemic but it’ll be nice to have some downtime. I’m teaching two co-op classes beginning in January - theoretically, assuming we continue meeting, so I’m kind of in a holding pattern in terms of prep. If we find out we can meet, then I’ll spend a good portion of break prepping those two classes.

I remember kids doing this a lot in elementary school and our teacher correcting us.

What a mess! I’m sorry you’ve been having to deal with this and that they haven’t taken it seriously until now. I can’t imagine how frustrating that is, but I understand why you’ve prioritized your son’s mental health by keeping him there. Lest anyone think all Christian schools are not handling Covid appropriately, I want to share a positive example. My son also attends a Christian school and they’ve done a really good job of implementing Covid precautions. Teachers wear face masks and/or face shields and social distance. Students wear masks 100% of the time except for lunch or outside sports. Some classes have been moved to larger non-traditional spaces (like Spanish in the choir room, and choir outside, even in a Midwest winter!) They’ve been in class 5 days a week since August and had no cases until October. They’ve had a couple of dozen cases since then, but they are liberal in quarantining close contacts for two weeks and requiring negative Covid tests upon return. My son just spent the last week home with a mild cough because of their rightfully stringent sick policies and just returned to school today following another negative Covid test. Thankfully, they’ve also invested in the technology to allow students who are sick or quarantining keep up with their classes at home. We now have a statewide order that puts a pause on all youth sports, and nearly all public schools in the state are doing distance education. For my son to have been in school 5 days a week, aside from quarantines, has been a great blessing and has definitely benefitted him both academically and mentally.

I am allergic to cats so when we got a cat a few years ago, we got a hypoallergenic breed, a Siberian Forest cat. They’re not cheap, so one was a stretch, much less two. If I had been able to get a regular domestic cat from the Humane Society or whatever, I would definitely have gotten two. We love our cat but she seems lonely somehow. There is almost always someone home at our house but I’d feel bad if we were away more.

Testing is readily available at no cost in my state now. This hasn’t always been the case but the state government has recently opened many large saliva test sites across the state in addition to the doctor’s offices that were already offering the standard nasal probe. They also recently announced saliva tests at home, through the mail, at no charge. My son was recently quarantined due to a school exposure and the results were back within 24 hours.

How do you like it so far?

For most of this time, Covid has seemed very distant. Now, it seems like cases are popping up right and left among people I’m connected to in some way. A friend and former colleague, a woman in her early 50s, is in the hospital and on oxygen. They’re giving her steroids and she’s pretty miserable. Her husband is also sick, but not in the hospital. Her child is well.

My son is just finishing up his two-week quarantine due to exposure to two cases at his small private high school. He tested negative and had no symptoms. The school now has 6 cases but as far as I know, none are serious. Most of the public secondary schools in our metropolitan area are moving to distance learning due to high community transmission.

We start out with what we call morning time. That almost always includes a read-aloud from our history, and also often includes some of the following: - a documentary (they take turns choosing one on a topic of interest) -an educational game like Noggin, Prime Climb, Election Night, or Geo Puzzles. -a short Bible reading or devotional -taking turns reading a poem to each other -a language arts component, such as grammar review After that, I typically take one child to do math or writing while the other works independently (usually - it doesn't always work that way) on science, history, grammar or another subject. We do morning time in our downstairs family room which adjoins our schoolroom. Usually, I work one-on-one on math or writing in the school room while the other child either goes upstairs to the kitchen table to work, or sits on the floor in the family room. We rotate through parent-intensive and independent subjects. As needed, we'll take breaks to go outside. We usually start at 9, take lunch between 11:30-12, take about an hour lunch and resume by 1. We're typically done by 3:00. They do the same history and science, but with adaptations for their level. For example, we're officially using Sonlight core E, but I adapt the readers as needed. We're now studying the time period after the Civil War, but my daughter really wants to read the American Girl history books, so she's doing that. My son already read one of the Sonlight books, so he's reading the Magician's Nephew which goes along with his IEW book. So, we're studying roughly the same time period, and our read-aloud correlates with it, so we can generally discuss what's going on. For science, they are both studying anatomy, but with two different textbooks, and we do the experiments associated with only one of the books.

We also do math in the morning typically, although I rotate between kids.

I also have 5th and 8th graders. My 8th grader will go to high school next year as well so I’m very much focused on what I need to do to get him ready for high school. I currently also have a 10th grader at the same high school so I have a good sense of where my 8th grader needs to be next year. For him, the things we are working on are: Math. He’s doing prealgebra and is pretty amazing at mental math. He has very little confidence in his ability, though, so I’m working to make sure he has a very solid foundation. I know his teacher next year and know that she is very picky on showing work, which he does not like to do, so that is an area of focus as well. She lent me the algebra textbook for next year and I’m trying to make sure we cover enough that the content will be easy for him at the beginning, so that he can adjust to things like turning in assignments on time, showing his work, etc. I am teaching him one-to-one, but you might consider something with videos, like Derek Owens or Thinkwell, so that he can progress without your direct involvement. Writing. He’s really good at IEW, which is somewhat formulaic, but he needs help with coming up with original content. My older son does a lot of writing across the curriculum in high school so I’m trying to also incorporate the types of writing that my 8th grader will be expected to do next year, like essays. Study skills — note taking, organization. For our history and science, for example, I have him take notes on his reading. We also do history, grammar, science, and literature — but he’s either doing pretty well in those areas, or those subjects start from the beginning in high school, so I’m not stressing over them. I guess my advice to you is to take a look at your son’s strengths and weaknesses and choose a couple of things that you want to focus on during your limited teaching time. For the other things, choose resources that are fairly independent and/or not time-consuming. Best wishes to you!