My Driver's Ed teacher (back in the dark ages) told us that we should drive barefooted because it was safer than driving with heels or sandals

Our local district just announced that they are closing down today and tomorrow. With the holiday on Monday, that gives five days with no school to may e break the Covid cycle and then they are mandating masks for two weeks. A larger school in our area announced virtual learning for the next two weeks. So far the small school we play sports at it is doing ok with their anti-mask policy. Rumor is that one of the varsity volleyball girls has Covid but she hasn't been at any games or practices since school started last week so I'm assuming she was sick prior to that. My 12yo can get her first vaccine shot tomorrow! Yay! She is playing volleyball so I feel like we are in a race between Delta and her birthday but we didn't have the heart to pull her off the team.

So happy for you. I'm waiting impatiently on my 24 year old ds. He's the only one eligible in our family who hasn't had the vaccine. I really don't know why. . . I'm afraid to ask because he does have a church family that has a large, vocal anti-vaccine component.

This is almost exactly what I said when in a similar situation.

I told this story on another thread but my 11yodd told a group of ladies at church yesterday that she wanted to get the vaccine on the day she turns 12 which is early next month. One lady clucked her tongue and informed my dd (and of course, me) that her son is not getting his kids vaccinated. The conversation then turned to masking, etc. which she obviously disapproved of with a lot of sighing and lots of "its so hard to know what to believe". Then she said, "I just want this to be over". Of course, she's ignoring or not realizing that the only way for 'this to be over' is to stop the virus from spreading and she's unwilling to mask or do any social distancing. I'm fairly sure she was vaccinated but she says that only old people need to be vaccinated. My dh works at a Christian college who has decided to take no Covid precautions this year. As part of their first week of school, they usually gather all freshman into a very small area on campus and take an aerial picture. Last year that didn't happen, but this year . . . the picture is all over facebook. I knew in my head they were not taking precautions but that picture was just an amazing disregard for what is happening. Over 1000 young people, shoulder to shoulder, face to face, no masks in sight. We're expecting the semester to be a disaster. They have taken down their Covid dashboard that they had last year, so we won't be able to track what is going on as directly as last year. But at church and out and about, I'm the one getting the rolled eyes because I'm wearing a mask. It is hard to understand.

I love the 'grandpa keeper' idea. That's great! We used to do something similar until I got very worried about the elders running and falling. We used a kickball and a plastic bat so it was a cross between the two sports.

Thanks for sharing this. I just put a link to the same story on my fb feed. I even linked from Fox where the original interview aired so that maybe some of myacquaintances will actually read/watch the interview. I just got back from church where my 11yodd announced to a group of women I was talking to that she couldn't wait for her birthday in early September so she could get the vaccine. One lady, in particular, saw fit to cluck her tongue and shake her head and inform me (in front of my daughter) that her son wasn't getting his kids vaccinated. I told her I wished her grandkids well but that my kids that live at home were all vaccinated except this daughter and that I was happy that she only had a few weeks until I could relax a bit about her chances with Covid. She was obviously not happy with our decision and said that "Only old people needed the vaccine". I had to walk away because she would not let it go.

I changed my posting name so I could make my post a bit more anonymous but the college my dh works at announced yesterday their Covid "policies" for the coming year. No masks, no vaccines required, no testing required and no social distancing. My dh has heard through the grapevine that the powers-that-be estimate that between 5 and 10% of the student body will be vaccinated. This is a school that requires chapel attendance daily and it was announced that chapel will operate as normal all year which means all students gathered inside at the same time daily and sometimes more than once daily (at the beginning of the year there are two chapel services a day). I'm speechless at the lack of care they are showing the community, their staff and faculty and the families associated with students, staff and faculty. We are vaccinated in my household except for my youngest who will be eligible early in September. She has asked to get the vaccine on her birthday. I'm praying/hoping that the local health department will step in or the state? I can't see how this isn't going to be a disaster for the local health care providers, never mind the individuals involved. The announcement was met with a lot of "Yay - faith not fear" responses on facebook. 😞

My dd turns 12 in September. She told me today that she wants to get the vaccine on her birthday because it would be the best birthday gift she could get. 🙂

Sorry about the quote box -i can't get rid of it. I spent 4 hours in the ER Friday. Masks required but even hospital workers being very casual about distancing. Signs all over about staying six feet apart then someone walks in and sits 2 feet away from me, yelling and singing! on her phone. I was very uncomfortable. Very little space to move because my elderly aunt couldn't walk around. At several points I saw one patient in a wheel chair wheeled to the door and leave, same worker has a different patient sit in the same chair (no disinfecting) and wheel them away. I know Covid is spread through air but I was still amazed. People were coming in with 2 or 3 people instead of one like guidelines stated. No enforcement of guidelines.

Could you clarify what you mean here? I have a dd turning 12 early in September and have been going back and forth about the vaccine. Are you saying you would go ahead and vaccinate if puberty was already started?

Bangladesh is having a surge but lifted restrictions for 10 days to allow the celebration of Eid. I'm expecting things to get really bad there, really fast 🙁. They are going on a strict lockdown on the 23rd for two weeks but with all the holiday traveling allowed this week, I'm not sure that will help.

My aunt was at the house yesterday and I was able to broach the subject. She was surprisingly agreeable that she realized she was having trouble and very willing to go to a Dr. I'm so relieved but now need to find somewhere for her to go. Her PCP is in Florida. She did go to an urgent care Dr last week whom she really liked - I wonder if that Dr. Could write her a referral? Anyway, I have much research to do. Thanks for all your help!

I liked both yours and @SKLposts because I can see both sides. I grew up on KJV and have no problem understanding it but someone who didn't have exposure as a child probably does have trouble understanding it. I have gone through phases of KJV, NASB, and NIV. My favorite Bible was a parallel Bible that had KJV/NIV. A few years ago we decided to go with ESV for our family. One of the reasons I like it is that I find it very easy to memorize - the cadence seems similar enough to my KJV roots that it works in my brain 🙂

Thank you for these thoughts. I was mulling over what the first step should be and I think a gentle and casual conversation might work. She is a fiercely independent person but I have noticed little more willingness to listen lately. For instance, She was at our house last night playing games. For the first time ever, at about 7:45 when it was still light I suggested she might want to go home before dark. At first she wanted to play a little longer but after a moment she decided it was a good idea. Maybe she will be more amiable to help than I thought. I just really don't want this to happen! Her mother suffered from dementia but it didn't start until after she was 90 🙁.

Maybe it is but I had never experienced it before and since my cycles were wonky from that point on I just assumed it was my body starting the process of menapause.

We have eight. Our last was born when I was 44 and I honestly think she kicked me right into menopause the day she was born. I woke up just drenched in sweat that night! First time ever but not the last time -lol!

Thank you so much for all the replies. You are confirming what I suspected. She was here tonight and yet another instance of a lot of confusion came up that we didn't know before. Her PCP is in Florida so I am going to have to try to get her in somewhere up here. I:m going to check on the UTI angle tomorrow. She has had trouble with this before. She went to an urgent care last week without telling me about a cough. I'm,// have to check and see if they happened to check for an UTI. The phone scammers have already been a concern with her. She calls me several times a week to tell me about scam calls and what should she do in response. Emails are another issue. One of the issues we are having is that she is giving her address up here wrong so bills are messed up. Right now it's her taxes that are lost in the mail but we don't know if she gave the place the right address. Many times she gives street names that rhyme with hers rather than the actual correct name. @Spryte. Thank you so much for sharing your family's experience. I remember when this happened to your mom.

No. We are her support.

My dh's aunt has been increasingly showing signs of age or dementia or something else. She is unmarried and is a "snowbird" so lives far away from us during the fall/winter/spring and then moves up here for the summer months to be near the rest of the family. We've had some casual to serious discussions about some alarming symptoms we've seen going on with her. This is new territory for my generation so I thought that I could get some input from some of you who know more than I. Some examples: (1) Mistaking her key fob (she still drives) for her garage door opener when trying to open the garage door for my son. She repeatedly pressed the "trunk" button even when he pointed out to her that it wasn't going to open the garage. Finally in disgust she threw the keys into a draw and walked around to push the button on the inside of the garage. My son told me about this and then several days later she was disgusted with my son for trying to tell her that her key fob (in her hand at the time she was telling me) wasn't her key? I'm assuming from this that she realized that something was wrong with the conversation because there was really no reason for her to bring it up to me. (2) I was driving her and asked her to call someone else in the family to tell them we were running late. She rummaged in her purse, pulled out her cell, laid it in her lap, rummaged some more and pulled out the cordless phone from her house. Then she picked up her cordless phone and explained she couldn't call anyone because she didn't have any service. I joked with her that she had to use her cell phone to call and she argued saying that she uses the cordless all the time when she is out and about. This explained a few incidents where she claimed that no one was answering different phones at different times when we knew she was in her car at different appointments. (3) Trying to take a picture with her cell phone (which she has had for at least 5 years) and instead of using the screen she turns it over to the back and tries to "push" the lens in order to turn the camera on. This has been a repeated problem this summer. She mutters about the camera never working on this thing. There's lots of other forgetting and misplacing that are more common. Some time issues, some keys lost. Oh, one other thing was that she was here for two weeks before she mentioned that her headlights on her car weren't working. We discovered that she had forgotten how to turn them on! That one was scary. So, is this normal aging stuff (she is turning 83 this year) or is this something more? Most of it seems to be centered around technology which is probably short-term memory? I seem to have been elected as the one in the family most likely for her to listen to so I've been researching and there is memory clinic nearby that could do an evaluation but how do I convince her. She really sees no problem . . or at least hasn't admitted it at this point. We are up against time . . she's talking about returning to FL at the end of August/early September. My kids are adamant that we shouldn't let her go back to FL where she has good friends but no family . . but I'm not sure how we stop her? Plus, being in Florida is good for her in general because she can get out and about easily because of the good weather. We did find out from one of her good friends (who is 95!) that the friend has to direct our aunt around driving in Florida because she can't remember how to get to places and she has noticed other memory issues. The friend and I both identify the start of the problems going back two summers ago when she suffered a bad fall during which she had a small fracture of her neck. That seems to have healed fine but the memory issues that started then are definitely getting worse. Thanks for any help or experiences you can give.

I would never say anything. Our adult children are just that, adults. I would not ask him about it or recommend counseling unless he or she came to you for advice. I have seen too many relationships damaged by parents who are too involved and try to "help". Your son chose your dil as his wife. If things are tough, that's the way it is. Not your decision, not your business. I understand being concerned but I always try to think of what consequences could be. If you say something to your son, he goes to dil and says "hey, mom thinks we need counseling" and immediate your dil is on the defensive and your relationship with her may never be the same. In fact, if my son came to me asking for marital advice my response would be that he needs to go straight to his wife to discuss what is going on. They are adults, they know counseling exists.

We have a blow up mattress and a folding padded mat. The kids honestly like the folding mat better so I think I'm going to get several more. We did save our pack n play which is nice for that stage after rolling until 2ish. We've also just made beds up on the floor, too. But the padded folding mat gets my first vote.

Bangladesh going on a hard, military-enforced lockdown for either 7 days or 14 days, either starting today or starting Thursday depending on which source you believe. The lockdown was announced on Friday so migrant workers in the cities immediately began to crowd on to public transportation to leave via bus, train or ferry. I'm afraid this probably will make the situation worse. They have the Delta variant there and increasing numbers of cases and deaths (both may be undercounted). We have family and friends there and they will not be able to leave their places of residence during this lockdown with few exceptions. Social distancing is pretty much impossible because of the crowded conditions there. Vaccines rates are very low.

Ikea I think they are either $1 or $1.99. Nothing fancy . . . I replace them every year.

I've had some success on www.homeschoolclassifieds.com I've never tried to list here because I tried years ago and found homeschool classifieds much easier to navigate. I also have had a lot of success on Amazon but watch out for the fees. They are pretty extreme on low-priced items.