All the kids and grandkids were able to come this year which I enjoyed and my dh and the married and unmarried kids planned the meal with little input from me other than advice which was nice because we are a crew when we are all together. With my in-laws there were twenty here yesterday. My 19 yods made homemade lemonade (squeezed the lemons and all) and another fruit punch which sounds like no big deal but he was quite proud of. Prior to yesterday his biggest accomplishment in the kitchen was ramen noodles 🙂. I was feeling sentimental in the morning before church and wrote each of my dils, my dd and my mil a short note with some words about why I appreciate them. My dil who is brand new to the family this year seemed amazed and/or embarrassed to be included because she isn't a mom but I explained our tradition was to honor special ladies in our lives which seemed like a new idea to her so I was glad I included her. The day was somewhat bittersweet because my eldest and his family (five kids) are getting ready to return to the hospital overseas where they work for the next three or more years. They've been here for about 8 months this time but will be leaving in about a month and I can't think about it without tears forming so I try not to think about it. I was a mess the last time they left and that was only for a year. Their oldest is six and the youngest is 9 months and I can't imagine not hugging them for that long but I know it's where they want and need to be and I know that communications are easier now than ever before in history but it's going to be a tough month for me. I'm at the point where I'm almost hoping for an earlier departure just to get it over with which I know is a terrible attitude. So, I'm giving myself a talking to today to buck up and think on the positive side of life 🙂

When our cat was doing this, our vet suggested putting multiple cat boxes out. So we had one cat and three litter boxes (just boxes nothing fancy) and the problem stopped immediately and never recurred even in her old age. Just thought I'd throw that out- YMMV.

It may be for a graduation publication/program? I know when I graduated eons ago, the scholarships and plans of the graduates were all in our program and the local paper.

For my personal experience, don't take her out. My dh's grandma had similar issues and her kids insisted on bringing her home for Christmas shortly after her move to a facility. She cried and cried about going back and it was traumatic for all.

I would just tell my daughter that I need to scale back and work with her to determination be how that can happen. You have a husband and son who needs you and are your primary responsibility and now that the initial crisis is over with the twins, she and her husband need to figure this out. I would give her one day a week or a morning or afternoon - whichever I could manage and that's it except for special circumstances like illness or a date night. It sounds like you have been very involved all the way through the pregnancy to now. Maybe it's time to back off and let them make their own way even through tough times 🙂

You are making me want a peacock 🙂. My uncle had some on his farm when I was a kid. We would get the long feathers that fell out and balance them on our palms or noses.

I hate mice in the house - our cat once walked through our living room with a mouse in its mouth on a Sunday afternoon and I very calmly said something to the effect that if someone doesn't get that mouse, the cat never walks in my door again 🤣 This week in our small church the pastor was making announcements, I was at the piano ready for the next hymn when my 13 yodd started speaking aloud interrupting the pastor, "there's a mouse on the platform under your chair!". I jumped because it ran toward me 🙃. Then a few minutes later another one ran across the front of the church. All I could think of was my wide legged slacks I was wearing and what I was going to do when one ran up my leg! I may wear my knee boots and jeans next week if the mice are not taken care of!

We have the inside drain and would do it again. When we looked at this house to purchase there was a literal river running through it. It cost around $10,000 (24 years ago) to do the inside drain and we have never had problems. The basement is fully finished now. We have had water in the basement but always from a plumbing issue - not from rain.

How/why are hospitals permitted to do this? My old story is from the birth of my first child when the hospital sent me a bill when my second child was almost one! Granted they are only 18 mos apart but really! The kid in question was almost 2 at the time. When I called it was shoulders shrugged - sorry you still owe. If I tried to do this is my business I would be laughed out of the room!

One of my sil's has this 😂

Our library is still passing them out. Maybe a library could offer them to their patrons?

I just wanted say this made me smile because we, too, have a "spare oom" . Four of my eight have moved out and it is always a weird time. My fifth may be moving out in a few weeks which will make the house less chaotic as he is my challenge but of course, right now he's being a delight to be around so it will be harder than it would have been a few weeks ago.

My dh's aunt where we spent a lot of holidays had one and she stored games in it. Just remembered my dh and I had one that came with a used set of living room furniture we purchased in 1983. I think we had vhs tapes in it and magazines. Hmm . . .I can't remember what happened to that thing - it had dents all over the top from us playing Jenga on it - lol!

My dh did this several years ago. He loved the experience and still refers to it often. His was one day a week for four months so a little bit different than yours. He really learned a lot about the court systems and became interested in becoming a GAL or CASA. Because of work and family responsibilities he hasn't been able to follow up on that but maybe someday. I hope your experience is as positive as his was.

I would sign her up for rec league. That will help keep her playing and I'm sure any coach will be happy that she is in shape from whatever league she has been playing in. I don't know what soccer summer workouts are called - the equivalence is called "open gyms" or conditioning in basketball. I'm sure soccer has the same thing during the summer before the official team practice starts. I know some teams also do team camps in the summer.

I was just reading news stories about the Nashville situation with tears. It just hits home because we are involved with a church school about the same size in our area. But what do we (individually ) do to change this and what laws would work? My dh owns a legally purchased hand gun but has never shot it. He has his concealed carry permit and took two classes a few years ago but he doesn't carry. He just doesn't feel comfortable with it. One of the things I am concerned about is how pervasive the gun culture is in certain churches. In our tiny church we have two gun carriers. One is an 88 year old lady who has no business having a gun - to think of something happening and her pulling that gun out is horrifying to me! At least her gun is legal - the other carrier is the pastor and his is unregistered. I don't even know what I'm asking. I feel helpless to do anything personally. Even if all guns were outlawed tomorrow people I know and love would hide theirs and completely rebel against such a law.

The root canal I had done at the endo was a breeze compared to fillings I've had done on my back teeth. The crown was fine. Just be sure that when they check the bite, take your time and make sure it feels natural. For some reason, I always bite weird after having my mouth open for procedures then come home with something weird and have to go back. If anything doesn't feel right go back! After my first crown (without a root canal) I went from the dentist to the store and as I was walking in got a horrible burning sensation in my mouth. It faded and I shrugged it off. For months though I had extreme sensitivity in that tooth. Turns out the manufacturer of the glue they used to glue on the crown had distributed a bad batch. I ended up months later mentioning it to my dentist who hadn't made the connection with my crown. Ended up with a root canal and redoing the crown to get that nasty glue out of there - no problems since. So if something doesn't seem right - ask - don't be stupid like I was and go months taking ibuprofen and just ignoring it.

I would call the principal of the school in our area, depending on grade and just ask the secretary or whoever answers the phone for the details or procedures but we are in a fairly homeschool friendly place and a relatively small district. I can't imagine just showing up for tryouts without getting information from someone. I have noticed that in our area the tryouts are usually announced on a fb page or on the school calendar so I guess if my kid that wanted to play had friends involved that knew all the details, then they might just show up. I would also just be tempted to show up at the school office someday so that I would get more immediate information rather than waiting on a call back.

Want to know a secret? I recently wore the same dress to my second son's wedding that I wore seven years before to my first son's wedding. And it was fine - I had purchased two other dresses for the most recent wedding but hated both of them, didn't feel comfortable in them and the color scheme was the same so I accessories differently and was comfortable and looked nice. That kind of stuff just doesn't matter. Oh, and our gift was that we bought four suits and a bridesmaid dress for the siblings to be in the wedding and put on a nice rehearsal dinner.

I made pies on Tuesday and used up all my Crisco. At my local Kroger the price to replace 48oz. was over $10. I always buy Crisco because I think it is better than the store brands but I had to change this time which was still over $6. I'm trying to find bean recipes that my family will eat but it's a hard sell.

Are we talking about teens rooms? Because if we are, I am in big trouble! The rest of my house is reasonably clean but my eldest (19) at home has a complete mess in his room. Honestly, I just shut the door everyday after he leaves and stack his clean laundry just inside the door when it's done. I do grab towels that he has left on the floor but other than that, I try to respect his right to keep the room the way he wants it. I am reasonably sure there is no food or dishes in there.

My 13yodd and I have been hooked on Heartland. There are twenty seasons though so it's a long one.

My cat was similar because she knew I was going to flush and there was going to fresh water in the bowl for a nice cold drink 😂. She refused to drink water from her bowl, only the toilet or by dipping her paws into one of our water glasses.

Did they take out the diagramming or am I just missing it because it doesn't happen to be in the sample lesson I saw? **Editing to add: I think it's just that the sample lesson they have up is about pronouns which is before the subject and predicates lesson so I'll assume that the diagramming starts in that lesson. **

Just be prepared to advocate on her behalf if her regular doctor dismisses any concern. My aunt was having very similar issues. My aunt first exhibited systems of dementia about three years ago and when we visited her regular Dr. my concerns were dismissed because aunt could answer the lame questions they asked the month, the year, her birthday (we had just filled out paperwork so all of that was fresh in her mind). The "memory" test of three items she passed because the Dr. fed her the answers. It made me furious because the Dr chose to smirk at me about there being no issue. So our attempts to get help didn't go far in that direction and it really still makes me mad and sad. We ended up getting her into a memory clinic without referral which was possible in a different state. First diagnosis was low B12 and supplements did help for a while but now she is deteriorating again and back to the memory clinic for more testing . She has daily help now, I am writing all checks, I or her helper schedules all appointments. Your story about cell phone vs tv remote is eerily similar to my aunt's story. Confusion about cell phones, home phones, iPads and tv remotes was our first sign that something was wrong.