Except that gladiators were generally forced to fight . . .

Fortunately no one is forcing you to use that curriculum or use that particular assignment if you do chose that program 🙂. Many eighth graders have the maturity to discuss tough issues. Of my brood, I would not have my current 15yods do that particular assignment but at the same age several of his siblings would have done it and it would have been good for them to think it through.

There are some schools around us that went back today which surprised me but maybe that one is back in session?

So sorry, Dawn. Praying for you and your family during this time and the coming months.

My dh and I met for the first time at Thanksgiving of our freshman year of college. Met is kind of an exaggeration. We had both hitched rides in the same vehicle home from the holiday and back to school. He lived in the same town as the girlfriend of the guy I had arranged to ride back with. So for two hours we sat next to each other in the backseat of a small car with another person (no idea who that was) but I was so shy at the point in my life that I basically said "hi" and nothing else - we didn't even figure out that we had met way back then until after we were engaged - LOL! We were both computer information system majors in the late 80s at our college which was a small major (I was one of two females in the program) so spent a lot of time just hanging out in the computer lab - this was way before personal computers, let alone laptops so all of our projects had to be done in the college-owned computer labs. Our senior year about a month before graduation was a "prom" (not a prom because it was a Christian college but basically a prom with no dancing - lol!) so I worked up my courage and called him and asked him to this event. He said yes and I didn't find out until we were engaged about six months later that as I hung up the phone he heard my exclamation of excitement for all my hall mates that had also gathered around my phone. Fortunately, that call broke the ice and the big event ended up not being our first date at all as did lots of activities together that last month or so of school. We continued to date through the summer as able because he was traveling with his parents and I was traveling with a college PR team but our paths did cross many times during that period of time. We ended up back at the college town in the fall where he was hired in January at the computer department (he's still there) and I got my job with the IRS. We were engaged in February and married in September. I'm still kind of amazed that I went from the shy person who couldn't even make conversation to the person who was able (with some encouragement from my friends) to call and ask him out. That may not be unusual now but back then it was not done very much. Being away on my own at college was a good experience for me.

I just remembered that we went to a international grocery store earlier in the week with no self- checkouts and I remember now why I love self-checkout - the cashier felt the need to comment on most items I was purchasing! So irritating - we were purchasing some special Japanese food for some gifts and she picked up each item to try to figure out what is was, then made some comment on an American product "well, at least I know what this is", had to comment on why my three kids were with me on a school day . . . It went on and on. I felt like it was kind of invasive - by the time we left she knew we homeschool, knew my husband grew up in Japan, knew our hometown . . It was crazy!

I would not be annoyed but I would be embarrassed that I had forgotten the load in the dryer and inconvenienced you and that embarrassment might look like annoyance in the moment My son and his family (7 extra people) lived with us for about 4 weeks this fall. I tried so hard to keep it my laundry caught up without getting in my dil's way because 5 little kids equals a lot of laundry but my laundry is in the basement and I'm very used to just doing it at my own pace. We had a few collisions while they were her and it was mostly because I kept forgetting to move my loads and it made me feel embarrassed and thoughtless. Alexa alarms eventually solved the problem.

My grandson needed antibiotics two weeks ago. He's allergic to amoxicillin and I'm not sure what kind was prescribed but it took my daughter basically a whole day to fill the script. She finally found it at their local children's hospital at 9p.m. after a day of hunting.

I can't remember the last time I used a real cashier. My large orders are always pick up orders now so when I am running in for a few items, I always use self-checkout. Sam's Club scan and go is awesome and I use it all the time. Funny story: We have an elderly relative who was explaining to me how she loves the self-checkout lanes. Then mentions that she just goes in there and waits for the employee to come and scan all her stuff -lol! I think she does that so she doesn't have to unload her cart. We tried to explain she should just use a regular line but she didn't understand.

So, in my imagination, when my kids got older and left our house, I would no longer stuff stockings for them because that tradition would migrate to their own houses. Neatly, as one by one they left, my stockings would decrease until eventually it would just be mine and dh's hanging nicely on the mantle. In reality, my kids, my grown kids and their spouses and their sweet children, all still want me to stuff stockings for them to open on Christmas morning, early, before the official Christmas gift opening process begins. So this year, I am stuffing 20 stockings from age 86 (cause I can't leave grandma and grandpa out) down to age 5 mos. I have declared various rules over the years - for instance, if you are going to be at my house on Christmas morning, I will do a stocking for you but then that leaves the same people out year after year. I have declared that once you have your own house, you no longer get a stocking but then what about my two kids who live alone (one with a toddler, one by themselves)? They need stockings. One year I declared that once you are 21 you no longer get a stocking at my house but last year I still had a 21 year old living here and it seemed awkward to leave him out. So my stockings just keep multiplying with spouses and grandkids and I'm stuffing and stuffing and stuffing - lol! What are your "rules" around this tradition in your family.

I need to stop wrapping. Right now the tradition is that most things are wrapped - some candy isn't. I just made a list yesterday and realized that I am stuffing 20 stockings this year - which I knew in my head but when I actually wrote it down on paper realized that is crazy. My main problem is that I've tried and tried to wean my grown kids off of the stocking tradition with no luck. Maybe I need to start a spin off thread about how to do that.

Never had heard the term garage-teady until this thread. We have a chest freezer and a old fridge in our garage and have never had any issues. They've been out there for 12 years and 25 years respectfully. Just as an aside - I just realized that the fridge is at least 30 years old! How is that possible? Lol - it's probably older than that because it came with our first house and didn't seem new then 🙂

My thirteen year old dd just discovered Heartland. Everything is horses on her Christmas list 🤣

I agree and I think it's sad that we are at that point in our healthcare system. When I married into a family that was more multi-cultural than my own, one thing I found amazing was that it was the norm in so many countries that any one in the hospital had to be accompanied continuously by a family member and I remember thinking how weird that was because I had never heard of that here in the United States but now it is definitely necessary in most cases.

I buy multipacks of things and divide them up. Special flavors of hot chocolate packets, brownies in a mug envelopes, multipacks of playdough, pens/pencils/markers/, hairbands, sample sizes of all sorts of toiletries, chapstick/lip gloss, fingernail polish, stickers, candy, little Debbie snacks, individual packs of raisins, the pouch style applesauce. We obviously do lots of food but I have towards 20 stockings to do! Multi-packs of hot wheel cars is another annual thing - even my teen boys like that.

My husband leads the music at our church and over the years I have encouraged him to sing all the verses that are written in our hymnal. Quite often when you skip verses, you miss the progression of thought that goes through the song. The longest song in our hymnal has six verses. I think the only one that he still skips verses on is "The First Noel". I'll have to sneak into his power point and add in the missing verses as a surprise for him this Christmas season - lol!

My dh discovered yesterday that 1 of my teens had left his deodorant in his brother's car two weeks ago! Said brother lives an hour away. Teen son never thought "gee, I should get a new deodorant from the supply". 😬

My kids switch to creamy peanut butter for sandwiches. One broken bracket in our house came from an Oreo cookie. Avoid popcorn and anything with sticky caramel. My kids say that creamy caramel is ok. No nuts or pretzels. Didn't the orthodontist give your daughter a list? We always came home with a laminated/magnetized list

Praying for her.

It's really becoming a huge problem for my aunt with dementia. She is still (barely) capable of using her cell phone and iPad for certain applications but she is constantly getting the scam Amazon calls and I cannot convince her not to answer the phone unless she knows who it is. So far she hasn't given any information but I watch her bank account daily along with her credit card. I'm afraid it's only a matter of time but she has to be able to call people 🙁

The school my kids play sports at closed down Thursday and Friday last week to create a long weekend because they had so much flu going through - I heard several had tested positive for Influenza A. I was impressed because they didn't mess around - just shut everything down. It ses to have been enough to break the cycle.

This has been discussed a lot this year because my second son was just married. He was all excited when he realized that his wife's family does Thanksgiving big and Christmas is low key which is the opposite of our family. We've had a long tradition of declaring different days as holidays - so that will just continue. My Dil and I decided last week that since Christmas is on a Sunday this year we will probably do our family celebration for Christmas on the 24th and flip our Christmas Eve traditions to either Friday or Sunday - we'll see. The date isn't important to us. I also know that it will be rare to have everyone here. I already have kids/grandkids scattered around the world but we've always had that situation on my dh's side so we will be fine.

Thanks to the time change I got to watch. I was glad, but was more impressed with the huge moon that was hanging in our sky between 5 and 6 last night 🙂. It was beautiful, huge and because of its position it looked like we were going to drive into it for a while on our way home from basketball practice.

Wedding was a great day yesterday. No pictures yet - I left my phone behind all day but I'm sure I will get some shared today. Youngest ring bearer was hilariously innocent as he walked across the bride's train. Both his mom and I tried to grab him but both of us failed. Today: No school today to let everyone recover from the wedding weekend. My 13yodd was especially exhausted last night Catch up on the laundry (my poor college student had to leave his here undone but he's not too far away so I will get that to him tonight,) Grocery pick up order General pickup in the whole house Take two kids to basketball practice this afternoon

I'm up early because of the time change and an exciting day ahead. My 25yods is getting married this afternoon. It's going to be a long day but fun. Leaving our house at 8 to help with decorating the venue. All my kids are in the wedding except for one. All my grandkids are in the wedding except for the baby. Can I share the cutest thing? They have 10 kids walking as the flower girls and ring bearers - calling them "The Fellowship of the Ring". They are so cute - youngest boy is 18 months. Oldest is 10. Instructions to the oldest kids - if a little one is stalled or laying down in the aisle scoop them up and carry them with you 🤣