14DD got one in August, she loves it. This was actually her first new-to-her phone. She wanted (needed!) something smaller that fit in her pocket. She has pretty big hands, frankly, but has no problems using this phone. Takes awesome photos, charges really quickly. A backup battery is a good idea for young adults. Seems like the adults/kids that struggle are always on 1% battery life when they're waiting for a tow truck (purely an example! but it's good to be prepared!).

I rarely dry ours truly flat and if something has to drip dry flat, that's not going to happen either. I have a giant drying rack from IKEA, that thing holds a lot of stuff. Easily folds flat but I leave ours open b/c my teens put their own laundry on it as well. IKEA does have some other flat drying racks as well, but I haven't tried those. I bought 2 of the ones I linked, one for laundry and one for swimsuits/towels on the patio after a trip to the neighborhood pool.

My daughter is actually taking the ACT RIGHT FLIPPIN' NOW!! I'm flabbergasted, truly! Even leaving the driveway this morning, I told her that I really thought we'd be back in 20 minutes because the high school would be closed up. NOPE. There were at least 50 kids showing up to test. Daughter was NOT excited to do it but she shoo'ed me away (sniff sniff) and I'll go back in a few hours to go pick her up. Really shocked. I'm praying that her score is good enough for whatever she decides to do in the next year so we don't have to do this again!

Thanks for the tag! 🙂 From what I read on the ACT Student FB page, a lot of people are just contacting the testing center/school if it's open and so they can talk to a human and get a direct answer. A majority of these people are actually finding out that their original center was cancelled/closed and/or they were moved to a test center an hour or more away. Ours still hasn't cancelled but I will call the school she's scheduled at tomorrow. Apparently now I've griped about it so much within her hearing, she is even more *thrilled* to go sit for this test lol. Oops!

My oldest has also lost the motivation. She's been working 30+ hours a week but we're cramming this week JUST IN CASE because so far our site is still open for Saturday's test. I'd like to know are testers expected to wear masks after being ID'ed? Anyone know? Seems sketchy for test security (who knows what you have hidden under your mask) but masks are expected in all public places in our county.

For the June test date, we got two emails within hours of each other...one saying that the test was a go and one saying it was cancelled. So that was even more of a ?!?!? moment. No one was answering the phone at our testing location, so I decided the test was a no. It's frustrating, however, it is a good lesson for me that I should NOT wait til the last testing dates of the year when it comes to my DS15. DD18 is scheduled for the July date (been rescheduled 2x) so we hope this will be a go.

I keep a list on my phone of possible names for future dogs. Weird, I know lol For female dogs: Zuzu Macy Gypsy Maggie Hm, that's all I have that are definitely female. I guess I plan on male dogs in the future. My list of male names is much cooler 😛 We have a Daisy already, but friends of ours named their female Maisy. My kids suggest: Penny Lily Bunny (? lol) Maddie Libby (for Liberty) Poppy Pepper Roxie Historical names: Ellie for Eleanor Roosevelt, Cleo(patra), Janie (Jane Austen), JoJo for any Josephine, Frankie for any Francis, Shelley for Mary Shelley, Jenny (Ginny) for any Virginias, oooh: Simone...how's that for classy? lol, Nellie (Bly), Eddie for Edgar Allen Poe, Georgie (Georgia?) for George Eliot (or Washington or Bush, whatever lol)... Your new dog looks super cute! Our neighbor has a labradoodle that coincidentally woke me up before 8 today but I'm blaming that on our neighbor, not on the dog. He's Teddy and the historian in me HOPES he's named for Teddy Roosevelt but it's probably b/c they let their 9 year old name him. We've also known a Peppa (named because she was a snorty puppy I guess).

Midwestern thumb cutter here too. Swedish/Welsh heritage. I often watch my kids use a cutting board and I tell them, just cut against your thumb! Quit dirtying a giant cutting board for one apple! My kids don't cook that much so maybe it's just unfamiliarity with our paring knives.

We have AT&T unlimited data for internet=$90 a month (locked into that price i think, it's been the same for 2 years). That's all the computers, wifi, and all streaming. I think we use ~500G per month between the 5 of us. We also have Verizon unlimited data on our phones=$250 month, a total of 5 lines. No way I could pay by the gig. I feel like there's so many ads and pop-ups that use up your data also. ETA: lump us into Jacksonville, FL, in a neighborhood that's less than 3 years old.

Looks like all my scheduled subscribe and save things are on schedule for this Friday (mostly dog food, dog toys, and all components of my Paula's Choice routine). However, my preferred dog poop bags are on backorder until April 13 even though they were to be delivered in my s&s order next week. Amazon probably sent me an email but I just haven't found it yet. I went and ordered them apart from my s&s order so hopefully they get here. And yes, it's a complete first world problem but I have 3 dogs and we don't use plastic grocery bags...I can find something locally of course, but these preferred bags have never ripped/split on me. Every thing else I have ordered (books mostly) has arrived on time.

LOVE this book. May have to add it to my Amazon list with the hopes of reading it again. OP: I got excited just opening this thread! At one time I wanted to craft an elective for my oldest about Russia. Then I realized that she didn't really care about Russia (AT ALL!) and I was just wanting someone to learn along with me and have long bookish discussions together. I will make a myself Russia list from these recommendations and go from there 🙂

When I use Clorox wipes at home I get a cold numb feeling on my fingers. It's more than just having wet fingers, it almost makes my fingers itch with the numbness. I can use a few wipes before it starts, but if I get ambitious and clean all our white baseboard trim, the sensation doesn't stop until I finish and wash my hands. It's not due to the smell of the wipes, it's contact with the cleaning fluid. I still use the wipes because they're handy and I feel like they work. I was in our Walmart yesterday and noticed no cleaning odors. There was an employee spraying and wiping freezer door handles and there was no cleaning odor coming from him at all. Now I will say that DH picked up a bottle of hand sanitizer from Target today and the smell from THAT is really irritating my throat right now. Maybe that's why it was left on the shelf?? Usually I'm not overly sensitive to smells but I soak my feet daily in scented epsom salts and I will not get this rose-scented bag again due to it irritating my throat.

My DD17 has had problems sleeping, but more due to anxiety. We've tried melatonin (at age 13/14) with mixed results. We got her a weighted blanket when she was 14, maybe 15. It helps immensely, and she brings it when we travel by car. I have hormonal-based insomnia (randomly awake for a few hours at 2 or 3am), and I have considered getting myself a weighted blanket.

What a cutie!! I agree puppies are exhausting. We have a 6 month old possibly hound mix from the Humane Society. It was on my bucket list to raise a puppy because we've always adopted adult dogs. Now I know, and I'm not sure I'll do this again. I have 3 teenagers and no way could I do it without them! And even between the 4 of us (DH is almost always at work so I don't even count on him but puppy loves him the most anyway) we have shallow holes in our backyard and that's with CONSTANT supervision. He's just fast! This is Murphy:

I was also finding recipes calling for wine and I am NOT a wine drinker. Yuck. So at Walmart I found a 4 pack of tiny bottles by Sutter Home. I don't see a size on these, I'm guessing 1.5 cups each? I got one of chardonnay (white) and one of cabernet sauvignon (red) and I'm set. I don't have a bottle of wine eating up fridge space and I imagine these will last in my cupboard for another year. And if a wine drinker visits me, I'm not completely empty handed and can offer them something. Although maybe this is crap and they'd rather have water? IDK. I"m not test-tasting it lol