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

Everyone else sounds so exotic compared to our Saturday night dinner! Grilled cheese and tomato soup for DH & DD17 Leftover biscuits made into egg and cheese sandwiches for DS Leftover italian bread made into French toast for DD13 Leftover tater tot casserole for me, with baby carrots on the side. Not exotic but I think I emptied about 8 dishes out of my refrigerator!! So pleased about using up leftovers 🙂

I do this too! Hotel coffee in the AM to wake me up, then fill a travel mug with hotel ice, pour Stokes cold brew over the ice and sip to stay awake while I drive. Lots of gas stations have Stokes or even Starbucks unsweetened cold coffee in the cold case. Or McD's americano hot coffee isn't too bad in a pinch. I just can't have sweet coffee when I drive or I start getting sleepy. In the summer I do the cold coffee, winter trips I scout out McD's that are near gas stations so we can do gas and coffee. I do a pour over method at home with a paper cone filter. My husband recently bought a collapsible net cone filter which would be good for travel...bring your own coffee, a few filters, use hotel hot water, and brew a cup. It's meant to use without a filter but there is sludge at the bottom of the cup and I'm not a sludge fan. He bought something similar to this but his is clearly a net instead of a fabric appearance. I may get this collapsible silicone for myself. I spend a few weeks with my parents every year and Dad's coffee practically undrinkable to me.

A neighbor of mine heard to wipe them with a Bounce dryer sheet, with the thinking that dust won't stick, I guess. She hasn't tried it and neither have I. I do feel your pain though, our trim throughout our house is this white satin(?) paint just is just always slightly sticky. We are replacing some of the surfaces, but the baseboards are staying. Teenagers with baby wipes or microfiber rags is a brilliant idea. And slap some headlamps on them so they can see all the dust!

We live in a flat neighborhood, small yards, and it's a small neighborhood compared to some massive subdivisions out here (that's why we chose this house). Many residents have golf carts here, and we are not even attached to a golf course community. I see many kids driving carts, probably more often than I see kids on bikes. A few are driving under direct instruction of an adult, but they're younger than 10 and an adult is sitting right next to them. I've had a cart at full throttle pass me on a midnight dog walk, driven by a couple of 12 year old boys. I haven't seen them again; I suspect they did some damage to it because I've never heard a cart that loud before! There is one cart that has the speakers, heavily treaded tires, and sparkly purple paint driven by a 13/14 year old girl. She's been pretty responsible whenever I've seen her drive, and she's out A LOT with her friends. In fact I don't even know if I've ever seen her driving with an adult, usually it's packed with kids and they're making rounds. There are adults here that drive WORSE than the kids, even driving without lights on at night, and I suspect they have a few beers with the neighbors and then they all climb on for a jaunt. My reflective dog leashes and shoes/etc won't protect me if they're driving without lights! So we have young cart drivers and possibly drunk cart drivers...and definitely open container cart drivers. My concern with kids driving so young is if they hit my parked-on-the-street car will they fess up to their parent and make it right, compensating me or fixing damage to my car? And if they do hit my parked car or jump the curb and run into my house (worse case scenario here) am I liable for their injuries? Common sense tells me I'm not liable but who knows how it would actually play out. I have not consulted our HOA rules but obviously it's permitted in the community otherwise so many people wouldn't buy them, right? My kids love my parents' golf cart, and they'd love to have a golf cart here but if we got one, they would get even LESS exercise than they do now lol. We live in Florida. It's hot and flat. Get the sweat going and that breeze will do its best to cool you down!

Dh got a call from Ecuador as well, last night around 8pm eastern! We have no connections to anyone or any business in that country, and the call was completely out of the blue. He didn't answer it, but I don't think he got any other calls either.

We use the Kirkland pacs with rinse aid and a water softener. I am totally pleased with our combination. We rinse our dishes (well, I do and then I "encourage" other family members to do the same) and then I also run empty dishwasher with LemiShine once a month. I think we have a Kenmore dishwasher, about a year old. My mom uses the Cascade pods and one of her gaskets around her filter is going mushy. They have hard water and they do not rinse dishes. When I visit, I often wonder why their dishes aren't coming totally clean. They have a ~5 year old GE, so I'm not sure if the gasket plastic is degrading due to chemicals in the Cascade, poor design, age, or the hard water.

We hardly use ours in our Odyssey and our other 2 vehicles do not have them. I prefer to hide from the sun whenever possible (we are now living in FL, so I hide even more!) and I find that with the sunroof propped open or the sunshade pulled open (so glass closed), there is a huge increase in wind noise. I prefer to listen to my rockin' 80s music so I hardly ever open it. Some evenings when I come home from the beach and feel young and carefree for a few more minutes, yes I pop it open and enjoy ALL the wind.😂 I probably won't get a sunroof in my next car unless it comes standard. I certainly would get a noise barrier type slide, not just a mesh netting. (The VW we were looking at a few years ago had a mesh slide instead of a full solid slide. No matter what you would still have sunlight in your car, and the mesh would probably not age well? IDK, I didn't want to deal with it.) My husband loves to crank the sunroof open when he drives, but somehow I always end up sitting full in the sun and he ends up in the shade.🙄

Sorry to hijack this thread but we tried this recipe tonight and it was DELISH. I left out the tomatoes b/c we didn't have any and dh doesn't care for tomatoes anyway, but it was sooooo good. It made so much with one recipe, too. Thank you for sharing it here!!

It's been about 4 years since I've been able to use iTunes easily. When they introduced the cloud and wireless syncing, my brain just didn't follow at all. OP: Hope you can figure it out, it sounds like you've got a lot of important school stuff in there! My iTunes is mostly 90s music 🤫

The kokum butter Burts Bees is my go-to! I have them stashed all over the house. I will try to drink more water though, I've noticed having to reapply more often over the last few days. I thought it was just the dry weather, but maybe I'm dried out too. 😆