Dd18 had her second attempt at getting her drivers test this morning, and again she choked. Of my two drivers, she is by far the better driver and has been driving with a permit since she was 16. I don’t know what happens to her when it’s time to take the test. She feels HORRIBLE. Any tips are well appreciated.

I am an H and cannot imagine anyone seeing me without a bra. Good on you

We’ve had brown lentils (or red? Not sure) as a bean substitute in Cincinnati chili and as a stretcher in chicken pot pie… Oh, and as a stretcher for taco meat

Myself really, and expose the kids at home to more flavors Kind of when we made shawarma and that gyro roast beef a few weeks ago, those were wow. That gyro roast was so good we made it for a neighbor who likes gyros from the fair and she really liked it too.

For example in @Rosie_0801’s recipe, it calls for long red chili. Not sure what that is exactly, assuming it’s spicy, but our store only sells green peppers, some times red. The sweet kind. another recipe called for rice noodles. None of those either. The store does have a variety of hot sauce and the usual McCormick spices. No fresh ginger etc. The “International “ aisle is half an aisle with Lachoy mixes, tortillas and taco sauce and seasoning, refried beans, a couple different kinds of rice, dried beans and hot sauces 😆 Not a lot in the way of different kinds of olives, but a ton of pickle varieties. I am just very limited locally and don’t have time to drive 45 minutes out of my way to the Kroger’s.

Mostly looking for flavor. So had the opportunity to eat in the cafeteria of two different colleges last week after having read lots of complaints on their parent Facebook pages. One college cafeteria was definitely better than the other, and as a school with a larger than I expected international student population, it had two dishes on order that dh and I couldn’t wait to try. As we ate, I took notice that most of the kids around us opted for the pizza or burger option. Not many seemed to have taken the international option. At this school, it was all you can eat, so no penalty for trying and not liking something. The dishes dh and I tried were phenomenal. Dd said she usually tries the “Chinese “ food option, but has never tried any of the “Indian” food. The other cafeteria with a much smaller international student population had an all you care to eat in 30 minutes setup. Definitely less options than the first, burgers, chicken sandwich, small salad bar, pizza, subs and one little section where there was jambalaya and steak teriyaki. Dd said last year, there was a chipotle like section and an Asian food section but they are gone now. Same story. Most students around us were eating the standard American junk foods and a plate of salad. Both dds said they usually try the “Chinese”food that’s offered, at least a little. My one daughter tried the jambalaya but likes mine better. The other wasn’t interested in trying the Indian food and won’t try anything that doesn’t have meat in it. So I could see where the types of foods they grew up eating limited what they were willing to try, as well as seeing tons of other college students walk by some gorgeous looking food to eat slices of frozen pizza and fries. We have always lived on a small farm outside a small town with very limited grocery options. The year we started growing okra, we all felt very exotic! I didn’t learn to cook til after I was married, so especially my oldest kids had limited options when they were younger. We have no exotic ingredients in our small town store. We only have avocados once in a while and my older kids were teenagers when they had one for the first time. We don’t have shallots or fresh herbs or pitas or any seafood that’s not frozen. Haha we do t even have Romain lettuce except in bag! They haven’t eaten in too many non American restaurants. The Chinese buffet like once a year and one time we ate at a Lebanese restaurant. These things are an hour away, so not an option unless we make a concerted effort. Plus, funds have always been very limited so we always chose restaurants that we knew everyone would enjoy. Over the years I added chicken shawarma, jambalaya, steak teriyaki and recently a curry made from a jar. It was sad to hear all the parents complaining about the food at the colleges and then go there and see the kids ignoring the fabulous looking food for frozen pizza. I guess if my kid only ate frozen pizza, I would be upset too. But what is the incentive for the school to make other things if they go to waste? Even dd at the school with the international students said most of them choose the American food because the international food doesn’t taste like home and since they are in America, they want to eat American food. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Even my dd that worked at a summer camp this summer said that the nights there were not campers, the kitchen cooked beautiful meals that dd had never tried before, but when campers were there it was standard American kid food, otherwise there were complaints and a lot of waste. So, I decided to widen my and the ones still living at homes palates a little more, and thought what better place to ask than here!

Oh, I’m so very sorry. You must feel so overwhelmed. I wish I could help you.

I am working on trying new things, but I have very little time. Do you have a 45 minutes or less meal that packs a serious punch? I live outside a small town. Our most exotic thing is avocados. Sometimes. Thanks!

My kitchen is safe with white trim and I LOVE it.

Hugs. Having a plan always makes me feel better. And your writing seems fine to me!!!

Oh kungfupanda, there are just not words. Praying for you and your family today. Hugs

Ok, this cracked me up out loud here at work! My coworker gave me an eyebrow 😆😆😆

Dd20 spent $120 a month on food etc. for toiletries, she would raid our closet when she was home and take enough to cover til her next trip home in a month or two. When she came home, we would send her back with a couple of packages of meat from our freezer and whatever she raided from the cabinets. She kept herself to a strict budget, she learned to cook and follow recipes before going off to school and had a real kitchen she shared with her roommates. Sje is volunteering with a church on campus this year, so spent anticipate coming home again til thanksgiving so will have less opportunities to glean from us, but she practiced some new recipes while home for the summer and we bought some Tupperware with compartments so she can cook less often and reheat more things. She also started hosting dinner parties last year and everyone would kick in like $5 or bring part of the meal and she would cook and use the money for whatever. Hee friends loved it

I’m not sure I believe in good luck, but I swear my brother in law and his family have the absolute worst luck. If something could go wrong, it will go wrong for his family. It seems they have had major car trouble during every vacation they have ever taken. They have had more than one washing machine flood their home while no one was there. They had three drunk women show up at his house ready to do some guys head in and after trying to force their way inside only figured out they had the wrong house after my nephew stepped into view with a shotgun. Their oldest son was picked up by the cops in a case of mistaken identity. It just goes on and on. Things that seem like good luck I attribute to blessings. Not sure what causes bad luck though

Looking in to celebrating dh’s 50th next summer and we are thinking Gatlinburg. Does anyone here rent out a property near Gatlinburg? Thanks!

I love this!!! This was the first recipe I used Rosemary in https://diethood.com/pork-loin-roast-recipe/ an easy breakfast sausage using fennel https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/maple-fennel-country-sausage-patties-recipe-1913763

But if I ignore her, she just keeps freaking calling. It sounds weird, but at the end of the day, she is my mother, and I do feel some sort of obligation and I want to shield my kids from her worst

A few weeks ago she called me 6 times in three days to talk about “end of my life since life expectancy in my family is 72” and it finally stopped when I asked if I needed to be in contact with her doctor because it sounds like there is something I need to know since her parents and her sisters all lived into there 80s, not 72, and while she was at it, could I have the number of her lawyer to make sure her end of life plans were actually actionable. 😆

I know, the ones living in my house know not to accept anything. But I can’t control calls between her and ds23. Dh said give it a while and then tell ds23 not to accept anything that involves involving me somehow. Which might actually work because we all know she won’t send anything through the mail. She doesn’t trust the post office… because they somehow didn’t get her late payments where they needed to go before they were due… But I don’t know how to mitigate her leaving a message and then expecting someone to thank her for leaving a message.

Consider this liked. I don’t care if she calls the police, she doesn’t actually know where he lives so it wouldn’t come to anything. She freaked out when she didn’t get what she wanted and calling the police is the ultimate threat I guess?

Thanks. She literally has nothing better to do. She leaves the house everyday to drive around town and walk through Walmart or gordmans. She won’t volunteer (why would I work for free?!?) She has run off every friend she ever had and the only person she talks to regularly is her sister, who is an invalid now and is just glad to have any company. I think it’s very telling that she didn’t call the kids involved more than one time, but calls me over and over. That’s what makes me think in the first place she wasn’t really scared 🙄 and in the second place she knew that her call didn’t really warrant a thank you call. I regret asking dd20 to call her this evening. She acted fine dd said, but I feel like I fell down on the line, she got what she wanted, she wanted me to coerce one fo the kids to do what she wanted 🙄just like she did to my sister and me growing up. It’s messed up, but I am so at my limit I just needed the calls to stop.

Ok, so my moms trick this week… Over a month ago, my mom called ds23 and offered him some stuff from her house she was getting rid of. He accepted some things, but since he doesn’t drive and she won’t drive to him, it fell to me to arrange to get them. Fine. After a month of her calling wanting to know when we could meet her and then calling asking when could she see dd22 and dd20 and hear about their trips. Fine, meet at a restaurant with an arcade for younger two, visit goes well for once. It takes me a couple of weeks before I get stuff to ds23. She starts calling wanting to know if he got it. (Imports note, she never called him to see if he got it) I let most messages go to voicemail and answer maybe 1 in 3 calls. Finally I get the stuff to him and let her know. Ds23 had thanked her on the phone when she offered the things to him so knowing him, he assumed that was sufficient. It apparently was not. Sunday morning I guess she called ds23 and left a message asking if he got the stuff, knowing full well he did because I told her he did and he liked it. Ds23 had a very full day that ended at a party with coworkers we were going to pick him up from and bring him to our house to spend the night. Let me preface this with saying that three days earlier, I told the kids they could start answering calls from grandma on the house phone because she had been doing very good. (She saves stupid for me and my cell phone) I worked all day Sunday, then left early evening to pick up ds23. Late Sunday morning, mom calls and ds13 answers. She asks if ds23 was there. No, but he’s coming later. Do you know where he is now? No. We’ll I called him but he didn’t call me back. I don’t know grandma, he must be busy. We’ll if you talk to him, tell him to call me. Sunday afternoon, mom calls dd16 answers. Is ds23 there? No, but he will be later. We’ll do you know where he is? No. We’ll I called him but he didn’t call me back. We’ll, maybe he’s at work or something. Exasperated sigh, we’ll will you tell him to call me? Sure. thanks. Early Sunday evening, mom finally calls my cell phone but I don’t answer because I am driving and have not talked to the kids to find out she has been calling repeatedly. Sunday about 8, she calls the house again, dd20 says don’t answer it. She’s a little more savvy about my mom. Dh and I have left to go pick up ds23. She leaves a voicemail. Later when I listen to the voicemail it is super weird about how she doesn’t know what’s going on with ds23, if he’s sick or something and no one will tell her what is going on and someone had better call her and tell her what is going on. Then immediately calls my cell phone but I don’t answer because once again I’m driving. I have literally not had time to call her back from earlier call. She leaves a raving voicemail about how she doesn’t know what’s going on but someone better give her a damn call and tell her what is going on. If someone doesn’t call her soon she is going to call the police and more raving about not knowing what is going on with ds23 and how we are scaring her etc. I hear this message after I get home. I call her immediately and ask her what is her major malfunction. She is “scared” because ds23 didn’t return her call after a couple of hours, I wouldn’t answer my phone (work and driving) and ds13 and dd16 didn’t know where he was. (He has had his own apartment for over 2 years, of course we all don’t know where he is at any given moment!) and is telling me she was going to call the police (and tell them what?) She has called the police twice on me over the years because I didn’t return a phone call when she expected me to. I told her it was unreasonable to expect someone to return a phone call within two hours, especially when she doesn’t know anything about that persons schedule and talks ti them on the phone maybe once every 6 months etc. she loses her shit. Ds23 (my aspie) says mom, let me talk to her. He gets in the phone and she turns sweet as sugar and tells him she was worried not having heard from him. He says to her grandma, you called me this morning and I didn’t have time to call you back. I was going to call you tomorrow. Thank you for the stuff, bye and hangs up the phone. It’s important to note that with all of those phone calls going to my house and cell, she only called ds23 the ONE time when she left the original message! Grandma is back on do not answer, I’ll handle it. She calls the house phone Monday (even though she has dd20’s phone number) and leaves her a message saying good luck going back to college, be safe, don’t go out at night, etc. Message does not sound like it needs a call back, but I tell dd20 about it. She proceeds to call my cell phone Monday evening, just wanted to know if dd20 got my message. Yup, that was nice of you, she appreciated it. Tuesday while I’m at work, call on my cell phone, message saying did you tell dd20 about my message? Tuesday morning, calls the house phone, just making sure dd20 got my message. Wednesday, calls my cell phone, I answer. Did you give dd20 my message? YES mom, I told you I did. She appreciated it. We’ll she didn’t call to thank me. I asked dd20 to please call grandma this evening, she apparently needs to to be thanked for leaving a message… My mom wanted a thank you call for leaving a message… I think she has figured out I am gatekeeping and she is trying to figure how to get around it. Also, I think she doesn’t call the kids repeatedly (thank goodness) because she is afraid of their reaction. I promise she does NOT have dementia. Both of these incidents involved a lot of calls to me but only one call each to the actual kid involved. We had a good little run there for a while.

Listening to this now, thanks!

Oh man, I’m so sorry. Hugs for both of you

Hurray!!!🎉🥳🎉