Good question. I don't go to the places that are near the school and my kids have only worked in places that are in a different school district since that area is actually closer to where we live. Those places do employ several teens. The district we live in is lower income than the one my kids work in. I wonder if that's a factor. But, I do think it's extremely unusual to have such a low percentage of teens employed.

I don't think that any of those restrictions apply. My kids are different genders; one was 17 when he applied ( he worked under-the-table before that) one was 15 (yes, she's young, but she WANTS a part-time job) plus I mentioned to the principal that my kid's names were almost next to each other and she confirmed that this was THE list and apparently, not very many kids get part-time work. It is in an urban area with about six fast food places within blocks of the school.

No, I probably don't know everyone; but I probably do know most. We've been very active with all the homeschool groups in our area for over 20 years, so I think that if it had been a homeschool only list, I would have recognized at least some of the names. I didn't recognize any.

In our area, fast food places are always looking for teens to hire. It's super easy to get a job, even if you can only work 4-5 hours a week.

And, no; this list was not limited to homeschoolers because I saw the whole list which went back several years and I would have recognized a name on it.

My teens are homeschooled, so I agree that having a more accommodating academic schedule helps to allow them to fit in a part-time job. They are also 3-season athletes plus they participate in a spring theater performance, volunteer on a regular basis and take college classes in high school, so yes; there are times when they aren't able to work and their employers have given them a leave of absence for that time. But, summers? No kids are working part-time in the summer besides doing under-the-table stuff?

Here's a warning: This is going to be one of those "kids nowadays" vents. 🙂 Yesterday, I had to go to our local high school to get a work permit for my teen dd, who has recently been hired for a fast food job. (In our state, kids under 18 have to obtain a work permit from their local school in order to be employed.) As the assistant principal was filling out the form, I noticed that one of the last names on the form was my son's. There was only one other name between my two kids. My ds got his work permit almost two years ago, so in a school district with almost 2,000 kids, only ONE other kid got a permit to work part-time in almost two years. WHAT? Are my kids the only ones who get part-time jobs? Adding to the vent: we were let into the office through a back door, so didn't actually walk through any of the school, and only encountered about five students the whole time we were there, but do you think my dd could get out the door without being cat-called? Nope.

My garden -- just weeds yet in the vegetable garden. My dh and I are getting a load of composted horse manure tomorrow and after that, we'll rototill. Berries -- the bunnies have been nibbling my strawberries, but I sprinkled moth balls around the perimeter and hope that will deter them. My blueberry bushes are full of blossoms! Fruit trees -- all just beginning to blossom. Yay! Flowers -- all beds weeded; bleeding hearts (some of my favorites!) are blooming; daffodils and grape hyacinths finishing up.

You had me at the lice. That alone would have driven me over the edge. That you are still functioning well enough to articulate all of this means that you are one strong resilient woman! I hope you feel better soon. Really, everything seems overwhelming when you feel cruddy.

Oh, that's wonderful news! What a little sweetie! Congratulations!

Praying it goes quickly and you'll soon be holding that little one! I like surprises too!

We had to put a dog down once. She had a brain tumor. Maybe someone else who has done it will offer some advice, but when we did it we thought it would be good to be there when they put her down. It felt disloyal to let her go through that alone and we had our kids there too. If we had to do it again, I wouldn't do that. We would just say good-bye and not witness it. I'm sorry. It's hard.

I'm curious about it. I like that it's online and gives immediate results.

Thanks for this. The labs look very helpful. Did you use a textbook also?

Books: To Kill a Mockingbird -- amazing writing, powerful and sweet story First They Killed My Father -- Cambodia during the Pol Pot regime; awful, gripping, eye-opening All of the L.M. Montgomery books -- she captures the nuances and idiosyncrasies of people and tells a good story Left to Tell; Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculée Ilibagiza; more powerful than words Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng; cultural revolution in China Journey Through the Night by Anne DeVries; Dutch resistance in WW II Educated, A Memoir, by Tara Westover; the story is powerful, her writing is lyrical Fahrenheit 451 The Last Book in the Universe -- not the type of book I would usually read, so I was pleasantly surprised Movies It's a Wonderful Life -- makes me cry every. time. Schindler's List I'll probably think of more later. 🙂

I would be livid over that.

So sorry to hear this. Praying.

I have not had that happen, but twice I've had people give me money because they said that God told them to. I confess that the second time it happened, I looked down at my clothes to make sure I wasn't dressed in rags by mistake. 🙂 I didn't need the money, but it was an encouragement to me that God was using other people to step into my life and show me in a tangible way that He saw me. (Life was pretty overwhelming for awhile there.) I would feel uncomfortable with a stranger wanting to pray with me, but I too, would give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they were following God's prompting and leave it at that.

I like my Dyson, but I'm going to look into Sharks when I need a new one because of all the rave reviews I see.

I'm sorry. That's really hurtful.

I'm so sorry.

You can usually go darker without a lot of work. You'd have to sand enough to remove the varnish. New stain isn't going to penetrate varnish, but if you sand it off, you will be able to rub darker stain in. You can apply the stain as many times as you'd like. Let it dry in between and then put on coats until you like the color. Let it dry at least 24 hours and then put 2-3 coats of varnish on it. Gel stain and gel varnish are much less messy than the liquid varieties. Wear disposable gloves and dip a clean rag into it and rub it in thoroughly. Let dry. Repeat.

When my kids were younger, I preferred to have our bedroom close to theirs. Now it doesn't matter much. Really, I don't have a strong preference either way, but we opted to have ours on the main floor now just so that we don't have to do stairs if that gets to be an issue as we age. If we were younger and not looking at living in this particular house until after retirement, I'd probably choose a second floor master.